Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(1,289)
- Faculty Publications (219)
- April 2020 (Revised April 2023)
- Case
TransDigm in 2017: The Beginning of the End or the End of the Beginning?
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher
TransDigm was a highly acquisitive company that manufactured a wide range of highly engineered aerospace parts for both military and commercial customers. Over the ten years ending in 2016, its stock price had increased ten times, and both EBITDA and revenues had grown... View Details
Keywords: Value Capturing; Pricing Strategy; Supplier Power; Buyer Power; Porter's Five Forces; Bargaining Power; Aerospace; Acquisition Strategy; Value Drivers; Ethical Behavior; Regulation; Growth Strategy; Business Ethics; Defense; Procurement; Sustainability; Value-Based Business Strategy; Acquisition; Ethics; Private Equity; Financial Strategy; Growth Management; Performance Evaluation; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Horizontal Integration; Value Creation; Competitive Advantage; Monopoly; Aerospace Industry; Air Transportation Industry; United States
- April 2020
- Case
Ment.io: Knowledge Analytics for Team Decision Making
By: Yael Grushka-Cockayne, Jeffrey T. Polzer, Susie L. Ma and Shlomi Pasternak
Ment.io was a software platform that used proprietary data analytics technology to help organizations make informed and transparent decisions based on team input. Ment was born out of founder Joab Rosenberg’s frustration that, while organizations collected ever... View Details
Keywords: Decision Making; Information Technology; Knowledge; Knowledge Acquisition; Knowledge Management; Operations; Information Management; Product; Product Development; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Communications Industry; Information Industry; Information Technology Industry; Web Services Industry; Middle East; Israel
- February 2020 (Revised March 2020)
- Case
Managing Blackout at Aluminum Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba) (A)
By: Joseph B. Fuller, Gamze Yücaoğlu and Youssef Abdel Aal
The case opens in 2017 as Tim Murray, CEO of Aluminum Bahrain (Alba), the largest single-site aluminum smelter in the world outside China and a major contributor to the Bahraini economy, was contemplating the recovery options as the company was facing the most severe... View Details
- February 2020
- Supplement
Managing Blackout at Aluminum Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba) (B)
By: Joseph B. Fuller, Gamze Yücaoğlu and Youssef Abdel Aal
The case opens in 2017 as Tim Murray, CEO of Aluminum Bahrain (Alba), the largest single-site aluminum smelter in the world outside China and a major contributor to the Bahraini economy, was contemplating the recovery options as the company was facing the most severe... View Details
- February 2020
- Case
Drift: The First Sales Hire
By: Mark Roberge
David Cancel and Elias Torres, the co-founders of Drift, scaled their business to thousands of users and hundreds of thousands in revenue. However, they were falling short of the annual revenue target they communicated to the board of directors. Having scaled the... View Details
- January 2020
- Teaching Note
Chile: Unrest in the Copper Nation
By: Laura Alfaro and Sarah Jeong
For decades, Chile enjoyed the stability of being the world’s largest producer of copper. Keynes would have advised that this period of growth would have been the time for the government to save, that “the boom, not the slump, is the right time for austerity at the... View Details
- November 2019
- Case
Chile: Unrest in the Copper Nation
By: Laura Alfaro and Sarah Jeong
For decades, Chile was heralded as South America’s pillar of stable economic growth. Chile was the world’s largest producer of copper and enjoyed a long period of over 30 years of world demand for its resources. In 2013, the commodity boom ended and was replaced by a... View Details
- 2020
- Working Paper
Engineering Serendipity: When Does Knowledge Sharing Lead to Knowledge Production?
