Publications

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January 2001 (Revised May 2010)
Case

BP Amoco (B): Financing Development of the Caspian Oil Fields

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Michael Kane

British Petroleum and Amoco were the two largest members of the Azerbaijan International Oil Consortium (AIOC), an 11-firm consortium that was spending $10 billion to develop oil fields in the Caspian Sea. As of March 1999, AIOC had completed a $1.9 billion development... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Policy; Capital Budgeting; Project Finance; Emerging Markets; Mergers and Acquisitions; Financing and Loans; Financial Strategy; Mining Industry; Energy Industry; United Kingdom; Europe

Research Summary

Leveraging Knowledge for Performance

Morten Hansen is involved in research which examines how knowledge residing in different units in a company can be leveraged to improve performance in a specific unit. He has conducted several large studies of the use of knowledge in creating competitive performance,... View Details

Jan W. Rivkin

Jan W. Rivkin is a Professor in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School. In the past, he has served as Faculty Chair of the MBA Program, Senior Associate Dean for Research, and head of the Strategy Unit. His research, course development, and teaching focus on... View Details

Keywords: airline; computer; internet; music; transportation

04 Jun 2013
News

4 Ways Big Business Can Be a Keystone in Entrepreneurship Ecosystems

2024
Working Paper

Dusting Off the Old Ones: Drug Licensing to Startups, Innovation Success and Efficiency

By: Mosab Hammoudeh, Joshua Lev Krieger and Jiajie Xu

This paper investigates whether moving R&D from incumbents to startups can increase innovation. Using comprehensive drug development data, we examine the outcomes of drug projects licensed from large firms to startups. We find that these projects licensed to startups... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Innovation and Invention; Business Startups; Research and Development; Performance Efficiency; Pharmaceutical Industry

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August 2016 (Revised July 2018)
Case

Accenture Human Capital Strategy

By: Paula A. Price, V.G. Narayanan and James Weber

Accenture is a leading global consulting, technology, and outsourcing company. It has clients and its own operations throughout the world. This case describes the human resources and related activities necessary to deliver its services to clients. It allows students to... View Details

Keywords: Management Consulting; Technology Consulting; Outsourcing; Human Resources; Activity Based Costing and Management; Management Practices and Processes

Research Summary

Wearing a Red Hat ¨C The Impact of Activist Industrial Policy on Software Development in China

The idea that the government should steer economic development by strategically hand-picking and managing certain industries is controversial but appeals to many developing countries that are eager to upgrade their industries. In this paper, I study China's recent... View Details

April 1975 (Revised November 1984)
Case

Enzone Petroleum Corp.

By: Thomas R. Piper

A large integrated oil company is debating whether to switch from a single hurdle rate to multiple hurdle rates for project analysis purposes. Raises questions on: 1) determination of the cost of equity; 2) the usefulness of multiple hurdle rates to adjust for project... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Cost; Investment Return; Equity; Capital Budgeting; Energy Industry

November 2003 (Revised March 2004)
Case

Teledesic (Abridged)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

Describes plans for a failed project that proposed the use of 288 satellites to deliver high-speed data communications services anywhere in the world. View Details

Keywords: Communication Technology; Network Effects; Failure; Information Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry

17 Nov 2020
News

High skills freelance economy surges as digital talent platforms help build new on-demand workforce.

October 2008
Case

Hrad Technika

Examines a struggling IT outsourcing project from the perspective of the IT services provider-Hrad Technika. When used in conjunction with "Tegan c.c.c." (9-609-038), it provides an opportunity to see both sides of the issue. When Hrad enters into a contract to create... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Globalized Firms and Management; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Projects; Information Technology; Wales

Forthcoming
Article

Catching Outliers: Committee Voting and the Limits of Consensus When Financing Innovation

By: Andrey Malenko, Ramana Nanda, Matthew Rhodes-Kropf and Savitar Sundaresan

We document that investment committees of major VCs use a voting rule where one partner `championing' an early-stage investment is sufficient to invest. Their stated reason for this rule is to `catch outliers'. The same VCs use a more conventional `majority' rule for... View Details

Keywords: Optimal Voting Rules; Innovation and Invention; Venture Capital; Investment; Decision Making; Voting

SSRN

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17 Mar 2015
First Look

First Look: March 17

affected when the choice of contract is misaligned with the scope and objectives of the partnering relationship? Our study addresses these questions using data from 172 R&D projects that involve... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 2017
Case

Harmonie Water: Refreshing the World Naturally

By: John A. Quelch and John L. Teopaco

The marketing director of Harmonie Mineral Water—the second-best selling bottled water in the world—is using findings from two project studies to assess how to establish a global brand identity for Harmonie via television advertising. He must decide what product... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Advertising; Marketing Communications; Global Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry

January 2022
Case

Fueling a Cleaner Future: ACWA Power and Green Hydrogen

By: Dennis Yao and Alpana Thapar

In January 2020, Paddy Padmanathan, president and CEO of ACWA Power, was reflecting on the company’s sixteen-year record of success and thinking about its future growth plans. Founded in 2004, ACWA Power was a Saudi Arabian developer, owner, and operator of power and... View Details

Keywords: Green Hydrogen; Energy; Climate Change; Supply Chain; Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; Green Technology; Projects; Alliances; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Energy Industry; Saudi Arabia; Middle East; North Africa

2003
Report

UK Competitiveness: Moving to the Next Stage

By: Michael E. Porter and Christian H.M. Ketels

In October 2002, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) appointed Professor Michael Porter and his team to conduct a brief, three-month review of the existing evidence on UK competitiveness. The effort was funded jointly by the ESRC and the Department of... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Economics; Performance Productivity; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Research and Development; Competency and Skills; Investment; Assets; Corporate Strategy; Policy; Management; Knowledge Use and Leverage; United Kingdom; United States

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06 Jun 2005
Research & Ideas

Microsoft vs. Open Source: Who Will Win?

that even in this case, there would be people developing and using Linux. The more important question is: What motivates developers to contribute to open source projects in the first place? As long as the... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

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

February 2015
Case

Infinite Technology Solutions and the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor

By: John D. Macomber and Vidhya Muthuram

The Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) is an ambitious economic development project linking six of the most competitive states in India with the sea. The corridor is modeled on the Jiangsu Corridor in China (Nanjing to Shanghai) and the Tokyo-Hokkaido Corridor in... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Projects; Economics; Personal Development and Career; Decision Making; India