Publications

08 Oct 2020
Research & Ideas

Keep Your Weary Workers Engaged and Motivated

poor performance. This should be based on metrics that are clearly tied to the company’s mission. Note that we say performance, and not performers. Performance may be based on factors besides the talent and motivation of the individual in question, such as job or View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

26 Oct 2021
Research & Ideas

What Companies Want Most in a CEO: A Good Listener

basic social capabilities are perceived to play a key role for the success of complex and information intensive organizations. It is unclear, however, whether the supply of social skills in the managerial labor market has been able to... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

October 2010
Case

Narragansett Brewing Company

By: Tom Nicholas, Lindsey Marshall and Charles Anthony Miller

Mark Hellendrung, CEO of Narragansett Brewing Company, is deciding whether to partner with a local television station for the upcoming NHL Winter Classic outdoor hockey game between New England's own Boston Bruins and the Philadelphia Flyers at Fenway Park. He had... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Business Strategy; Sports; Financial Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Investment; United States

24 Dec 2013
First Look

First Look: December 24

Mature Field: Swiss Watchmaking, 1970-2008 By: Raffaelli, Ryan Abstract—I examine the processes and mechanisms whereby market demand for a "dying" technology re-emerges at a later date. In 1983, fourteen years after the... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

December 2007 (Revised April 2008)
Case

Alltech...naturally

By: David E. Bell and Mary L. Shelman

Entrepreneur Pearse Lyons had built Alltech into the fastest growing company in the global animal health industry through innovative technology, creative marketing, and strong branding. Sel-Plex, a proprietary Alltech product, had shown important health benefits for... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Leadership Development; Customer Focus and Relationships; Expansion; Technological Innovation; Intellectual Property; Sales; Value Creation; Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; Health Industry

July 2007 (Revised July 2008)
Case

The Beijing Dream

By: Arthur I Segel, Voon Siang Lee, Jialei Tian and Ying Laura Wang

The purchase of a single-family home is generally the major investment for most young couples in China. Shows in detail the process that a young couple goes through in late April 2007 to find, finance, and close on an apartment in Beijing within what they believe to be... View Details

Keywords: Property; Investment; Cost; Emerging Markets; Financing and Loans; Acquisition; Activity Based Costing and Management; Internet and the Web; Management Practices and Processes; Real Estate Industry; Beijing; United States

February 2010 (Revised October 2010)
Case

YouTube: Time to Charge Users?

By: Anita Elberse and Sunil Gupta

In January 2010, YouTube, the world's largest online video aggregator, was still seeking to become profitable. Was the time right for Google, YouTube's parent company, to charge users seeking to upload content, as some analysts had suggested—and if so, who should be... View Details

Keywords: Digital Marketing; Business Model; Cost; Profit; Revenue; Consumer Behavior; Internet and the Web; Motion Pictures and Video Industry

Web

About - Behavioral Finance & Financial Stability

Harvard Business School and launched in July 2016, supports research collaborations between faculty and students across Harvard to understand, predict, and prevent financial instability. The BFFS project occasionally invites globally renowned scholars, policymakers,... View Details

December 1990 (Revised November 1992)
Case

Anheuser-Busch and Campbell Taggart

In 1984, the SEC accused Paul Thayer and eight others of insider trading. Some of Thayer's inside information came from his position on the board of Anheuser-Busch, where he had learned about Busch's 1982 merger with Campbell Taggart before the merger was publicly... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Capital Markets; Manufacturing Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

13 Nov 2013
Research & Ideas

Should Men’s Products Fear a Woman’s Touch?

really goes away. Since the dawn of advertising, retailers have made a point of marketing separate lines of branded products for men and women in many categories, even in cases where their functions are essentially the same. It's a... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Consumer Products; Food & Beverage; Auto

March 2002 (Revised November 2003)
Case

Satellite Radio

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Alastair Brown

In early 2002, XM and Sirius were fighting for control of the emerging U.S. market for satellite radio. Each company targeted consumers in automobiles, providing 100 channels of CD-quality audio for a monthly subscription fee of $10-$13. Wall Street analysts predicted... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Price; Risk and Uncertainty; Problems and Challenges; Network Effects; Partners and Partnerships; Information Technology; Business Model; Investment Return; Auto Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; United States

September 1986
Case

BOC Group: Ohmeda (A)

The president of Ohmeda, a wholly owned company of the BOC Group, plans to grow the company's medical equipment sales from $95 million in 1985 to $158 million in five years by focusing on the sale of "high-tech" equipment. At the same time, the president expects to... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Communications; Salesforce Management; Marketing Channels; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

April 2019 (Revised July 2019)
Case

Aperture Investors

By: Krishna G. Palepu, George Serafeim and David Lane

Aperture Investors is a startup investment firm that seeks to disrupt the asset management industry through competitive differentiation by charging investors primarily when its portfolio managers outperform the marketplace. Headed by Wall Street veteran Peter Kraus and... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Talent and Talent Management; Investment; Investment Funds; Asset Management; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Marketing Channels; Emerging Markets; Partners and Partnerships; Motivation and Incentives; Financial Services Industry

17 Jan 2018
Research & Ideas

If the CEO’s High Salary Isn't Justified to Employees, Firm Performance May Suffer

employee pay (such as worker performance and labor market characteristics), as well as the “unexplained pay ratio”—the portion of pay disparity not driven by economic factors. Rouen then studied how these measures of pay disparity... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

May 1994 (Revised December 1997)
Case

Sealed Air Corporation 's Leveraged Recapitalization (A)

Less than a year after Sealed Air embarked on a program to improve manufacturing efficiency and product quality, the company borrowed almost 90% of the market value of its common stock and paid it out as a special dividend to shareholders. Management purposefully and... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Corporate Finance; Manufacturing Industry

February 1994 (Revised September 1995)
Case

Leland O'Brien Rubinstein Associates, Inc.: Portfolio Insurance

By: Peter Tufano

Leland O'Brien Rubinstein Associates, a small financial advisory firm founded in 1980, has created a successful business by selling a product commonly known as portfolio insurance. Portfolio insurance is a trading strategy that institutional investors use to establish... View Details

Keywords: Investment Portfolio; Insurance; Product; Financial Services Industry

November 2006
Case

Santander's Acquisition of Abbey: Banking across Borders

Banco Santander, Spain's largest commercial bank, announced in July 2004 the acquisition of Abbey National Bank, the fifth largest U.K. commercial bank. This transaction was the largest ever cross-border acquisition in European banking and would result in the... View Details

Keywords: Integration; Value Creation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Globalization; Commercial Banking; Banking Industry; United Kingdom; European Union; Spain

October 2001 (Revised November 2002)
Case

Herman Miller (A): Innovation by Design

By: Sandra J. Sucher and Stacy McManus

Gary Van Spronsen, president of Miller SQA, has been asked to leave the thriving subsidiary he helped to reinvent to join Herman Miller's corporate initiative on innovation. Miller SQA has pioneered processes new to the Herman Miller organization, such as... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Product Design; Product Development; Supply Chain Management; Business Model; Organizations; Values and Beliefs; Manufacturing Industry; Consumer Products Industry