Publications

April 2025
Case

Giving Up on a Passion: Elizabeth Rowe at the Boston Symphony Orchestra

By: Jon M. Jachimowicz, Maisie Wiltshire-Gordon and Alexis Lefort

For 20 years, Elizabeth Rowe was a world-renowned principal flutist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. But in 2024, Rowe decided to leave her position to pursue a new full-time career as a leadership coach. At 50, Rowe was well under the typical retirement age, and,... View Details

15 Jul 2019
Blog Post

Exploring the World of Electric Adventure Vehicles

Leadership and Corporate Accountability course, which focuses on the economic, legal, and ethical dimensions tied to corporate responsibility. “We were talking about how we might set View Details

Keywords: Manufacturing; Consumer Products / Retail

winter 2006
Article

Allocating Shareholder Capital to Pension Plans

By: Robert C. Merton

Keywords: Capital; Resource Allocation; Business and Shareholder Relations; Compensation and Benefits

Find at Harvard

August 1994
Case

Saturn Corp.'s Module II Decision

In the Spring of 1994, Saturn Corp. was setting sales records by attracting more than 25,000 buyers per month. Saturn officials believed there was a long-term opportunity to sell 400,000 to 500,000 cars per year in the United States and selected international markets.... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Production; Expansion; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; Retail Industry; Tennessee; United States

17 Sep 2013
First Look

First Look: September 17

networks historically provided (e.g., information about potential workers, monitoring, and reputation foundations). Publisher's link: http://www.people.hbs.edu/wkerr/Ghani_Kerr_Stanton_MSCI_OdeskDiaspora-8-26-13.pdf September 2013... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

15 Dec 2015
First Look

December 15, 2015

grounded in the competitive dynamics that may otherwise drive a race-to-the-bottom. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=50203 forthcoming Journal of Business Ethics Corporate Governance and Executive View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

September 2021 (Revised October 2022)
Supplement

Hester Pharmaceuticals (B): Securing Supply

By: Dante Roscini and John Masko

Supplements the (A) case. In late 2020, demand for Hester Pharmaceutical’s (Hester’s) breakthrough oncology drug Akrozumab was outstripping the company’s most optimistic projections. In order to increase manufacturing capacity and meet the demand, Hester was... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Cost vs Benefits; Trade; Supply Chain; Global Strategy; Buildings and Facilities; Operations; Health Care and Treatment; Demand and Consumers; Global Range; Globalized Markets and Industries; Pharmaceutical Industry; Italy; China; United States; Germany

January 2021
Case

Rio Tinto Aluminum: Can Purpose Lead to Profit?

By: David Fubini and Agastya Muthanna

This case describes the tradeoffs Rio Tinto faces as it considers investments to ensure environmentally friendly, sustainability produced aluminum with the potential risks of competitive pricing and profit loses. View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Investment; Price; Competition; Profit; Cost vs Benefits; Mining Industry

2015
Reducing Bias

Emilio Castilla

13 Mar 2012
First Look

First Look: March 13

Abstract Governments and other organizations often outsource activities to achieve cost savings from market competition. Yet such benefits are often accompanied by poor quality resulting from moral hazard,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2018
Case

SeatGeek

By: Robert F. Higgins and Sarah Mehta

In late 2016, Russ D'Souza and Jack Groetzinger, co-founders of the online event ticketing platform SeatGeek, faced some difficult decisions. In the company's seven-year history, SeatGeek had positioned itself primarily as an aggregator, facilitating ticket... View Details

Keywords: Event Ticketing; Sports Ticketing; Acquisition; Business Model; Decision Making; Cost vs Benefits; Digital Platforms; Sports; Strategy; Information Technology; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Digital Platforms

May 2024
Supplement

DRSi (A)

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

In March of 2019, Jen Ransom Fuller purchased DRSi. DRSi, located in Bellevue, Washington, printed and reproduced architectural plans and drawings. Fuller planned to use her first year of ownership to learn the business and to run it in much the same way as the seller.... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Small Business; Cost vs Benefits; Decisions; Business Education; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Business or Company Management; Problems and Challenges; Health Pandemics; Selection and Staffing; Employee Relationship Management; Production; Logistics; Safety; United States; Washington (state, US)