Publications

September 1998 (Revised April 2001)
Case

Sealed Air Taiwan (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Robert J. Crawford

The general manager for U.S.-based Sealed Air Corp.'s Taiwan subsidiary must decide whether he's hired the right person to bridge the gap between Sealed Air's corporate culture and Taiwan's business culture. This case details Bob Kayser's experiences in trying to... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Relationships; Service Operations; Motivation and Incentives; Management Skills; Compensation and Benefits; Taiwan; United States

18 Apr 2022
HBS Case

Dick’s Sporting Goods Followed Its Conscience on Guns—and It Paid Off

murder of 17 students and teachers in Parkland. And with those words, Stack, a gun owner and gun rights supporter, set in motion a series of corporate actions that may serve as a model for other CEOs trying to balance their personal... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

04 Jan 2010
Research & Ideas

Best of HBS Working Knowledge 2009

answered include: How do I get past a feeling of being stuck in life or work? Can I resist the temptations of success? Am I working too hard? Is there room for spirituality at the office? 10 Reasons to Design a Better Corporate Culture... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

10 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: January 10

predictable ways in which individuals make ethical decisions and judge the ethical decisions of others that are at odds with intuition and the benefits of the broader society. By focusing on a descriptive rather than a normative approach... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

10 Apr 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research, April 10, 2018

benefit from mimicking the showroom concepts started by online-first retailers and why online-first retailers can benefit from opening more traditional stores. Publisher's link:... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 1998 (Revised August 2006)
Case

House of Tata, 1995: The Next Generation (A)

By: Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu and Danielle Melito Wu

The Tata Group began the 1990s as a confederation of loosely coupled firms. This case considers the rise to prominence of the new CEO of Tata Group, Ratan Tata, and his attempts to strengthen the inter-relationships among the group companies at a time when critics... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Business Conglomerates; Organizations; Corporate Strategy; Consolidation; Business Strategy; Alignment; Consumer Products Industry; Service Industry

February 2000 (Revised October 2000)
Case

Open Market, Inc.: The E-Commerce Wars

By: James I. Cash Jr., Janis Lee Gogan, Michael Haselkorn and Mani Subramani

Continues the story of Open Market, Inc., a company founded in 1994 to support electronic commerce on the Internet. Despite a very successful initial public offering, the firm had reached a growth plateau, and the management team was considering several strategic... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Technological Innovation; Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Channels; Product Marketing; Product Development; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Information Technology Industry; Web Services Industry

Program

Driving Digital Strategy

program is eligible for the Digital Transformation Certificate. Learn More Key Benefits By the end of this course, you will emerge as a dynamic and future-ready leader, armed with the knowledge, tools, and mindset necessary to lead your... View Details

March 2005 (Revised March 2006)
Case

Sealed Air Taiwan (A) (Abridged)

By: Lynn S. Paine

The general manager for U.S.-based Sealed Air Corp.'s Taiwan subsidiary must decide how to improve productivity and achieve profitability. In addition to considering a new approach to compensation, he is wondering how to bridge the gap between Sealed Air's corporate... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Relationships; Service Operations; Motivation and Incentives; Management Skills; Compensation and Benefits; Taiwan; United States

01 Jan 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Lobbying Behavior of Governmental Entities: Evidence from Public Pension Accounting Rules

Keywords: by Abigail M. Allen & Reining Petacchi

22 Apr 2016
HBS Seminar

Dr. Milt McColl, MD, Gauss Surgical, CEO

Program

Leading Change and Organizational Renewal

experimentation with financial stability. You will return to your company prepared to build change strategies that inspire organizational change and drive corporate success. This program is eligible for the Certificate of Management... View Details

17 Jul 2012
First Look

First Look: July 17

relationship between companies' shareholders and managers, as of 2012. It recounts the shift beginning in the 1970s toward shareholders claiming an increasing amount of power relative to corporate managers. The authors argue that... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

05 Dec 2023
Research & Ideas

Lessons in Decision-Making: Confident People Aren't Always Correct (Except When They Are)

the right people are confident, suggests recent research by Thomas Graeber, assistant professor at Harvard Business School. His work tested the effects of meta-cognition—essentially, whether more skilled people are also more confident than the less skilled—and the... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

December 2003 (Revised August 2004)
Case

Circon (A) (Abridged)

By: Brian J. Hall, Christopher Rose and Guhan Subramanian

In 1996, U.S. Surgical launched a hostile takeover bid against Circon Corp. CEO Richard Auhll recruited an old HBS friend, George Cloutier, to the Circon board to help him defend the company. Circon's primary defenses include a "poison pill" and a staggered board and... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Governing and Advisory Boards; Executive Compensation; Trust; Relationships; Acquisition; Business and Shareholder Relations; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; United States

July–August 2014
Article

The Crisis in Retirement Planning

By: Robert C. Merton

Corporate America began to really take notice of the looming retirement crisis in the wake of the dot-com crash, when companies in major industries went bankrupt in large part because of their inability to meet their pension obligations. The result was an acceleration... View Details

July 1984 (Revised September 1986)
Case

CML Group, Inc.: Going Public (A)

By: William A. Sahlman

Describes a series of decisions confronting Charles Leighton, co-founder and chairman of the CML Group. CML is a successful participant in the leisure time industry with two lines of business: specialty retailing and recreational consumer products. The key issues in... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Going Public; Strategy; Business or Company Management; Cost vs Benefits; SWOT Analysis; Investment Banking; Financing and Loans; Planning; Corporate Finance; Retail Industry; Consumer Products Industry