Publications

April 2003 (Revised December 2006)
Case

ZARA: Fast Fashion

By: Pankaj Ghemawat and Jose Luis Nueno

Focuses on Inditex, an apparel retailer from Spain, which has set up an extremely quick response system for its ZARA chain. Instead of predicting months before a season starts what women will want to wear, ZARA observes what's selling and what's not and continuously... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Multinational Firms and Management; Competitive Advantage; Manufacturing Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail Industry; Spain

05 Jun 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, June 5, 2018

traditional question of how the inflow of foreign workers affects native employment and earnings to explore effects on innovation and productivity, wage inequality across skill groups, the behavior of multinational firms, firm-level... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

September 2009
Article

The Technology Manager's Journey: An Extended Narrative Approach to Educating Technical Leaders

By: Robert D. Austin, Richard L. Nolan and Shannon O'Donnell

Technology management poses particular challenges for educators because it requires a facility with different kinds of knowledge and wide-ranging learning abilities. We report on the development and delivery of an information technology (IT) management course designed... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Management; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Business Education; Multinational Firms and Management; Entertainment; Communication; Curriculum and Courses; Framework; Design; Goals and Objectives; Learning; Information Technology Industry

July 2021
Teaching Note

Digital Transformation 2.0: CEO Elie Girard at Atos

By: Tsedal Neeley

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 421-024. Elie Girard has taken the helm as CEO of multinational IT giant Atos to lead the company into the next era of digital transformation. Noticing that customers’ digital needs were evolving to become even more specialized and global... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Leading Change; Mergers and Acquisitions; Environmental Sustainability; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Digital Transformation; Information Technology Industry

2012
Chapter

The Confederacy of Heterogeneous Software Organizations and Heterogeneous Developers: Field Experimental Evidence on Sorting and Worker Effort

By: Kevin J. Boudreau and Karim R. Lakhani

Software development occurs in a patchwork or "confederacy" of different types of institutions (universities, small start-ups, multinational enterprises, government agencies, etc.) utilizing varied work approaches. Here we speculate on one possible explanation for this... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Applications and Software; Product Development; Organizations; Employees; Behavior; Competition; Cooperation; Creativity; Information Technology Industry

December 2019
Case

Noiler

By: José B. Alvarez and Natalie Kindred

In 2019, Nigerian entrepreneur Dr. Ayoola (Ayo) Oduntan is accelerating distribution of Noiler, a genetically optimized breed of poultry, to smallholder farmers across Nigeria. The bird was bred to be productive as a source of both meat and eggs and to thrive in the... View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise; Animal-Based Agribusiness; Poverty; Health; Growth and Development Strategy; Nigeria

2017
Working Paper

A Historical Approach to Clustering in Emerging Economies

By: Valeria Giacomin

Clusters are defined as geographically concentrated agglomerations of specialized firms in a particular domain. The cluster concept in its broader meaning of industrial agglomeration has been the focus of longstanding debates in the social sciences. This working paper... View Details

Keywords: Industry Clusters; Research; Theory; Developing Countries and Economies; History; Analysis; Globalization

September 2006 (Revised May 2008)
Supplement

Corporate Responsibility & Community Engagement at the Tintaya Copper Mine (B)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Brooke Barton and Ezequiel Reficco

Engaging local stakeholders and building strong relations has become a strategic imperative for multinational firms in the often politically charged mining, oil, and gas sectors. For BHP Billiton, the world's second largest mining company, its Tintaya copper mine in... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mining Industry

December 2007
Article

China + India: The Power of Two

By: Tarun Khanna

China and India are burying the hatchet after four-plus decades of hostility. A few companies from both nations have been quick to gain competitive advantages by viewing the two as symbiotic. If Western corporations fail to do the same, they will lose their competitive... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Economic Growth; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Multinational Firms and Management; Business History; Competitive Strategy; Cooperation; China; India

2017
Working Paper

International Business and Emerging Markets: A Long-Run Perspective

By: Geoffrey Jones

This working paper explores long-run patterns in the strategies of international business in developing countries. There was a massive wave of Western multinational investment in the developing world during the first wave of globalization before the 1920s. The... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Developing Countries and Economies; History; Emerging Markets; Problems and Challenges

SSRN

21 Jul 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Foreign Entry and the Mexican Banking System, 1997-2007

Keywords: by Stephen Haber & Aldo Musacchio; Banking

12 Dec 2023
Research & Ideas

COVID Tested Global Supply Chains. Here’s How They’ve Adapted

operations back from China. The authors examine the effects of these variables between 2017 and 2022, a tumultuous period that put stress on the global economic system. They crunch product-level trade statistics from United Nations Comtrade, as well as information on... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis

Web

Leadership Initiative - Leadership

multinational environments she has built a reputation for innovative strategic thinking and transformational leadership. Most recently, Ann served as Wētā FX’s Global Head of Talent and Animation Production. In this role, she oversaw all... View Details

February 2008 (Revised November 2015)
Case

Danaher Corporation

By: Bharat Anand, David J. Collis and Sophie Hood

Between 1985 and 2007, Danaher has been one of the best-performing industrial conglomerates in the U.S. This case examines the corporate strategy of this diversified, global corporation. It describes the firm's portfolio strategy and the Danaher Business System—a... View Details

Keywords: Business Conglomerates; Global Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Culture; Corporate Strategy; Value Creation

1989
Book

Managing Across Borders: The Transnational Solution

By: C. A. Bartlett and S. Ghoshal

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues

September 2021 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Bühler: Mobilizing Industry around a Common Purpose

By: Ranjay Gulati, Franz Wohlgezogen and Malini Sen

Bühler Group, a Swiss multinational processing technology provider, started by selling machines for processing grains and later transitioned into selling food processing solutions. A family-owned business in the fifth generation, Bühler’s high-end milling, grinding,... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Customer Focus and Relationships; Machinery and Machining; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Innovation Leadership; Switzerland

Article

Models of Best Practice in Integrated Reporting 2015

By: Robert G. Eccles, Michael P. Krzus and Sydney Ribot

In March of 2015, the authors reviewed the integrated reports of 25 multinational companies that participated in the International Integrated Reporting Council's (IIRC's) Pilot Programme Business Network. Because it was not until December 2013 that companies had any... View Details

Keywords: Integrated Reporting; Integrated Corporate Reporting