Publications

2009
Chapter

The Decline and Renewal of British Multinational Banking.

By: G. Jones and Lucy Newton

This chapter discusses the renaissance of British multinational banking from the 1990s. British commercial banks had pioneered multinational banking during the 19th century, but they were unable to build on this legacy during the new wave of global banking that began... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Commercial Banking; International Finance; Multinational Firms and Management; Strategy; Banking Industry; Great Britain

Article

Health as a Way of Doing Business

By: Howard Koh, Sara J. Singer and Amy C. Edmondson

For too long, the worlds of business and health have been mired in a checkered, sometimes contentious, history. Millions of deaths worldwide can be attributed to risk factors including tobacco use, alcohol and drug misuse, and suboptimal dietary intake linked to... View Details

Keywords: Health; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Public Opinion

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07 Feb 2018
News

Julie Battilana says it’s time to understand how to maximize social value

November 2023
Case

Tata Group in 2021: Pursuing Profits through Purpose

By: Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu and Vidhya Muthuram

October 8, 2021: Tata Sons won a bid to acquire India’s national carrier Air India, marking the airline's return to its original owners after 68 long years. The winning bid of $2.4 billion gave Tata Sons full ownership of the airline and its coveted network of 6,200... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Mission and Purpose; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Emerging Markets; Mergers and Acquisitions; Ownership; Air Transportation; Air Transportation Industry; India

Kash Rangan is the Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing at the Harvard Business School. Formerly the chairman of the Marketing Department (1998-2002), he is now the co-chairman of the school's Social Enterprise Initiative. He has taught in a wide variety of MBA... View Details

Keywords: advertising; agribusiness; apparel; automobiles; computer; consumer products; e-commerce industry; high technology; industrial goods; marketing industry; pharmaceuticals

December 2013 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Beidahuang

By: Ray A. Goldberg and David Lane

Beidahuang is a major new Chinese player in global grain trading that in 2013 is seeking access to grain both to help assure China's food security and in pursuit of its own commercial goals. Focusing on potential trade in Brazilian soybeans, the case asks students to... View Details

Keywords: China; Brazil; International Trade; Grain; Soybeans; Agribusiness; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Globalized Markets and Industries; Cooperation; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; China; Brazil

September 2009
Case

ZINK Imaging: 'Zero Ink™'

By: William A. Sahlman and Sarah Flaherty

"ZINK Imaging" describes the issues confronting CEO Wendy Caswell as she uses a partnership model to commercialize ZINK's disruptive printing technology platform, ZINK Paper. The case focuses on the frameworks ZINK has used to decide which markets to target and which... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Capital; Disruptive Innovation; Technological Innovation; Marketing Strategy; Partners and Partnerships; Horizontal Integration; Technology Industry

2007
Chapter

Microfinance: Business, Profitability, and the Creation of Social Value

By: Michael Chu

The chapter examines the development of microfinance from its NGO origins to the present stage in which it is characterized by regulated commercial institutions capable of superior financial returns. It then looks at the creation of social value under these... View Details

Keywords: Microfinance; Investment Return; Profit; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Social Enterprise; Non-Governmental Organizations; Perspective; Value Creation

29 Aug 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Patent Trolls

Keywords: by Lauren Cohen, Umit G. Gurun & Scott Duke Kominers

August 2011 (Revised July 2012)
Case

Sealed Air Corporation: Deciding the Fate of VTID

By: Elie Ofek

In mid 2010 the Sealed Air Corporation has to decide on next steps for its novel video tracking technology (called VTID) after unsuccessful attempts to market it in three different industry settings. The company must determine whether its most recent target market, the... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Choices and Conditions; Technological Innovation; Marketing Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Commercialization; Service Industry

2019
Chapter

Merchants and the Origins of Capitalism

By: Sophus A. Reinert and Robert Fredona

N.S.B. Gras, the father of business history in the United States, argued that the era of mercantile capitalism was defined by the figure of the “sedentary merchant,” who managed his business from home, using correspondence and intermediaries, in contrast to the earlier... View Details

Keywords: Economic Systems; History; Business History

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June 2011 (Revised September 2011)
Case

Two Key Decisions for China's Sovereign Fund

By: Robert C. Pozen and Xiaoyu Gu

The China Investment Corporation (CIC) was China's sovereign wealth fund (SWF), established with $200 billion of registered capital in September 2007 to diversify China's foreign exchange holdings and increase risk-adjusted returns on those assets. CIC was unusual in... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Business Growth and Maturation; Decisions; Capital; Investment Banking; Investment Funds; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Ownership; Business and Shareholder Relations; Risk and Uncertainty; Wealth; Expansion; Financial Services Industry; China; United States

04 May 2009
Working Paper Summaries

An Ounce of Prevention: The Power of Public Risk Management in Stabilizing the Financial System

Keywords: by David A. Moss; Banking; Financial Services

15 Apr 2023
Conference Presentation

Autonomous Systems

By: Hise O. Gibson, Rob Wittman, Brandon Tseng, Nini Hamrick and Tim Booher

Autonomous systems have been on the front lines and front pages in the war in Ukraine, yet there are many unanswered questions regarding their future role and capabilities. Currently, these systems are employed in myriad use cases in logistics, intelligence, and... View Details

Keywords: War; Technology Adoption

June 1994 (Revised February 1999)
Case

Marcia Radosevich and Health Payment Review--1989 (A)

Martha Radosevich, president of Health Payment Review, a small software start-up, confronts a serious cash-flow problem: Health Payment Review has built a PC-based prototype but has run out of funds to build a commercially acceptable mainframe product. As a stop-gap... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Cash Flow; Entrepreneurship; Applications and Software; Sales; Information Technology Industry

March 2022
Article

Loan Types and the Bank Lending Channel

By: Victoria Ivashina, Luc Laeven and Enrique Moral-Benito

Using credit-registry data for Spain and Peru, we document that four main types of commercial credit—asset-based loans, cash flow loans, trade finance and leasing—are easily identifiable and represent the bulk of corporate credit. We show that credit growth dynamics... View Details

Keywords: Bank Credit; Loan Types; Bank Lending Channel; Credit Registry; Banks and Banking; Credit; Financing and Loans

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October 2005
Case

Kinko's

Over the decades, Kinko's had forged a deep emotional bond with consumers by easing their anxiety and helping them solve pressing document processing problems. By 2003, however, consumer research revealed that a confusing retail experience had eroded some of this good... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Customer Satisfaction; Service Industry