Publications

Dorothy Leonard*, the William J. Abernathy Professor of Business Administration Emerita, joined the Harvard faculty in 1983 after teaching for three years at the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has taught MBA courses in... View Details

Keywords: computer; consulting; education industry; electronics; federal government; high technology; information technology industry; software; venture capital industry

Web

Global

Understanding a rapidly changing, Dynamic world Global Research MBA 2025 Bogota, Colombia & Houston, TX Laura Mediorreal 38% of our Class of 2024 MBA students are international. The MBA Experience Regional Activities Africa Asia Pacific... View Details

Other Article

Introduction

By: Stefano Brusoni, Joachim Henkel, Michael G Jacobides, Samina Karim, Alan MacCormack, Phanish Puranam and Melissa Schilling

In 2000, Carliss Baldwin and Kim Clark published Design Rules: The Power of Modularity, a book that introduced new ways of understanding and explaining the architecture of complex systems. This Special Issue of Industrial and Corporate Change celebrates... View Details

Keywords: Complex Systems; Industry Structure; Systems Design; Complexity; Organizational Design; Competitive Strategy; Innovation and Management

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March 2020
Case

Sizmek Chapter 11: Surviving Walled Gardens in Their Ad Tech Empire

By: Ayelet Israeli, Danilo Tauro and Sarah Gulick

This case provides a post-mortem of the advertising technology (adtech) company Sizmek. Sizmek grew via multiple acquisitions, with the vision of becoming an integrated adtech company that could leverage AI to buy digital media, while creating and serving display and... View Details

Keywords: Digital Marketing; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Mergers and Acquisitions; Applications and Software; Internet and the Web; Competition; Marketing; Advertising Industry; Web Services Industry; United States; Europe

July 2014
Article

Project Complexity and Systems Integration: Constructing the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics Games

By: Andrew Davies and Ian Mackenzie

Our study of the London Olympics 2012 construction programme showed that systems integration is one of the major challenges involved in delivery of a complex "system of systems"—or array—project. Organizations cope with complexity by decomposing a project into... View Details

Keywords: Integration; Construction; Complexity; Sports; Projects; Construction Industry; Sports Industry; London

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07 Nov 2017
First Look

New Research and Ideas: November 7, 2017

adding new settings to explore established core debates. The discipline of business history evolved around the corporate strategies and structures of developed economies. The growing literature on the business history of emerging markets... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

July 2019 (Revised November 2019)
Case

Osaro: Picking the Best Path

By: William R. Kerr, James Palano and Bastiane Huang

The founder of Osaro saw the potential of deep reinforcement learning to allow robots to be applied to new applications. Osaro targeted warehousing, already a dynamic industry for robotics and automation, for its initial product—a system which would allow robotic arms... View Details

22 Jun 2009
Research & Ideas

“Too Big To Fail”: Reining In Large Financial Firms

restructure, sell, or liquidate a failing company. Bottom line, no firm should be too big to fail. At the same time, the majority of financial firms that pose no systemic risk should face relatively light regulation, ensuring their continued View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson; Banking; Financial Services

20 Jul 2010
First Look

First Look: July 20

sales began to slide. While Steinhafel believed that Target's long-term strategy and positioning were right, he pondered a set of strategic and operational challenges. Did Target have the right mix of offensive and defensive tactics to... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

August 2006 (Revised May 2016)
Case

Cluster Mobilization in Mitteldeutschland

By: Jeffrey Fear, Christian H.M. Ketels and Claudia Linsenmeier

As part of the privatization in Eastern Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Dow Chemical made a major investment in the Halle-Leipzig region, one of the largest chemical industry sites in Europe. The executive in charge of Dow's operations in the region, Bart... View Details

Keywords: Industry Clusters; Development Economics; Privatization; Chemicals; Foreign Direct Investment; Management Teams; Private Sector; Competitive Strategy; Brands and Branding; Market Participation; Chemical Industry; Germany

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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Web

Students on the Job Market - Doctoral

can customize promotions to enhance profitability across different customer segments. Faculty Advisor(s): Eva Ascarza (Chair), Sunil Gupta , Jeremy Yang , and José R. Zubizarreta Curriculum Vitae | Website | Email Strategy Aticus Peterson... View Details

May 2024 (Revised September 2024)
Case

Hakluyt: From Corporate Intelligence to Trusted Advisors

By: Joseph B. Fuller and Lena Duchene

Established in 1995 by a group of ex-British intelligence officers, Hakluyt & Company (Hakluyt) was a corporate advisory firm that generated insights by leveraging a unique blend of internal expertise and a global network of well-connected individuals. Since 2019, the... View Details

Article

Breaking up Is Never Easy: Planning for Exit in a Strategic Alliance

By: Ranjay Gulati, Parth Mehrotra and Maxim Sytch

This article highlights several important dimensions of planning for exit from strategic alliances and also offers several examples of the disastrous consequences of inadequate exit-planning. While many companies fall into the trap of having no exit plan, other... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Alliances; Partners and Partnerships; Corporate Strategy

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12 Jan 2010
First Look

First Look: Jan. 12

multichannel, the challenges of crafting multichannel retailing strategies and opportunities for creating synergies across channels, key retail mix decisions facing multichannel retailers, and the dynamics... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

2012
Chapter

Environmental Federalism in the European Union and the United States

By: David Vogel, Michael W. Toffel, Diahanna Post and Nazli Z. Uludere Aragon

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: Natural Environment; Policy; Government and Politics; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; European Union; United States

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Fall 2016
Article

How Do Customers Respond to Increased Service Quality Competition?

By: Ryan W. Buell, Dennis Campbell and Frances X. Frei

When does increased service quality competition lead to customer defection, and which customers are most likely to defect? Our empirical analysis of 82,235 customers exploits the varying competitive dynamics in 644 geographically isolated markets in which a nationwide... View Details

Keywords: Service Quality Competition; Retail Banks; Empirical Operations; Retention; Service Operations; Quality; Competition; Banking Industry; United States