Filter Results:
(2,579)
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(8,904)
- Faculty Publications (2,579)
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(8,904)
- Faculty Publications (2,579)
- March–April 2020
- Article
What's Really Holding Women Back? It's Not What Most People Think
By: R. Ely and Irene Padavic
Ask people to explain why women remain so dramatically underrepresented in the senior ranks of most companies, and you will hear from the vast majority a lament that goes something like this: High-level jobs require extremely long hours, women's devotion to family... View Details
Keywords: Overwork; Employment; Gender; Equality and Inequality; Work-Life Balance; Organizational Culture
Ely, R., and Irene Padavic. "What's Really Holding Women Back? It's Not What Most People Think." Harvard Business Review 98, no. 2 (March–April 2020): 58–67.
- March 2020
- Case
ZEISS Group: Organize by Customer Culture?
By: Willy C. Shih
How should ZEISS, the German manufacturer of precision optical and optoelectronic systems manage two historic businesses that operated fairly autonomously? The Industrial Quality Solutions (IQS) business sold measurement equipment to manufacturing companies in sectors... View Details
Shih, Willy C. "ZEISS Group: Organize by Customer Culture?" Harvard Business School Case 620-103, March 2020.
- February 2020
- Case
Leading Change in Talent at L'Oréal
By: Lakshmi Ramarajan, Vincent Dessain and Emer Moloney
Jean-Claude Le Grand just stepped into a new role as Executive Vice-President for Human Resources at the global cosmetics company, L’Oréal. He is now responsible for the hiring, development, promotion, and retention of 83,000 employees worldwide. The highly successful... View Details
Keywords: Advertising; Business Headquarters; Business Divisions; Business Organization; Change; Change Management; Transformation; Competency and Skills; Experience and Expertise; Talent and Talent Management; Demographics; Diversity; Gender; Nationality; Multinational Firms and Management; Human Resources; Employees; Recruitment; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Innovation and Management; Jobs and Positions; Employment; Human Capital; Leadership; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Management Practices and Processes; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Product Marketing; Organizations; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Personal Development and Career; Planning; Strategic Planning; Problems and Challenges; Networks; Social Psychology; Attitudes; Power and Influence; Social and Collaborative Networks; Business Strategy; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; France; Paris
Ramarajan, Lakshmi, Vincent Dessain, and Emer Moloney. "Leading Change in Talent at L'Oréal." Harvard Business School Case 420-106, February 2020.
- February 2020 (Revised June 2020)
- Background Note
China Commerce 2020
By: William R. Kerr, Daniel O'Connor and Nathaniel Schwalb
China's digital commerce platforms engage billions of consumers daily across a number of routine tasks from banking, retail purchases, travel, gaming, payments, and more. These platforms are the most sophisticated/informed and highest performing/capable in the world.... View Details
Keywords: Platforms; Strategy; Leadership; E-commerce; Digital Platforms; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; China
Kerr, William R., Daniel O'Connor, and Nathaniel Schwalb. "China Commerce 2020." Harvard Business School Background Note 820-014, February 2020. (Revised June 2020.)
- February 2020
- Teaching Note
Essential Explorations at MUJI
By: Tomomichi Amano and Das Narayandas
Launched as a private brand in 1980 to counter the increasingly brand-conscious consumer in Japan, MUJI offered beautifully designed, fairly priced, no-frills quality goods. The once modest private label brand with 40 products had expanded significantly by 2019 to more... View Details
- February 2020 (Revised April 2021)
- Case
StockX: The Stock Market of Things
By: Chiara Farronato, John J. Horton, Annelena Lobb and Julia Kelley
Founded in 2015 by Dan Gilbert, Josh Luber, and Greg Schwartz, StockX was an online platform where users could buy and sell unworn luxury and limited-edition sneakers. Sneaker resale prices often fluctuated over time based on supply and demand, creating a robust... View Details
Keywords: Markets; Auctions; Bids and Bidding; Demand and Consumers; Consumer Behavior; Analytics and Data Science; Market Design; Digital Platforms; Market Transactions; Marketplace Matching; Supply and Industry; Analysis; Price; Product Marketing; Product Launch; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; North and Central America; United States; Michigan; Detroit
Farronato, Chiara, John J. Horton, Annelena Lobb, and Julia Kelley. "StockX: The Stock Market of Things." Harvard Business School Case 620-062, February 2020. (Revised April 2021.)
