Publications

November 2022
Case

The Battle Among Channels for Marketing Pharmaceuticals: UpScript, Pharmacy Benefit Managers, and Direct-to-Consumer Sales

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Tiffany Farrell

Can an online, direct-to-consumer pharmacy both improve the quality and speed of care for patients who need branded drugs and stabilize profits for pharmaceutical manufacturers? UpScript, after years spent achieving legal and regulatory compliance and simultaneous... View Details

Keywords: DTC; Internet and the Web; Marketing Channels; Customer Value and Value Chain; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Competitive Strategy; Service Delivery; Growth and Development Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry; Health Industry; Retail Industry

May 2019 (Revised September 2019)
Case

Mobike and ofo: Dancing with Titans (A)

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Haibo Zhao

This case address pacing issues – how fast does a company need to scale? It also examines the role of investors in determining company strategy and exit.
Mobike and ofo were two dominant players in China’s emerging dockless bike-sharing market, that allowed users... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Venture Capital; Financing and Loans; Competition; Value Creation; Governance; Economics; Business Startups; Strategy; Business Exit or Shutdown; Entrepreneurship; Infrastructure; Transportation; Bicycle Transportation; China

April 2019
Teaching Note

The a2 Milk Company

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

The a2 Milk Company (a2MC) became the most valuable company listed on the New Zealand stock exchange in 2018 by capitalizing on a biochemical discovery related to the protein composition of cow's milk. Because many people find the A1 protein difficult to digest, and... View Details

April 2024 (Revised February 2025)
Teaching Note

eBee: Affordable Mobility for Africa

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Gamze Yucaoglu and Jordan Mitchell

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 724-360.The case opens in March 2023, as Sten van der Ham and Jaap Maljers, CEO and co-founder of eBee, an electric bike (e-bike) company in Africa, are contemplating the different avenues for growth and path to profitability for the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Value Creation; Competition; Expansion; Logistics; Profit; Resource Allocation; Corporate Strategy; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Product Marketing; Entrepreneurial Finance; Bicycle Industry; Africa; Kenya

06 May 2019
Research & Ideas

Consumers Blame Business for Global Health Problems. Can Business Become the Solution?

Every public health crisis—whether it’s the availability of highly addictive opioids or junk food marketing to children—prompts consumers to question how far companies will go for profit. It’s not an unwarranted concern. After all, cigarette makers once used... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Health

17 Nov 2015
Lessons from the Classroom

How Activist Investors Became Respectable

create value for shareholders. This month, for example, when Trian Partners, under the leadership of cofounder and CEO Nelson Peltz, wanted to tell investors why GE was an undervalued company, it posted an 81-page analysis online for... View Details

Keywords: by Joseph Fuller; Financial Services; Banking

01 Aug 2005
What Do You Think?

Is There an “Efficient Market” in CEO Compensation?

market value of all CEOs is driven by companies hiring leadership from the outside rather than promoting it from within. In other words, there is a market premium paid for outside hires. Hiring from outside often occurs either in... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

19 Apr 2004
Research & Ideas

Ground-Floor Opportunities for Retail in India

About Malls? An audience member asked what advice panelists would give to an entrepreneur launching a retail business in India. "Don't try to copy any Western model," said Biyani. "India might surprise you. Adopt a flexible model that captures the View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Consumer Products; Retail

29 Oct 2019
Blog Post

Merging the Worlds of Finance, Investing, and Environmental Impact

because our values aligned. Do you have any advice for how students can best familiarize themselves with different career areas and job functions in the clean energy space? Being actively involved in the various clubs that focus on... View Details

09 Apr 2021
Blog Post

Reflections on Student Conferences in 2020

Building a Sustainable, Resilient, and Nourishing Global Food System "Building a Sustainable, Resilient, and Nourishing Global Food System" was the 2nd annual conference hosted by the Food, Agriculture, and Water Club. The Club invited 22 industry experts from firms... View Details

27 Jun 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, June 27

and SEC oversight than previously suggested. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=52776 forthcoming Journal of Financial Economics Reexamining Staggered Boards and Shareholder Value By: Wang, Charles C.Y., and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2021 (Revised May 2021)
Case

Ocado Group: Ready for the Future

By: José B. Alvarez, Damien McLoughlin and Natalie Kindred

May 2009
Teaching Note

Nextel Partners: Put Option (TN)

By: Timothy A. Luehrman

Teaching Note for [207-128] View Details

Keywords: Business and Shareholder Relations; Voting; Price; Public Ownership; Valuation; Financial Liquidity; Stock Options; Management Practices and Processes; Telecommunications Industry

February 2005
Article

European Integration and Corporate Restructuring: The Strategy of Unilever c1957-c1990

By: Geoffrey Jones and Peter Miskell

This article examines the role of the large Anglo-Dutch consumer products company in promoting European integration. It shows that Unilever contributed financially to campaigns to support the creation of the European Union, and its subsequent expansion, despite a... View Details

Keywords: Horizontal Integration; Organizations; Policy; Expansion; Market Transactions; Geographic Location; Restructuring; Competition; Brands and Branding; Production; Capital Structure; Value; Consumer Products Industry; European Union; United States

Find at Harvard

Portrait Project

Akash Gupta

mental health issues that went undiagnosed. Having watched my mom transition from a comfortable middle-class lifestyle to a life on the streets, I will be a business leader who openly values mental health in the workplace. I will be a... View Details

Fast Answer

Bloomberg: company information

quotes from the foreign exchanges on which an equity trades. RELS for related securities (equity, debt, preferred, money market securities). RV for relative value for customized peer group analysis. SI for short interest (usually monthly) View Details

01 Mar 2009
News

An Excerpt from The Innovator’s Prescription: A Disruptive Solution for Health Care

that’s all. When there are interdependencies among the elements of the disruptive value network — meaning that one cannot occur unless others do — the speed of disruption is significantly accelerated when an integrated entity wraps its... View Details

Keywords: Health, Social Assistance

18 Mar 2001
Research & Ideas

Want to Be an Entrepreneur? [Part I]

potential of new ideas could be inimical to operating a real business. All fall, the news had been sobering, as the dot-com bubble deflated, paring billions—ultimately trillions—of dollars of stock-market value from the "idea"... View Details

Keywords: by John S. Rosenberg

2023
Working Paper

The Optimal Stock Valuation Ratio

By: Sebastian Hillenbrand and Odhrain McCarthy

Trailing price ratios, such as the price-dividend and the price-earnings ratio, scale prices by trailing cash flow measures. They theoretically contain expected returns, yet, their performance in predicting stock market returns is poor. This is because of an omitted... View Details

Keywords: Price; Investment Return; AI and Machine Learning; Valuation; Cash Flow; Forecasting and Prediction