Publications

November 2023
Case

From Imitation to Innovation: Zongshen Industrial Group (Abridged)

By: Willy Shih and Nancy Dai

Like other small shops based in Chongqing, China, Zongshen Industrial Group started by assembling motorcycles from "standard" parts. The quality of its early products was good enough for rural Chinese buyers, though wealthier consumers usually purchased premium... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Competitive Strategy; Supply Chain; Product Positioning; Manufacturing Industry; Motorcycle Industry; China

In 2000, Eaton Corporation was broadly diversified industrial conglomerate. But its strategy was evolving and its focus was narrowing around “power management” and more recently on “intelligent power,” the use of digitally enabled products and services designed... View Details

30 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

‘Intrinsic Joy’ Sparks Ideas Better than Cash

GitHub is one of the major platforms where developers can collaborate and create. And, how to structure incentives is an important area of research beyond information technology, with companies big and small debating the best ways to... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Technology

May 1994
Background Note

Managing Market Complexity: A Three-Ring Circus

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

Proposes models of organization that address the various product-market environments posed by the product life cycle. Frames these changes along the two dimensions of uncertainty and diversity. Offers three sets of organizational characteristics to reflect the three... View Details

Keywords: Business Processes; Growth and Development Strategy; Complexity; Organizational Structure; Organizational Culture; Product Marketing; Markets; Product

Find at Harvard

April 2010 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Emerging Nokia?

By: Juan Alcacer, Tarun Khanna, Mary Furey and Rakeen Mabud

By late 2009, Nokia was grappling with the decision of whether to recover its leading position in the high-profit developed markets, where they were losing market share to the likes of Apple and Samsung, or defend its market leadership in the low-margin, high-volume... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Emerging Markets; Industry Structures; Competitive Advantage; Corporate Strategy; Telecommunications Industry; Finland

June 2016
Teaching Note

HubSpot: Lower Churn through Greater CHI

By: Jill Avery, Asis Martinez Jerez and Thomas Steenburgh

HubSpot, a web marketing startup selling inbound marketing software to small- and medium-sized businesses, is under pressure from its venture capital partners to rapidly acquire new customers and to maintain a low level of customer churn. The B2B SaaS company is in the... View Details

Keywords: CRM; Customer Acquisition; Customer Retention; Churn Management; SaaS Business Models; Customer Lifetime Value; Venture Capital; Startup; Software; Monitoring And Control; Marketing; Customer Relationship Management; Marketing Strategy; Accounting; Technology Industry; United States

April 1985 (Revised September 1993)
Background Note

Hattori-Seiko and the World Watch Industry in 1980

By: Michael E. Porter and Edward J. Hoff

Focuses on the industry's development and evolution in three principal watch producing countries: Switzerland, the United States, and Japan. Based in part on two earlier cases by F.T. Knickerbocker and H.E.R. Uyterhoeven. View Details

Keywords: Industry Growth; Consumer Products Industry; Japan; Switzerland; United States

Program

Compensation Committees

programs. You will explore best practices for aligning executive pay to business strategy and company goals and for meeting shareholder expectations as the regulatory climate evolves. You may also be interested in the related program:... View Details

May 2010 (Revised November 2010)
Case

Investment Technology Group

By: Clayton S. Rose and David Lane

Investment Technology Group (ITG) CEO Robert Gasser wondered if the financial crisis had permanently affected the firm's business model. A leader in trade analytics and execution for institutional equity investors, ITG had grown since its establishment in 1987 in step... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Financial Crisis; Investment; Resignation and Termination; Crisis Management; Product Positioning; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Financial Services Industry; Information Technology Industry; New York (city, NY)

August 1965 (Revised December 1987)
Case

L.L. Bean, Inc.

