Publications

Article

Matching in Networks with Bilateral Contracts

By: John William Hatfield and Scott Duke Kominers

We introduce a model in which firms trade goods via bilateral contracts which specify a buyer, a seller, and the terms of the exchange. This setting subsumes (many-to-many) matching with contracts, as well as supply chain matching. When firms' relationships do not... View Details

Keywords: Contracts; Market Design; Marketplace Matching; Supply Chain

Find at Harvard

15 Dec 2015
News

The Year in Ideas 2015

consumers. In the United States, 95 percent of the soybeans and 85 percent of the corn grown is genetically modified. Yet many of the country’s... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna, Christine Lejeune, Dan Morrell, and April White

13 Feb 2025
Blog Post

IFC India 2025: The Coal Dichotomy: Balancing Economic Growth and Decarbonization in India

Immediate divestment from coal would not only threaten electricity supply to major cities — like Mumbai, where Trombay’s coal units account for roughly 23% of the city’s average daily electricity View Details

March 2023
Teaching Note

Ransomware Attack at Colonial Pipeline Company

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan Ni

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 123-069. On the morning of May 7, 2021, Colonial Pipeline Company became aware that the company had been the victim of a malicious ransomware attack that had stolen and locked up company data. The extortionists demanded 75 bitcoins (worth... View Details

12 Jul 2010
Research & Ideas

Rocket Science Retailing: A Practical Guide

fact, many of us—rightly for the time we were focused on—assumed that firms could forecast their aggregate demand well but not their mix, and we... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Retail; Auto

2007
Book

The CEO Within: Why Inside Outsiders Are the Key to Succession Planning

By: Joseph L. Bower

With rising CEO turnover, companies are increasingly looking outside for qualified candidates. Sure, externally recruited CEOs bring fresh perspectives and connections. But they lack the in-depth knowledge of the company's culture and history that they need to succeed.... View Details

Keywords: Recruitment; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Leadership Development; Management Succession

Find at Harvard

Article

How Much Does Industry Matter, Really?

By: A. M. McGahan and M. E. Porter

In this paper, we examine the importance of year, industry, corporate-parent, and business-specific effects on the profitability of U.S. public corporations within specific 4-digit SIC categories. Our results indicate that year, industry, corporate-parent, and... View Details

Keywords: Supply and Industry; Strategy

Find at Harvard

Read Now

December 1994 (Revised July 1996)
Case

USSR 1988, The: The Search for Growth

For decades after the revolution of 1917, Communist Party leaders claimed that the socialist economic system was superior to the capitalist system on both moral and economic grounds. By 1985, when Mikhail Gorbachev became general secretary of the Communist Party of the... View Details

Keywords: Economic Systems; Economic Growth; Government and Politics; Soviet Union

2025
Book

Space to Grow: Unlocking the Final Economic Frontier

By: Matthew Weinzierl and Brendan Rosseau

Your guide--using the compelling stories of changemakers and the tools of economics--to the transformation and future possibilities of the business and economics of space.

Space is a place of unparalleled possibility for humanity, and it's undergoing a... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Economics; Innovation and Invention; Market Entry and Exit; Aerospace Industry

July 1997
Case

We've Got Rhythm! Medtronic Corporation's Cardiac Pacemaker Business

By: Clayton M. Christensen

Illustrates how a new management team at Medtronic's Cardiac Pacemaker business reversed a steep decline in market share by adopting certain management principles for new product development: clarifying strategy, aggregating project planning, accommodating the number... View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Innovation Strategy; Innovation and Management; Product Development; Health; Technology; Change Management; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; United States

May 1999 (Revised March 2001)
Case

Marshall Industries

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport

Confounding predictions that the Internet would "disintermediate" commerce, making "middle man" companies all but obsolete, Marshall Industries, a leading electronics distributor, used the Internet and digital technologies to reinvent itself. Marshall continued to sell... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Supply Chain; Emerging Markets; Customer Focus and Relationships; Distribution Industry; Electronics Industry

05 Sep 2024
Blog Post

District Heating in Denmark: How Fjernvarme Fyn fuels an integrated and sustainable future

one of the largest district heating grids in the world, supplying 97% of residential heating needs in the Odense and Otterup areas. Fjernvarme... View Details

29 Nov 2018
News

The gig economy connects the skilled

22 Feb 2022
News

New Urban Order

Highway As cities reshape themselves and populations increase, demand for goods will rise. And if the pandemic taught us anything about supply... View Details

27 Feb 2007
First Look

First Look: February 27, 2007

instead reflect more "top-down" interventions. We conclude with a discussion of some of the historical evidence on top-down interventions. Illicit Invention: Tracing Technological Development in... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

2011
Other Unpublished Work

Aligning Collective Production with Demand: Evidence from Wikipedia

Economic markets align supply and demand through prices. However, many social phenomena lack pricing to inform producers about consumer demand. This can lead to the over- or under-production of certain goods and services. In this paper, I propose a social mechanism... View Details

Keywords: Demand and Consumers; Supply and Industry