Publications

March 2010 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Dubai in Crisis

By: Noel Maurer

On November 25, 2009, the small city-state of Dubai shook financial markets across the world when the Dubai World holding companies announced that it would ask its creditors to standstill its debts. After three decades of phenomenal growth, something had gone off the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Development Economics; Financial Crisis; Borrowing and Debt; Business History; Business and Government Relations; Dubai

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August 2009 (Revised January 2012)
Case

Steel Street

By: Arthur I Segel, William J. Poorvu, Ben Creo and Justin Seth Ginsburgh

The case involves repositioning an old 6-story warehouse in Pittsburgh and many of the issues of rehabilitation and selecting and managing the development team especially in a world of capital market uncertainty. The case also demonstrates the alignment of interests of... View Details

Keywords: Construction; Capital Markets; Financial Management; Investment; Property; Urban Development; Real Estate Industry; Pittsburgh

2004
Chapter

Building the Microeconomic Foundations of Prosperity: Findings from the Business Competitiveness Index

By: Michael E. Porter

In The Global Competitiveness Report 2003-2004
Competitiveness has become a central preoccupation of both advanced and developing countries in an increasingly open and integrated world economy. Despite its acknowledged importance, the concept of competitiveness... View Details

Keywords: Economics; Growth and Development

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November 2005 (Revised August 2006)
Case

John Whitehead: A Life in Leadership

By: William W. George and Andrew N. McLean

In 2005, John C. Whitehead, chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. (LMDC), confronts the collapse of a delicate agreement among business, government, and public interests in rebuilding on the World Trade Center site. Provides information on the leadership... View Details

Keywords: Education; Construction; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Biography; Leadership; Leadership Development; Agreements and Arrangements; Nonprofit Organizations

02 May 2022
What Do You Think?

Can the Case Method Survive Another Hundred Years?

good, way to inspire and develop people able to lead in a world demanding more and more social conscience as well as organizational agility and adaptability? Clearly, the case method is not for everyone,... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Education

Research Summary

David and Goliath: Entering the Global Arena

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

This project involves a study of companies as they expand into the global competitive arena for the first time. In its first stage, it is focusing on companies from non-OECD countries as they deal with "the liability of origin" in their expansion into world markets... View Details

April 18, 2022
Article

Will mRNA Technology Companies Spawn Innovation Ecosystems?

By: Christoph Grimpe, Timo Minssen, W. Nicholson Price, II and Ariel Dora Stern

The mRNA technologies that helped rapidly create effective COVID-19 vaccines could become technology platform businesses, which has tremendous implications for players in the world of drug development. These platforms could attract other companies interested in... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Digital Health; Technology; Innovation; Health Care and Treatment; Technological Innovation; Digital Transformation; Health Industry; United States

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Anita Elberse is the Lincoln Filene Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.

Professor Elberse develops and teaches an MBA course covering the "Businesses of Entertainment, Media, and Sports," which ranks among the most sought-after... View Details

Keywords: advertising; arts; broadcasting; communications; consumer products; e-commerce industry; electronics; entertainment; fashion; home video games; information; marketing industry; motion pictures; music; publishing industry; sports; telecommunications; video games

Going Out or Opting Out? Capital, Political Vulnerability, and the State in China's Outward Investments

This article, in Comparative Politics (April 2022), explains patterns of China's outward investments in political terms. The Chinese party-state does not direct all Chinese companies in their outward investments, but rather pushes global investment through campaigns it... View Details

14 Feb 2019
Blog Post

LOVE At HBS

Love at HBS is a celebration of the diverse expressions of love that exist on our campus and in the world around us. This portrait project showcases stories of love from students at Harvard Business School. Alli Iglehart, Class of 2020 As... View Details

April 1989 (Revised August 1989)
Case

Burlington Northern (A)

By: Janice H. Hammond

Describes the forces that led to the development of a logistics analysis program by the Burlington Northern Railroad. The first half of the case describes changes in industrial structure, technology, demographics, shipper practices, and government regulation that led... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Rail Transportation; Logistics; Rail Industry; United States

December 2010
Article

Can Higher Prices Stimulate Product Use? Evidence from a Field Experiment in Zambia

By: Nava Ashraf, James Berry and Jesse M. Shapiro

The controversy over how much to charge for health products in the developing world rests, in part, on whether higher prices can increase use, either by targeting distribution to high-use households (a screening effect), or by stimulating use psychologically through a... View Details

Keywords: Price; Product; Information; Zambia

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July–August 2012
Article

The Growth Opportunity That Lies Next Door

By: G. Jones

This article uses the case of Natura, the largest Brazilian beauty company and one of the world's top twenty beauty companies, to explore how the logic of globalization is changing for corporations from emerging countries as growth opportunities in those countries... View Details

Keywords: Brazil; Marketing; Green Marketing; Environment; Globalization; Developing Countries and Economies; Geographic Location; Growth and Development Strategy; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Latin America; Europe

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20 Aug 2008
Op-Ed

The Time is Right for Creative Capitalism

In a much admired and debated speech given at the World Economic Forum in Davos last January, Bill Gates said that many of the world's biggest problems cannot be fixed by philanthropy, but instead require free-market... View Details

Keywords: by Nancy Koehn

November 2023
Case

Apple Inc. in 2023

By: David B. Yoffie and Sarah von Bargen

Under CEO Tim Cook, Apple became the first trillion dollar market cap company, the first two trillion dollar company, and the first three trillion dollar company. Since the COVID pandemic, Apple gained over 20% of the world smartphone market and 50% of the U.S. market,... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Product Positioning; Emerging Markets; Competitive Strategy; Technological Innovation; Revenue; Technology Industry

August 2007 (Revised September 2008)
Case

Baker & McKenzie (A): A New Framework for Talent Management

By: Boris Groysberg and Eliot Sherman

Describes the process by which the largest law firm in the world developed a unique framework for personnel management. In 2004, John Conroy is about to take the reigns as the leader of Baker and McKenzie, the largest law firm in the world by employees, with offices in... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Framework; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Retention; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Adoption; Legal Services Industry

February 2001 (Revised February 2002)
Case

Estee Lauder and the Market for Prestige Cosmetics

By: Nancy F. Koehn

Opens with a brief history of the U.S. cosmetics market and its rapid development in the 1920s. Also recounts Lauder's initial involvement in the sector, making skin care products and selling them in Manhattan beauty parlors during the Great Depression. Pays particular... View Details

Keywords: Fluctuation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Market Entry and Exit; Entrepreneurship; Luxury; Business Strategy; Society; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; United States

2010
Working Paper

Law and Finance c. 1900

By: Aldo Musacchio

How persistent are the effects of legal institutions adopted or inherited in the distant past? A substantial literature argues that legal origins have persistent effects that explain clear differences in investor protections and financial development around the world... View Details

Keywords: Law; Finance; Corporate Governance; Practice; Growth and Development