Publications

January–February 2023
Article

External Interfaces and Internal Processes: Market Positioning and Divergent Professionalization Paths in Young Ventures

By: Alicia DeSantola, Ranjay Gulati and Pavel Zhelyazkov

We explore how the initial market positioning of entrepreneurial ventures shapes how they professionalize over time, focusing specifically on the development of functional roles. In contrast to existing literature, which has presumed a uniform march toward... View Details

Keywords: Market Positioning; Professionalization; Scaling; Entrepreneurship; Strategy; Business Startups; Growth and Development; Organizational Structure

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2008
Chapter

The Evidence Does Not Speak for Itself: Expert Witnesses and the Organization of DNA-Typing Companies

By: Arthur A. Daemmrich

During the past 15 years, new biotechnology companies have promoted DNA typing as a sophisticated criminal and paternity identification technique. Private testing laboratories produce results that link individuals with crime scenes and fathers to their children.... View Details

Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Courts and Trials; Organizational Structure; Practice; Genetics; Science-Based Business; Trust; Commercialization; Vertical Integration

August 2018
Case

Four Products: Predicting Diffusion (2018)

By: John Gourville

One job of product managers, marketers, strategic planners, and other corporate executives is to predict what the demand will be for a new product. This task is easier for certain classes of new products than for others. For new consumer package goods, for instance,... View Details

Keywords: Diffusion Processes; Product Adoption; Marketing; Forecasting and Prediction; Demand and Consumers; Adoption; Product Launch

05 Jan 2010
First Look

First Look: January 5

are not driven by reverse causality. These patterns are not driven solely by common law nations such as the United Kingdom and United States, but also hold in Continental Europe. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/10-045.pdf Going Through the Motions:... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

November 2009 (Revised March 2010)
Case

Managing Drugs on the Forefront of Personalized Medicine: The Erbitux and Vectibix Story

By: Richard G. Hamermesh, Raju Kucherlapati and Rachel Gordon

In May 2007, Amgen Inc. (Amgen) received disappointing news from the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) that its drug Vectibix, developed to fight metastatic colorectal cancer, had been rejected. This was especially surprising news given that a similar rival drug had... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Health Testing and Trials; Marketing Strategy; Product Positioning; Genetics; Biotechnology Industry; Europe; United States

13 Jan 2009
First Look

First Look: January 13, 2009

Should this gene detection firm enter the business of providing tests for the detection of genetic diseases? If so, how should it prioritize the tests it could develop? Purchase this case:... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

09 Feb 2010
First Look

First Look: Feb. 9

Transforming Public Education: Cases in Education Entrepreneurship. Winning in Emerging Markets: A Road Map for Strategy and Execution Authors:Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu, and Richard Bullock Publication:Harvard Business Press,... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

05 Sep 2012
First Look

First Look: September 5

if they did not obtain the second reward. We discuss implications for research on motivation and incentives. Bringing Science to the Art of Strategy Authors:A.G. Lafley, Roger L. Martin, Jan W. Rivkin, and Nicolaj Siggelkow... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

31 Jan 2022
Research & Ideas

Where Can Digital Transformation Take You? Insights from 1,700 Leaders

pain points and desires. One participant remarked, given the unpredictability of the pandemic and the economy, companies should “serve their customers, not sell to them,” and build the connections needed to move to the next normal. Global View Details

Keywords: by Linda A. Hill, Ann Le Cam, Sunand Menon, and Emily Tedards

2016
Working Paper

Do Network Dynamics Undermine Idea-based Network Advantages? Experimental Results from an Entrepreneurship Bootcamp

By: Rembrand Koning

Do networks plentiful in ideas provide early stage startups with performance advantages? On the one hand, network positions that provide access to a multitude of ideas are thought to increase team performance. On the other hand, research on network formation argues... View Details

Keywords: Networks; Performance; Business Startups; Business Strategy

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Article

Channel Integration, Sales Dispersion, and Inventory Management

By: Santiago Gallino, Antonio Moreno and Ioannis Stamatopoulos

We study the effects of the introduction of cross-channel functionalities on the overall sales dispersion of retailers and the implications of these effects for inventory management. To do that, we analyze data from a leading U.S. retailer who introduced a... View Details

Keywords: Retail Operations; Online Retail; Channel Integration; Sales Dispersion; Long Tail; Empirical Operations; Inventory Management; Omnichannel Retail; Marketing Channels; Integration; Sales; Logistics; Operations; Management; Retail Industry

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January 2008
Case

Procter & Gamble Brazil (A): 2 1/2 Turnarounds

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Matthew Bird

Juliana Azevedo Schahin, a local marketing director for Procter & Gamble in Sao Paulo, had worked closely with Tarek Fahahat, a regional executive based in Caracas, to solve the growth and profitability problems of P&G Brazil. They did so through the creation of... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Brands and Branding; Demand and Consumers; Product Development; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Expansion; Consumer Products Industry; Caracas

Web

2023 Reunion Presentations - Alumni

streaming and esports, and more industry consolidation? Drawing on dozens of recent case studies, Professor Elberse walked participants through the likely future of the entertainment industry and outline the most effective business View Details

27 Feb 2024
Research & Ideas

Why Companies Should Share Their DEI Data (Even When It’s Unflattering)

attitudes toward a hypothetical e-commerce company and its commitment to DEI depending on what they learned about disclosure rules and the company’s method of sharing the information. They organized the test into five groups based on... View Details

Keywords: by Shalene Gupta

Research Summary

Clinical Trials as a setting for Health Policy and Management Research

The clinical trial marketplace is in flux. A decade ago, pharmaceutical firms almost exclusively conducted the study of their novel drug compounds within major academic medical centers. But today, industry-sponsored clinical trials are increasingly using community... View Details

27 Sep 2019
Blog Post

Learning the Language of Product at Duolingo

worked in tech or in a PM role - I had previously worked in strategy and design consulting, but I really wanted to explore actually applying insights to change a real, live product. Over the summer, I got to do that and much more. A few... View Details

Keywords: Technology

2008
Working Paper

Structural Closure and Exposure: Formation of Structural Inequality in Managerial Labor Markets

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski

Positional advantages arise when actors obtain rewards attached to positions they occupy, but these rewards are not merited by their performance. Existing theory suggests that in competitive markets there should be no positional advantages. This paper proposes a model... View Details

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Jobs and Positions; Managerial Roles; Performance Improvement; Alignment; Competitive Advantage; Equality and Inequality

September 2020
Case

Minerva 2010: Turbulent Times

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In 2010, amid a flurry of new discoveries, Cynthia Bamdad, founder and CEO of Minerva Biotechnologies Corporation (Minerva), raised $6.6 million to test her new cancer drugs in mice. It had been more than 6 years since she had announced that she and her small team at... View Details

Keywords: Biotechnology; Research; Product Development; Commercialization; Strategy