- Article
Under Armour Dumped Its App, and Consumers Feel the Heartbreak
Kominers, Scott Duke. "Under Armour Dumped Its App, and Consumers Feel the Heartbreak." Bloomberg Opinion (February 5, 2020).
- 2020
- Working Paper
The Effects of Information on Credit Market Competition: Evidence from Credit Cards
By: C. Fritz Foley, Agustin Hurtado, Andres Liberman and Alberto Sepulveda
We show empirically that public credit information increases competition in credit markets. We access data that cover all credit card borrowers in Chile and include details about relationship borrowers have with each lender. We exploit a natural experiment whereby a... View Details
Keywords: Consumer Credit; Financial Intermediaries; Credit; Information; Competition; Credit Cards; Financial Institutions
Foley, C. Fritz, Agustin Hurtado, Andres Liberman, and Alberto Sepulveda. "The Effects of Information on Credit Market Competition: Evidence from Credit Cards." Working Paper, February 2020.
- February 2020
- Article
Why Prosocial Referral Incentives Work: The Interplay of Reputational Benefits and Action Costs
By: Rachel Gershon, Cynthia Cryder and Leslie K. John
While selfish incentives typically outperform prosocial incentives, in the context of customer referral rewards, prosocial incentives can be more effective. Companies frequently offer “selfish” (i.e., sender-benefiting) referral incentives, offering customers financial... View Details
Keywords: Incentives; Prosocial Behavior; Judgment And Decision-making; Referral Rewards; Motivation and Incentives; Consumer Behavior; Decision Making
Gershon, Rachel, Cynthia Cryder, and Leslie K. John. "Why Prosocial Referral Incentives Work: The Interplay of Reputational Benefits and Action Costs." Journal of Marketing Research (JMR) 57, no. 1 (February 2020): 156–172.
- 2020
- Working Paper
How Do Private Equity Fees Vary Across Public Pensions?
By: Juliane Begenau and Emil Siriwardane
We study how investment fees vary within private-capital funds. Net-of-fee return clustering suggests that most funds have two tiers of fees, and we decompose differences across tiers into both management and performance-based fees. Managers of venture capital funds... View Details
Keywords: Pension Funds; Fee Dispersion; Search And Negotiation Frictions; Private Equity; Investment Funds
Begenau, Juliane, and Emil Siriwardane. "How Do Private Equity Fees Vary Across Public Pensions?" Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-073, January 2020. (This working paper has been subsumed by the published paper "Fee Variation in Private Equity." Please see the final version of this paper under "Journal Articles.")
- January 2020 (Revised April 2020)
- Teaching Note
Brandless: Disrupting Consumer Packaged Goods
By: Jill Avery
Brandless, an online direct-to-consumer seller of upscale private-label consumer packaged goods (CPG), offered consumers a limited assortment of values-conscious products delivered directly to their homes with the simplicity of one fixed $3.00 price point that promised... View Details
- 2020
- Working Paper
Reinventing Retail: The Novel Resurgence of Independent Bookstores
By: Ryan Raffaelli
This study examines how community-based brick-and-mortar retailers can achieve sustained market growth in the face of online and big box retail competition. The appearance of Amazon.com in 1995 led to a significant decline in the number of independent bookstores in the... View Details
Keywords: Bookstores; Competitive Strategy; Business and Community Relations; Customization and Personalization; Growth and Development; Retail Industry; United States
Raffaelli, Ryan. "Reinventing Retail: The Novel Resurgence of Independent Bookstores." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-068, January 2020.
- January 2020
- Case
Ureed.com: The Marketplace for Language
By: Ashley V. Whillans, Esel Çekin and Alpana Thapar
Jordanian entrepreneur, Nour Al Hassan, founded Tarjama in 2008, tapping into an underserved and high demand need: Arabic translation service. Its lean model comprised of hiring full-time employees, mainly women, who worked from home. It steadily grew over the... View Details
Keywords: Language Translation; Freelancers; Entrepreneurship; Human Resources; Management; Expansion; Quality; Growth and Development Strategy
Whillans, Ashley V., Esel Çekin, and Alpana Thapar. "Ureed.com: The Marketplace for Language." Harvard Business School Case 920-038, January 2020.
