Publications

08 Jun 2009
Research & Ideas

The Return of the Salesman

seeing its real importance. It didn't help that economists also thought that selling was unimportant in influencing markets and that door-to-door selling declined in the United States in the final decades of the 20th century. But scholars... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

Web

U.S. Competitiveness

latest survey findings and eight years of prior research on the competitiveness of the United States—highlights a disturbing pattern: structural failures in the U.S. political system continue to prevent meaningful progress on actions... View Details

Web

Key Concepts - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

competition where providers were competing on the wrong things at the wrong level. The result was that the US health care system was spending more per citizen on health care than any other nation and getting worse health outcomein... View Details

21 Feb 2007
Op-Ed

What a U.N. Partnership with Big Business Could Accomplish

and make it legitimate in the eyes of the world. Here's where Ban and the United Nations can play a part. To leverage the multinationals' power and reach, we propose establishing a World Development... View Details

Keywords: by George C. Lodge & Craig Wilson

March 2005 (Revised October 2005)
Case

Teach For America 2005

On November 17, 2004, as Teach for America's (TFA) national board meeting adjourned, Chief Operating Officer Jerry Hauser considered the opportunity before the organization. The board had just given the go ahead to move forward with development of a new strategic plan... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Education; Education Industry; United States

11 Aug 2022
Research & Ideas

When Parents Tell Kids to ‘Work Hard,’ Do They Send the Wrong Message?

political orientation of respondents. “That’s not too surprising in the context of the United States, where we conducted the study, where there are strong beliefs about the importance of hard work.” In a second study, the researchers... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Education

18 Oct 2023
News

Spreading the Words

problem he has tackled in his career: global illiteracy. According to Khan, two out of every seven people in the world are unable to read or write. “That has devastating consequences for individuals, nations, and the world,” he observes. Addressing illiteracy is among... View Details

Keywords: April White

16 Nov 2021
HBS Case

How a Company Made Employees So Miserable, They Killed Themselves

Markets Unit at HBS. The cases hold a crucial lesson for business leaders: Tormenting workers can result in dire consequences. While the cases describe an extreme example, Montgomery wonders if the improper pressure tactics used at France... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

01 Mar 2024
News

In Harmony

Kim at Seoul’s government-built Hoehyeon “Citizens’ Apartments.” Opened in 1970, it stands as a reminder of a Korea from a very different era. Like so many South Koreans of a certain age, Michael ByungJu Kim (MBA 1990) lives in a country where the past lingers,... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; photographs by Jun Michael Park; private equity; fiction; financial crisis; leadership; Korea

22 May 2024
HBS Case

Banned or Not, TikTok Is a Force Companies Can’t Afford to Ignore

Beijing-based ByteDance, TikTok blew past Google in 2021 to become the world’s most visited domain. In the United States alone, TikTok boasts more than 150 million users—almost half the country’s population. “It is where the future is,”... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Technology

01 Jun 2023
HBS Case

A Nike Executive Hid His Criminal Past to Turn His Life Around. What If He Didn't Have To?

of nationwide FHA loans had gone to White homebuyers. In Miller’s neighborhood, the White population declined from 43 percent to 6 percent between 1960 and 1970. By 1970, the poverty rate was at 26 percent, twice the national average. The... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Apparel & Accessories

Web

Finance - Faculty & Research

Mortgage Convexity By: Samuel G. Hanson Most home mortgages in the United States are fixed-rate loans with an embedded prepayment option. When long-term rates decline, the effective duration of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) falls due... View Details

September 2012 (Revised August 2015)
Case

Shanghai Pharmaceuticals

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Natalie Kindred

Shanghai Pharmaceuticals (SPH), a vertically integrated Chinese pharmaceutical conglomerate, was considering its strategic options in the context of a rapidly evolving industry, policy, and economic environment. The company—essentially a collection of subsidiaries... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Business Conglomerates; Vertical Integration; Decision Choices and Conditions; Mergers and Acquisitions; Consolidation; Health Care and Treatment; Global Strategy; State Ownership; Pharmaceutical Industry; Health Industry; Shanghai; United States; Europe

27 Feb 2024
Research & Ideas

Why Companies Should Share Their DEI Data (Even When It’s Unflattering)

share had doubled from two years earlier, after the murder of George Floyd thrust deep racial disparities into the national spotlight, prompting business leaders to reevaluate their DEI efforts, say the researchers. The role of business... View Details

Keywords: by Shalene Gupta

27 Sep 2018
Research & Ideas

Religion in the Workplace: What Managers Need to Know

such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” The ruling should spur business leaders to reflect on whether their own branding practices might discriminate against certain workers, van Bever says. “I assume a lot of... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Food & Beverage; Apparel & Accessories

November 2006 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Goodyear and the Threat of Government Tire Grading

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Dennis A. Yao and Elizabeth Raabe

In the spring of 1977, Goodyear CEO Charles J. Pilliod Jr. was looking at an internal report on government and legal events relevant to the tire industry. Two items caught his attention. First, he noticed that an industry suit to block the government's proposed system... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Lawsuits and Litigation; Auto Industry; Rubber Industry; United States

November 2014
Case

Napalm: From Soldiers Field to Trang Bang

By: Tom Nicholas and Jonas Peter Akins

Napalm is one of the most destructive weapons ever to be invented. Yet, at its original inception it was nothing more than a technical challenge, and it was never intended to be used in indiscriminate antipersonnel warfare. The pathway of its development by a Harvard... View Details

Keywords: Moral Sensibility; War; Chemicals; Research and Development; Chemical Industry; Viet Nam; Cambridge; United States