Publications

28 Jun 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Alignment in Cross-Functional and Cross-Firm Supply Chain Planning

Keywords: by Santiago Kraiselburd & Noel Watson

August 2020 (Revised December 2020)
Case

Satrix: Competing in the Passive Asset Management Industry in South Africa

By: Mark Egan, Pippa Tubman Armerding and Dilyana Karadzhova Botha

In late 2017, Satrix, one of the largest passive asset management firms in South Africa and a pioneer in the industry since 2000, had to decide its strategy going forward in a market where passive asset management had become increasingly commoditized and... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Investment Funds; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Financial Services Industry; South Africa; Africa

2017
Book

Geography, Location, and Strategy

By: Juan Alcácer, Bruce Kogut, Catherine Thomas and Bernard Yin Yeung

Changes in both technology and global political economy have vastly accelerated the pace of globalization in the last 40 years, eroding barriers that limited firms' geographic scope and unleashing a seemingly unlimited set of new threats, challenges, and opportunities... View Details

Keywords: Geographic Location; Global Strategy; Value Creation

Spring 2013
Article

The Investment Strategies of Sovereign Wealth Funds

By: Shai Bernstein, Josh Lerner and Antoinette Schoar

This paper examines the direct private equity investment strategies across sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) and their relationship to the funds' organizational structures. SWFs seem to engage in a form of trend chasing, since they are more likely to invest at home when... View Details

Keywords: Sovereign Finance; Strategy; Investment Funds

spring 2006
Article

All's Fair in Love, War, & Bankruptcy: Corporate Governance Implications of CEO Turnover in Financial Distress

By: Ethan S. Bernstein

Prior discussions of management turnover during financial distress have examined bankrupt and non-bankrupt firms as distinct groupings with little overlap. Separately investigating rates of turnover in-bankruptcy and out-of-bankruptcy, without a direct comparison... View Details

Keywords: CEO Turnover; Bankruptcy; Restructuring; Shadow Of Bankruptcy; Borrowing and Debt; Credit; Financing and Loans; Corporate Governance; Finance; Theory; Markets; United States

18 Jul 2023
News

The First Five Years: Brooke Biederman (MBA 2019)

work in watches. Next, Discovery, a South African health care company, incentivizes healthy behavioral change that leads to fewer claims and lower premiums for customers as the company's cost to serve them decreases, too. It's an... View Details

Keywords: Robert Bochnak

Research Summary

Overview

By: Peter Tufano

Tufano’s research has focused on financial innovation and financial engineering—and for more than two decades, household finance. While he continues to study these topics, his current primary research is on the role of business in addressing climate change. With... View Details

Research Summary

Energy, IT, real estate, and sustainability

By: Rebecca M. Henderson

Professor Henderson’s current research focuses on the energy, information technology, and real estate sectors and the challenges firms encounter as they attempt to act in more sustainable ways. This work is an outgrowth of her decade-long examination of the... View Details

Innovation and Its Discontents: How Our Broken Patent System is Endangering Innovation and Progress, and What to Do About It

The United States patent system has become sand rather than lubricant in the wheels of American progress. Such is the premise behind this provocative and timely book by two of the nation's leading experts on patents and economic... View Details

January 2009 (Revised March 2013)
Case

Live Nation Faces the Music

By: Stephen P. Bradley, Frank Cespedes and Kerry Herman

In 2008, concert producer and promoter Live Nation faces a decision about its strategy in light of the tumultuous changes in the music industry and the increasing power of the major artists. As the music business once again recreates itself in response to new... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Music Entertainment; Five Forces Framework; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Corporate Strategy; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Music Industry; Service Industry

March 2018
Case

Zensar Technologies Ltd.

By: Joseph B. Fuller and Tanvi Deshpande

Zensar, an established mid-tier IT services company based in India, is known for its customer-centric approach and close-knit culture. Sandeep Kishore has recently stepped in as the MD and CEO, replacing the previous CEO of 15 years. Kishore is developing his strategy... View Details

Keywords: Digitalization; Business Processes; Strategy; Leading Change; Organizational Culture; Information Technology Industry

April 2006
Article

Competitive Advantage and the Value Network Configuration: Making Decisions at a Swedish Life Insurance Company

By: Øystein D. Fjeldstad and Christian H.M. Ketels

When the Swedish Life Insurers Förenade Liv found themselves in difficulties in a rapidly changing market, their response was to call in the consultants. And one of the consultant's first suggestions was to use the Value Network, not the Value Chain, as a new... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Fluctuation; Networks; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Value; Quality; Decision Making; Market Transactions; Performance Effectiveness; Customers; Insurance Industry; Sweden

Read Now

June 2020 (Revised October 2020)
Case

What Went Wrong with Boeing's 737 Max?

