Publications

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Serial entrepreneurs David Kidder and Christina Wallace reveal their revolutionary playbook for igniting growth inside established companies.

Most established companies face a... View Details

December 2024
Case

Core Innovation Capital: Investing in Fintech for Good

By: Ray Kluender, Natalia Rigol, Benjamin Roth and Nicole Tempest Keller

In 2017, Arjan Schütte, founder of Core Innovation Capital, faced a decision on whether to invest in Hugo Insurance, an auto insurance startup. Core, an early-stage social impact VC firm, focused on “fintech for good,” by investing in financial services for low- to... View Details

Keywords: Fintech; Venture Capital; Social Entrepreneurship; Insurance; Measurement and Metrics; Investment; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Product Positioning; Financial Services Industry; Technology Industry; Insurance Industry; United States

25 May 2010
First Look

First Look: May 25

attempting the transformation required to embrace a new, dominant technology—the choice to maintain focus on the old technology. In considering this choice we distinguish between "racing" strategies, which attempt to fight off the rise of the new technology... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Michael W. Toffel

Professor Toffel is the Senator John Heinz Professor of Environmental Management. His research examines how companies are addressing climate change (especially decarbonization) and other environmental and working condition issues in their operations and supply... View Details

December 2020 (Revised March 2025)
Case

Responsive Working at PepsiCo UK (A): Designing a Turnaround

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Nancy Boghossian Staples

Facing a significant decline in revenues in 2016, David Gwilliam, Head of Transformation at PepsiCo UK introduced a new way of working (“Responsive Working”), which encompasses a set of work practices and some new team structures. The work practices comprise a set of 9... View Details

Keywords: SLAM Teams; Turnaround; Groups and Teams; Employees; Training; Decision Making; Planning; Performance Improvement; Consumer Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United Kingdom; Europe

June 1996 (Revised November 1996)
Background Note

Economic Gains from Trade: Comparative Advantage

By: Robert E. Kennedy and Nancy F. Koehn

How nations trade and whether they benefit from it are two of the oldest and most important questions in political economy. In the 170 years since David Ricardo formally developed the theory of comparative advantage, it has become one of the principles most widely... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Microeconomics; Trade; Cost Management; Business and Government Relations

Geoffrey Jones is the Isidor Straus Professor of Business History, and Faculty Chair of the School's Business History Initiative. He holds degrees of BA, MA and PhD from Cambridge University, UK. He has an honorary Doctorate in Economics and Business Administration... View Details

Keywords: banking; beauty products; construction; consumer products; energy; entertainment; fashion; financial services; food; food processing; green technology; petroleum; service industry

01 Feb 1998
News

Innovative Course Brings Students and Alumni Together

In the fall of 1996, HBS professor David A. Garvin was searching for teaching materials for his elective course General Management: Processes and Action. He wanted to help his students understand the pitfalls and opportunities that... View Details

Keywords: Meg Gardner; photo by Joshua Lavine

Judo Strategy: Turning Your Competitors’ Strength to Your Advantage

Why do some companies succeed in defeating stronger rivals, while others fail? This is a question that, sooner or later, all ambitious competitors must face. Whether you’re a tiny start-up taking on industry giants or a giant moving into markets dominated by... View Details

04 Aug 2009
First Look

First Look: August 4

Montgomery County Public Schools Authors:Stacey M. Childress, Dennis Doyle, and David A. Thomas, with a foreword by David Gergen Publication:Cambridge: Harvard Education Press,... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

April 2013 (Revised October 2013)
Case

Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter?

By: David A. Garvin, Alison Berkley Wagonfeld and Liz Kind

Google's Project Oxygen started with a fundamental question raised by executives in the early 2000s: do managers matter? The topic generated a multi-year research project that ultimately led to a comprehensive program, built around eight key management attributes,... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Behavior; Business Policy; General Management; Human Resource Management; Management; Leadership; Human Resources

December 2012
Case

Trouble Brewing for Green Mountain Coffee Roasters

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Michael Norris

In October 2011, noted hedge fund manager David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital delivered a presentation at an investors' conference analyzing the business and accounting quality weaknesses of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. Until then Green Mountain had exhibited rapid... View Details

30 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

New Paths to Success in Asia

Businesses in the Asia-Pacific region today are caught up in a dizzying swirl of economic, cultural, political, technological, and social change. Enormous opportunities await managers who can harness these power currents to drive their businesses forward, but their... View Details

Keywords: by Alejandro Reyes & Deborah Blagg

12 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Solving COVID'S Mental Health Crisis

who need them, especially among vulnerable populations. Racial inequities, laid bare by the pandemic, and social unrest provoked by recent police killings have escalated tensions. In the course of writing... View Details

Keywords: by Howard Stevenson and Shirley Spence; Health

19 Jan 2011
First Look

First Look: Jan. 18

Influence (Un)ethical Behavior Authors:F. Gino and Joshua D. Margolis Publication:Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (forthcoming) Abstract In four laboratory studies, we find that regulatory focus induced by situational... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

10 Feb 2009
First Look

First Look: February 10, 2009

average in the period 1953-2005, it was particularly high in the early 1980s and negative in the early 2000s. This paper specifies and estimates a model in which the nominal term structure of interest rates is driven by five state... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

February 2006 (Revised May 2006)
Case

JA Worldwide: Managing Change in a Multi-governed Environment

By: Michael Chu and Barbara Zepp Larson

Post-merger, the head of Junior Achievement (JA) Worldwide must now oversee operations in 98 countries serving 6.6 million students, with over 7,600 local chapter board directors. President and CEO David Chernow's own board has increased to 111 members. Two separate... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Model; Change Management; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Governance; Business or Company Management; Service Operations; Organizational Structure; Nonprofit Organizations; Balance and Stability