Publications

February 1990 (Revised August 2001)
Case

Merloni Elettrodomestici SpA: The Transit Point Experiment

By: Janice H. Hammond and Maura G Kelly

Merloni Elettrodomestici is a leading Italian manufacturer of domestic appliances. In 1986, an exposition for Merloni customers is scheduled at its Milano regional warehouse. During the two-month period preceding the event, when the warehouse must be free of inventory,... View Details

Keywords: Logistics; Marketing Channels; Planning; Time Management; Distribution Channels; Competitive Advantage; Customer Relationship Management; Information Technology; Consumer Products Industry; Italy

17 Oct 2007
Research & Ideas

Why Global Brands Work

Nissan, and Honda sold standard products under a single brand umbrella. For decades, Ford adapted its manufacturing platforms, features, and model names from one country to another. The results: added manufacturing and supply chain costs... View Details

Keywords: by John A. Quelch; Auto

24 Feb 2020
News

Companies must include environmental and social performance measures

May 1992 (Revised September 2019)
Case

Richardson Sheffield

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Ashish Nanda

The case traces Bryan Upton’s 20-plus years as managing director of a Sheffield-based cutlery company and describes the strategic and organizational actions he took to raise sales and earnings at more than 25% annually, even as the local industry was in steep... View Details

Keywords: Human Resource Management; Human Resource Practices; General Management; Human Resources; Management; Leadership; Strategy; United Kingdom

25 Mar 2021
Blog Post

Meet the Student Academic Services Support Team at HBS!

Determining how to successfully balance responsibilities, opportunities, and challenges is imperative to a positive and productive student experience. The Student and Academic Services (SAS) Support Services team in the MBA Program... View Details

October 2022 (Revised November 2023)
Case

Framebridge (A): Reimagining Custom Framing

By: Rembrand Koning and Alicia Dadlani

In December 2018, Susan Tynan, founder and CEO of Framebridge, a four-year-old venture-backed startup that sold online custom framing, formulated plans for the future. Her vision was to revolutionize the $4 billion industry by making custom framing easy, transparent,... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Business Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Operations; Consumer Products Industry; United States; District of Columbia; Kentucky

2015
Working Paper

Can Marshall's Clusters Survive Globalization?

By: Giulio Buciuni and Gary P. Pisano

It is widely presumed that in today's globalized economy, the value of geographic clustering of manufacturing industries is no longer valuable. Manufacturing is represented as a highly mobile "commodity" that can be sourced from anywhere in the world where factor costs... View Details

Keywords: Manufacturing; Globalization; Marshall Industrial Clusters; Global Supply Chains; Manufacturing Industry

2009
Other Paper

Trade Policy and Firm Boundaries

By: Laura Alfaro, Paola Conconi, Andrew F. Newman and Harald Fadinger

We examine how trade policy affects firms' organizational choices. We embed a model of firms' vertical integration decisions into a standard perfectly-competitive international trade framework. In the model, integration decisions are driven by a trade-off... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Policy; Ownership; Business and Government Relations; Vertical Integration; Boundaries

02 Nov 2016
HBS Seminar

Antoinette Schoar, MIT Sloan School of Management

2019
Working Paper

Government Technology Policy, Social Value, and National Competitiveness

By: Frank Nagle

This study seeks to better understand the impact that government technology procurement regulations have on social value and national competitiveness. To do this, it examines the impact of a change in France’s technology procurement policy that required government... View Details

Keywords: Social Value; Competitiveness; Government Administration; Information Technology; Acquisition; Policy; Value

SSRN

30 Nov 2009
Research & Ideas

Tracks of My Tears: Reconstructing Digital Music

Many products in those sectors are sold in a bundled form, so bundling strategies have always been a key topic for media and entertainment firms. But I learned that the rise of digital channels is introducing new questions. Executives are... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Music

Program

Competing in the Age of AI—Virtual

transformation strategy Business and technology leaders and contributors who want to understand how they can deploy the latest AI tools to unlock new sources of strategic and operating value Individuals in strategy-related roles including View Details

February 2022
Article

Taxation and Innovation in the 20th Century

By: Ufuk Akcigit, John Grigsby, Tom Nicholas and Stefanie Stantcheva

This paper studies the effect of corporate and personal taxes on innovation in the United States over the twentieth century. We build a panel of the universe of inventors who patent since 1920, and a historical state-level corporate tax database with corporate tax... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Income Taxes; Corporate Taxation; Firms; Inventors; State Taxation; Business Taxation; R＆D Tax Credits; Taxation; Innovation and Invention; History; United States

Find at Harvard

14 Apr 2015
First Look

First Look: April 14

factors such as "firm culture" and "employee engagement" in driving firm performance? Increasing evidence from a wide range of fields suggests that productivity differs widely across firms, even after the inclusion of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Michael E. Porter

Michael Porter is an economist, researcher, author, advisor, speaker and teacher. Throughout his career at Harvard Business School, he has brought economic theory and strategy concepts to bear on many of the most challenging problems facing corporations, economies... View Details

Keywords: biotechnology; e-commerce industry; health care; information; information technology industry; internet; nonprofit industry; service industry; state government

Geoffrey G. Jones

Geoffrey Jones is the Isidor Straus Professor of Business History, and Faculty Chair of the School's Business History Initiative. He holds degrees of BA, MA and PhD from Cambridge University, UK. He has an honorary Doctorate in Economics and Business Administration... View Details

Keywords: beauty products; beauty products; beauty products; beauty products; beauty products; beauty products; beauty products; beauty products; beauty products; beauty products; beauty products; beauty products; beauty products

29 Sep 2003
Research & Ideas

Why Managing Innovation is Like Theater

clear objective. If you don't have a good fix on your destination—be it a product or service, a strategic or competitive outcome, or anything else—you may as well not start the journey. For a lot of your work, though, this so-called... View Details

Keywords: by Rob Austin & Lee Devin

2017
Chapter

The Swedish Competitiveness Scorecard 2017

By: Christian H.M. Ketels

The Swedish Competitiveness Scorecard assesses Sweden's current competitiveness across a broad range of indicators, applying an impact logic from competitiveness fundamentals to productivity and prosperity outcomes. On these indicators Sweden is compared to a peer... View Details

Keywords: Competitiveness; Sweden; Economic Policy; Economy; Policy; Competition; Sweden