Publications

Article

Should Business Have Human Rights Obligations?

By: Nien-he Hsieh

Businesses and their managers are increasingly called upon to take on human rights obligations. Focusing on the case of multinational enterprises (MNEs), the paper argues we have reason to reject assigning human rights obligations to business enterprises and their... View Details

Keywords: Human Rights; Ruggie Principles; Corporate Responsibility; Multinationals; Rights; Multinational Firms and Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

June 2014 (Revised May 2017)
Case

Southeastern Asset Management Challenges Buyout at Dell

By: Paul Healy, Suraj Srinivasan and Aldo Sesia

In late 2012, Michael Dell wants to take Dell Inc., the company he founded, private. Mr. Dell believes that the successful company's transformation from a personal computer (PC) manufacturer to an enterprise solutions and services provider (ESS) is dependent on going... View Details

Educators

April 2014
Supplement

Managing Change at Axis Bank (B)

By: Paul Healy and Rachna Tahilyani

Axis Bank is India's third largest private sector bank. In April 2009, Shikha Sharma, an outsider was appointed as its CEO. She took over from a person who had overseen ten years of rapid growth at the bank. The selection of an outsider as the new CEO surprised many... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Transformation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Valuation; Finance; Banks and Banking; Financial Services Industry; Banking Industry; India

2013
Tool

Harvard Business Review's Go to Market Tools: Customer Lifetime Value

By: Thomas Steenburgh and Jill Avery

How much are your customers worth? Has your marketing budget been slashed? Need to figure out the best place to invest your time and effort to reach your growth target? HBR's Go to Market Tool helps calculate your customer's lifetime value, allowing you to prioritize... View Details

Keywords: Quantitative Analysis; Tools; Customer Lifetime Value; Customer Defection; CRM; Customer Relationship Management; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships

2012
Book

The Oxford Handbook of Business and the Natural Environment

By: Pratima Bansal and Andrew J. Hoffman

Environmental issues now loom large on the social, political, and business agenda. Over the past four decades, "corporate environmentalism" has emerged and been constantly redefined, from regulatory compliance to more recent management conceptions such as pollution... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Business Strategy; Policy; Governance Compliance

Research Summary

Business Leaders and the Social Sector

By: James E. Austin

This research involed a multifaceted, multi-year study of corporate and business leader involvement in the social sector. This examined: the extent and nature of, and motivation for, Harvard Business School graduates' involvement with nonprofit and social-sector ... View Details

2001
Book

Foreign Multinationals in the United States: Management and Performance

By: Geoffrey Jones and Lina Galvez-Munoz

In this volume, leading scholars in international business and business history examine the investments and performance of British, Canadian, French, German, Spanish and Japanese firms in the United States over time. They explore why so many foreign firms experience... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Multinational Firms and Management; Books; Management; Performance; Perspective; United States

10 Jan 2008
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Operations Management

Sharpening Your Skills dives into the HBS Working Knowledge archives to bring together articles on ways to improve your business skills. Questions to be answered: Can "lean" productions methods improve service industries? How can a... View Details

2021
Book

Harvard Business Review Family Business Handbook: How to Build and Sustain a Successful, Enduring Enterprise

By: Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer

Navigate the complex decisions and critical relationships necessary to create and sustain a healthy family business--and business family. Though "family business" may sound like it refers only to mom-and-pop shops, businesses owned by families are among the most... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Entrepreneurship; Family and Family Relationships; Outcome or Result; Business Model; Conflict and Resolution; Organizational Culture

01 Jun 2022
What Do You Think?

Is Stakeholder Management Facing New Headwinds?

influence on the decision. That’s all well and good—until factors like cultural issues and employee power begin to creep into the picture. For example, the state has had power but only now seems to be exhibiting higher levels of interest in View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

04 Jun 2012
Research & Ideas

The Business of Life

unusual application of an economic term delighted Christensen, a management professor known around HBS and the globe as both a brilliant business thinker and a deeply religious man. For more than a decade he... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

May 1988
Article

Management Dilemmas in Securities Firms

By: Robert G. Eccles Jr. and Dwight B. Crane

Keywords: Problems and Challenges; Management; Business Ventures; Financial Instruments; Financial Services Industry

Research Summary

The role of the manager in cross-sector interactions

My second stream of research takes the individual manager as the unit of analysis in examining cross-sector interactions. Two papers explore processes and mechanisms that allow managers to cross sectoral boundaries more effectively.

The first paper... View Details

15 Oct 2007
Research & Ideas

Businesses Beware: The World Is Not Flat

expansion," Ghemawat argues. While identifying similarities from one place to the next is essential, effective cross-border strategies will take careful stock of differences as well. An expert on global strategy, Ghemawat lays out an action plan for View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

2008
Working Paper

An Investigation of Earnings Management through Marketing Actions

By: Craig James Chapman and Thomas J. Steenburgh

Prior research hypothesizes managers use "real actions," including the reduction of discretionary expenditures, to manage earnings to meet or beat key benchmarks. This paper examines this hypothesis by testing how different types of marketing expenditures are used... View Details

Keywords: Performance Expectations; Earnings Management; Marketing Strategy; Financial Reporting; Brands and Branding; Food and Beverage Industry

SSRN

Read Now

January 2006 (Revised December 2006)
Case

Wal-Mart's Business Environment

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee

In 2004, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. proposed to build a new supercenter in Inglewood, a low-income community near Los Angeles. The proposal was a part of Wal-Mart's strategy to bring its supercenter format to California. Introduced in the late 1980s, supercenters added a... View Details

Keywords: Goals and Objectives; Expansion; Market Entry and Exit; Corporate Strategy; Labor Unions; Conflict and Resolution; Retail Industry; Los Angeles

Educators

23 Sep 2022
Research & Ideas

8 Strategies to Sustain Business Innovation

Sooner or later, every company runs into challenges that force them to make tough trade-offs during the innovation process. Harvard Business School associate professor Rory McDonald calls these moments “tensions.” The streaming service... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

2007
Casebook

Managing School Districts for High Performance: Cases in Public Education Leadership

By: Stacey Childress, Richard F. Elmore, Allen S. Grossman and Susan Moore Johnson

Managing School Districts for High Performance brings together more than twenty case studies and other readings that offer a powerful and transformative approach to advancing and sustaining the work of school improvement. At the center of this work is the... View Details

Keywords: Management; Strategy; Leadership; Public Sector; Organizational Design; Education; Performance Improvement