Publications
Publications
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(11,583)
- Faculty Publications (3,572)
- June 2025
- Supplement
Transforming a Titan (B)
By: George Serafeim and Lena Duchene
After a global search the board appoints Marcel Cobuz—ex-LafargeHolcim executive with deep innovation experience—as TITAN’s first non-family CEO. Cobuz co-creates a four-pillar roadmap: sharpen the core cement portfolio, accelerate low-carbon products and aggregates,... View Details
- June 2025
- Supplement
Transforming a Titan (C)
By: George Serafeim and Lena Duchene
Three years in his tenure as CEO, Cobuz must decide whether to launch a more than €500 million carbon-capture-and-storage facility. The project—Europe’s largest planned CCS installation—would cut almost 20% of group emissions and unlock a €234 million EU Innovation... View Details
- June 2025
- Case
AI Wars in 2025
By: Andy Wu and Anna Yang
In June 2025, Google leaders in Mountain View, CA convened after its parent company Alphabet shed a quarter-trillion in market capitalization in a matter of months. The immediate spark—the quiet revelation that Google searches had dipped for the first time in 20... View Details
- June 2025
- Case
Scale AI Scales Up
By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott
Scale AI, the data labeling and AI infrastructure company, had grown rapidly since it was founded in 2016; however, as Scale’s generative AI business was taking off, Alexandr Wang, Scale’s founder and CEO, became concerned that Scale was slowing down. Wang and the... View Details
Keywords: Technology And Innovation Management; Entrepreneur; Managing Growth; Hiring; Generative Ai; Data Labeling; Scale; AI and Machine Learning; Entrepreneurship; Talent and Talent Management; Growth Management; Leadership; Organizational Culture; Business Startups; Selection and Staffing; Technology Industry; United States
- June 2025
- Case
Accounting for OpenAI at Microsoft
By: Jonas Heese, Joseph Pacelli, Nicole Zelazko and Michael Norris
In early 2025, Microsoft was evaluating the impact of its $14 billion investment in OpenAI. As OpenAI’s computing needs expanded, Microsoft positioned Azure as the exclusive provider for training and inference of their large language models. Despite the scale of the... View Details
- 2025
- Working Paper
Small Business Innovation Applied to National Needs
By: Kyle Myers, Lauren Lanahan and Evan E. Johnson
Small businesses have long supplied a disproportionate share of major innovations in the United States. We review a centerpiece policy on this topic: the U.S. Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. We trace its legislative history and summarize program... View Details
- June 2025
- Case
TagHive: Edtech Pricing and Distributor Decisions
By: Isamar Troncoso, Frank V. Cespedes and Stacy Straaberg
Education technology (edtech) company TagHive, founded in 2017, used a direct sales team and third-party distributors to sell its Class Saathi hardware and software solution to 300 clients, mainly primary and secondary schools in India. The product aimed to improve... View Details
Keywords: Business Model; Marketing Channels; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Social Marketing; Information Infrastructure; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Technology Adoption; Teaching; Price; Customer Relationship Management; Customer Satisfaction; Growth and Development; Technological Innovation; AI and Machine Learning; Applications and Software; Distribution Channels; Sales; Reputation; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; India; South Korea
- May–June 2025
- Article
Balancing Digital Safety and Innovation
By: Tomomichi Amano and Tomomi Tanaka
Designers of consumer-facing digital products have tended to focus on novelty and speed (“move fast and break things”). They’ve spent more effort on innovating than on anticipating how customers—and bad actors—might engage with products. But as digital products become... View Details
- June 2025
- Article
Ideation with Generative AI—In Consumer Research and Beyond
By: Julian De Freitas, G. Nave and Stefano Puntoni
The use of large language models (LLMs) in consumer research is rapidly evolving, with applications including synthetic data generation, data analysis, and more. However, their role in creative ideation—a cornerstone of consumer research—remains underexplored. Drawing... View Details
- June 2025
- Article
Integral Outside: The Financial Curb Market, the Electric Telegraph, and the Politics of Pricing in Second Empire France
Financial markets in nineteenth-century France were far more complex than an analysis of the official Bourse or its state-authorized brokers would suggest. Most financial transactions occurred on an illegal yet tacitly tolerated curb market called the coulisse, which... View Details
- 2025
- Working Paper
Trade and Industrial Policy in Supply Chains: Directed Technological Change in Rare Earths
By: Laura Alfaro, Harald Fadinger, Jay Schymik and Gede Virananda
Trade and industrial policies, while primarily intended to support domestic industries, may unintentionally stimulate technological progress abroad. We document this mechanism in the case of rare earth elements (REEs)—critical inputs for manufacturing at the knowledge... View Details
- May 2025 (Revised June 2025)
- Background Note
Social Enterprise in Latin America
By: Brian L. Trelstad and Karina Souza
