Publications

2016
Working Paper

Do Network Dynamics Undermine Idea-based Network Advantages? Experimental Results from an Entrepreneurship Bootcamp

By: Rembrand Koning

Do networks plentiful in ideas provide early stage startups with performance advantages? On the one hand, network positions that provide access to a multitude of ideas are thought to increase team performance. On the other hand, research on network formation argues... View Details

Keywords: Networks; Performance; Business Startups; Business Strategy

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Student-Profile

Professor Maria Roche

Making An Impact through Collaboration The doctoral program in Strategy allows students to conduct research on how businesses and industries around the world can develop and sustain a competitive advantage.... View Details

15 Dec 2008
Research & Ideas

The Surprisingly Successful Marriages of Multinationals and Social Brands

What happens when giant multinational corporations acquire relatively small companies that enjoy iconic status as socially progressive brands? According to recent research out of Harvard Business School, such marriages can be good for... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Consumer Products; Food & Beverage

October 1981 (Revised June 1982)
Case

Concept Devices, Inc.: International Market Entry

Concept is a highly touted startup venture in distributed data processing computers. The company has only made one sale to date, but has an order backlog for its unique product and expects an almost vertical growth curve. The company has been courted seriously by... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Business Startups; Computer Industry; France; United Kingdom

14 Oct 2013
Research & Ideas

Blockbuster! Why Star Power Works

quite risky—a few blockbuster flops can bring a company to ruin—the strategy is the best bet for entertainment companies to succeed over the long run, according to Anita Elberse, the Lincoln Filene Professor of View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Entertainment & Recreation

07 Apr 2021
News

Why Do Startups Fail?

August 2021
Case

BYJU’S: EdTech Giant Investing in Brick and Mortar

By: John J-H Kim and Rachna Tahilyani

The founder and CEO of BYJU’S, India’s largest edtech firm and one of the world’s most valuable edtech companies, is considering acquiring Aakash Educational Services (Aakash), one of India’s largest brick-and-mortar test-prep firms, for $1 billion. Is this a good... View Details

Keywords: Edtech; Business Strategy; Diversification; Investment; Acquisition; Education Industry; Asia; India; United States

September 2000 (Revised October 2006)
Teaching Note

Wildfire Communications, Inc. (A) and (B) (TN)

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and John T. Gourville

Teaching Note for (9-396-305) and (9-396-306). View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Performance Effectiveness; Business Processes; Digital Platforms; Business Strategy; Markets

08 Oct 2014
Research & Ideas

Who Is the Chief Sustainability Officer?

shows. Innovation: A select number of companies shift to a more advanced innovative stage by integrating sustainability into the core of the business in ways that transform the company. Strategies tend to be... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Manufacturing

01 Sep 2009
News

Noted & Quoted

Michael Porter on health-care reform strategy (New England Journal of Medicine, July 9, 2009). “There are relatively fewer and fewer consumers willing to pay a premium or suffer a deficit in product quality in order to be patriotic and... View Details

Keywords: Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training

August 1986
Article

Global High-tech Sangyou: Kawaritsutsu aru Kyousou no Gensoku (Global High-tech Industries: Changing Paradigms of Competition)

By: Hirotaka Takeuchi

Keywords: Business Ventures; Competition

Find at Harvard

04 Sep 2013
News

How Relevant is Long-Range Strategic Planning?

Keywords: Rita Gunther McGrath; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management

02 Feb 2015
Research & Ideas

Disruptors Sell What Customers Want and Let Competitors Sell What They Don’t

Despite this upheaval, it seemed some businesses were immune to the digital onslaught—companies whose products and services couldn't be easily turned into 1's and 0's and put online. "A television set can't be digitized. A telephone can't... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

10 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

The Surprising Winners and Losers in the Retail Revolution

1999 and 2000 when Pets.com came along; they dreamed up this strategy very early on. To me, it's a lesson on just smart strategic leadership. They saw the threat and came up with a smart strategy that placed... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

15 Oct 2024
Research & Ideas

We Have Better Ways to Break Habits Than Willpower. Why Don't We Use Them?

making people feel more comfortable using them,” Zlatev says. “If a manager puts one of these strategies in place, it’s not the employee’s decision, so that might lessen the negative evaluation.” In a View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

March 1989 (Revised April 1990)
Case

Merton Truck Co.

Introduces some of the key concepts in linear programming--problem formulation, relevant costs, shadow prices, and reduced costs. The setting, while artificial, is quite typical: a company manufactures two models of trucks in four manufacturing departments; it must... View Details

Keywords: Production; Decision Making; Business Strategy; Manufacturing Industry

2025
Working Paper

The Extent and Drivers of Internal Agglomeration of U.S. Multi-Unit Firms

By: Juan Alcácer and Jasmina Chauvin

This paper examines the extent and determinants of internal agglomeration—the spatial clustering of establishments within firms. It introduces a novel methodology that benchmarks a firm’s spatial footprint against that of comparable stand-alone firms, yielding a... View Details

Keywords: Multi-unit Firms; Agglomeration; Spatial Organization; Economies Of Scope; Organizational Design; Diversification; Corporate Strategy; Business Units