Publications

Web

Topics - HBS Working Knowledge

Complexity (3) Conflict Management (4) Conflict and Resolution (13) Conflict of Interests (1) Construction (1) Consumer Behavior (173) Contracts (7) Cooperation (3) Cooperative Ownership (1) Copyright (2) Core Relationships (1) Corporate... View Details

January 2004 (Revised February 2005)
Case

Timberland and Community Involvement (Abridged Version)

By: James E. Austin and James Quinn

When Jeffrey Swartz became the third generation in his family to lead the Timberland Co., he made community involvement an integral part of the company's strategy. Under Swartz's leadership, Timberland formed a close partnership with City Year, the national corps of... View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Business and Community Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Corporate Strategy; Manufacturing Industry

May 2024
Supplement

DRSi (A)

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

In March of 2019, Jen Ransom Fuller purchased DRSi. DRSi, located in Bellevue, Washington, printed and reproduced architectural plans and drawings. Fuller planned to use her first year of ownership to learn the business and to run it in much the same way as the seller.... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Small Business; Cost vs Benefits; Decisions; Business Education; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Business or Company Management; Problems and Challenges; Health Pandemics; Selection and Staffing; Employee Relationship Management; Production; Logistics; Safety; United States; Washington (state, US)

24 Oct 2023
Research & Ideas

When Tech Platforms Identify Black-Owned Businesses, White Customers Buy

at HBS. Luca’s work on labeling Black-owned businesses may reveal another way to nudge more support toward marginalized groups. According to Luca, recent efforts to address longstanding inequities, spurred by both the Black Lives Matter movement and View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald; Food & Beverage

24 Oct 2006
First Look

First Look: October 24, 2006

improving forecasts in corporate settings. We examine the implementation of a supply chain planning process at a consumer electronics company, concentrating on the consensus forecasting approach around which the process revolves. Our... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

Faculty & Research - Entrepreneurship

Using financial account data linking small businesses to their owner households, we examine how business owners’ consumption responded to changes in business revenues during the COVID-19 crisis. In the first two months following the View Details

September 2024 (Revised February 2025)
Case

Aramco: Navigating the Energy Transition

By: Tarun Khanna and Gizem Cihan Dincsoy

In March 2024, Amin Nasser, president, and CEO of the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco), had just delivered a speech about the future of energy at a global energy conference. The world was behind schedule in meeting long-term climate change goals. The global shift... View Details

Keywords: Energy Transmission; Oil ＆ Gas; Economic Diversification; Corporate Strategy; Leadership; Business Strategy; Goals and Objectives; Transition; Environmental Sustainability; Diversification; Energy Industry; Saudi Arabia

September 2010 (Revised December 2010)
Case

Santander Consumer Finance

By: J. Gunnar Trumbull, Elena Corsi and Andrew Barron

A Spanish company has to decide if they should expand into the fragmented European consumer finance market and has to make important organizational strategy decisions in the midst of the world economic downturn that followed the 2007 U.S. credit crunch. Since 2002, the... View Details

Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Financial Markets; International Finance; Personal Finance; Consolidation; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Financial Services Industry; European Union; Spain

24 Jun 2008
First Look

First Look: June 24, 2008

(Winner of the Barclays Global Investors Award, Best Paper in Asset Pricing, European Finance Association 2007) Abstract This paper uses social networks to identify information transfer in security markets. We focus on connections between mutual fund managers and View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Web

Business History - Faculty & Research

Chemical Industry, 1950s–1980s By: Geoffrey Jones and Christina Lubinski This article examines the evolution of corporate environmentalism in the West German chemical industry between the 1950s and the 1980s. It focuses on two companies,... View Details

November 2015
Case

Rubicon Global

By: William A. Sahlman and Hunter Ashmore

The case describes Rubicon Global, a startup that aimed to disrupt the waste management industry. The company started with a bold idea: create a cloud-based, full-service waste management company providing low-cost, highly efficient, and environmentally friendly... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Finance; Rubicon; Rubicon Global; Waste Management; Startups; Disruptive Technology; Technological Innovation; Disruptive Innovation; Market Entry and Exit; Entrepreneurship; Wastes and Waste Processing; Business Startups; Corporate Finance; Service Industry

October 2015
Case

Clearwater Seafoods

By: Forest L. Reinhardt

Clearwater sought to market value-added shellfish products in a traditionally commodities based industry, while facing supply uncertainties and regulatory, environmental, and foreign exchange challenges. Clearwater harvested lobsters, clams, scallops, shrimp, and other... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Profit; Goods and Commodities; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Product Marketing; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Canada

April 2009 (Revised January 2015)
Case

Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Charles J. Ogletree Jr, Howard Koh, Abbye Atkinson, Carmel Salhi and Aldo Sesia

"Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Children's Health Forum" charts the many different career paths of Hooks, a civil rights activist and pioneer. Hooks' positions ranged from lawyer, judge, preacher, entrepreneur to the first African American commissioner of the Federal... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Health Care and Treatment; Leadership; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Personal Development and Career; Nonprofit Organizations; Social Issues

Web

Strategy Curriculum - Faculty & Research

Fall 2025 Q1Q2 3.0 IFC: Japan; Exploring Japan's Innovation Ecosystem (also listed under Marketing) Ramon Casadesus-Masanell , Tomomichi Amano January 2026 J 3.0 IFC: Saudi Arabia; A Nation and its Oil Economy Reimagined Tarun Khanna ,... View Details

07 Feb 2023
Research & Ideas

Supervisor of Sandwiches? More Companies Inflate Titles to Avoid Extra Pay

exemption based on different criteria than the federal regulations. In these states, there was not the same explosion of made-up sounding management titles at the $455 threshold. Cohen also looked at the practices of companies with regional and View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis

Web

Human Behavior & Decision-Making - Faculty & Research

Anthropology ; History ; Gender ; Social Issues ; Culture Citation Find at Harvard Purchase Related Becker, Anke. "On the Economic Origins of Concerns Over Women’s Chastity." Review of Economic Studies 92, no. 4 (July 2025): 2303–2329. Live View Details

28 Apr 2009
First Look

First Look: April 28, 2009

Earnings Management, Corporate Tax Shelters, and Book-Tax Alignment Authors:Mihir Desai and Dhammika Dharmapala Publication:National Tax Journal (forthcoming) Abstract This paper reviews recent evidence analyzing the link between earnings... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

June 2002 (Revised November 2005)
Case

Life, Death, and Property Rights: The Pharmaceutical Industry Faces AIDS in Africa

By: Debora L. Spar

In the final years of the 20th century, the world was hit by a plague of epidemic proportions--AIDS, a life-threatening disease that remained stubbornly immune to any cure or vaccine. In the developed nations of the West, AIDS was slowly brought under control through a... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Health Pandemics; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Pharmaceutical Industry; Africa