Publications

December 2022
Case

Mission Produce in 2022

By: Forest Reinhardt, Jose B. Alvarez and Natalie Kindred

Founded by CEO Steve Barnard in 1983, California-based Mission Produce was a leading supplier of Hass avocados with a global sourcing, marketing, and distribution network and $892 million in 2021 sales. Barnard had been influential in the global avocado trade’s... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States; California; Peru; Guatemala; Colombia; Mexico; Chile

January 2014 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Nivea (A)

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Johann Fuller, Volker Bilgram and Greta Friar

The case describes the efforts of Beiersdorf, a worldwide leader in the cosmetics and skin care industries, to generate and commercialize new R&D through open innovation using external crowds and "netnographic" analysis. Beiersdorf, best known for its consumer brand... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Innovation Management; Crowdsourcing; Big Data; Innovation Strategy; Innovation and Management; Knowledge Management; Knowledge Sharing; Research and Development; Social and Collaborative Networks; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Analytics and Data Science; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry

08 Jul 2025
Blog Post

In-Office, Remote, or Hybrid: Strategies for Success

routines, and communication. The HBS Career & Professional Development (CPD) office shares practical tips to help you and your team thrive. When you’re ready to hire MBA talent with the skills to lead in any environment, explore our... View Details

April 2008
Supplement

Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd. (B)

By: Paul W. Marshall, Michael Shih-ta Chen and Keith Chi-ho Wong

In late November 2000, Chung Telecom Co., Ltd., the once-monopolized telecom operator owned by the Taiwanese government, was on its way to privatization. Mr. C.K. Mao, Chairman of the company, was headed the job only three months earlier, after its prior chairman... View Details

Keywords: State Ownership; Jobs and Positions; Monopoly; Privatization; Competition; Decisions; Motivation and Incentives; Labor and Management Relations; Resignation and Termination; Compensation and Benefits; Price; Status and Position; Telecommunications Industry; Public Administration Industry; Taiwan

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Artificial intelligence promises to greatly increase the efficiency of the economy. But it may have an even larger impact on the economy by serving as a new general-purpose “method of invention” that can reshape the nature of the... View Details

2019
Working Paper

Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 17 The Wintel Standards-based Platform

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

The purpose of this chapter is to use the theory of bottlenecks laid out in previous chapters to better understand the dynamics of an open standards-based platform. I describe how the Wintel platform evolved from 1990 through 2000 under joint sponsorship of Intel and... View Details

Keywords: Open Platforms; Bottlenecks; Wintel Platform; Disintermediation; Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software; Business History; Digital Platforms; Computer Industry

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November 2019
Article

Conversations and Idea Generation: Evidence from a Field Experiment

By: Sharique Hasan and Rembrand Koning

When do conversations lead people to generate better ideas? We conducted a field experiment at a startup boot camp to evaluate the impact of informal conversations on the quality of product ideas generated by participants. Specifically, we examine how the personality... View Details

Keywords: Peer Effects; Field Experiment; Interpersonal Communication; Creativity; Personal Characteristics; Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention

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03 Mar 2011
Working Paper Summaries

How Firm Strategies Influence the Architecture of Transaction Networks

Keywords: by Jianxi Luo, Daniel E. Whitney, Carliss Y. Baldwin & Christopher L. Magee

Web

HBS Working Knowledge – Harvard Business School Faculty Research

expect? Harvard Business School faculty members highlight four trends to watch. Popular Rapport: The Hidden Advantage That Women Managers Bring to Teams by Kara Baskin 25 JUN 2024 | Research & Ideas Lack of communication between managers and their employees can hurt... View Details

January 2016
Case

Open Innovation at Fujitsu (A)

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Jean-François Harvey

This case study examines the open innovation journey at Fujitsu, a global information and communication technology company. The case ends with the location decision between Tokyo, Japan, downtown San Francisco or Sunnyvale, California, regarding establishing a small... View Details

13 Jul 2022
Book

Reimagining the Economy: What Would It Take to Put People First?

toxic many of the cleaning products she was using were to her health and to the environment. So, when she heard about Vida Verde, a worker cooperative organized by Brazilian women immigrants, which sells housecleaning services using... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

March 2011
Case

Seven-Eleven Japan: The Tanpin Kanri Retail Practice

By: Hirotaka Takeuchi and Carin-Isabel Knoop

This case focuses on Tanpin Kanri, which uses both store-level human knowledge and product information sharing. View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Sharing; Employees; Practice; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Competitive Strategy; Retail Industry; Japan

25 Oct 2017
Research & Ideas

Will Machine Learning Make You a Better Manager?

have to be, say, United Airlines to take advantage of these tools. Managers can now purchase off-the-shelf products that can mine Twitter or Yelp and develop a detailed analysis of how sentiment is changing in real time. “It has basically... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Information Technology

November 2017 (Revised April 2019)
Case

Summa Equity: Building Purpose-Driven Organizations

By: George Serafeim

In 2015, Reynir Indahl left top Nordic private equity firm Altor Equity Partners to found Summa Equity (Summa). After long contemplation following the financial crisis, Indahl was convinced the financial system was producing negative externalities and that the current... View Details

September 1999 (Revised April 2000)
Case

drugstore.com

By: Richard L. Nolan

On a clear day in August 1999 in the new headquarters of drugstore.com, against a backdrop of the Blue Angels flying in formation over Lake Washington practicing for their hydroplane Seafare Cup performance, Peter Neupert was pleased with his company's IPO performance.... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Internet and the Web; Problems and Challenges; Business Startups; Retail Industry