Publications

March 1997 (Revised April 1998)
Case

Amazon.com (A)

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport

Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon.com, an Internet-based bookseller, has created one of the most successful ventures for electronic commerce on the Web. With revenue growing at a pace of 30% per month, Bezos attributes the success of Amazon.com to its value... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Retail Industry

July 1998 (Revised February 1999)
Case

Westport: Spearheading Malaysia's Economic Challenge (A)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Ambar Agustono Bin Machfoedy

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Competition; Malaysia

Find at Harvard

November 1989 (Revised April 2004)
Case

Du Pont's Titanium Dioxide Business (A)

This case series is a vehicle for examining the strategic logic and risks of preemption. Rewritten versions of earlier cases. View Details

Keywords: Competition; Supply and Industry; Product Marketing; Chemical Industry

02 Nov 2015
News

So how’s the American middle class, really?

Melvin H. Baker

With $100,000 in capital, Baker founded the National Gypsum Company with two colleagues in 1925. When he assumed the CEO position a few years later, he led his company from a newcomer in a highly competitive field, making one product in... View Details

Keywords: Construction & Real Estate

01 Mar 2003
News

Save the Dates

5, 2003 HBS Global Leadership Forumns “From the Commanding Heights to the Market: The Changing Face of Business” Shanghai, China June 17–20, 2003 “The Private Sector and the Public Interest” Washington, DC March 9–12, 2004 “Coming Together and Moving Apart: Convergence... View Details

Keywords: reunions; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

February 2005 (Revised June 2006)
Case

JCDecaux

By: John R. Wells and Vincent Dessain

Describes how JCDecaux, the second largest global outdoor advertising company, became the world leader in street furniture advertising in a fast consolidating business environment. Also explains why, in the late 1990s, JCDecaux diversified its activities into... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Global Strategy; Leadership Style; Family Ownership; Strategic Planning; Competitive Strategy; Diversification; Advertising Industry

December 2004 (Revised February 2006)
Case

Executive Decision Making at General Motors

By: David A. Garvin and Lynne Levesque

Describes the evolution of General Motors' strategy, organizational structure, and management processes from its founding to the present day. Focuses on the role of GM's management committee—the senior-decision-making body at the company, now called the Automotive... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Structure; Competitive Strategy; Decision Making; Management Teams; Auto Industry

October 2000 (Revised November 2005)
Case

Hilton HHonors Worldwide: Loyalty Wars

By: John A. Deighton and Stowe Shoemaker

Hilton Hotels regards the frequent guest program as the industry's most important marketing tool, directing marketing efforts at the heavy user. What is Hilton to do then, when a competitor ups the ante? This case illustrates the economics of frequency marketing in... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Brands and Branding; Competitive Strategy; Accommodations Industry

December 1998
Background Note

Retail Financial Services in 1998

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Takia Mahmood

Provides an overview of the current restructuring that is taking place in the retail financial services industry. Provides a brief overview of the structural changes in banking, brokerage, insurance, and mutual funds. Used as background for examining the strategies of... View Details

Keywords: Economic Sectors; Economy; Financial Institutions; Financial Markets; Industry Growth; Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry

December 2018
Case

Good Energy Group PLC

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

Founded at the end of 1999 by Juliet Davenport and Martin Edwards, Good Energy was the number-two renewable-energy seller in the United Kingdom at the end of 2016, supplying over 71,000 of the country’s 27 million households and small businesses with 100% renewable... View Details

Keywords: Power/Energy; Green Energy; Renewables; Wind Power; Electricity; Power; Strategy Development; Electric Vehicles; Customer Service; Energy Policy; Barriers To Entry; Renewable Energy; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Business and Government Relations; Problems and Challenges; Strategy; Energy Industry; United Kingdom

2011
Working Paper

Historical Trajectories and Corporate Competences in Wind Energy

By: Geoffrey Jones and Loubna Bouamane

This working paper surveys the business history of the global wind energy turbine industry between the late nineteenth century and the present day. It examines the long-term prominence of firms headquartered in Denmark, the more fluctuating role of U.S.-based firms,... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Renewable Energy; Competitive Advantage; Technology Adoption; Policy; Business and Government Relations; Energy Industry; United States; Denmark

Read Now

August 2010 (Revised August 2011)
Case

Developing an App for That

By: Hanna Halaburda, Joshua Gans and Nathaniel Burbank

At a time when ever-rising smartphone sales are driven as much by demand for devices that run must-have third-party "apps" as by the quality of traditional voice and data services, there is a myriad of challenges facing the software developer who is looking to choose... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Competitive Strategy; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Applications and Software; Digital Platforms; Banking Industry; Information Technology Industry

August 2010 (Revised October 2014)
Case

Herborist

By: John Deighton, Leora Kornfeld, Yanqun He and Qingyun Jiang

Global brands such as L'Oreal and Oil of Olay dominate China's skin care market. A Chinese domestic brand, after some success in partnership with Sephora in Europe, aspires to challenge the French and U.S. brands' hold on the China market. It must decide how to segment... View Details

Keywords: Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Product Marketing; Product Positioning; Demand and Consumers; Competitive Strategy; Segmentation; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; China

20 Jan 2016
Research & Ideas

Maybe Uber isn't God's Gift to Mankind

Whither Uber? Competitive Dynamics in Transportation Networks. “I’m trying to counterbalance the many papers that exult in how fabulous Uber is, and how it’s practically God’s gift to mankind,” Edelman says. Forthcoming in the journal... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Transportation; Insurance

01 Dec 2009
News

Online Entrepreneur

growth of social media as an important business tool, “Communispace offers the only social-networking model with a proven track record of providing real business value and competitive advantage to businesses.” The firm, based in... View Details

Keywords: awards; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; Information; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

01 Jun 2010
News

Entrepreneur-in-Residence

she spun off from Circles), a Boston-based media company whose leading brand, Suzanne’s Files, targets high-end consumers with travel and lifestyle content. A 2003 finalist for Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year competition and a... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

April 2018 (Revised November 2019)
Case

JD: Envisioning the Future of Retail (A)

By: Feng Zhu and Shirley Sun

JD, China’s second largest e-commerce company by gross merchandise volume (GMV) after Alibaba, had expanded rapidly from 2012 to 2016. When the company celebrated its 13th birthday in 2017, Richard Liu, its founder, deliberated on the company’s growth strategies. The... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; E-commerce; Retail Industry; China