Filter Results:
(104)
Show Results For
- All HBS Web (126)
- Faculty Publications (83)
Show Results For
- All HBS Web (126)
- Faculty Publications (83)
Sort by
- January 2021 (Revised March 2021)
- Technical Note
Strategy and Strategic Thinking
This note gives managers a concrete perspective on what ‘a strategy’ really is, what makes a decision ‘strategic,’ and what ‘strategic thinking’ means. It also gives them practical frameworks to assess whether some set of decisions is really a strategy and how to... View Details
Keywords: Strategic Alignment; Strategy Definition; Strategy And Execution; Strategy Test; Strategy; Strategic Planning; Decision Making
Van den Steen, Eric. "Strategy and Strategic Thinking." Harvard Business School Technical Note 721-431, January 2021. (Revised March 2021.)
- February 2018
- Case
Stealing Time: America's Disruption of the Swiss Watch Industry
By: Eric Van den Steen and Aaron Stark
After years of growth, the Swiss watch industry faced an existential crisis. Exports to the U.S., their primary market, had dropped by more than two thirds over the past five years. Swiss watches were being disrupted by high-quality and affordable American products.... View Details
Van den Steen, Eric, and Aaron Stark. "Stealing Time: America's Disruption of the Swiss Watch Industry." Harvard Business School Case 718-500, February 2018.
- February 2014 (Revised December 2016)
- Case
Aldi: The Dark Horse Discounter
By: Eric Van den Steen and David Lane
In 2013, Aldi—the world's 8th largest retailer—planned to accelerate its US expansion. Aldi was a German-based hard discounter that sold a limited assortment of private-label groceries and household items in barebones stores. Despite its presence with 1200 stores in 32... View Details
Van den Steen, Eric, and David Lane. "Aldi: The Dark Horse Discounter." Harvard Business School Case 714-474, February 2014. (Revised December 2016.)
- Article
Disagreement and the Allocation of Control
This article studies the allocation of control when there is disagreement—in the sense of differing priors—about the right course of action. People then value control rights since they believe that their decisions are better than those of others. More disagreement (due... View Details
Van den Steen, Eric J. "Disagreement and the Allocation of Control." Journal of Law, Economics & Organization 26, no. 2 (August 2010): 385–426. (Advance Access published online on December 3, 2008.)
- 2006
- Working Paper
The Limits of Authority: Motivation versus Coordination
This paper studies the effects of open disagreement on motivation and coordination. It shows how, in the presence of differing priors, motivation and coordination impose conflicting demands on the allocation of authority, leading to a trade-off between the... View Details
Keywords: Decisions; Governance Controls; Organizational Culture; Agency Theory; Conflict and Resolution; Motivation and Incentives
Van den Steen, Eric J. "The Limits of Authority: Motivation versus Coordination." Sloan School of Management Working Paper, No. 4626-06, January 2006. (Available at SSRN.)
- January 2016
- Case
TransDigm Inc.
By: Eric Van den Steen, Kavita Mathews and Alon Galor
Transdigm had been very successful with a PE-like business model: it acquired smaller producers of aircraft components and improved their profits, mainly by increasing efficiency and applying value pricing. By 2014, Transdigm had completed almost 50 acquisitions. Its... View Details
- August 2016 (Revised March 2018)
- Case
Videojet (A)
In 2005 Craig Purse, the CEO of Videojet, a company recently acquired by the conglomerate Danaher, is dealing with the unexpected failure of a new high-tech printer just launched in the market. The new product exemplified the first real instance in which the Videojet... View Details
Keywords: Managerial Processes; Conglomerates; Relational Contracts; Corporate Strategy; Business Conglomerates; Diversification; Management Practices and Processes; Strategy; Manufacturing Industry; United States
Sadun, Raffaella, Bharat Anand, and Eric Van den Steen. "Videojet (A)." Harvard Business School Case 717-403, August 2016. (Revised March 2018.)
- August 2016
- Supplement
Videojet (B)
In 2005 Craig Purse, the CEO of Videojet, a company recently acquired by the conglomerate Danaher, is dealing with the unexpected failure of a new high tech printer just launched in the market. The new product exemplified the first real instance in which the Videojet... View Details
Keywords: Managerial Processes; Conglomerates; Diversification; Relational Contracts; Corporate Strategy; Manufacturing Industry
Sadun, Raffaella, Bharat Anand, and Eric Van den Steen. "Videojet (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 717-410, August 2016.
- February 2018 (Revised January 2020)
- Case
SoulCycle: The Road Ahead
By: Ashish Nanda, Eric Van den Steen and Jeffrey Boyar
Julie Rice and Elizabeth Cutler founded SoulCycle, an indoor cycling studio chain, in 2006 as more than a health club; they wanted it to become a lifestyle brand that would “empower riders in an immersive fitness experience.” By early 2015, SoulCycle had grown to 38... View Details
Keywords: Fitness; Fitness Industry; Exercise; Cycling; Boutique Fitness; Exit Strategy; Growth; Bicycles; Retail; Pricing; Community; SoulCycle; Vision; Health; Leadership; Strategy; Marketing; Decision Making; Health Industry; United States
Nanda, Ashish, Eric Van den Steen, and Jeffrey Boyar. "SoulCycle: The Road Ahead." Harvard Business School Case 718-499, February 2018. (Revised January 2020.)
