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December 2019 (Revised January 2020)
Case

Boll & Branch

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Mel Martin

Boll & Branch is a direct-to-consumer (DTC) business launched in 2015. It was the first Fair-Trade Certified manufacturer of linens. The case provides background on the company, its start, business model, and evolution through 2019. View Details

Keywords: Direct-to-consumer; Channels; Disruption; Business Model; Brands and Branding; Internet and the Web; Strategy; Retail Industry; United States; Canada

28 May 2019
News

Future Source

Seni Sulyman (MBA 2014) wants to rescript Africa’s role in the world. “For too long the continent has been seen as a place people give things to,” he says. “I want to connect Africa to the world on equal terms.” As vice president of global operations at tech company... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna

October 2003 (Revised August 2005)
Case

American Legacy: Beyond the Truth Campaign

By: Youngme E. Moon and Kerry Herman

The hard-hitting "Truth" campaign has been one of the most successful antismoking initiatives in history. The focus of the "Truth" campaign is to dissuade teenagers from smoking. The sponsor of the campaign, the American Legacy Foundation, is now trying to decide... View Details

Keywords: Advertising Campaigns; Communication Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Choices and Conditions; Ethics; Brands and Branding; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

March 2012
Article

The Influence of Prior Industry Affiliation on Framing in Nascent Industries: The Evolution of Digital Cameras

By: Mary J. Benner and Mary Tripsas

New industries sparked by technological change are characterized by high technological, market, and competitive uncertainty. In this paper we explore how a firm's conceptualization of products in this context, reflected in its introduction of product features, is... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Transformation; Risk and Uncertainty; Competitive Strategy; Product; Values and Beliefs; Mathematical Methods; Power and Influence; Behavior; Experience and Expertise; Design; Market Entry and Exit; Employment Industry; Computer Industry

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06 Aug 2013
First Look

First Look: August 6

demonstrates the mutual interconnectivity among the three key facets of management: strategic positioning, organizational design, and individual leadership. The authors highlight both the manner in which strategy informs leadership and... View Details

Keywords: Anna Secino

14 Jul 2020
Blog Post

Creating Inclusive Recruiting Events in a Time of Innovation

coffee shops are being transformed into webinars, video calls, and 1:1 conversations. Other organizations are building on their already robust virtual recruiting practices and sharing ideas on to how to adapt. There are also new recruiting View Details

Keywords: All Industries

01 Oct 2002
News

Books

boardrooms, academia, and the business press to examine their roles in sustaining or promoting worrisome flaws in the process corporations use to fill their top office. — Laura Singleton (MBA '88) HBS Press Books in Brief As the recent failures of prominent B2B View Details

January 2021
Supplement

Bespoken Spirits: Disrupting Distilling

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

On October 7, 2020, Bespoken Spirits publicly announced it had received $2.6 million of seed funding for its “sustainable maturation process,” a process that could produce award-winning whiskeys in just days rather than years using a novel technology and data science. ... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Business Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Disruption; Entrepreneurship; Environmental Sustainability; Cash Flow; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Brands and Branding; Business Model; Consumer Products Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Service Industry; United States; California

21 Nov 2006
First Look

First Look: November 21, 2006

three- and five-year stock performance of these offerings. RLBOs appear to consistently outperform other IPOs and the stock market as a whole, with economically and statistically meaningful positive returns. There is no evidence of a... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

22 Dec 2015
First Look

December 22, 2015

co-creation of markets and value, multinationals without firm-specific advantages, and born-global firms. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=50242 November 13, 2015 Harvard Business Review If CEOs Care About... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

October 1987 (Revised November 1994)
Case

Boston Fights Drugs (A): Designing Communications Research

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

Describes in detail the research mounted by five individuals with a $20,000 budget to combat drug abuse among Boston's school-going population. Using the focus group methodology they discover that most of the current anti-drug advertising is useless. They create their... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Misleading and Fraudulent Advertising; Communication Intention and Meaning; Brands and Branding; Performance Evaluation; Research and Development; Segmentation; Pharmaceutical Industry; Boston

31 Oct 2017
First Look

New Research and Ideas, October 31, 2017

forthcoming Journal of Political Economy The Market for Financial Adviser Misconduct By: Egan, Mark, Gregor Matvos, and Amit Seru Abstract—We construct a novel database containing the universe of financial advisers in the United States... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

23 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Historically Speaking: A Roundtable at HBS

development of the U.S. railroad industry in the latter half of the 19th century. Al went straight to the sources and expanded upon them in a series of important articles in the Business History Review. That work developed into his pathbreaking book View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner

Web

Ownership (OWN): Define Success, Create Advantage, Build to Last, Engage Effectively - Course Catalog

Within the constraints of what is legally allowed, these owners define the main parameters by which the company operates, for instance: what success means for the business, how decisions are made, and what strategic options are on/off the table. Owners can push the... View Details

November 2013
Case

GlaxoSmithKline in China (A)

By: John A. Quelch and Margaret L. Rodriguez

Four GlaxoSmithKline employees were accused of bribing Chinese health care workers to prescribe the company's drugs. The accusations brought to light the questionable incentive structures of the Chinese health care system and the pressure on companies to adhere to... View Details

September 2007 (Revised August 2008)
Case

Suncor in the Oil Sands Industry

By: Forest L. Reinhardt and Nazli Uludere

Describes the economics, technology, and politics of the oil sands industry, focusing on one of the industry's leading firms. Oil sands deposits in Alberta represent a potentially vast reserve of hydrocarbons, but the extraction, refining, and transportation challenges... View Details

Keywords: Economics; Non-Renewable Energy; Government and Politics; Supply and Industry; Natural Environment; Competitive Strategy; Environmental Sustainability; Energy Industry; Alberta

2007
Report

The Role of Clusters in the Chemical Industry

By: Christian H.M. Ketels

The European Chemical Industry, still in the leading position globally, is under intense competitive pressure from emerging locations in Asia and the Middle East. After first reacting by efficiency upgrading within companies and then pursuing outsourcing and aggressive... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Industry Clusters; Business and Government Relations; Competitive Strategy; Chemical Industry; Asia; Europe; Middle East