Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(2,642)
- Faculty Publications (451)
- April 2000
- Article
The Fable of Fisher Body
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Daniel F. Spulber
General Motors' (GM) acquisition of Fisher Body is the classic example of market failure in the literature on contracts and the theory of the firm. According to the standard account, GM merged vertically with Fisher Body in 1926, a maker of auto bodies, because of... View Details
- January 2000 (Revised October 2002)
- Case
Cambridge Hospital Community Health Network - The Primary Care Unit
By: V.G. Narayanan, Lisa Brem and Ryan Moore
The Cambridge Hospital Community Health Network needed to gain a better understanding of its unit-of-service costs, which had been rising at a rate of 10% per year. The network's step-down costing system gave only aggregate costing information, and there was some... View Details
- winter 2000
- Article
Assessing the Impact of Venture Capital to Innovation
By: Samuel Kortum and Josh Lerner
We examine the influence of venture capital on patented inventions in the United States across twenty industries over three decades. We address concerns about causality in several ways, including exploiting a 1979 policy shift that spurred venture capital fundraising.... View Details
- October 1999
- Case
Argentina's YFP Sociedad Anonima (E): A New Era
By: Michael Y. Yoshino, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Cate Reavis
In June 1999, Spain's former state-owned oil giant Repsol, acquired 97% of YPF, despite opposition from YPF management. The case describes the status of the two companies at the time of the acquisition and highlights concerns expressed by industry analysts on the deal. View Details
- February 1999
- Case
PDVSA & Citgo (B): Fully Integrated?
By: Ashish Nanda
Concerned that Citgo investments are not yielding sufficient returns, PDVSA constrains Citgo management's autonomy, leading to Citgo senior management turnover. The case closes with Citgo's new CEO reflecting on what he needs to do to align Citgo's strategy and... View Details
- February 1999 (Revised April 1999)
- Case
Guaranty Trust Bank PLC Nigeria (A)
By: Lynn S. Paine and Hal Hogan
Fola Adeola, the CEO of Nigeria's Guaranty Trust Bank and one of its founders in 1991, is considering what should be done to maintain the bank's original vision and vitality in the face of its rapid growth and success in the marketplace. Known for its high ethical... View Details
- 1999
- Article
Effects of Instructional Style on Problem-Solving Creativity
By: A. M. Ruscio and T. M. Amabile
This study sought to determine the impact of 2 differing instructional approaches on creative problem-solving performance. Eighty-two college students completed a novel structure-building task after receiving algorithmic instruction (providing a rote, step-by-step... View Details
- May 1998
- Article
Market Structure, Innovation and Vertical Product Differentiation
By: Shane Greenstein and Garey Ramey
We reassess Arrow's (1962) [Economic Welfare and the Allocation of Resources for Invention, in NBER, The Rate and Direction of Innovative Activity (Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ)] results concerning the effect of market structure on the returns from process... View Details
- February 1998 (Revised May 2007)
- Case
Airborne Express
By: Jan W. Rivkin
In the wake of a highly successful quarter, senior managers of Airborne Express, the third largest player in the express mail industry, review the firm's competitive position. Airborne has survived, and recently prospered, in an industry with significant economies of... View Details
- January 1998 (Revised January 2001)
- Case
Sealed Air Corporation: Globalization and Corporate Culture (A)
By: Lynn S. Paine and Karen Wruck
Sealed Air Corp.'s CEO and COO are considering what approach they should take to building a seamless corporate culture worldwide. Anticipating continuing growth and expansion, especially outside the United States, they are concerned with preserving and promoting the... View Details
- January 1998 (Revised April 1998)
- Case
Sealed Air Corporation: Globalization and Corporate Culture (B)
By: Lynn S. Paine and Karen Wruck
Sealed Air Corp.'s CEO and COO are considering what approach they should take to building a seamless corporate culture worldwide. Anticipating continuing growth and expansion, especially outside the United States, they are concerned with preserving and promoting the... View Details
- November 1997 (Revised December 1999)
- Case
Cinemex
By: James L. Heskett
The founders of Cinemex, the largest capitalized venture start-up in Mexican history, are debating several issues concerning the operations of their new chain of motion picture theatres in Mexico City. The first concerns whether some seats should be left unsold to... View Details
- July 1997
- Article
The Presidio Trust legislation: Preservation or Privatization?
By: Brian Trelstad
This analysis of the Presidio Trust legislation places the recent developments on the Presidio in the context of a century and a half of environmental planning. By first exploring the Presidio's history, and then tracing the more recent legislative background to the... View Details
- February 1997 (Revised September 1998)
- Case
American Management Systems, Inc.: The Knowledge Centers
By: Dorothy A. Leonard and Sylvia Sensiper
Senior management at AMS, a business and information technology consulting company, is growing at 28% annually and assimilating 1,800 new hires a year. AMS has recently instituted a new knowledge management strategy, a group of six knowledge centers (virtual... View Details
- May 1996
- Case
First Capital Holdings Corp.
By: Stuart C. Gilson, Harry DeAngelo and Linda DeAngelo
The manager of a money-management firm considers whether to invest in the securities of a large, financially troubled, California-based life insurance holding company that holds 40% of its assets in high-yield junk bonds. Over the past year, the value of its portfolio... View Details
- March 1996 (Revised January 2002)
- Case
CIBA Vision: The Daily Disposable Lens Project (A)
By: Gary P. Pisano
Examines CIBA Vision's decision on whether to launch a major new R&D initiative to develop a low-cost, daily disposable contact lens, and how to organize such a project should it proceed. One group of executives favors setting up a small, autonomous project team... View Details
- April 1995 (Revised October 1995)
- Case
Unemployment in France: "Priority Number One"
By: David A. Moss
Explores the problem of French unemployment on the eve of the presidential elections of 1995. Traces the development of social and economic policies under President Mitterrand and surveys leading explanations for the nation's mounting unemployment crisis. One major... View Details
- January 1995 (Revised August 1997)
- Background Note
Cross-Border Valuation
By: Kenneth A. Froot and W. Carl Kester
Provides a review of valuation techniques used to assess cross-border investments. Discusses the discounting of free cash flows with a weighted average cost of capital and the use of adjusted present value. Special concerns such as foreign-exchange risk, country risks,... View Details
- January 1995 (Revised November 1996)
- Case
Avalon Information Services, Inc.
By: Lynn S. Paine and Wilda White
The Privacy Review Committee of Avalon Information Services must decide how to deal with concerns voiced by its retail supermarket customers about the privacy of consumer data collected through Avalon's point-of-sale data collection program. One customer is proposing... View Details
- December 1994 (Revised May 1999)
- Case
3M Optical Systems: Managing Corporate Entrepreneurship
By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Afroze A Mohammed
A middle-level division manager must decide whether he should support an investment request for a third attempt at launching a new product developed by a struggling business unit. Describes the long, difficult process by which the unit has developed the product--a... View Details