Publications

2018
Book

American Fair Trade: Proprietary Capitalism, Corporatism, and the 'New Competition,' 1890–1940

By: Laura Phillips Sawyer

American Fair Trade explores the contested political and legal meanings of the term fair trade from the late nineteenth century through the New Deal era. This history of American capitalism argues that business associations partnered with regulators to... View Details

Keywords: Economic Systems; Competition; Policy; Fairness; History; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; United States

March 2011
Article

Institutional Demand Pressure and the Cost of Corporate Loans

By: Victoria Ivashina and Zheng Sun

Between 2001 and 2007, annual institutional funding in highly leveraged loans went up from $32 billion to $426 billion, accounting for nearly 70% of the jump in total syndicated loan issuance over the same period. Did the inflow of institutional funding in the... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Financial Crisis; Credit; Debt Securities; Financing and Loans; Interest Rates; Investment

SSRN

Find at Harvard

February 1998 (Revised February 1999)
Case

Amway Japan Limited

In April 1997, the president of Amway Japan (AJL, Tokyo, Japan), pondered how to reverse the first performance decline the company has experienced since entering the Japanese direct selling market in 1979. Established as the tenth overseas subsidiary of Amway Corp. of... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Motivation and Incentives; Business Subsidiaries; Distribution Channels; Customer Satisfaction; Consumer Products Industry; Michigan; Tokyo

September 2011
Article

The Labor Illusion: How Operational Transparency Increases Perceived Value

By: Ryan W. Buell and Michael I. Norton

A ubiquitous feature of even the fastest self-service technology transactions is the wait. Conventional wisdom and operations theory suggests that the longer people wait, the less satisfied they become; we demonstrate that due to what we term the labor illusion, when... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Perception; Valuation; Service Delivery; Consumer Behavior; Performance Effectiveness; Customer Satisfaction; Service Industry

01 Mar 2024
News

Counter Intelligence

markets and expands into new ones, Pret has announced that it’s on track to double in size by the end of 2026. “We’ve come through the crisis,” Christou says. “We have a product that is very well-tailored, I think, for the consumers of... View Details

Keywords: Amy Crawford

09 Nov 2023
Blog Post

The No. 1 Character Trait You Will Need to Succeed in Business

of FrameBridge. You need to decide whether to expand into a market your business knows almost nothing about or stick with providing a service that you know will eventually become obsolete. This choice echoes the challenges tackled by John... View Details

Web

Global Opportunity Fellowship GO: AFRICA - Alumni

product/service and its core value proposition. Describe your business model. Describe its stage of development (concept, prototype, beta, growth, etc.). Describe your primary source of competitive advantage. Summarize plans include developing [x, y, and z] in [year or... View Details

29 Oct 2013
First Look

First Look: October 29

since the 1980s has coincided with a strong revival in interest in local traditions and practices, which is particularly noticeable in some of the fastest growing emerging markets such as China. Working Papers Do Measures of Financial... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

18 Nov 2014
First Look

First Look: November 18

Publications November 2014 Wiley Encyclopedia of Management Management as a Profession By: Khurana, Rakesh, and Eric Baldwin Abstract—No abstract available. Publisher's link: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1119972515.html November 2014 View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

Finding Talent Opportunities

lead to the most rewarding opportunities. Career Risks and Professional Growth: Finding a Fulfilling Career with Paige Arnof-Fenn (MBA 1991) Paige Arnof-Fenn 22 JAN 2025 Paige Arnof-Fenn (MBA 1991) used her time at HBS to reimagine her career, transitioning from... View Details

August 2020 (Revised December 2020)
Case

Latam Airlines and COVID-19: Seeking Bankruptcy Protection in the United States

By: Laura Alfaro, Mauricio Larrain, Carlos Vilches and Sarah Jeong

On May 26, 2020, Latam Airlines became the largest airline in the world to be driven to bankruptcy by COVID-19. With a complex debt structure and international investor composition, the company decided to file for bankruptcy protection in the United States, which... View Details

Keywords: Airlines; Pandemic; Coronavirus Pandemic; Health Pandemics; Air Transportation; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Capital Markets; Strategy; Latin America; Chile; United States

August 2007 (Revised September 2007)
Case

Gome: Bidding for China Paradise

Gome, China's largest electronics retailer, has the opportunity to acquire China Paradise, the number three player in the Chinese electronic retailer industry. This happened in the general context of a great market development and potential consolidation of the... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Trade; Market Entry and Exit; Performance; Opportunities; Competition; Consolidation; Corporate Strategy; Electronics Industry; Retail Industry; China