By: Jacqueline N. Lane, Ina Ganguli, Patrick Gaule, Eva C. Guinan and Karim R. Lakhani
We investigate how knowledge similarity between two individuals is systematically related to the likelihood that a serendipitous encounter results in knowledge production. We conduct a natural field experiment at a medical research symposium, where we exogenously... View Details
- October 2019 (Revised June 2020)
- Supplement
Airbus vs. Boeing (G): New Planes and Upgrades (2011)
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Karen Elterman
This case describes the first commercial flight of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner in 2011, three years after originally planned, as well as the first commercial flight of Airbus' superjumbo, the A380, in 2007. It also describes the companies' current endeavors in 2011,... View Details
- October 2019
- Supplement
Airbus vs. Boeing (I): Airbus Introduces the A350 (2015)
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Karen Elterman
This case describes the introduction of Airbus’ A350XWB (Xtra Wide Body) in 2015. It also describes Airbus and Boeing’s current endeavors in 2015, including Airbus’ development of the A330neo (new engine option) , Boeing’s work on the 737 MAX, and Boeing’s announcement... View Details
- October 2019
- Supplement
Airbus vs. Boeing (J): New Plane Developments (2016)
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Karen Elterman
This case describes Airbus and Boeing developments in 2016, including Airbus' delivery of the first A320neo (new engine option) and Boeing’s work on the 737 MAX and 777X programs. It also notes Airbus’ restructuring in 2016. View Details
- October 2019 (Revised January 2020)
- Background Note
Evolution of the Drone Industry
By: Rory McDonald, Andy Wu, Emilie Billaud and Ryan Bayer
This note focuses on the development of the drone industry in recent years and provides insights on the drone technology, regulations, applications, market size, top players, and ecosystem. This note was written in conjunction with the case study “Parrot: Navigating... View Details
- September 2019 (Revised August 2020)
- Case
Engineering an Inclusive Bioeconomy
By: Tarun Khanna, Raffaella Sadun and Susie L. Ma
In 2019, entrepreneur Juan Carlos Castilla-Rubio was developing a project he hoped could generate and share wealth from the natural resources of the Amazon without destroying those resources. His idea, called Earth Bank of Codes (EBC), would create a library of the... View Details
Keywords: Decision Making; Development Economics; Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention; Intellectual Property; Emerging Markets; Market Design; Marketplace Matching; Science; Genetics; Natural Environment; Environmental Sustainability; Climate Change; Social Enterprise; Strategy; Strategic Planning; Information Technology; Ownership; Social Psychology; Trust; Society; Biotechnology Industry; South America; Amazon Basin
- August 2019 (Revised March 2023)
- Case
Rand Fishkin at Moz (A)
In 2016, senior management at Moz, a venture capital–backed startup providing software tools for digital marketing professionals, must decide how to address a looming cash flow crisis precipitated by failed efforts to broaden its product line. Seattle-based Moz had... View Details
- July 2019
- Case
Instabeat—One More Lap?
By: Shikhar Ghosh, Nicole Tempest Keller and Alpana Thapar
This case follows Lebanese entrepreneur, Hind Hobeika, an engineer and competitive swimmer who spends seven years trying to launch a wearable heartrate monitor and motion sensor to help swimmers track their performance while swimming. While the Beirut-based... View Details
- November 2018
- Case
Komatsu Komtrax: Asset Tracking Meets Demand Forecasting
By: Willy Shih, Paul Hong and YoungWon Park
Komatsu's Komtrax system started as a way of remotely monitoring and tracking equipment for the purpose of improving operational efficiency. This case follows its evolution towards other uses including demand forecasting for its sales, marketing, and production... View Details
- Summer 2018
- Article
Why High-Tech Commoditization Is Accelerating
By: Willy C. Shih
Knowledge embedded within state-of-the-art production and design tools is a powerful force that is leveling the global technology playing field. It democratizes innovation and makes future competition more challenging. This paper describes the knowledge flows through... View Details
Keywords: Product Design; Product Commercialization; Product Development; Product Development Strategy; Production; Manufacturing Tools; Manufacturing; Manufacturing Industry; Engineering; Globalization; Goods and Commodities; Knowledge; Commercialization; Business Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Information Infrastructure; Technology Adoption; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; North America; Asia
- May 2018
- Supplement
Video Supplement to Toyota Motor Manufacturing, U.S.A. case (693-019): An updated video of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky, Georgetown, KY site showing seat installation
By: Willy C. Shih
This is an updated video of the Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky (TMMK) assembly facility in Georgetown, KY. It is meant to be paired with the 693-019 Toyota Motor Manufacturing U.S.A. case, but with higher quality video. The vidoe shows a line tour of Assembly Two... View Details
- January 2018
- Case
Environmental Technology Fund Partners and E-Leather
By: Vikram S. Gandhi and Aldo Sesia
It is 2014 and Environmental Technologies Fund (ETF) Partners, a UK-based venture capital firm, has an opportunity to invest in a privately held UK company that manufactured engineered composition leather extracted from waste leather using an environmentally friendly... View Details
- January 2018 (Revised August 2020)
- Background Note
Continuous Software Development: Agile's Successor
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Samuel Clemens and Olivia Hull
In recent years, the twin software development methodologies of continuous delivery and continuous deployment have risen to prominence in the start-up world and beyond. These methods have enabled technology companies large and small to accelerate their product... View Details
Keywords: Continuous Improvement; Continuous Development; Continuous Delivery; Continuous Integration; Product Development Processes; Computer Programming; Agile; Waterfall; Software Applications; Software Engineering; Applications and Software; Information Technology; Technological Innovation; Product Development; Customer Focus and Relationships; Entrepreneurship; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Quality; Product Marketing; Product; Infrastructure; Information Infrastructure; Computer Industry; Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; Web Services Industry; Massachusetts; Boston