Publications

April 1990 (Revised August 1997)
Case

Organizational Capabilities and U.S. War Production: The Controlled Materials Plan of World War II

By: Robert D. Cuff and Richard S. Tedlow

A vehicle for the discussion of a very important set of institutional arrangements that helped enable America to mobilize its economy for World War II. View Details

Keywords: Economy; Production; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategic Planning; War; United States

19 Feb 2015
Video

Ajay Agarwal, managing director, Bain Capital

June 2023 (Revised April 2025)
Case

Optimalen Capital

By: Malcolm Baker, Elisabeth Kempf and Jonathan Wallen

A new client portfolio manager at a quantitative investment management firm must explain why her firm, Optimalen Capital, has rebalanced a client portfolio with a set of trades that seem unintuitive. In particular, Optimalen has added to its position of Walmart (ticker... View Details

Keywords: Investments; CAPM; Capital Asset Pricing Model; Investment Portfolio; Asset Pricing

Prithwiraj (Raj) Choudhury is the Lumry Family Associate Professor at the Harvard Business School. He was an Assistant Professor at Wharton prior to joining Harvard. His research is focused on studying the Future of Work, especially the changing Geography of... View Details

20 Nov 2014
News

Here's What Happened When 5 Harvard Students Worked in a Chinese Factory

23 May 2019
News

Coming Soon: A World Without Cash

July 2014 (Revised August 2015)
Case

Qihoo

By: Feng Zhu

Qihoo, one of the largest Internet companies in China today, was founded in 2005. The company started its business by offering a security software product, and quickly dominated the market in China after its unusual move of giving its product away for free in 2009.... View Details

Keywords: Platform Strategy; Business Model Innovation; Chinese Internet Market; Competitive Strategy; Information Technology; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Information Technology Industry

March 2017 (Revised March 2019)
Case

Ant Financial (A)

By: Feng Zhu, Ying Zhang, Krishna G. Palepu, Anthony K. Woo and Nancy Hua Dai

Headquartered in Hangzhou (China), Ant Financial has grown into a fintech “Unicorn.” The fintech empire that the company established spanned verticals such as mobile and online payment (Alipay), money market fund (Yu’e Bao), wealth management (Ant Fortune),... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Global Strategy; Finance; Opportunities; Financial Services Industry; Technology Industry

25 Apr 2012
News

Moonves' $69M Pay Shows How Boards Manipulate Data

14 May 2012
Research & Ideas

Breaking the Smartphone Addiction

Editor's note: Check out the crowd at a concert, a movie, a school play, a beach—heck, even a funeral—and you'll likely see several people sneaking prolonged peeks at their smartphones. They just can't help themselves. Ringtones and message alerts are siren songs that... View Details

Keywords: by Leslie A. Perlow

21 Jan 2014
First Look

First Look: January 21

Davin, Joseph P., Sunil Gupta, and Mikołaj Jan Piskorski Abstract—We study the impact of peer behavior on the adoption of mobile apps in a social network. To identify social influence properly, we introduce latent space as an approach to... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

10 May 2018
News

'Candy Crush' Was a Blockbuster; Can King Digital Capitalize?

27 Jan 2015
First Look

First Look: January 27

and repay CPP funds early. Collectively, the results provide new evidence on the realized consequences of the CPP for bank SEOs. The tests suggest the CPP's indirect costs of restrictions on corporate policies and actions as the most likely explanation for the results.... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

29 Jun 2010
News

Ruling Means Few Changes for Companies Under Sarbanes-Oxley

April 1999 (Revised September 2000)
Case

Interep National Radio Sales, Inc.

By: Benson P. Shapiro, Stephen X. Doyle and Wade Myers

Interep must mobilize sales information technology, organizational structures, and sales management processes to protect and enhance its strong position as a radio advertising sales firm. Opportunities and risks are high in this complex, rapidly changing sales agency... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Sales; Strategy; Information Technology; Advertising; Risk and Uncertainty; Opportunities; Fluctuation; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Advertising Industry; New York (state, US)

Find at Harvard

21 Jun 2012
News

Chesapeake Appoints Dunham Chairman, Stripping McClendon

January 1994 (Revised February 2001)
Case

PepsiCo's Restaurants

By: Cynthia A. Montgomery

In 1992 PepsiCo is considering two opportunities to expand its restaurant business, Carts of Colorado, a $7 million manufacturer and merchandiser of mobile food carts, and California Pizza Kitchen, a $60 million chain in the casual dining segment. The discussion... View Details

Keywords: Management Systems; Organizational Structure; Opportunities; Business Strategy; Expansion; Food and Beverage Industry

September 1992 (Revised January 2002)
Case

Chrysler: Iacocca's Legacy

By: Nitin Nohria and Sandy Green

Describes the changes fashioned by Iacocca during his tenure as CEO of the Chrysler Corp. Pays particular attention to the rhetoric he employed in mobilizing change and the actions he took to implement change. View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leading Change; Leadership Style; Management Teams; Communication Strategy; Auto Industry; Manufacturing Industry