Publications

04 Sep 2012
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt: Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter

shoes. The consistent pattern of their careers—and there is a consistent pattern—will help answer our question about which individuals in history really did have an impact. It will help identify contemporary... View Details

Article

Build It, Buy It, or Both? Rethinking the Sourcing of Advertising Services

By: Alvin J. Silk and Marta M. Stiglin

This paper provides an update on the current state of in-house agencies. Whereas traditional consideration of internalizing advertising services was framed as a binary choice of build or buy, today's advertisers frequently pursue hybrid policies of build and buy to... View Details

Keywords: Operations; Advertising; Advertising Industry

February 2007 (Revised March 2012)
Compilation

John D. Rockefeller and the Creation of Standard Oil

By: Nancy F. Koehn and Katherine Miller

Reconstructs the entrepreneurial journey of John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil and one of the most famous business figures in history. Traces his early career as a retailer in Cleveland through his decision to enter the oil industry in the early 1860s to his... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Ethics; Business History; Innovation and Invention; Growth and Development Strategy; Personal Development and Career; Competitive Strategy; Energy Industry

13 Jun 2016
Lessons from the Classroom

That's Classic: Modern-Day Business Lessons from Ancient Rome

What can MBAs learn from the Roman emperors Tiberius and Claudius? All Roads Lead to Rome, a one-off elective course team-taught by HBS professor Frances Frei and Harvard history and classics professor Emma Dench, juxtaposed ancient texts... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

William C. Kirby

William C. Kirby is T. M. Chang Professor of China Studies at Harvard University and Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. He is a Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor. He serves as Chairman of the Harvard... View Details

Keywords: education industry; wine

2015
Working Paper

Build It, Buy It or Both? Rethinking the Sourcing of Advertising Services

By: Alvin J. Silk and Marta M. Stiglin

This paper provides an update on the current state of in-house agencies. Whereas traditional consideration of internalizing advertising services was framed as a binary choice of build or buy, today's advertisers frequently pursue hybrid policies of build and buy to... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Advertising

SSRN

11 Dec 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, December 11, 2018

paper highlights the benefits that rigorous use of oral history can offer to research on the contemporary business history of emerging markets. Oral View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

2005
Book

Multinationals and Global Capitalism: From the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century

By: Geoffrey Jones

This book provides an essential framework for understanding global business. It shows how entrepreneurs built a global economy in the nineteenth century by creating firms that pursued resources and markets across borders. It demonstrates how firms shifted strategies as... View Details

Keywords: Capitalism; Multinational Firms and Management; Globalization; History; Economy; Trade; Strategy

21 Jan 2016
Blog Post

HBS and the Arts

I am what you may consider an atypical candidate at HBS; I am an art history major in pursuit of an MBA, dedicated to a career path in the arts. My fascination with art stems from an experience I had in high school. I attended a... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit / Government; Entertainment / Media / Sports

May 2020
Article

Ancient Origins of the Global Variation in Economic Preferences

By: Anke Becker, Benjamin Enke and Armin Falk

This paper shows that contemporary population-level heterogeneity in risk aversion, time preference, altruism, positive reciprocity, negative reciprocity, and trust partly traces back to the structure of the migration patterns of our very early ancestors. To document... View Details

Keywords: Migration Patterns; Behavioral Economics; Preferences; Microeconomics; Demography; Decision Making; Risk and Uncertainty; History; Global Range

Register to Read

28 Jan 2014
First Look

First Look: January 28

people to buy forecasts? Does the act of forecasting set in motion unforeseen events that can counteract the forecast made? Publisher's link: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10057.html August 2013 Edward Elgar Publishing Business View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

14 Aug 2017
News

Leaders Born in Darkness

07 Dec 1999
Research & Ideas

Henry Heinz and Brand Creation in the Late Nineteenth Century

demand for pure, savory condiments and sauces was enormous. In thinking through the possible appeal of his offerings, Heinz had no quantitative information on contemporary purchasing power. He did not know in the 1870s that real per... View Details

Keywords: by Nancy F. Koehn

2008
Chapter

Management Accounting in India

This chapter surveys the history, evolution, and current status of accounting systems and practices in India. Tracing the roots of Indian accounting systems to the ancient civilization of the Indus Valley, we discuss the accounting contributions of historical writings... View Details

Keywords: History; Accounting; India

2018
Introduction

Introduction

By: Sophus A. Reinert

BOOK ABSTRACT: When Istvan Hont died in 2013, the world lost a giant of intellectual history. A leader of the Cambridge School of Political Thought, Hont argued passionately for a global-historical approach to political ideas. To better understand the development of... View Details

Keywords: Markets; Moral Sensibility; Government and Politics; Trade; History

2022
Book

Making Meritocracy: Lessons from China and India, from Antiquity to the Present

By: Tarun Khanna and Michael Szonyi

How do societies identify and promote merit? Enabling all people to fulfill their potential, and ensuring the selection of competent and capable leaders are central challenges for any society. These are not new concerns. Scholars, educators, and political and economic... View Details

Keywords: Merit; Meritocracy; Society; Government and Politics; History; Power and Influence; Leadership; Competency and Skills; China; India

2019
Chapter

International Business and Emerging Markets in Historical Perspective

By: Geoffrey Jones

This chapter examines international business in emerging markets over the long run. It shows how the strategies of Western multinationals evolved over time. In the first era of globalization in the 19th century, Western firms sought access to resources, and they faced... View Details

Keywords: Emerging Markets; Business History; Multinational Firms and Management; Globalization

2023
Working Paper

LALIGA—From a Soccer Competition Organizer to a Global Player in the Sports and Entertainment Industry

By: Stephen A. Greyser, Kenneth Cortsen and Juan Fuentes Fernández

LALIGA, the first- and second-tier professional soccer league (known as “football” outside of the U.S. and Canada) in Spain, enters its 100th soccer season later this decade. The most popular game in the world (Giulianotti, 2012) has gone through many changes since... View Details

Keywords: Soccer; ＂Sports Organizations,; Business History; Strategy; Brands and Branding; Technology Adoption; Sports Industry

Article

Beacon and Warning: Sherman Kent, Scientific Hubris, and the CIA's Office of National Estimates

By: J. Peter Scoblic

Would-be forecasters have increasingly extolled the predictive potential of Big Data and artificial intelligence. This essay reviews the career of Sherman Kent, the Yale historian who directed the CIA’s Office of National Estimates from 1952 to 1967, with an eye toward... View Details

Keywords: National Security; Analytics and Data Science; Analysis; Forecasting and Prediction; History