Publications

Program

Launching New Ventures

strategies for transforming disruptive innovation into competitive advantage and a profitable business. Key Benefits Bringing you together with other entrepreneurial executives, this program examines the unique challenges that confront... View Details

February 2024
Article

Diversification as an Adaptive Learning Process: An Empirical Study of General-Purpose and Market-Specific Technological Know-How in New Market Entry

By: Dominika Kinga Randle and Gary P. Pisano

An enduring trait of modern corporations is their propensity to diversify into multiple lines of business. Penrosian theories conceptualize diversification as a strategy to exploit a firm’s fungible, yet “untradeable”, resources and point to redeployment of... View Details

Keywords: Diversification; Market Entry and Exit; Assets

October 2008 (Revised March 2010)
Case

PlanetTran

By: Lauren H. Cohen and Christopher J. Malloy

PlanetTran is an environmentally-friendly car service that utilizes a fleet of hybrid cars in providing livery service to corporations and individuals. The founder, Seth Riney, is evaluating outside funding options in order to expand the company, and has met several... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Venture Capital; Investment; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Expansion; Value

June 2002
Case

Oxfam America in 2002

Raymond Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America,a major international relief and development nongovernmental organization (NGO), is working with his staff to undertake a major strategic shift in the organization. The organization is placing a growing emphasis on... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business or Company Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Non-Governmental Organizations

Web

Finance Curriculum - Faculty & Research

and Capital Markets Luis Viceira , Emil Siriwardane Fall 2025 Q1Q2 3.0 Investment Strategies William Vrattos Spring 2026 Q4 1.5 Managing and Innovating in Financial Services David Scharfstein Spring 2026... View Details

01 Aug 2016
Research & Ideas

Retail Execs Underplay Current Performance to Investors--but Why?

Business School finance professor Kenneth A. Froot in the April working paper What Do Measures of Real-Time Corporate Sales Tell Us about Earnings Surprises and Post-Announcement Returns? “It’s startling to find that View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Financial Services

August 2003 (Revised May 2006)
Case

Elizabeth Parker (A)

By: Tiziana E. Casciaro, Wickham Skinner and David Krackhardt

A new political appointee with years of volunteer experience takes over a highly responsible job in the state government and is met with bureaucratic inertia. Describes a successful strategy to overcome organizational resistance to change. View Details

Keywords: Public Sector; Leading Change; Managerial Roles; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Conflict and Resolution; Power and Influence

03 Sep 2013
First Look

First Look: September 3

Research Center: Growing a Joint Research Venture in India Bristol Myers Squibb, a multi-national pharmaceutical company, is seeking to globalize its R&D strategy while managing costs. It has formed a... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

Business & Environment

and Phones to Evaluate and Promote Agricultural Technology Adoption: Evidence from Smallholder Farms in India By: Shawn Cole , Tomoko Harigaya, Grady Killeen and Aparna Krishna SEPTEMBER 2025 | Journal of Development Economics This paper evaluates a low-cost,... View Details

November 1983 (Revised January 1988)
Case

Frontier Airlines, Inc. (A)

Frontier, once a relatively small regional carrier, expanded rapidly after deregulation of the airline industry. By 1982 it found further growth difficult, due in part to its rivals' aggressive--and, according to Frontier, unfair--use of their computer reservations... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Information Technology; Growth and Development Strategy; Air Transportation Industry; United States

13 Apr 2009
Research & Ideas

Kind of Blue: Pushing Boundaries with Miles Davis

firm specializing in improvisational collaboration and communication in high-performance teams. In their case, "Miles Davis: Kind of Blue", they reflect on the beauty of the music as well as the unusual story behind its creation. And they suggest that... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Music

14 Aug 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, August 14, 2018

government intervention, two of the principal forces that influence variation in firm profitability. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=54835 forthcoming Journal of Economics & Management View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

July 2006 (Revised October 2006)
Case

Lenovo: Building A Global Brand

By: John A. Quelch and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Announced in December 2004, the $1.75 billion acquisition of IBM's PC division by Lenovo, China's largest PC maker, made headlines around the world. A relative upstart in the business, Lenovo acquired the division of IBM that invented the PC in 1981. While Lenovo was... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Information Infrastructure; Global Strategy; Acquisition; Brands and Branding; Manufacturing Industry; Computer Industry; China

January 2009 (Revised November 2011)
Case

The Tip of the Iceberg: JP Morgan Chase and Bear Stearns (A)

By: Clayton S. Rose, Daniel Baird Bergstresser and David Lane

"Bear Stearns & Co. burned through nearly all of its $18 billion in cash reserves during the week of March 10, 2008, and an unprecedented provision of liquidity support from the Federal Reserve on Friday, March 13 was insufficient to reverse the decline in Bear's... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Financial Crisis; Capital; Financial Liquidity; Financial Strategy; Corporate Governance; Crisis Management; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Competition; Valuation; Financial Services Industry

January–February 2021
Article

Between Home and Work: Commuting as an Opportunity for Role Transitions

By: Jon M. Jachimowicz, Julia Lee Cunningham, Bradley Staats, Francesca Gino and Jochen I. Menges

Across the globe, every workday people commute an average of 38 minutes each way, yet surprisingly little research has examined the implications of this daily routine for work-related outcomes. Integrating theories of boundary work, self-control, and work-family... View Details

Keywords: Commuting; Boundary Work; Self-control; Work-family Conflict; Prospection; Transition

2019
Book

Creative Construction: The DNA of Sustained Innovation

By: Gary P. Pisano

Creative Construction tackles the myth that larger enterprises are inherently incapable of transformative innovation and are doomed to be disrupted by nimble start-ups. If larger enterprises seem incapable of transformative innovation, it is due to how we design... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Business Growth and Maturation; Innovation Strategy; Organizational Culture; Management Systems; Creativity; Leading Change

August 2000 (Revised November 2001)
Case

Edmunds.com (A)

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Christina Akers

Edmund's began in 1966 as a publisher of new and used vehicle guides and grew into one of the leading third-party automotive web sites of today. This case explores how Edmunds.com gained a competitive edge using strategic partnerships and alliances, as well as careful... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Success; Product Positioning; Partners and Partnerships; Competitive Advantage; Auto Industry; Information Technology Industry

March 2022 (Revised April 2022)
Case

MTN: Unlocking Value While Driving Socioeconomic Progress

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Pippa Tubman Armerding and Dilyana Karadzhova Botha

On March 10, 2021, Ralph Mupita the new CEO of MTN Group, Africa's largest telecommunications company, presented the group’s 2020 annual results and unveiled a new strategy to “drive growth and unlock value.” Despite MTN’s leadership in most of its markets, the... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Goals and Objectives; Valuation; Emerging Markets; Business Strategy; Financial Management; Information Technology; Corporate Finance; Telecommunications Industry; Africa; South Africa; Ghana; Nigeria