Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(10,551)
- Faculty Publications (2,601)
- January 2021 (Revised May 2021)
- Case
'GEnron'? Markopolos versus General Electric (A)
By: Jonas Heese and David Lane
In August 2019, Harry Markopolos—the forensic accountant known for uncovering Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme—alleged that General Electric had committed accounting fraud totaling $38 billion, coining the term “GEnron” for perceived similarities with the 2001 accounting... View Details
- January 2021 (Revised March 2021)
- Case
Jumia's Path to Profitability
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Pippa Tubman Armerding and Gamze Yucaoglu
The case opens in September 2019 as Sacha Poignonnec and Jeremy Hodara, co-founders and co-CEOs of Jumia, the leading Pan-African e-commerce platform, are contemplating the company’s path to profitability in the aftermath of a fragile investor sentiment, as the company... View Details
Keywords: Retail; Business Models; Business Model; Business Startups; Emerging Markets; For-Profit Firms; Strategy; Digital Platforms; Information Technology; Technology Adoption; Value Creation; Globalization; Entrepreneurship; Competition; Expansion; Logistics; Profit; Resource Allocation; Diversification; Corporate Strategy; Retail Industry; Technology Industry; Africa
- January 2021 (Revised May 2023)
- Case
Pearson: Efficacy 2.0
By: Elie Ofek, Marco Bertini, Oded Koenigsberg and James Weber
Pearson, which billed itself as the "world's learning company," faced a host of critical decisions in mid-2020. Several years prior, it had embarked on a new path that put the learner at the heart of the business and committed to a new strategic orientation. The new... View Details
- January 2021
- Article
'Mobile'izing Agricultural Advice: Technology Adoption, Diffusion and Sustainability
By: Shawn A. Cole and A. Nilesh Fernando
We examine the role of management in agricultural productivity by evaluating a mobile-phone based agricultural advice service provided to farmers in India. Demand for advice is high, and advice changes practices, increasing yields in cumin (28%) and cotton (8.6% for a... View Details
- January 2021
- Article
State and Local Government Employment in the COVID-19 Crisis
By: Daniel Green and Erik Loualiche
Local governments are facing large losses in revenues and increased expenditures because of the COVID-19 crisis. We document a causal relationship between fiscal pressures induced by COVID-19 and the layoffs of state and local government workers. States that depend... View Details
- Article
Trust: The Foundation of Leadership
By: Frances Frei and Anne Morriss
The authors contend that if leadership is about empowering others, in your presence and your absence, then trust is the emotional framework that allows that service to be freely exchanged. Based on their experiences advising individuals and organizations, their basic... View Details
Keywords: Trustworthiness; Authenticity; Empathy; Trust; Leadership; Competency and Skills; Behavior
- December 2020
- Case
VIA Science (A)
By: Juan Alcácer, Rembrand Koning, Annelena Lobb and Kerry Herman
Via (a) captures the early days of the data analytics startup as founders Gounden and Ravanis considered which markets offer the right opportunities for their firm and what kinds of experiments will help them narrow their choice. Supplement Via (b) reveals the... View Details
- December 2020
- Supplement
VIA Science (B)
By: Juan Alcácer, Rembrand Koning, Annelena Lobb and Kerry Herman
Via (a) captures the early days of the data analytics startup as founders Gounden and Ravanis considered which markets offer the right opportunities for their firm and what kinds of experiments will help them narrow their choice. Supplement Via (b) reveals the... View Details
- December 2020 (Revised May 2021)
- Case
Riverstone
By: David E. Bell and Natalie Kindred
In 2020, Luke Minion and the leadership team at Riverstone, a hog producer founded in 2013 in Shandong, China, were evaluating Riverstone’s strategy as it rebounded from outbreaks of African Swine Fever (ASF) in two of its three farm complexes. Riverstone was a joint... View Details
Keywords: Strategy; Globalization; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Animal-Based Agribusiness; Consumer Behavior; Demand and Consumers; Disruption; Risk and Uncertainty; Risk Management; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Consulting Industry; United States; China
- November 2020 (Revised February 2021)
- Case
Wes Hall and the BlackNorth Initiative
By: Shikhar Ghosh, Marilyn Morgan Westner and Reza Satchu
Wes Hall founded Kingsdale Advisors and built it into one of Canada’s leading shareholder services and advisory firms. Influenced by the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and a series of social injustices—specifically the death of George Floyd in police custody—Hall... View Details
