Publications

12 Oct 2022
Research & Ideas

When Design Enables Discrimination: Learning from Anti-Asian Bias on Airbnb

the platform,” he says. “More than surprised, I was saddened by it.” Companies can prevent bias This is not the first time Luca’s research has looked at Airbnb’s platform design. In 2014, Luca’s research... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds; Technology; Travel

03 Nov 2011
News

Oversight Of Brokers Scrutinized

December 2001
Case

Qwest Communications International Inc.

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Christopher Hackett

Describes the evolution of Qwest from a small fiber-optic construction firm in 1996 to a global telecommunications giant in 2001. Focuses on Qwest's pivotal acquisition of "Baby Bell" US West, a regional Bell operating company many times Qwest's size. Discusses the... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Asset Pricing; Business History; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Organizational Culture; Partners and Partnerships; Vertical Integration; Telecommunications Industry

15 Nov 2021
News

Putting Your Corporate Purpose to Work

May 1999 (Revised August 1999)
Case

Victory Supermarkets: Expansion Strategy?

By: David E. Bell and Ann Leamon

Jay DiGeronimo, president of a 16-store supermarket chain, is trying to decide the timing and method for expanding his chain. The family-owned company could continue in a maintenance mode, with each family member running one store. It could expand slowly using a new... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Cost vs Benefits; Trade; Investment; Market Entry and Exit; Supply Chain Management; Private Ownership; Competition; Expansion; Retail Industry

Find at Harvard

11 Dec 2023
Research & Ideas

Doing Well by Doing Good? One Industry’s Struggle to Balance Values and Profits

mostly fallow for a few decades: the role of morals in careers. Once a major area of research in the 1950s and 1960s, it has “receded in focus” since then, the authors note, even as these issues have arguably become even more relevant in a View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis

April 1995 (Revised September 1997)
Case

Frito-Lay, Inc.: A Strategic Transition, 1987-1992 (Abridged)

By: Lynda M. Applegate

A new CEO must take action to return the company to profitability, to clarify the vision, and then to build the infrastructure (human, capital, and information) needed to support the long-term change in strategy and organization. The case provides a rich description of... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Leading Change; Information Technology; Adaptation; Technology Adoption; Manufacturing Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

October 1989 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Texas Eastman Co.

By: Robert S. Kaplan

The company as part of a commitment to Total Quality Management has installed a computer system that accumulates 30,000 observations on its processes every 2-4 hours. Operating people have found the monthly summaries of financial performance not too useful in this... View Details

Keywords: Quality; Information Technology; Reports; Business or Company Management

November 1993 (Revised March 1994)
Case

Sierra On-Line (B): An Analyst's Perspective

David Farina, an analyst for William Blair and Co., has just completed a draft of a research report on Sierra On-Line, a fast growing software developer. Sierra is a tough company to analyze, and David is pondering whether to modify this draft or submit it for... View Details

Keywords: Analysis; Software; Entrepreneurship; Finance; Financial Services Industry

26 Aug 2019
Research & Ideas

Lipstick Tips: How Influencers Are Making Over Beauty Marketing

shift is challenging for many longtime players in the beauty market, prompting some legacy companies to trade vamping models for online tutorials featuring more “regular people” as they struggle to play catchup with cutting-edge brands... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Consumer Products; Beauty & Cosmetics

Summer R. Jackson

Summer Jackson is an Assistant Professor of Management in the Organizational Behavior unit at Harvard Business School. She teaches LEAD in the MBA required curriculum.

Professor Jackson is an organizational ethnographer and field researcher... View Details

17 Oct 2022
Research & Ideas

Why Quiet Quitters Need More Than Money to Re-Engage

micro level, the authors argue. On the macro level, companies need to send employees the message that they are valuable by retaining them, rather than resorting to layoffs when times get tough. For instance,... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

November 2022
Case

GE: A New Way Forward?

By: David J. Collis and Haisley Wert

One of the most iconic American companies, General Electric (GE) was founded in 1892 in New York state. Named among the original dozen companies on the Dow Jones index in 1896, it was the list’s most tenacious holdout, maintaining its “blue chip” stock status for over... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; GE; Conglomerate; Conglomerates; Corporate Strategy; Management; History; Leadership; Problems and Challenges; Change Management; Transformation; Strategic Planning; Value Creation; New York (state, US)

22 Aug 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Investors as Stewards of the Commons?

Keywords: by George Serafeim

February 2016 (Revised September 2017)
Case

Neurotrack and the Alzheimer's Puzzle

By: Richard G. Hamermesh, Liz Kind and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Elli Kaplan founded Neurotrack in 2012 with a breakthrough noninvasive cognitive diagnostics test that will detect Alzheimer's disease in its earliest pre-symptomatic stages. While the company has gained great traction in the three years since it was started, with no... View Details

Keywords: Alzheimer's Disease; Diagnostics; Healthcare; Entrepreneurship; Health Disorders; Science-Based Business; Business Model; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; United States

January 2009 (Revised February 2010)
Case

Gucci Group in 2009

By: David B. Yoffie and Renee Kim

The Gucci Group had transformed itself into the world's third largest luxury retailer with multiple brands. The company had performed well even after the departure of star designer Tom Ford and former CEO Domenico De Sole. However, the challenging global economic times... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Brands and Branding; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Luxury; Corporate Strategy; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail Industry