Market Failures - Publications - Faculty & Research

March 2004 (Revised June 2004)
Case

Blackout: August 14, 2003

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Ryland Matthew Willis

On August 14, 2003, an electricity blackout cascaded throughout the northeastern United States and Canada. Describes the structure, technology, and economics of the electric utility industry and how gradual deregulation beginning in the 1970s placed unprecedented, and... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Performance Improvement; Infrastructure; Energy Sources; Business and Government Relations; Networks; Emerging Markets; Failure; Economics; Utilities Industry; Canada; Northeastern United States

Citation

Educators

Purchase

25 Sep 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, September 25, 2018

counterparts. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=55026 Economists (and Economics) in Tech Companies By: Athey, Susan, and Michael Luca Abstract—As technology platforms have created new markets and new... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

Profile

Micah Macfarlane

market failures for climate change but less response from society. "We are just worse at thinking about climate impacts, which feel further away than they really are. I want to be part of the... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare/Biotech; Manufacturing/Energy; Nonprofit/Government/Education

02 Jul 2001
What Do You Think?

Built to Last or Bought to Sell?

assumption that continuity is more desirable. The problem apparently has much to do with the narrow definition of success, the ability to outperform the stock market that the authors use as the primary criterion for their study. Jonathan... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

25 Sep 2007
First Look

First Look: September 25, 2007

will in fact homogenize consumption patterns, and a few superstar products will emerge as winners in the market place. In this study, using two large customer transactions data sets obtained from an online music service and an online DVD... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Profile

Mark Gundersen

general-management program appealed to me. But I've become an enormous fan of the case method. From a career perspective, great investors are able to recognize patterns in companies and markets and apply that insight to their choices.... View Details

01 Oct 2000
News

The Entrepreneurial Venture

entrepreneurial activity, which drew people away from large companies and encouraged them to take risks. Bill Sahlman: Also, when we graduated from HBS, the economy was in recession, inflation and interest rates were high, productivity growth was low, and the stock... View Details

01 Dec 2009
News

An Action Plan for Economic Recovery

POZEN: Offers a plan for overhauling the U.S. financial system to avoid a repeat of the recent market meltdown. Most books about the nation’s financial crisis tell us what happened. In his new book, HBS senior lecturer Robert Pozen tells... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; Finance

08 Dec 2015
Research & Ideas

You Won't Make It If You Fake It

The cover of last January's Harvard Business Review featured the subhead, "When it's OK to fake it till you make it." “Faking it” is the antithesis of authentic leadership. Following this advice is the most likely path to View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

16 Oct 2013
Op-Ed

Response to Readers: Combating Climate Change with Nuclear Power and Fracking

similar to the failures we have seen historically. Again, I believe private markets should price and provide the catastrophe insurance for the resulting risks, not public guarantees. The issue in my mind is... View Details

Keywords: by Joe Lassiter; Energy; Utilities

02 Dec 2010
News

Ten Rules for Entrepreneurs

to the ideal of entrepreneurship itself rather than to a single business model or product. That flexibility helps them react nimbly to market feedback, abandoning products and business models that aren’t working. 2. Look for problems to... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; Management; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

30 Jun 2020
Book

Capitalism Is More at Risk Than Ever

updating the 10 disruptive forces identified in the first edition, showing how managers can address these challenges, and describing how public confidence in the market system could be rebuilt. The revised edition includes examples of... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

21 Dec 2009
Research & Ideas

Good Banks, Bad Banks, and Government’s Role as Fixer

for bailing out a financial institution. First is to protect the system for processing payments, like checks, because that system is critical to the operation of the U.S. economy. Second is to avoid a situation where the failure of one... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson; Banking; Financial Services

21 Jan 2009
First Look

First Look: January 21, 2009

Working PapersLetting Misconduct Slide: The Acceptability of Gradual Erosion in Others' Unethical Behavior (revised) Authors:Francesca Gino and Max H. Bazerman Abstract Previously titled "Slippery Slopes and Misconduct: The Effect of Gradual Degradation on the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

02 Sep 2002
Research & Ideas

Foreign Multinationals in the U.S.: A Rocky Road

of U.S. managers.— Geoffrey Jones Unilever was one of the world's earliest and most widespread multinational firms, and already had a large U.S. business by the interwar years. During the research, I was surprised to discover that the company experienced decades of... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Johnston & Martha Lagace

01 Mar 2011
First Look

First Look: March 1

PublicationsThe New M&A Playbook Authors:Clayton M. Christensen, Richard Alton, Curtis Rising, and Andrew Waldeck Publication:Harvard Business Review 89, no. 3 (March 2011) Abstract Companies spend more than $2 trillion on acquisitions every year, yet the M&A... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

11 Jun 2012
Research & Ideas

When Business Competition Harms Society

Competition Corrupts Business Practices, suggests that many organizations in highly competitive markets are likely to bend the rules if doing so will keep their customers from leaving for a rival firm. "Competition is generally... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Auto

09 Feb 2004
Research & Ideas

Got a New Strategy? Now Make it Happen

field organizations was growing. The senior team was slow to make decisions, and no one took responsibility for the performance of the developing businesses. A lack of openness lies behind many failures to implement strategy. Camp... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer & Russell A. Eisenstat

12 Apr 2004
Research & Ideas

Operations and the Competitive Edge

Obstacles facing companies in today's hyper-competitive global markets are seemingly more complex than ever, to the point that managers must rethink many of the basic principles of good operations management, says Robert Hayes. In a new... View Details