Publications

December 2006 (Revised October 2007)
Course Overview Note

Managing Networked Businesses: Course Overview for Educators

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

Provides an overview for educators of concepts covered in the MBA elective course, "Managing Networked Businesses," (MNB). MNB focuses on management challenges in businesses that exhibit network effects. Such businesses comprise a large and growing share of the global... View Details

Keywords: Networks; Business Organization

09 Apr 2014
News

Power suits

2018
Working Paper

Trust and Democracy: Leader Turnover during Economic Crises

By: Nathan Nunn, Nancy Qian and Jaya Y. Wen

We study the relationship between interpersonal trust and political stability in democratic countries. Using a six-decade-long annual country-level panel dataset, we find that recessions are more likely to cause political turnover in countries with lower levels of... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Trust; Recessions; Leader Turnover; Political Instability; Culture; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Trust; Political Elections

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October 2013
Case

Mitch Daniels and the State of Indiana

By: Robert Steven Kaplan and Wendy K. Winer

Mitch Daniels, Governor of the State of Indiana, knew he had to make a difficult choice as he sat in his office in December 2010. Should he aggressively push the state legislature to pass comprehensive education reform—a major priority of his administration—or,... View Details

Keywords: Education Reform; Priorities; Leadership; Education; Government and Politics; Public Administration Industry; Education Industry; Indiana

John Gourville is the Albert J. Weatherhead, Jr. Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. He joined the HBS Marketing Unit in 1995 after receiving his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in marketing and behavioral research. His most... View Details

Keywords: agribusiness; biotechnology; consumer products; health care; high technology; medical supplies; pharmaceuticals; retailing

October 2018
Case

Recipe for Success: Growth and Evolution at Cafe Cupcake

By: Anthony Mayo and Heather Beckham

Café Cupcake (CC) is a fast-casual restaurant chain that offers artisan cupcakes and light fare throughout the southeastern United States and Texas. This case chronicles the growth and evolution of Café Cupcake. It also considers the specific human resource challenges... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Human Resources; Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Food and Beverage Industry

Web

Curriculum | MBA

FALL TERM Entrepreneurship in the Life Sciences Frontiers in Therapeutics Science Elective (2) HBS Electives Harvard Business School Life Science, Ethics, and Management Seminar January Capstone Project 1... View Details

January 2001 (Revised March 2002)
Case

Ford Motor Company's Value Enhancement Plan

By: Andre F. Perold

In April 2000, Ford Motor Co. announced a shareholder Value Enhancement Plan (VEP) to significantly recapitalize the firm's ownership structure. Ford had accumulated $23 billion in cash reserves and under the VEP would return as much as $10 billion of this cash to... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Forecasting and Prediction; Capital Structure; Cash; Financial Liquidity; Policy; Business and Shareholder Relations; Value; Auto Industry

February 2013 (Revised April 2013)
Case

Monique Leroux: Leading Change at Desjardins

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone

Monique Leroux led a major transformation, overcoming resistance, at a large Canadian financial cooperative based in Quebec that competed with top Canadian banks. Leroux was elected in 2008 as Chairman, President, and CEO of Desjardins Group. In order to compete... View Details

Keywords: Change Barriers; Leadership; Women And Leadership; Cooperatives; Social Enterprise; Financial Firms; Communication Strategy; Change Management; Transformation; Communication; Financial Services Industry; Canada

Mihir A. Desai is the Mizuho Financial Group Professor of Finance at Harvard Business School and a Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He received his Ph.D. in political economy from Harvard... View Details

2016
Working Paper

Consequences to Directors of Shareholder Activism

By: Ian D. Gow, Sa-Pyung Sean Shin and Suraj Srinivasan

Using a comprehensive sample for 2004–2012, we examine the impact of shareholder activist campaigns on the careers of directors of targeted firms. We find that activism is associated with directors being almost twice as likely to leave—and performance-sensitivity of... View Details

Keywords: Shareholder Activism; Hedge Funds; Independent Directors; Director Reputation; Accountability; Shareholder Voting; Voting; Retention; Investment Funds; Management Teams; Investment Activism

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23 Dec 2013
News

Is Obama Backing Away From Obamacare?

07 Jul 2010
News

Innovation in Entrepreneurship Pedagogy Award

James E. Austin

Dr. Austin holds the Eliot I. Snider and Family Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus at the Harvard Business School. Previously he held the John G. McLean Professorship and the Richard P. Chapman Professorship. He has been a member of the Harvard... View Details

Keywords: agribusiness

Teaching Interest

Africa: Building Cities: Immersive Field Course

By: John D. Macomber

This second year elective takes students into the field to assess and report on the opprtunities in the next decade for the private finance and delivery of public infrastructure in the Global South. In January of 2016 and 2017 the cities studied were Addis Ababa,... View Details

Keywords: Cities; Urbanization; Economic Development; Infrastructure; Sustainability; Africa; Latin America; Peru; Argentina; Ethiopia; Tanzania

February 2022
Case

Agora (A)

By: Lindsay N. Hyde, Thomas R. Eisenmann and Tom Quinn

Agora was a civic technology (civic tech) startup founded by Elsa Sze, who wanted to enhance the connection between political officials and their constituents by facilitating virtual “town halls,” making underrepresented voices heard and benefiting elected and... View Details

Keywords: Civic Technology; Government Administration; Conferences; Business Startups; Business Strategy

February 2019 (Revised March 2022)
Case

Mexico: Shifting Left with AMLO

By: Richard H.K. Vietor

Andrés Manuel López Obrador became president of Mexico on December 1, 2018. His election, and the victory of his new Party, MORENA, represent a sharp shift to the left by Mexico’s political system. Previously, President Peña Nieto and his party, the PRI, had initiated... View Details

Keywords: Political Economy; Pacto; Institutional Reform; Nationalism; Energy Reform; Government and Politics; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Economic Growth; International Relations; Mexico

January 2016 (Revised February 2016)
Course Overview Note

The Sustainable Core: Operations Management

By: Michael W. Toffel and L. Beril Toktay

This note is designed to help faculty embed environmental sustainability content into their core Operations Management course at the MBA or undergraduate level. It can also be used to identify cases with environmental content that can be used in operations electives... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Management; Operations Management; Sustainable Operations; Environmental Regulation; Operations; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Biotechnology Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Construction Industry; Forest Products Industry; Retail Industry