Discusses the development and operations of a small manufacturing and mail order company doing $3 million sales. L.L. Bean operates in violation of most reasonable business principles, but it is profitable and growing. View Details

Keywords: Small Business; Operations; Growth and Development Strategy; Retail Industry; Maine

2022
Article

Dynamic Pricing Algorithms, Consumer Harm, and Regulatory Response

By: Alexander MacKay and Samuel N. Weinstein

Pricing algorithms are rapidly transforming markets, from ride-sharing apps, to air travel, to online retail. Regulators and scholars have watched this development with a wary eye. Their focus so far has been on the potential for pricing algorithms to facilitate... View Details

Keywords: Competition Policy; Regulation; Algorithmic Pricing; Dynamic Pricing; Economics; Law And Economics; Law And Regulation; Consumer Protection; Antitrust Law; Industrial Organization; Antitrust Issues And Policies; Technological Change: Choices And Consequences; Competition; Policy; Price; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Microeconomics; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Law

SSRN

Read Now

November 2019 (Revised June 2020)
Case

Indigo Agriculture: Harnessing Nature

By: Marco Iansiti, Michael W. Toffel and James Barnett

Indigo Agriculture used a digital-enabled research and development (R&D) process to launch its initial product, microbial coatings for agricultural seeds, which increase crop yields while reducing the need for fertilizers. In doing so, the company developed direct... View Details

Keywords: Carbon Sequestration; Operations; Supply Chain; Social Enterprise; Product Development; Distribution Channels; Business Strategy; Digital Platforms; Environmental Sustainability; Science-Based Business; Climate Change; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Green Technology Industry; United States; Massachusetts

06 Sep 2006
Lessons from the Classroom

Mixing Students and Scientists in the Classroom

niche." His on-going research at HBS synthesizes elements of history, sociology, business, and statistics. In the classroom, Fleming has carved out a place for himself helping students from diverse disciplines learn to work together View Details

Keywords: by Deborah Blagg; Education

March 2001 (Revised November 2001)
Case

Merrill Lynch HOLDRS

By: Andre F. Perold and Simon E. Brown

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and HOLDRS (Holding Company Depositary Receipts) represent recent and highly successful capital market innovations. HOLDRS closely approximates a buy-and-hold strategy, and Merrill Lynch believes the product has significantly lower taxes... View Details

Keywords: Capital Markets; Cost; Stocks; Financial Strategy; Investment Funds; Taxation; Innovation and Invention; Product; Success; Expansion

June 2012 (Revised August 2013)
Case

Driving Towards a Disruption?

By: Willy Shih and William Noble

As Clayton Christensen drove to the studio to deliver an online executive education class, he pondered the future of management education. How big a threat did online degree programs, corporate universities, and other innovations in the delivery of management training... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Technology; Performance Trajectories; Disruptive Innovations; Business Education; Business School; Internet And Online Services Industries; Disruptive Innovation; Higher Education; Corporate Strategy; Internet; Performance; Education Industry; Boston

05 Dec 2022
What Do You Think?

How Would Jack Welch’s Leadership Style Fare in Today’s World?

one with a PhD. and unbridled curiosity. With Jack Welch, one experienced an idea a minute. Some hit home, some didn’t. He and his team tried a lot of things—many of them were ideas developed elsewhere—and presumably kept most of what... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Industrial Products; Industrial Products; Industrial Products; Industrial Products

March 2002 (Revised October 2002)
Case

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston/Fleet Financial Group Sponsorship of Monet in the 20th Century

By: Stephen A. Greyser and David Crockett

The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and Fleet Financial Group's sponsored the Monet in the 20th Century exhibition, the world's largest, in 1998. The case chronicles the solicitation of a large corporate sponsor, as well as the growth and development of their... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Finance; Product Development; For-Profit Firms; Partners and Partnerships; Arts; Brands and Branding; Innovation and Invention; Fine Arts Industry; Financial Services Industry; Massachusetts

2014
Case

Microfinance Services in Rural Areas--Farmers' Self-reliance Branch of CFPA Microfinance in Shangyi County

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Siqun Yang and Meihua Shen

Microfinance is introduced into China in the 1990s. It had gone through 3 phases since the beginning, namely the pilot phase when all Microfinance practices are sponsored by charity funds based on projects, the promotion phase when the government subsidized some... View Details

Keywords: Rural Entrepreneurship; Value Added; China; Risk Management; Microfinance; China