Publications

22 Oct 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Strategies to Fight Ad-sponsored Rivals

Keywords: by Ramon Casadesus-Masanell & Feng Zhu; Advertising

22 Oct 2014
News

Aligning Strategy and Sales with Frank Cespedes

24 Apr 2014
News

Betting big on star power can be a winning strategy in business—not just show business

Researching the entertainment industry, Anita Elberse, the Lincoln Filene Professor of Business Administration, has found that blockbuster strategies work. Content producers who pursue these View Details

March 2015
Article

Business Model Evaluation: Quantifying Walmart's Sources of Advantage

By: Humberto Brea-Solís, Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Emili Grifell-Tatjé

We develop an analytical framework on the basis of the economics of business performance to provide quantitative insight into the link between a firm's business model choices and its profit consequences. The method is applied to Walmart by building a qualitative... View Details

Keywords: Business Models; Quantitative Analysis; Walmart; Production Theory; Business Model; Competitive Advantage; Profit

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July 2004 (Revised September 2004)
Case

Novell: CEO-led Turnaround and Growth Strategy

By: Richard L. Nolan and Robert D. Austin

Novell CEO Jack Messman tried to return the company to its leadership position in the software industry through a strategy that embraces Linux and other open source software. This case serves as an introduction to open source software and strategies based on open... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Value Creation; Open Source Distribution; Applications and Software; Intellectual Property; Business Strategy; Information Technology Industry

23 Nov 1999
Research & Ideas

What’s Your Strategy for Managing Knowledge?

Knowledge is codified using a "people-to-documents" approach: it is extracted from the person who developed it, made independent of that person, and reused for various purposes. Ralph Poole, director of Ernst & Young's Center for View Details

Keywords: by Morten T. Hansen, Nitin Nohria & Thomas Tierney; Consulting

April 2005
Background Note

Strategies of Unrelated Diversification

By: Bharat N. Anand and Samhita Patwardhan Jayanti

Conglomerates lie at the heart of debates in corporate strategy. They include, perhaps, the best known companies in history--Beatrice Corp., General Electric, ITT, Siemens, and ABB--and at various times over the last few decades have been both admired and vilified as a... View Details

Keywords: Diversification; Business Conglomerates; Corporate Strategy; Value

February 1994 (Revised April 1995)
Case

Asahi Glass Co.: Diversification Strategy

By: David J. Collis

Describes the history and diversification strategy of the Japanese manufacturer Asahi Glass Co. The company has diversified through internal growth, acquisition, and joint ventures from its origin in flat glass to a broad glass-materials, chemical, and electronics... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Joint Ventures; Diversification; Expansion; Vertical Integration; Manufacturing Industry; Japan

September 2017 (Revised February 2018)
Case

Becton Dickinson: Global Health Strategy

By: Mark R. Kramer and Sarah Mehta

Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD) was a medical technology firm headquartered in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, with 43,000 employees and 2016 revenues of $12.5 billion. For several years, the company had pursued developing products that created shared value, defined as... View Details

Keywords: Shared Value; Creating Shared Value; Odon Device; Medical Technology; Value Creation; Values and Beliefs; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Health Testing and Trials; Emerging Markets; Social Issues; Competitive Strategy; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Africa; Asia; Middle East

Web

Adding a Social Dimension to Strategy - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

Greg Hills, Marc Pfitzer, Sonja Patscheke, Elizabeth Hawkins 16 Dec 2012 Harvard Business School Publishing Understanding Michael Porter: The Essential Guide to Competition and Strategy by Joan Magretta 1996... View Details

2005
Chapter

Environmental Federalism in the European Union and the United States

By: David Vogel, Michael W. Toffel and Diahanna Post

The United States (US) and the European Union (EU) are federal systems in which the responsibility for environmental policy-making is divided or shared between the central government and the (member) states. The attribution of decision-making power has important policy... View Details

Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Government Legislation; Natural Environment; Pollutants; Climate Change; European Union; United States

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November 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

United Technologies: Are the Parts Worth More Than the Whole?

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

After spending more than 50 years creating a diversified industrial conglomerate that Fortune magazine described as “arguably the most profitable conglomerate in America” in 2014, UTC’s CEO Greg Hayes was under pressure from activist investors (Dan Loeb and Bill... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Business Conglomerates; Financial Management; Corporate Governance; Organizational Structure; Investment Funds; Value Creation; Aerospace Industry; Electronics Industry; Industrial Products Industry; United States

June 1999 (Revised June 2000)
Case

Robert Mondavi: Competitive Strategy

By: Michael E. Porter and Gregory C Bond

Describes the competitive situation facing Robert Mondavi, the leading premium California winery. Mondavi has been an industry innovator and has recently taken steps to become more international. Mondavi has to cope with growing domestic competition as well as market... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Technological Innovation; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Industry Structures; Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Food and Beverage Industry; California; Australia; Chile

January 2013
Supplement

Wanxiang Group: A Chinese Company's Global Strategy (B)

By: William C. Kirby, Nancy Hua Dai and Erica M. Zendell

Supplements the A Case 308-058. With an almost forty-year history as a business in China, the Wanxiang Group has navigated through the significantly different political and economic changes in China to succeed as a global leader in the auto parts industry, and to... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Global Strategy; Business Conglomerates; Vertical Integration; Goals and Objectives; Mergers and Acquisitions; Auto Industry; China; United States

August 1994 (Revised May 2001)
Case

ITT Automotive: Global Manufacturing Strategy (1994)

By: Gary P. Pisano and Sharon L. Rossi

ITT Automotive is in the process of developing a new-generation antilock brake system (ABS), designated the MK-20. The case focuses on the level of automation to be used in the production of this new system, and whether all plants should use the same process... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Innovation Strategy; Production; Product Development; Globalized Firms and Management; Performance Productivity; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; Belgium; Germany; United States

October 2013
Background Note

Multi-Sided Platforms: Foundations and Strategy

By: Andrei Hagiu

This note offers an analysis of four fundamental strategic decisions and associated tradeoffs that set MSPs apart from other types of businesses (e.g. product firms) and that every MSP entrepreneur and investor should carefully consider. In the last section I also... View Details

Keywords: Multi-Sided Platforms; Strategy; Technology; Technology Industry

February 1979 (Revised September 1980)
Case

Gulf Oil Corp. and the United States Government (A)

By: J. Ronald Fox and Allan Grey

Keywords: Business and Government Relations; Energy Industry

August 2019
Case

The United States and Russia: Gas Rivals in Europe?

By: Rawi Abdelal, Galit Goldstein and Paul Apostolicas

Though the shale revolution transformed the U.S. into the largest producer of petroleum products, it was unclear how much success American exporters would find selling liquefied natural gas on the European energy market. Gazprom, the state-controlled Russian energy... View Details