Publications
Publications
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(3,642)
- Faculty Publications (603)
- July 2000
- Background Note
Industry Transformation
By: Michael E. Porter and Jan W. Rivkin
One of the steepest challenges a strategist faces is to navigate his or her company through a period of industry transformation--an era of rapid and wholesale changes in industry structure. This note considers how periods of transformation typically unfold. It then... View Details
- April 2000
- Article
The Fable of Fisher Body
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Daniel F. Spulber
General Motors' (GM) acquisition of Fisher Body is the classic example of market failure in the literature on contracts and the theory of the firm. According to the standard account, GM merged vertically with Fisher Body in 1926, a maker of auto bodies, because of... View Details
- March 2000 (Revised February 2005)
- Case
Hewlett Packard--Computer Systems Organization: Selling to Enterprise Customers
By: Das Narayandas and Robert C. Dudley
In late 1996, Manuel Diaz, head of Worldwide Sales for Hewlett-Packard's (HP) Computer Systems Organization (CSO), is reviewing the results of an audit of HP's enterprise customer management approach with the objective of identifying market and organizational... View Details
- March 2000 (Revised June 2001)
- Case
AES: Hungarian Project (A)
By: Lynn S. Paine and Ann Leamon
The AES Corp., the world's largest independent power producer, has put out a request for bids to build a new power plant in Hungary. Just after the closing date for submitting bids, one of the contractors calls to request an opportunity to "improve" its bid. Although... View Details
- January 2000
- Case
Talbots - A Classic
By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Marie Bell
This case traces why the $1 billion women's clothing retailer decided to attract younger customers, what went wrong, and the actions taken to recover. By the end of 1999, the company has reestablished itself and faces several growth opportunities and must decide on the... View Details
- November 1999
- Case
Long-Term Capital Management, L.P. (A)
By: Andre F. Perold
Long-Term Capital Management, L.P. (LTCM) was in the business of engaging in trading strategies to exploit market pricing discrepancies. Because the firm employed strategies designed to make money over long horizons--from six months to two years or more--it adopted a... View Details
- April 1999 (Revised September 2000)
- Case
Interep National Radio Sales, Inc.
By: Benson P. Shapiro, Stephen X. Doyle and Wade Myers
Interep must mobilize sales information technology, organizational structures, and sales management processes to protect and enhance its strong position as a radio advertising sales firm. Opportunities and risks are high in this complex, rapidly changing sales agency... View Details
- April 1999
- Case
French Pension System, The: On The Verge Of Retirement? (Abridged)
By: David A. Moss
Surveys the French pension system, its particular institutional characteristics, and some of the critical challenges and opportunities facing French reformers. Like almost every other industrialized country, France has a large pay-as-you-go public pension system that... View Details
- December 1998
- Case
John Hancock Sports Sponsorship: 1993-2000 and Beyond
By: Stephen A. Greyser and John Teopaco
Examines sports sponsorship at John Hancock through 1998 and prospectively beyond. From its early sponsorship of the legendary Boston Marathon, the company had expanded its activities substantially. It was one of the worldwide "Top Sponsor" companies of the Olympics, a... View Details
- December 1998
- Case
NHL 1998: "The Coolest Game in Nagano"
By: Stephen A. Greyser and Kirk A. Goldman
Explores the National Hockey League's participation in the 1998 Winter Olympics, for which a "winter break" was taken from the regular schedule. The benefits and risks associated with the NHL's Olympic participation are one specific focus. In addition, the case address... View Details
- December 1998
- Case
MD Foods Amba
By: Ray A. Goldberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Cate Reavis
In 1998, MD Foods, a Denmark-based dairy cooperative, was searching for growth opportunities that would enable it to become northern Europe's preferred retail dairy supplier. The options being considered included expanding in existing markets, entering into new... View Details
- December 1998
- Article
Entrepreneurs and Business Performance in Nineteenth Century France
By: Tom Nicholas, Elisa Boccaletti and James Foreman-Peck
A popular explanation for the supposed "delayed industrialisation" of the nineteenth century French economy has been the inappropriate attitudes and actions of the managerial classes and family firms. To address these claims we model the supply and demand for... View Details
- November 1998 (Revised July 1999)
- Case
Merrill Lynch's Acquisition of Mercury Asset Management
By: Andre F. Perold, Imran Ahmed and Randolph B Altschuler
In the Spring of 1998, Merrill Lynch faced an array of challenges and opportunities related to its global asset management business. The firm had recently completed its $5.3 billion cash acquisition of U.K.-based Mercury Asset Management, a transaction that made it one... View Details
- October 1998 (Revised August 1999)
- Case
Amazon.com--Going Public
By: William A. Sahlman and Laurence E. Katz
Amazon.com, an early pioneer in electronic commerce, prepares its initial public offering in the face of turbulent market conditions. Joy Covey, Amazon.com's CFO and the case protagonist, discusses the risks and opportunities of going public and the nature of... View Details
- October 1998 (Revised February 2000)
- Case
RealNetworks, Inc.: Converging Technologies/Expanding Opportunities
By: Lynda M. Applegate and Kirk A. Goldman
Highlights issues related to the impact of the Internet on industry and technology convergence. RealNetworks has succeeded in establishing its position as a market leader (over 90% market share) in the Internet streaming media segment. Can they maintain this position... View Details
- April 1998
- Case
Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together
By: Paul A. Gompers and Catherine M. Conneely
Analyzes the decisions of Niall Carroll, an Irish banker, to start a venture capital fund focused on Ireland. The context of the Irish markets and the nature of Irish opportunities are explored. View Details
- March 1998 (Revised December 2005)
- Case
Beta Golf
By: William A. Sahlman, Michael J. Roberts and Laurence E. Katz
The Beta Group is a technology incubator in Menlo Park, CA that has successfully built a portfolio of businesses in the medical, consumer products, and industrial technology sectors by systematically matching proprietary technologies to unmet market needs. Beta has... View Details
- March 1998 (Revised July 1998)
- Case
Boston Duck Tours,1996: Has Boston Gone Quackers?
By: Myra M. Hart and Stephanie Dodson
While on vacation in Memphis, former investment manager Andy Wilson discovers a unique "tour bus" that travels over land and through water. He decides to transplant the concept to Boston and to add both historical and theatrical features to the amphibious tour. As he... View Details
- February 1998 (Revised August 2006)
- Case
House of Tata, 1995: The Next Generation (A)
By: Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu and Danielle Melito Wu
The Tata Group began the 1990s as a confederation of loosely coupled firms. This case considers the rise to prominence of the new CEO of Tata Group, Ratan Tata, and his attempts to strengthen the inter-relationships among the group companies at a time when critics... View Details
- November 1997 (Revised October 2000)
- Case
Interactive Minds (A)
By: William A. Sahlman, Michael J. Roberts and Christina L. Darwall
The efforts of two recent Harvard Business School graduates to start a venture capital/consulting firm focused on opportunities related to the Internet are recounted. Raises the question of what the nature of this opportunity is, how well-positioned the protagonists... View Details