Publications

23 May 2000
Research & Ideas

Minding the Muse: The Impact of Downsizing on Corporate Creativity

Not long ago, the senior management of a leading high-tech company was surprised to learn that research showed their R&D groups' creative performance to be in a prolonged slump following a corporate downsizing. The company's executives fretted that many of the new... View Details

Keywords: by Peter K. Jacobs

15 Mar 2022
Research & Ideas

This Workplace Certification Made Already Safe Companies Even Safer

States cost companies an estimated $171 billion in wage and productivity losses in 2019, according to the National Safety Council. By 2018, more than 90,000 organizations across 127 countries had adopted OHSAS 18001. The similar ISO 45001... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

01 Mar 2024
News

The Internet's Next Frontier

While the Crypto, Fintech, and Web3 Lab—one of 13 labs contained within Harvard’s Digital Data Design Institute—might not have the Bunsen burners and test tubes found in science and engineering labs, it does share a philosophical... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Gillespie

August 1988 (Revised February 1992)
Case

Norton Group PLC: To Be or Not to Be in the Motorcycle Business (A)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Jon Skofic

Norton, a once famous motorcycle manufacturer, soundly beaten by Japanese competition, turns its attention to developing rotary engines. The company is acquired by Norton Group PLC, which is headed by a dashing entrepreneur. The new management must decide what... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Decision Choices and Conditions; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Human Resources; Crisis Management; Resource Allocation; Production; Competition; Auto Industry; Motorcycle Industry; Japan; United Kingdom

02 Jul 2013
First Look

First Look: July 2

mitigation policies within its supply chain and in government policy. Publisher's link: http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/caesars-entertainment-betting-on-sustainability/ Working Papers Market Reallocation and Knowledge Spillover: The... View Details

Keywords: Anna Secino

24 Feb 2020
Research & Ideas

The Hidden Vulnerabilities of Open Source Software

detection.” Individual accounts are also more vulnerable to being taken over by hackers. Legacy code. In some cases, outdated legacy code remains in production even though improved code has been introduced. This can happen when the newer... View Details

Keywords: by Frank Nagle and Jenny Hoffman; Computer

Web

William R. Kerr | About

The Managing the Future of Work project considers the unprecedented set of challenges and opportunities presented to businesses, including rapid technological revolutions, shifting global product and labor markets, aging workforces, and... View Details

March 2007 (Revised August 2009)
Case

Aurolab: Bringing First-World Technology to the Third-World Blind

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

Aurolab is the in-house producer of IOLs (required in cataract surgery) for the Aravind Eye Care System, a group of charity hospitals with the largest volume of eye surgery in the world. Aurolab's manufacturing capability and capacity had long exceeded the requirements... View Details

Keywords: Emerging Markets; Production; Mission and Purpose; Performance Capacity; Nonprofit Organizations; Corporate Strategy; India

April 2014
Case

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc.: Taking on Seasonal Starvation in Latin America

By: Christopher Marquis and Zoe Yang

A company with a strong commitment toward corporate social responsibility since its founding days, Green Mountain faced an ethical decision point in 2007 as new information from the field uncovered a chronic dire problem facing coffee communities—seasonal starvation.... View Details

Keywords: Fair Trade; Coffee; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Latin America; Central America; Mexico; Guatemala; Nicaragua

19 Oct 2021
Research & Ideas

Fed Up Workers and Supply Woes: What's Next for Dollar Stores?

School, is an expert on global supply chain and co-wrote an HBS case study, revised in 2019, on Dollar General, one of the largest dollar store operators, shortly before it was acquired by New York investment firm KKR. Shih discusses the... View Details

Keywords: by Christine Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette; Retail

Article

Beyond the Reach of the Invisible Hand: Impediments to Economic Activity, Market Failures, and Profitability

By: Dennis Yao

In this paper it is argued that failures of the competitive market are necessary conditions for supranormal profitability. Three fundamental causes of these market failures-production economies and sunk costs, transactions costs, and imperfect information-are developed... View Details

Keywords: Economics; Markets; Failure; Profit; Cost; Information; Market Transactions; Competition; Strategy; Production

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April 2001 (Revised July 2001)
Case

Verge Software (A)

By: Dorothy A. Leonard and Elizabeth Kind

Scott Rozic, CEO of start-up Verge Software, has just told his board that he is taking the company in a totally new direction, moving from enterprise knowledge management software to Internet direct marketing. This case covers the start-up of the business, and Rozic's... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Investment; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business or Company Management; Business Strategy; Technological Innovation; Applications and Software; Management Teams; Governing and Advisory Boards; Business Startups; Decision Choices and Conditions; Product Development; Information Technology Industry; United States

20 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

Getting the Marketing Mix Right

products within a particular category. If a business seeks to grow demand for a category of products, the effort may not elicit much of a reaction from its competitors; after all, if the entire category... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

28 Aug 2012
First Look

First Look: August 28

intervals within which foreign firms hold this technology advantage. Further, domestic firms are shown to conditionally offshore production despite the implementation of a carbon tariff, adopting cleaner technology when they do so. As a... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2024
Case

Eat App: Building and Monetizing an End-to-End Dining Experience Solution

By: Elie Ofek and Ahmed Dahawy

Founded in 2015 in Bahrain, Eat App was an up-and-coming player in the global restaurant management software business. In early 2024, having shifted to a product-led growth strategy, the company’s co-founders faced a host of decisions that could greatly impact their... View Details

Keywords: Price; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Marketing; Negotiation Deal; Internet and the Web; Value Creation; Profit; Revenue; Applications and Software; Product; Food and Beverage Industry; Technology Industry; Bahrain; United Arab Emirates; Abu Dhabi; Dubai

Web

Frequently Asked Questions - Creating Emerging Markets

in the country in question that the interviewee has made a long-run institutional contribution with his or her organization to that society. Why are some countries chosen for interviews and not others? It is logistically challenging to... View Details

2012
Chapter

The Relational Roles of Brands

By: Jill Avery

In contemporary culture, brands play important relational roles, linking consumers to others and serving as relational partners. This chapter provides an understanding of the relational roles of brands to illuminate why and how consumers connect with brands and how... View Details

Keywords: Brands; Brand Management; Brand Equity; Brand Building; Customer Relationship Management; CRM; Customers; Customer Focus and Relationships; Brands and Branding; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Products Industry

March 2003 (Revised September 2004)
Case

Worker Rights and Global Trade: The U.S.-Cambodia Bilateral Textile Trade Agreement

Examines the political and economic dimensions of the campaign to improve workers' rights around the world through the inclusion of labor standards in international trade agreements. The U.S.-Cambodia Textile Trade Agreement was the first agreement of its kind to link... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Agreements and Arrangements; Rights; Working Conditions; Globalization; Consumer Products Industry; Cambodia; United States

2003
Case

Corning Microarray Technologies

By: Vijay Govindarajan, Chris Trimble and Gautam Bellur

In mid-2000, the scientific community reached a momentous milestone—the complete mapping of the human genome. Researchers in the field of genomics were anxious to dig into a tremendous array of newly possible scientific inquiries, and needed efficient experimental... View Details

Keywords: Expansion; Genetics; Industrial Products Industry; Industrial Products Industry