Publications

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June 2003 (Revised August 2003)
Case

Pension Policy at The Boots Company PLC

By: Luis M. Viceira and Akiko M. Mitsui

In early 2000, the trustees of the pension scheme at Boots considered a proposal to move 100% of the pension assets into a bond portfolio, which would be passively managed. The Boots Co. PLC was a leading retailer of cosmetics and toiletries in the United Kingdom, and... View Details

Keywords: Performance Productivity; Employees; Asset Management; Capital Structure; Investment Portfolio; Consumer Products Industry; United Kingdom

Program

Leading Global Businesses

global competitive advantage for your company, continue developing your own global leadership, and build global leadership capacity throughout your organization. Details Design sound global strategies and build strong global organizations View Details

Program

Managing Innovation

explore the prototyping and experimentation practices of the world's top innovators, you will lay the foundation for transforming your business and sustaining growth through innovation the moment you return to work. Details Align plans... View Details

14 Dec 2021
Op-Ed

To Change Your Company's Culture, Don't Start by Trying to Change the Culture

organization) and transparent (nothing is hidden—neither the process nor what senior management learned and plans to change). Forlenza says the SFP he led at Becton Dickinson in 2010: Encouraged open communication as employees provided feedback and suggestions. View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer

Web

Value-Based Health Care - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

Measure Outcomes & Cost for Every Patient Outcomes and cost are measured for every patient. Aligning Reimbursement with Value Reimbursement models that reward both better outcomes and efficiency of care, such as bundled payments. Systems... View Details

Program

Transforming Customer Experiences

approach to service design, execution, and transformation, this customer experience management program prepares you to create an exceptional service culture that supports employees, delights customers, and drives organizational performance. You will return with the... View Details

Research Summary

Knowledge flows and capability acquisition

By: Willy C. Shih

Technological advancements are a major source of improvement in competiveness, and a firm’s incentives to invest are diminished when the knowledge generated is involuntarily dispersed to competitors. While intellectual property rights can moderate this flow to the... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Aspects Of Strategy; Knowledge Management; Knowledge Spillovers; Knowledge Acquisition; Manufacturing Industry; Biotechnology Industry; Technology Industry; United States; China

February 2025
Case

Luca de Meo at Renault Group (A)

By: Emily Truelove, Linda A. Hill and Lydia Begag

When Luca de Meo became CEO of Renault Group in 2020, the 122-year-old French automaker faced financial challenges and the double technological disruption of the automotive industry: the shift to electric vehicles (EVs) and the rise of software-defined vehicles (SDVs).... View Details

July 2024
Article

The Home State Effect: How Subnational Governments Shape Climate Coalitions

By: Jonas Meckling and Samuel Trachtman

Organized business interests often seek to block public interest regulations. But whether firms oppose regulation depends on institutional context. We argue that, in federal systems, sub-national policies and politics can have a home state effect on firms' national... View Details

Keywords: Local Range; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business and Government Relations

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2023
Working Paper

The Politics of Philanthropy in China

By: Geoffrey Jones and Yuhai Wu

This working paper looks historically at business philanthropy in China. In the West, the literature has distinguished between entrepreneurial and customary philanthropy, while the phenomenon of spiritual philanthropy has been identified in many emerging markets. This... View Details

Keywords: China; Philanthropy; Ethics; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Moral Sensibility; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Economic Systems; Economic Sectors; China

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November 2012
Case

CSIRO: The Light Metals Flagship Decision

By: Willy Shih, Margaret P. Pierson and Dawn Lau

This case explores the challenge of investing in basic research as a public good. CSIRO was Australia's leading science and research agency, and it was chartered to enhance national prosperity through R&D. Its Flagships program was designed to align research interests... View Details

October 2012
Article

Securitization without Adverse Selection: The Case of CLOs

By: Effi Benmelech, Jennifer Dlugosz and Victoria Ivashina

In this paper, we investigate whether securitization was associated with risky lending in the corporate loan market by examining the performance of individual loans held by CLOs. We employ two different datasets that identify loan holdings for a large set of CLOs and... View Details

Keywords: Personal Finance; Performance; Markets; Banks and Banking; Debt Securities; Investment Portfolio; Financing and Loans

October 1993 (Revised December 1997)
Case

General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A)

William Anders became CEO of defense giant General Dynamics in 1991 as the Cold War was ending and as the industry became saddled with excess capacity. Observing that the company was underserving shareholders and required a massive change in its culture, Anders brought... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Corporate Strategy; Executive Compensation; Manufacturing Industry; United States

09 May 2024
Research & Ideas

Called Back to the Office? How You Benefit from Ideas You Didn't Know You Were Missing

far-flung connections offsite workers might not even know they’re missing. When a person’s sphere shrinks As a highly interdisciplinary researcher, Duede says he almost immediately felt his sphere of intellectual interactions narrow amid lockdowns, as teams formed... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

17 Oct 2023
HBS Case

With Subscription Fatigue Setting In, Companies Need to Think Hard About Fees

different combinations of product features, usage levels, and number of users. “Subscription models that have been successful are ones that build tiers that align well with the needs and preferences of different customer segments,” Ofek... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald; Consumer Products; Information; Information Technology

03 Sep 2013
First Look

First Look: September 3

actions. We investigate a core premise of the institutional logics perspective, that of the alignment of institutional logics and organizational practices and design, in the organizational adoption of CSR practices. We hypothesize that,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 2006
Case

Adrian Ivinson at the Harvard Center for Neurodegeneration and Repair

By: Robert Steven Kaplan and Ayesha Kanji

Adrian Ivinson is the director of Harvard Center for Neurodegeneration and Repair (HCNR), a not-for-profit research center at the Harvard Medical School (HMS). The center was started in late 2000 with a gift of $37.5 million from an anonymous donor. Its mandate was to... View Details

Keywords: Leadership Style; Power and Influence; Organizational Culture; Research and Development; Nonprofit Organizations; Motivation and Incentives; Change Management; Alignment; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Health Industry; Massachusetts

26 Apr 2023
In Practice

Is AI Coming for Your Job?

time to focus on building relationships, managing, and selling. Software engineers can use services to autogenerate programming code for basic purposes, allowing them to write code more efficiently while spending more time on other activities, like system design and... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Technology

May 2025 (Revised June 2025)
Supplement

Michael Ku and Global Clinical Supply at Pfizer Inc.: Bringing Hope to Patients (D)

By: Linda A. Hill and Lydia Begag

This fourth installment in the Pfizer Global Clinical Supply (GCS) transformation case series highlights how over a decade of cultural and digital evolution positioned GCS to meet unprecedented global challenges. In 2011, Michael Ku became the Vice President of GCS and... View Details