- November 2020
- Supplement
Improving Access at VA (Update)
By: Ryan W. Buell
In November 2020, Chief Veterans Experience Officer, Lynda Davis, and Deputy Chief Veterans Experience Officer, Barbara C. Morton reflect on a busy four years leading the Veterans Experience Office at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The case provides an update... View Details
- November 2020 (Revised May 2023)
- Case
Holaluz: Taking on the Spanish Energy Market
By: Elie Ofek, Marco Bertini, Oded Koenigsberg, Elena Corsi and Emer Moloney
In 2020, the three cofounders of Holaluz, a newcomer to Spain’s electricity retail market, are preparing to launch a new offering: installing and managing solar panels on households' roofs at no extra cost for the consumer, who would still benefit from the energy... View Details
- November 2020 (Revised September 2021)
- Case
HP Instant Ink: (Self) Disrupting the Consumer Printing Market
By: Elie Ofek, Marco Bertini, Oded Koenigsberg and George Gonzalez
Seeking to disrupt the consumer printing market (before being disrupted by others), and in response to customer pain points, in 2013 HP Inc. launched an ink replenishment service called Instant Ink, where customers pay a monthly subscription fee based on the number of... View Details
- 2023
- Working Paper
Personalized Game Design for Improved User Retention and Monetization in Freemium Games
By: Eva Ascarza, Oded Netzer and Julian Runge
One of the most crucial aspects and significant levers that gaming companies possess in designing
digital games is setting the level of difficulty, which essentially regulates the user’s ability to
progress within the game. This aspect is particularly significant in... View Details
- November 2020
- Case
Axis My India
By: Ananth Raman, Ann Winslow and Kairavi Dey
Pradeep Gupta founded Axis My India (AMI) as a printing and publishing company in 1998. In 2013, AMI expanded into consumer research and election forecasting. Although a relatively unknown entity, AMI predicted several election results accurately. Gupta describes AMI’s... View Details
- 2020
- Working Paper
Accounting for Product Impact in the Consumer Finance Industry
By: George Serafeim and Katie Trinh
We apply the product impact measurement framework of the Impact-Weighted Accounts Initiative (IWAI) in two competitor credit card providers within the consumer finance industry. We design a monetization methodology that allows us to calculate monetary impact estimates... View Details
Keywords: Product Innovation; Impact; Impact Investing; Impact Measurement; ESG; ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; ESG Ratings; Social Corporate Responsibility; Corporate Social Responsibility; Social Impact; Consumer Finance; Financial Services; Financial Inclusion; Product; Product Design; Product Positioning; Society; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Personal Finance; Credit Cards; Financial Services Industry
- November 2020 (Revised February 2022)
- Case
CommonSpirit Health: Integrating a Merger of Equals
By: Robert S. Huckman, Hise Gibson and Nicole Gilmore
Soon after closing the 2019 merger of Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) and Dignity Health to create CommonSpirit Health, Lloyd Dean and Kevin Lofton-–jointly appointed to the role of CEO—must make several operational and strategic decisions related to the integration... View Details
Keywords: Health Care Delivery; Hospital; Merger; Merger Integration; Hospital Mergers; Health Information Technology; CEOs; Health Care and Treatment; Mergers and Acquisitions; Integration; Leadership; Customer Value and Value Chain; Decision Choices and Conditions; Governance; Information Technology; Health Industry; United States
- November 2020
- Case
The Rise and Fall of Nokia (Abridged)
By: Juan Alcácer and Tarun Khanna
In 2013, Nokia sold its Device and Services business to Microsoft for €5.4 billion. For decades Nokia had led the telecommunications (telecom) industry in handsets and networking. By the late 2000s, however, Nokia's position as market leader in mobile devices was... View Details
- November 2020 (Revised March 2021)
- Case
Amazon: Cult or Culture?
By: Boris Groysberg, Sarah L. Abbott and Tricia Gregg
Amazon was one of the first entrants in e-commerce. Under the leadership of founder Jeff Bezos, Amazon had expanded beyond books to manufacturing and selling a wide range of products and services globally. Bezos had built a customer-centric culture that permeated all... View Details
- November 2020 (Revised July 2022)
- Case
Dell Technologies: Bringing the Cloud to the Ground
By: Navid Mojir and V. Kasturi Rangan
The case tells the story of Dell Technologies and its efforts to revitalize its value proposition and escape a commodity trap by acquiring EMC for $67 billion—the largest tech acquisition in history. It also shows the deeply intertwined connections between a company’s... View Details