Publications

24 Jul 2014
Op-Ed

Reform Tax Law to Keep US Firms at Home

facilitate the expatriation of US corporations. Such transactions reflect the effects of policies and of the changing structure of multinational firms. From a policy perspective, the transactions highlight the increasing costs of... View Details

Keywords: by Mihir Desai; Pharmaceutical

May 2013
Article

Hybrid Innovation in Meiji Japan

By: Tom Nicholas

Japan's hybrid innovation system during the Meiji era of technological modernization provides a useful laboratory for examining the effectiveness of complementary mechanisms to patents. Patents were introduced in 1885, and by 1911, 1.2 million mostly non-pecuniary... View Details

Keywords: Prizes; Technological Innovation; System; Patents; Knowledge; Value; Cost vs Benefits; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Performance Effectiveness; Japan

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26 Feb 2013
First Look

First Look: Feb. 26

and "In re CNX Gas" and provides commentary on current developments, such as "Say on Pay," proxy access and the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010. A new chapter on executive compensation appears. The fourth edition View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

11 Jun 2013
First Look

First Look: June 11

themselves (e.g., inbound marketing), (3) outsourcing content creation (e.g., via crowdsourcing), or (4) outsourcing content distribution (e.g., viral marketing). Benefits and challenges of these four approaches are discussed and their View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

20 Oct 2014
Research & Ideas

Users Love Ello, But What’s the Business Model?

Edward W. Carter Professor of Business Administration, provide insights into the next generation of social networks, and what kind of network they'd build with unlimited funding. Q: How native is advertising to the social media space? Is... View Details

Keywords: Re: John A. Deighton & Sunil Gupta; Publishing; Financial Services

September – October 2011
Article

The Manufacturer's Incentive to Reduce Lead Times

By: Santiago Kraiselburd, Richard Pibernik and Ananth Raman

It is generally a well acknowledged fact that, ceteris paribus, reducing the lead times between downstream and upstream parties in a supply chain is desirable from an overall system perspective. However, an upstream party (e.g., a manufacturer) may have strong... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Demand and Consumers; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Production; Supply Chain Management; Sales; Manufacturing Industry; Retail Industry

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23 Jun 2023
HBS Case

This Company Lets Employees Take Charge—Even with Life and Death Decisions

example for companies struggling to re-engage “quiet quitters” while balancing rising costs and mixed economic signals. The company began in the Netherlands in 2006 as an antidote to what the founders viewed as innovation-crushing managed... View Details

Keywords: by Annelena Lobb; Health

Teaching Interest

Large-Scale Investment (LSI, MBA Elective Curriculum)

By: Benjamin C. Esty

Large-Scale Investment (LSI) is a case-based course about project finance that is designed for second-year MBA students. Project finance involves the creation of a legally independent project company financed with nonrecourse debt for the purpose of investing in a... View Details

Keywords: Project Finance; Corporate Finance; Corporate Governance; Valuation; Capital Budgeting

2023
Working Paper

Life After Death: A Field Experiment with Small Businesses on Information Frictions, Stigma, and Bankruptcy

By: Shai Benjamin Bernstein, Emanuele Colonnelli, Mitchell Hoffman and Benjamin Iverson

In a randomized control trial (RCT) with U.S. small businesses, we document that a large share of firms are not well-informed about bankruptcy. Many assume that bankruptcy necessarily entails the death of a business and do not know about Chapter 11 bankruptcy, where... View Details

Keywords: Small Business; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Knowledge Dissemination; Outcome or Result

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2013
Case

The COFCO Group

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Zheng Xiaoming and Ziqian Zhao

COFCO was China's sole legitimate window for agricultural foreign trade before 1987. The reform of China's foreign trade system beginning in 1987 cost COFCO its monopoly position. Subsequently, the SOE giant capitalized on its foreign trade expertise to strategically... View Details

Keywords: China; Food; China

June 2004 (Revised June 2006)
Case

Scientific-Atlanta, Inc.

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

Scientific-Atlantia (S-A), a leading manufacturer of cable TV equipment, is confronting strategic challenges in mid-2004. For decades, cable operators have faced high switching costs that have locked them into exclusive supply relationships with either S-A or its... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Competition; Industry Structures; Television Entertainment; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Manufacturing Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry

April 2004 (Revised November 2004)
Background Note

Why Complex Systems Fail

Operationally excellent organizations create competitive opportunities for themselves that are not available to their peers. One view of the manager's competitive dilemma is to pick the right position for his organization, differentiating it, for example, as a... View Details

Keywords: Organizations; Complexity

22 Feb 2024
Research & Ideas

How to Make AI 'Forget' All the Private Data It Shouldn't Have

underpin this technology typically subsume the information that users enter, helping the software provide better answers over time. Working Knowledge spoke with Seth Neel, an expert on machine “unlearning” who is an assistant professor at... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Technology; Information Technology

18 Jul 2024
Research & Ideas

New Hires Lose Psychological Safety After Year One. How to Fix It.

knowing the high-stakes industry suffers from significant levels of turnover and spends an inordinate amount of time and money onboarding new staff. In fact, one industry source estimated nurse turnover at more than 20 percent, which View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health

Research Summary

The Panama Canal

The Big Ditch is the first quantitative economic history of the Panama Canal and its effect on Panama, the United States, and the world economy. It makes three general arguments. First, that the Panama Canal was very important to... View Details

24 Jan 2012
Working Paper Summaries

What Do Development Banks Do? Evidence from Brazil, 2002-2009

Keywords: by Sergio G. Lazzarini, Aldo Musacchio, Rodrigo Bandeira-de-Mello & Rosilene Marcon; Banking

2016
Working Paper

The State of Small Business Lending: Innovation and Technology and the Implications for Regulation

By: Karen Gordon Mills and Brayden McCarthy

Small businesses were among the hardest hit in the Great Recession, accounting for more than 60% of the total jobs lost. The economic crisis was one focused on the banking sector, which is one reason for the disproportionately high impact on America’s small businesses,... View Details

Keywords: Small Business; Financing and Loans; Financial Crisis

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February 2013 (Revised September 2013)
Case

Elasto Therm: The Next Step

By: Jim Sharpe and James Weber

Julia and Nate Burstein were living their dream running their own business and balancing the demands between their work and family obligations while creating a company that was responsive to their employees' and their customers' needs. The Bursteins had joined a large... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Management; Entrepreneurs; Pricing; Pricing Policies; Pricing Strategy; Pricing Structure; Sales Force Management; Acquisitions; Work/family Balance; Family-owned Business; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Expansion; Work-Life Balance; Manufacturing Industry; Rubber Industry; United States