By: William W. George and Amram Migdal

This case describes the development of the Boeing 737 Max airplane model and the events leading up to two tragic plane crashes, in which a total of 346 people died: the crash of Lion Air flight 610 on October 29, 2018, in Indonesia, and the crash of Ethiopian Airlines... View Details

Keywords: Communication; Communication Intention and Meaning; Communication Strategy; Forms of Communication; Announcements; Decision Making; Decision Choices and Conditions; Judgments; Ethics; Moral Sensibility; Values and Beliefs; Globalization; Global Strategy; Governance; Corporate Accountability; Governance Controls; Human Resources; Resignation and Termination; Leadership; Leadership Style; Management; Business or Company Management; Crisis Management; Management Practices and Processes; Management Skills; Management Style; Management Systems; Risk Management; Time Management; Markets; Demand and Consumers; Digital Platforms; Supply and Industry; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Industry Structures; Operations; Product Development; Organizations; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Outcome or Result; Failure; Success; Planning; Strategic Planning; Problems and Challenges; Relationships; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Risk and Uncertainty; Safety; Strategy; Transportation; Air Transportation; Aerospace Industry; Air Transportation Industry; Africa; Ethiopia; Asia; Indonesia; North and Central America; United States; Seattle; Chicago

16 Nov 2021
HBS Case

How a Company Made Employees So Miserable, They Killed Themselves

under-discussed issue.” Learning from the missteps of France Télécom can help business leaders take a more compassionate approach to restructuring, even when competitive pressures make those changes necessary. Sometimes that means taking... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

August 1982 (Revised September 1991)
Case

Rockwell International (A)

By: Michael E. Porter

Describes the competitive situation facing Rockwell International, the market leader in the U.S. water meter industry. The industry is undergoing structural change, and competitor activity is intensifying. Rockwell must decide what, if any, actions are necessary to... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Decisions; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Markets; Industry Structures; Business Strategy; Competition; Manufacturing Industry; United States

March 1992 (Revised April 2000)
Case

Joline Godfrey and the Polaroid Corporation (A)

By: Linda A. Hill and Nancy A Kamprath

Describes how Joline Godfrey, an intrapreneur at the Polaroid Corp., introduced and developed a project that could help Polaroid move to a more service- as opposed to product-oriented focus. Also depicts the mentor-protege relationship between Godfrey and Gerald... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Rank and Position; Leading Change; Problems and Challenges; Change; Electronics Industry; Consumer Products Industry

Web

Skydeck - Alumni

the realities of climate change My Worst Job Alumni share life-altering lessons from the labor force The Making of a Streaming Sensation Author and producer Jeff Norton (MBA 2003) on how his show Geek Girl became a Netflix hit—and what it... View Details

September 2021 (Revised February 2022)
Case

Sawiris Foundation: Elevating Education in Egypt

By: Brian Trelstad and Alpana Thapar

Founded in 2001 by the Sawiris family, one of the wealthiest families in Egypt, the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development (SFSD) invested in human capital and provision of basic social services for the most marginalized Egyptians. In 2015, Noura Selim’s (MBA 2013)... View Details

Keywords: Sustainable Development; Social Enterprise; Education; Social Issues; Partners and Partnerships; Growth and Development Strategy; Education Industry; Egypt

Article

Your Visual System Provides All the Information You Need to Make Moral Judgments about Generic Visual Events

By: Julian De Freitas and George A. Alvarez

To what extent are people's moral judgments susceptible to subtle factors of which they are unaware? Here we show that we can change people’s moral judgments outside of their awareness by subtly biasing perceived causality. Specifically, we used subtle visual... View Details

Keywords: Moral Judgment; Perceived Causality; Visual Illusions; Moral Sensibility; Judgments