Publications

Find at Harvard

Read Now

November 2010
Teaching Note

The Walt Disney Company and Pixar Inc.: To Acquire or Not to Acquire? TN

By: Juan Alcacer and David J. Collis

Teaching Note for 709462 and 709489. View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Decision Making; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

August 1996 (Revised December 1996)
Case

Korean Development and Western Economics

By: George C. Lodge and Courtenay Sprague

Provides a summary of Korea's economic performance during the past 40 years. Korea's economic strategy is discussed with regard to context--both the domestic (historic) and the international factors that have informed Korea's development. Simultaneously, Korea also... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Development Economics; Decision Making; Policy; North Korea; South Korea

Find at Harvard

Article

Discussion of Private Predecision Information, Performance Measure Congruity, and the Value of Delegation

By: S. Datar

Keywords: Decision Making; Information; Performance; Measurement and Metrics; Value

Find at Harvard

18 Aug 2015
News

Turning a Profit When Your Product is Free

May 2025
Case

Dell Med: Transforming Care Delivery & Payment

By: Robert S. Kaplan, David N. Bernstein and Mary L. Witkowski

Health care in the U.S. and globally continues to undergo massive transformation, surging towards a system that rewards value for patients. However, widespread adoption of value-based health care remains a challenge. This case study focuses on the care delivery... View Details

Keywords: Integrated Practice Units; Outcomes Measurement; Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing; Health Care and Treatment; Business Strategy; Leading Change; Decisions; Transformation; Service Delivery; Adoption; Value; Health Industry; United States; Texas

December 2018
Case

Tiantong & Partners: Transforming Litigation Practice in China

By: Ashish Nanda and Lisa Rohrer

Jiang Yong founded Tiantong & Partners in 2002, seeking to radically improve the level of litigation-related services in China. By 2015, Tiantong was the premier Chinese litigation firm with the highest per lawyer revenues. The firm focused exclusively on high-stakes... View Details

Keywords: Law Firm; Law Firms; Growth; Legal Industry; Regulation; Professional Services; Law; Lawsuits and Litigation; Internet and the Web; Growth and Development; Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Decision Choices and Conditions; Legal Services Industry; China

July 2008 (Revised December 2011)
Case

ghSMART & Co., 2006: Pioneering in Professional Services

By: Noam T. Wasserman and Ashraf Haque

Geoff Smart, founder and CEO of ghSMART & Co., wanted to build ghSMART into the #1 management-assessment firm for CEOs and investors. However, he had just received two pieces of very bad news: the demise of an existing project and the loss of a $1 million engagement he... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Decision Choices and Conditions; Entrepreneurship; Corporate Governance; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Structure; Service Industry

August 2002
Case

Siebel Systems: Anatomy of a Sale, Part 3

By: John A. Deighton and Das Narayandas

How does a $2 million software sale happen? This case traces efforts by Siebel Systems to sell lead management software to discount broker Quick & Reilly. The buying process is mapped out over four years. Covers in detail the last six months--from Siebel's initial... View Details

Keywords: Sales; Decision Choices and Conditions; Competitive Strategy; Customer Relationship Management; Product Marketing; Information Technology Industry

June 1996
Case

Pathfinder Capital

By: William A. Sahlman and Andrew S. Janower

Two former consultants have raised a search fund and are looking for a company to buy and run. After eight months of looking at deals, they have just signed a letter of intent to buy the second largest book retail chain in Canada in a turnaround situation. They must... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Leveraged Buyouts; Financing and Loans; Venture Capital; Change; Decisions

July 2022 (Revised February 2025)
Case

A Soul and a Service: North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance

By: Tom Nicholas and John Masko

The North Carolina Mutual and Provident Association (the Mutual) was founded in 1898 as a for-profit entity selling life insurance catering to the Black community. The Mutual was entering a field crowded with established White-owned competitors that largely refused to... View Details

Keywords: Black Entrepreneurs; Insurance; History; Race; Prejudice and Bias; Entrepreneurship; Decision Choices and Conditions; Growth and Development Strategy; Insurance Industry; United States

12 Feb 2014
News

The Next Best Thing to a Steve Jobs

Keywords: innovation; management

01 Aug 2016
Blog Post

Reflecting on the Value of an MBA

get right to the core of the decision to get an MBA: “Is two years away from work and this tuition going to be a worthwhile investment in myself?” It’s also present in more mundane decisions while you’re... View Details

01 Dec 2016
News

Inside Modern HR

pulled into the middle of a difficult business issue or a white-hot decision moment as a kind of internal coach. That is incredibly fulfilling from an impact perspective—being trusted as an advisor when it matters most. YY: What’s new in... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna

03 May 2021
What Do You Think?

Where Does CEO Activism Go From Here?

(Image credit: iStockphoto/adamkaz) CEO activism entered a new chapter with the decision by more than 200 leaders of large corporations last month to publicly declare their support for voting rights for Americans and, by extension, their... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

26 Oct 2018
News

A Chance to Lead

competing with, which is one of the skills I learned at Harvard, of course, where there were few women and lots of men. And the other thing, I think, is that I try to instill in them--which I also think is attributed to my Harvard experience--is that you learn how to... View Details

10 May 2004
Research & Ideas

Rethink the Value of Joint Ventures

more than 3,000 American transnationals suggests that JVs are falling out of favor. Why? Increasing forces of globalization such as increasingly fragmented production processes make the decision not to collaborate pay off. That's one... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia Churchwell

15 Apr 2002
Research & Ideas

In the Virtual Dressing Room Returns Are A Real Problem

an apparel purchase. Apparel purchasing decisions are closely linked to individuals' feelings about themselves: their body image and the image they wish to project. Clothing is the "skin" one chooses to wear to project one's... View Details

Keywords: by Jan Hammond & Kristin Kohler; Apparel & Accessories; Fashion; Consumer Products; Manufacturing; Retail

May 1990 (Revised October 1993)
Case

Nova Chemical Corporation

A diversified chemical company must decide whether to sell its basic chemicals division and expand the specialty chemicals division. View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Business Divisions; Decision Making; Chemical Industry

October 15, 2021
Article

Virtuous Victims

By: Jillian J. Jordan and Maryam Kouchaki

How do people perceive the moral character of victims? We find, across a range of transgressions, that people frequently see victims of wrongdoing as more moral than non-victims who have behaved identically. Across 15 experiments (total n = 9,355), we document this... View Details

Keywords: Moral Judgment; Restorative Justice; Punishment; Compensation; Person Perception; Moral Sensibility; Judgments; Perception