This research note provides an overview of the social enterprise ecosystem in Latin America, exploring current dynamics across key markets, including country-specific insights on Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, and Central America. In a region characterized... View Details
Keywords: Impact Investing; Developing Countries and Economies; Social Entrepreneurship; Emerging Markets; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Ownership; Social Enterprise; Business Strategy; Equality and Inequality; Microfinance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Latin America; Brazil; Mexico; Argentina; Colombia; Chile; Guatemala; Central America; Peru; Uruguay
- May 2025 (Revised June 2025)
- Supplement
Michael Ku and Global Clinical Supply at Pfizer Inc.: Bringing Hope to Patients (D)
By: Linda A. Hill and Lydia Begag
This fourth installment in the Pfizer Global Clinical Supply (GCS) transformation case series highlights how over a decade of cultural and digital evolution positioned GCS to meet unprecedented global challenges. In 2011, Michael Ku became the Vice President of GCS and... View Details
Keywords: Innovation Leadership; Technological Innovation; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Research and Development; Science-Based Business; Transformation; Health Pandemics; AI and Machine Learning; Analytics and Data Science; Digital Transformation; Leading Change; Product Launch; Supply Chain; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Alignment; Pharmaceutical Industry; Biotechnology Industry; Health Industry; United States; Asia; Europe; Latin America
- May 2025
- Supplement
On (B): The Cyclon Spins On
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Karolin Frankenberger, Sascha Mader and Karen Elterman
A follow-up to the On case (723-430), this short case explores how the performance athletic shoe company On expanded its Cyclon subscription and recycling program through 2024, adding two new shoe models to the subscription and a one-time-purchase recyclable T-shirt. View Details
Keywords: Business Model; Business Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Competitive Strategy; Disruptive Innovation; Distribution Channels; Environmental Sustainability; Marketing Strategy; Product Design; Product Development; Technological Innovation; Expansion; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; China; Europe; Germany; Japan; Switzerland; United States
- May 2025 (Revised July 2025)
- Case
Mission First at Coinbase
By: Charles C.Y. Wang and Brian K. Baik
This case examines Coinbase’s two major organizational transformations in 2020 amid significant market volatility and social upheaval. As the leading U.S. cryptocurrency exchange prepared for its landmark IPO, CEO Brian Armstrong made two controversial decisions:... View Details
- May 2025
- Teaching Note
The VideaHealth AI Factory: CEO Florian Hillen on Speed, Scale, and Innovation
By: Tsedal Neeley
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 425-720. Florian Hillen, co-founder and CEO of VideaHealth, a startup using artificial intelligence (AI) to detect dental conditions on x-rays, spent the early years of his company laying the groundwork for an AI factory. This AI factory,... View Details
- May 2025
- Case
'Net Zero in Action': Impact Investing at the McKnight Foundation
By: Lauren Cohen, Christina R. Wing and Sophia Pan
Elizabeth McGeveran, Vice President of Investments at the McKnight Foundation, reflected on how to effectively advance the organization’s net-zero strategy. The foundation had committed 10% of its endowment to building a portfolio of impact investments and was among... View Details
Keywords: Foundation; Impact Investing; ESG; Family Business; Forecasting and Prediction; Private Sector; Renewable Energy; Social Entrepreneurship; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Green Technology; Financial Strategy; Investment Funds; Investment Portfolio; Institutional Investing; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Private Ownership; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Social Issues; Sustainable Cities; Financial Services Industry; Minnesota; United States
- May 2025
- Case
Fidji Simo: Growing the Pie at Instacart
By: Hubert Joly, Leonard A. Schlesinger and James Barnett
In January 2025, Instacart CEO Fidji Simo considers strategies for continuing to grow Instacart from a grocery delivery platform to a holistic grocery technology company, including in-store grocery technology and expanding partnerships across the grocery sector. View Details
- May 2025
- Case
RTX's Lifetime Income Strategy: Shaping the Future of Retirement
By: Daniel Green, Luis M. Viceira and Sarah Mehta
Set in 2024, this case explores the Lifetime Income Strategy (LIS), a novel retirement product launched by aerospace and defense company RTX in 2012. Aiming to embed the security of a traditional pension within a 401(k) plan, the LIS allowed participants to secure a... View Details
- May 2025 (Revised June 2025)
- Case
Daiichi Sankyo: Steering a Global Organization
In the spring of 2023, Sunao Manabe, CEO of Daiichi Sankyo, reflected on a pivotal decision. A large Western pharmaceutical company had made a bid to partner with Daiichi Sankyo to develop the next three products in its oncology pipeline. Daiichi Sankyo, a 125-year old... View Details
Keywords: Strategy; Culture Change; Decision-making; Leadership; Culture; Innovation; Psychological Safety