Publications

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2020
Working Paper

Design in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

By: Roberto Verganti, Luca Vendraminelli and Marco Iansiti

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is affecting the scenario in which innovation takes place. What are the implications for our understanding of design? Is AI just another digital technology that, akin to many others, will not significantly question what we know about... View Details

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Design Thinking; Technological Innovation; Design; Change; Theory; AI and Machine Learning

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September 2019 (Revised December 2023)
Case

Accounting Fraud at Tesco Stores (A)

By: Jonas Heese, Suraj Srinivasan and Julia Kelley

This case describes the accounting fraud at Tesco Stores Limited (TSL), which was discovered by a senior accountant in TSL’s finance department. The accountant was concerned about TSL’s handling of commercial income, which, according to the accountant, overstated... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Crime and Corruption; Organizational Culture; Corporate Accountability

January 2008 (Revised January 2009)
Case

The Armstrong Investigation

By: David Moss and Eugene Kintgen

In the early 20th century, public outrage at certain life insurance practices led to an investigation in New York State that threatened to curtail growth in the industry. Charles Evans Hughes guided the four-month-long Armstrong Investigation, which made startling... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Annuities; Insurance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Insurance Industry; New York (state, US)

September 1991
Case

Paul Olsen (A)

Paul Olsen, a doctoral management student, is considering forming a limited partnership to open a restaurant in a renovated downtown mall in Pittsburgh. He must assess the opportunity, find investors for the anticipated $250,000 start-up costs, and create a workable... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship

17 Sep 2010
News

Something for the weekend

March 1991 (Revised August 1994)
Case

Berkshire Partners

By: Cynthia A. Montgomery

Berkshire Partners is a limited partnership engaged in the acquisition of companies valued between $25 million and $250 million. The purpose of the case is to examine the resources of the firm and discuss the firm's competitive advantage vis-a-vis other types of... View Details

Keywords: Working Capital; Partners and Partnerships; Competitive Advantage; Acquisition; Corporate Finance

October 2007
Background Note

Price Formation

By: Joshua D. Coval and Erik Stafford

Investigates how prices are formed in competitive capital markets. Focuses on a single security called AOE. Students compete with computer traders and each other for market making and informed trading profits. Participants receive a variety of public news in the form... View Details

Keywords: Capital Markets; Price; Profit; Corporate Disclosure; Newsletters; Industry Structures; Business Processes; Competitive Strategy

January 1995 (Revised July 1996)
Background Note

Paving the Information Superhighway

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Geoffrey Bock and Janis Lee Gogan

Examines solutions to many of the information-sharing problems that limit growth of electronic commerce on the Internet. Serves as a basic primer for the use of electronic information exchange. While familiarizing the student with the basic tenets and terminology of... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Knowledge Sharing; Problems and Challenges; Retail Industry; Information Technology Industry

Find at Harvard

Every new firm selects a legal form. Organizing as a corporation, a limited company, or a partnership shapes the firm’s access to capital markets, its governance arrangements and tax liabilities, and its treatment in bankruptcy. We use multinomial choice models... View Details

14 Oct 2016
News

Jeff Bussgang Is Managing A New Fund Called The Graduate Syndicate

February 1980 (Revised April 1981)
Case

Poland Spring Bottling Corp.

By: Benson P. Shapiro

Poland Spring is a small domestic bottler of mineral water trying to compete in a rapidly expanding market against Perrier, the dominant brand, and 20 other foreign and domestic waters. Company management must decide how to position and promote its product with limited... View Details

Keywords: Product Marketing; Product Positioning; Competition; Globalized Markets and Industries; Food and Beverage Industry; Distribution Industry; United States

02 Mar 2010
News

America's budget deficit needs bipartisan action

October 2008 (Revised February 2012)
Case

Amazon Web Services

By: Robert S. Huckman, Gary P. Pisano and Liz Kind

Considers the development of Amazon Web Services (AWS), a division of Amazon.com, Inc., specializing in the provision of web-based storage and computing services to web developers. The case focuses on the issues facing Andy Jassy, the head of AWS, in 2008 as AWS faces... View Details

Keywords: Price; Market Entry and Exit; Service Operations; Competition; Diversification; Retail Industry; Web Services Industry

October 2012 (Revised March 2022)
Case

Kleiner-Perkins and Genentech: When Venture Capital Met Science

By: Felda Hardymon and Tom Nicholas

Genentech is a rare success story in the biotechnology industry. Hundreds of billions of dollars of venture capital have been invested without the expected transformational effects. Established in 1976, Genentech was to develop the new science of recombinant DNA into... View Details

Keywords: Innovation ＆ Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Innovation and Invention; Entrepreneurship; Information Technology; Science; Biotechnology Industry; United States

Video

Mallika Sarabhai

Mallika Sarabhai, co-Director of Darpana Academy of Performing Arts based in Gujarat, India, shares how her mother started the Darpana Academy in the 1946. Due to its disrepute of being associated with the Devadasi tradition and the British rule, Bharatanatayam had a... View Details

March 2023
Case

Ransomware Attack at Colonial Pipeline Company

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan Ni

On the morning of May 7, 2021, Colonial Pipeline Company became aware that the company had been the victim of a malicious ransomware attack that had stolen and locked up company data. The extortionists demanded 75 bitcoins (worth about $4.4 million at the time) in... View Details

8 AM – 5 PM GMT, 10 May 2018
Career Events

HBS MBA Alumni Career Reboot Camp in London

Career Reboot Camp is coming to London! Led by Professor Tim Butler and facilitated by HBS career coaches, participants will work through exercises to reflect on their key career interests, what's important to them in work and life, and create a plan to move forward... View Details

8 AM – 5 PM EDT, 28 Apr 2017
Career Events

Career Reboot Camp in Washington, D.C.

Career Reboot Camp is coming to Washington, D.C.! Led by Professor Tim Butler and facilitated by HBS career coaches, participants will work through exercises to reflect on their key career interests, what's important to them in work and life, and create a plan to move... View Details

August 2000 (Revised August 2003)
Case

Cox Communications, Inc., 1999

This case focuses on how much external financing a firm needs and what securities the firm should issue to raise this financing. Cox Communications is a major player in the cable industry, which is consolidating due to technological changes/capabilities brought about... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financing and Loans; Telecommunications Industry