Publications
Publications
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(3,607)
- Faculty Publications (615)
- 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
- September 1997 (Revised October 1997)
- Case
French Pension System, The: On the Verge of Retirement?
By: David A. Moss, Anne Dias and Bertrand O. Stephann
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
- June 1997 (Revised May 1998)
- Case
Mobil USM&R (A1)
By: Robert S. Kaplan
First of a two-part case on the development and use of a Balanced Scorecard (BSC) at Mobil's US Marketing and Refining Division. Split from the original (A) case to give students an opportunity to suggest objectives and measures for the division's initial BSC, without... View Details
- April 1997 (Revised May 1997)
- Case
Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (A): The Growth Initiative
By: Dorothy A. Leonard and Carin-Isabel Knoop
In late 1994, James Down, member of Mercer's Executive Committee, has to decide whether or not he should push ahead with the writing and publication of a book on growth--at a time when the more successful business publications focus on reengineering and cost cutting.... View Details
- November 1996 (Revised February 1997)
- Case
Farmington Fresh: Growers Changing Produce Distribution
By: Ray A. Goldberg and Don Daniels
Opening up of Asian markets for U.S. produce provided an opportunity for large-scale producers to develop their own packing house and airline to ship their product to Asian markets. Teaching Purpose: How do farmers take a proactive strategy in reaching global produce... View Details
- August 1996
- Case
ThermoLase
By: William A. Sahlman and Andrew S. Janower
John Hansen, CEO of ThermoLase, must develop a plan of action to exploit the company's new development-stage revolutionary hair removal technology with negligible revenues and a $500 million market capitalization. This nascent public Thermo Electron spin out company... View Details
- August 1996 (Revised October 2003)
- Case
NutraSweet in China (A)
By: Michael Y. Yoshino and Carin-Isabel Knoop
Eve Stacey, a recent Harvard MBA, has the challenging task of evaluating the market opportunity for NutraSweet in China. She must decide how best to develop the market for the product in China. May be used with NutraSweet in China (B). View Details
- July 1996
- Case
Bayside Controls, Inc.
By: H. Kent Bowen, Jennifer Kochman and Sylvie Ryckebusch
Two recent MBA graduates acquire a small and ailing metal-machining company that had manufactured small aerospace components. Through clever application of state-of-the-art manufacturing, engineering, and marketing/sales concepts, they turned the company into a growing... View Details
- June 1996 (Revised January 1999)
- Case
XcelleNet, Inc. (A)
By: Stephen P. Bradley, Richard L. Nolan and James Leonard
XcelleNet, a $35 million system software company based in Atlanta, was founded in 1986 to address the computing needs of a class of remote and mobile users and data that were rarely connected to a network. Though the clear first mover and leader in the remote... View Details
- May 1996 (Revised March 1998)
- Case
SaleSoft, Inc. (A)
By: Das Narayandas
SaleSoft, a start-up firm, markets Comprehensive Sales Automation Solutions (CSAS) that automate a firm's sales, marketing, and service functions. Even though the product has received very favorable responses from prospects, product complexity and a long buying cycle... View Details
- March 1996 (Revised November 1996)
- Case
Supermarkets in Inner Cities
By: James E. Austin and Jaan Elias
Excerpts from five articles that present the challenges and opportunities inherent in opening and operating supermarkets in inner-city neighborhoods. View Details
- November 1995 (Revised November 1999)
- Case
National Power and the Privatization of the British Power Generation Industry
By: Willis M. Emmons III and Ed Simnett
The British government privatized the nation's electric utility sector in 1991 through a complex process involving the restructuring of the industry as well as the creation of a new regulatory oversight body. National Power plc, the largest of the privatized power... View Details