- 2006
- Working Paper
On the Origin of Shared Beliefs (and Corporate Culture)
This paper shows why members of an organization often share similar beliefs. I argue that there are two mechanisms. First, when performance depends on making correct decisions, people prefer to work with others who share their beliefs and assumptions, since such... View Details
Van den Steen, Eric J. "On the Origin of Shared Beliefs (and Corporate Culture)." Sloan School of Management Working Paper, No. 4553-05, January 2006. (Available at SSRN.)
- Article
Organizational Beliefs and Managerial Vision
Can managers have an impact on their firm that goes beyond their direct actions and decisions? This article shows that a manager with strong beliefs about the right course of action will attract, through sorting in the labor market, employees with similar beliefs. This... View Details
Keywords: Organizations; Goals and Objectives; Decisions; Labor; Markets; Employees; Motivation and Incentives; Recruitment; Risk and Uncertainty; Values and Beliefs
Van den Steen, Eric J. "Organizational Beliefs and Managerial Vision." Journal of Law, Economics & Organization 21, no. 1 (April 2005): 256–283. (Reprinted in The Economics of Organisation and Bureaucracy, Peter M. Jackson (ed.), Edward Elgar (Cheltenham, UK), 2013.)
- June 2013 (Revised November 2022)
- Exercise
Competition Simulator Exercise
In the Competition Simulator Exercise, students explore through trial and error some important economic foundations of competitive strategy and managerial economics. In particular, the nine simulator exercises let students explore horizontal differentiation with and... View Details
Keywords: Competition; Economics; Game Theory; Competitive Strategy; Learning; Mathematical Methods; Analysis
Van den Steen, Eric J. "Competition Simulator Exercise." Harvard Business School Exercise 713-804, June 2013. (Revised November 2022.)
- 2009
- Working Paper
Culture Clash: The Costs and Benefits of Homogeneity
This paper develops an economic theory of the costs and benefits of corporate culture—in the sense of shared beliefs and values—in order to study the effects of "culture clash" in mergers and acquisitions. I first use a simple analytical framework to show that shared... View Details
Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Cost vs Benefits; Values and Beliefs; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Motivation and Incentives; Theory
Van den Steen, Eric J. "Culture Clash: The Costs and Benefits of Homogeneity." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 10-003, July 2009.
- January 2017 (Revised February 2022)
- Background Note
Assessing and Enhancing Market Attractiveness
This note gives students a systematic and comprehensive framework for analyzing and influencing market attractiveness. It pays explicit attention to value creation, complements, and the dynamics of market attractiveness. It also includes careful sub-frameworks for... View Details
Van den Steen, Eric. "Assessing and Enhancing Market Attractiveness." Harvard Business School Background Note 717-466, January 2017. (Revised February 2022.)
- March 2014
- Technical Note
Performance and Value Analysis
This note introduces the Performance and Value Analysis (PVA) framework, an integrated framework to analyze strategic performance (i.e., performance corrected for temporary and random effects). This framework (quantitatively) decomposes a firm's performance into 3... View Details
Keywords: Strategic Analysis; Economic Analysis; Sustainable Competitive Advantage; Value Capture; Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Strategic Planning; Competitive Strategy; Competency and Skills; Competition; Value Creation
Van den Steen, Eric. "Performance and Value Analysis." Harvard Business School Technical Note 714-490, March 2014.
- March 2014 (Revised December 2016)
- Teaching Note
Aldi: The Dark Horse Discounter
- March 2014
- Teaching Note
Strategy and the Strategist
- May 2013 (Revised March 2014)
- Case
Strategy and the Strategist
This short case presents a series of brief accounts, observations, and quotations that challenge students to think about the role of the CEO — and of the CEO's (possibly strong) beliefs and convictions — in strategy. It focuses in particular on three issues and their... View Details
Keywords: Belief Systems; Strategic Analysis; Competitive Advantage; Values; Vision; Strategy And Leadership; Strategy; Leadership; Values and Beliefs
Van den Steen, Eric. "Strategy and the Strategist." Harvard Business School Case 713-533, May 2013. (Revised March 2014.)
- August 2017
- Article
A Formal Theory of Strategy
What makes a decision strategic? When is strategy most important? This paper formally studies these questions, starting from a (functional) definition of strategy as “the smallest set of choices to optimally guide (or force) other choices.” The paper shows that this... View Details
Van den Steen, Eric J. "A Formal Theory of Strategy." Management Science 63, no. 8 (August 2017): 2616–2636.