Publications

July 2004 (Revised September 2004)
Case

China and the WTO: Doing the Right Thing? (Abridged)

In late 2001, the People's Republic of China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO). Sets the terms of China's accession agreement against its compliance record some two years later. Discusses why key actors, such as business, organized labor, and other governments,... View Details

Keywords: History; International Relations; Judgments; Trade; Business and Government Relations; Development Economics; Governance Compliance; Emerging Markets; Economic Growth; Global Strategy; China

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July – August 2009
Article

Preferential Treatment: The New Face of Protectionism?

Free trade agreements have increased dramatically over the past decade. This forethought considers how they present global executives with thorny strategic and operational decisions, a piece of which has to do with China's entry into the FTA scene. View Details

Keywords: Agreements and Arrangements; Trade; Strategy; Operations; Decisions; Practice; China

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November 2004 (Revised January 2006)
Case

Martha Stewart (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Christopher Bruner

Explores Martha Stewart's December 2001 sale of ImClone Systems common stock, the ensuing federal investigations into possible insider trading, and Stewart's criminal prosecution and sentencing. Discusses the impact of publicity on Stewart's company, Martha Stewart... View Details

Keywords: Capital Markets; Corporate Governance; Financial Markets; Management Teams; Law; Government and Politics

May 1981 (Revised December 1992)
Case

Chesebrough-Pond's, Inc.: Vaseline Petroleum Jelly

By: John A. Quelch

The product manager for Vaseline Petroleum Jelly has to prepare the 1978 brand budget and determine expenditure levels for advertising, trade promotion, and consumer promotion. View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Budgets and Budgeting; Product Marketing; Brands and Branding; Consumer Products Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

September 1998
Case

Cooperating to Compete: EGS of Turkey

By: Pankaj Ghemawat and C. Fritz Foley

In the early 1980s, Turkey adopted policies that liberalized trade as a part of a structural adjustment program. Within the garment industry, small- and medium-scale enterprises were not well positioned to take advantage of the new opportunities to compete in... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Corporate Governance; Policy; Partners and Partnerships; Competitive Strategy; Diversification; Turkey

01 Feb 2019
HBS Seminar

Xavier Jaravel, London School of Economics

April 2023 (Revised September 2023)
Case

Apple's iPhone Revolution: Pioneering the Circular Economy

By: George Serafeim

When asked to identify an example of a circular economy business model that has generated billions in revenues for a company, ChatGPT, the famous chatbot that in 2022 rocked the world with its ability to perform a variety of tasks, immediately identified and... View Details

Keywords: Iphone; Smartphone; Waste Management; Recycling; Innovation; Product Upgrade; Product Life Cycle; Sustainability; Climate Impact; Digital; Business Model Innovation; Climate Change; Information Technology; Business Model; Electronics Industry; Information Technology Industry

14 Mar 2022
News

How High Oil Prices Threaten a California Plastic Container Business

Research Summary

Financial Regulation and the Japanese Banking Crisis of the 1990s

As part of a long-term research interest in financial regulation and the role of the Ministry of Finance, Ulrike Schaede has studied various segments of Japan's financial markets to understand better the interaction between regulators and regulatees. This includes... View Details

Hubert Danso

Keywords: Financial Services, Media

Sara L. Fleiss

Sara Fleiss was the co-founder and co-portfolio manager of Emeth Partners, an emerging markets arbitrage hedge fund. Prior to founding Emeth, Sara was the lead analyst on the Emerging Markets Equities portfolio at Harvard Management Company (HMC). At HMC, Sara... View Details

Research Summary

The Servicification of the U.S. Economy: The Role of Startups versus Incumbent Firms

Over the last few decades, the U.S. economy has exhibited a significant shift from manufacturing towards services. This transition has been particularly prominent in an important subcategory of services industries that drives innovation and employs many high-wage... View Details

June 2023 (Revised April 2025)
Case

Optimalen Capital

By: Malcolm Baker, Elisabeth Kempf and Jonathan Wallen

A new client portfolio manager at a quantitative investment management firm must explain why her firm, Optimalen Capital, has rebalanced a client portfolio with a set of trades that seem unintuitive. In particular, Optimalen has added to its position of Walmart (ticker... View Details

Keywords: Investments; CAPM; Capital Asset Pricing Model; Investment Portfolio; Asset Pricing; Stocks

Research Summary

Inflation Uncertainty and the Wage Bargain

Joint work with Hans-Joachim Voth, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona.

Trade unions often seem to behave in a more militant fashion when inflation rises. We provide the first theory as to why this should be so. We argue that uncertainty about the rate of inflation... View Details

April 2011 (Revised June 2012)
Background Note

Note on U.S. Pension Accounting

By: Robert C. Pozen and Brij Khurana

The purpose of this note is to describe the manner in which publicly traded corporations and local governments in the United States account for their pension plans. View Details

Keywords: Retirement; Accounting; United States

2025
Working Paper

Tracking the Short-Run Price Impact of U.S. Tariffs

By: Alberto Cavallo, Paola Llamas and Franco Vazquez

This paper examines the short-run impact of the 2025 U.S. tariffs on consumer prices using a unique integration of high-frequency retail pricing data, product-level country-of-origin information, and detailed tariff classifications. By linking daily prices from major... View Details

Keywords: Tariffs; Trade; Price; Inflation and Deflation

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22 Oct 2019
News

Sunday Riley Settles Complaint That It Faked Product Reviews

Article

How B2B Companies Can Win Back Customers They've Lost

By: Frank V. Cespedes and León Poblete

Most research and training in sales focus on acquiring new customers. But winning back previous customers is increasingly important: mergers, choice in supply chains, and uncertainty about trade wars mean that B2B customers are constantly re-evaluating relationships... View Details

Keywords: B2B; Customer Reacquisition; Customer Relationship Management

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