Publications

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Teaching Interest

Founders' Dilemmas

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport

This course is for students who plan to become involved in new ventures, now or at mid-career, as founders of a new venture, early hires, early advisors, or board members, or as potential investors (e.g., VCs), customers, partners, or acquirers of new venturesView Details

April, 2023
Article

Reducing Information Barriers to Solar Adoption: Experimental Evidence from India

By: Meera Mahadevan, Robyn C. Meeks and Takashi Yamano

Off-grid solar technologies hold promise for unelectrified and low-quality electricity settings; however, their adoption remains low. Important barriers to adoption, such as incomplete information remain relatively unexplored in developing countries. In collaboration... View Details

Keywords: Technology Adoption; Renewable Energy; Knowledge Sharing; Developing Countries and Economies; India

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September 2008 (Revised February 2009)
Case

Ocean Tomo: Building a Market for Intellectual Property

By: Peter A. Coles, Andrei Hagiu and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

Ocean Tomo's management team sought to turn the company into the leading intermediary for intellectual property. Despite its increasingly important role in the global marketplace, IP remained a notoriously illiquid asset—difficult to value, harder to trade, and often... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Markets and Industries; Intellectual Property; Resource Allocation; Auctions; Market Design; Service Operations

April 1994 (Revised April 1995)
Case

Volkswagen de Mexico's North American Strategy (A)

In 1988, Volkswagen (VW) consolidated its North American operations in Puebla, Mexico, after shutting down its plant in Pennsylvania. Volkswagen de Mexico had been in operation since the 1960s, but produced almost exclusively for the Mexican market. In the late 1980s,... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Trade; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; Canada; Germany; United States; Mexico

31 Jan 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Boardroom Centrality and Firm Performance

Keywords: by David F. Larcker, Eric C. So & Charles C.Y. Wang

January 2013
Supplement

EverTrue: Mobile Technology Development (B)

By: William R. Kerr and Alexis Brownell

Brent Grinna has one customer signed up for his alumni-networking mobile app, and is now trying to choose among three possibilities for a CTO. He decided to contract with a friend's company, Dashfire, to create a prototype of the app, and has signed up Brown University... View Details

Keywords: Start-up; Mobile App; CTO; Hiring; Scaling; Business Startups; Decisions; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development; Mobile Technology; Technology Industry; Massachusetts; Boston

February 2008
Supplement

Shinhan Financial Group (B)

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Matthew J. Morgan

By 2007, there were many signs that the merger of Chohung and Shinhan banks to form the Shinhan Financial Group in 2003 had met its goals. Shinhan Financial Group's stock price had increased from $31 a share at its opening on the New York Stock Exchange in September... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Global Strategy; Expansion; Markets; Strategic Planning; South Korea

05 Sep 2023
Book

Thriving After Failing: How to Turn Your Setbacks Into Triumphs

teams appeared to have more, not fewer, errors. “All these years later, I can still remember viscerally how it felt,” says Edmondson, who recounts the experience in her new book about the View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

Research Summary

Social Entrepreneurship

By: James L. Heskett

This project is centered around an analysis of data and experiences of 31 executive directors of not-for-profit organizations who completed the Denali Initiative on social entrepreneurship, of which I was volunteer faculty chairperson, between 1999 and 2002. The... View Details

October 1993 (Revised December 1997)
Case

General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A)

William Anders became CEO of defense giant General Dynamics in 1991 as the Cold War was ending and as the industry became saddled with excess capacity. Observing that the company was underserving shareholders and required a massive change in its culture, Anders brought... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Corporate Strategy; Executive Compensation; Manufacturing Industry; United States

November 2003 (Revised March 2004)
Case

Drilling South: Petrobras Evaluates Pecom

By: Mihir A. Desai and Ricardo Reisen de Pinho

The Brazilian oil company, Petrobras, is evaluating the acquisition of an Argentine oil company, the Perez Companc Group (Pecom). The acquisition would increase Petrobras' oil reserves and expand its interests outside Brazil, a significant step for the largest company... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Forecasting and Prediction; Financial Crisis; Non-Renewable Energy; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Corporate Governance; Risk Management; Emerging Markets; State Ownership; Performance Evaluation; Risk and Uncertainty; Valuation; Energy Industry; Argentina; Brazil

November 2003 (Revised September 2016)
Case

Creating Global Oil, 1900-1935

By: Geoffrey G. Jones and Daniel Wadhwani

Taught in the elective MBA course entitled The Evolution of Global Business. Examines the development of an international cartel in the oil industry in the 1920s and 1930s. Focuses on the decisions and actions of the leading multinational oil companies—particularly... View Details

Keywords: History; Competition; Multinational Firms and Management; Alliances; Cooperation; Business and Government Relations; Energy Industry

November–December 2024
Article

Retire Without Regrets

By: Teresa M. Amabile, Lotte Bailyn, Marcy Crary, Douglas T. "Tim" Hall and Kathy E. Kram

This article explores the significant transition of retirement and offers insights into creating a satisfying postcareer life. It highlights the contrasting experiences of Irene and Lawrence, two retirees who navigated this change differently. Irene embraced retirement... View Details

Keywords: Retirement; Satisfaction; Transition; Identity

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2010
Article

I May Not Agree With You, but I Trust You: Caring About Social Issues Signals Integrity

By: Julian Zlatev

What characteristics of an individual signal trustworthiness to other people? I propose that individuals who care about contentious social issues signal to observers that they have integrity and thus can be trusted. Critically, this signal conveys trustworthiness... View Details

Keywords: Personal Characteristics; Moral Sensibility; Perception; Trust

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2012
Working Paper

Is India's Manufacturing Sector Moving Away from Cities?

By: Ejaz Ghani, Arti Grover Goswami and William R. Kerr

This paper investigates the urbanization of the Indian manufacturing sector by combining enterprise data from formal and informal sectors. We find that plants in the formal sector are moving away from urban and into rural locations, while the informal sector is moving... View Details

Keywords: Urban Development; Policy; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Geographic Location; Education; Infrastructure; Manufacturing Industry; India

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Article

Physical and Situational Inequality on Airplanes Predict Air Rage

By: K. A. DeCelles and Michael I. Norton

We posit that the modern airplane is a social microcosm of class-based society, and that the increasing incidence of “air rage” can be understood through the lens of inequality. Research on inequality typically examines the effects of relatively fixed, macrostructural... View Details

Keywords: Physical Inequality; Equality and Inequality; Behavior; Air Transportation; Situation or Environment