- January 2020 (Revised May 2020)
- Case
Direct to Consumer Brands
By: Sunil Gupta
Recent years have seen the dramatic rise of direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands by several startups. Many of these brands, such as Dollar Shave Club, Harry’s, Glossier, and Allbirds, entered mature markets dominated by established companies, and yet they grew rapidly to... View Details
Keywords: Direct-to-consumer; Digital Marketing; Industry Evolution; Business Startups; Internet and the Web; Brands and Branding; Marketing; Change
Gupta, Sunil. "Direct to Consumer Brands." Harvard Business School Case 520-060, January 2020. (Revised May 2020.)
- January 2020
- Case
The June Oven
By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Christian Godwin
The June Oven was a smart oven which was capable of identifying food and cooking it accordingly. This type of smart oven represented the next step in the long history of oven and stove development. Due to the widespread use of traditional ovens, the market for the June... View Details
Keywords: Business Ventures; Trends; Customers; Design; Entrepreneurship; Food; Goods and Commodities; Innovation and Invention; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Demand and Consumers; Distribution; Product Development; Sales; Information Technology; Internet and the Web; Applications and Software; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States
Schlesinger, Leonard A., and Christian Godwin. "The June Oven." Harvard Business School Case 320-067, January 2020.
- January 2020
- Article
Compensation Consultants and the Level, Composition, and Complexity of CEO Pay
By: Kevin J. Murphy and Tatiana Sandino
We provide fresh evidence regarding the relation between compensation consultants and CEO pay. First, firms that employ consultants have higher-paid CEOs—this result is robust to firm fixed effects and matching on economic and governance variables. Second, while this... View Details
Keywords: Consultants; Benchmarking; Incentive Pay; Executive Compensation; Complexity; Motivation and Incentives; Governance
Murphy, Kevin J., and Tatiana Sandino. "Compensation Consultants and the Level, Composition, and Complexity of CEO Pay." Accounting Review 95, no. 1 (January 2020): 311–341.
- 2021
- Working Paper
Recovering Investor Expectations from Demand for Index Funds
By: Mark Egan, Alexander J. MacKay and Hanbin Yang
We use a revealed-preference approach to estimate investor expectations of stock market returns. Using data on demand for index funds that follow the S&P 500, we develop and estimate a model of investor choice to flexibly recover the time-varying distribution of... View Details
Keywords: Stock Market Expectations; Demand Estimation; Exchange-traded Funds (ETFs); Demand and Consumers; Investment; United States
Egan, Mark, Alexander J. MacKay, and Hanbin Yang. "Recovering Investor Expectations from Demand for Index Funds." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 26608, January 2020. (Accepted at the Review of Economic Studies. Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-122, May 2020. Direct download. Revised July 2021.)
- December 2019
- Case
Steemit: A New Social Media?
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Alexander White and Karen Elterman
This case discusses the alternative social media site Steemit, including the principles it was founded on in 2016 and the challenges it faced in 2019. Steemit was a blockchain-based platform that aimed to differentiate itself from other social media companies by... View Details
Keywords: Decision Making; Decisions; Voting; Economic Systems; Money; Fairness; Values and Beliefs; Goals and Objectives; Digital Platforms; Product Design; Design; Problems and Challenges; Network Effects; Motivation and Incentives; Social and Collaborative Networks; Reputation; Business Strategy; Competition; Internet and the Web; Social Media; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States; Virginia; New York (city, NY)
Casadesus-Masanell, Ramon, Alexander White, and Karen Elterman. "Steemit: A New Social Media?" Harvard Business School Case 720-428, December 2019.
- December 2019 (Revised January 2021)
- Supplement
The Leveraged Buyout of TXU: (B) Energy Future Holdings
By: Trevor Fetter, Erik Snowberg and Rebecca M. Henderson
This case is designed to support a lively discussion about the relative merits of shareholder vs. stakeholder perspectives in the context of a company that provides a vital public service that has important environmental implications. The 2007 purchase of TXU, the... View Details
Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Transformation; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Environmental Sustainability; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Energy Generation; Utilities Industry; Energy Industry; Texas
Fetter, Trevor, Erik Snowberg, and Rebecca M. Henderson. "The Leveraged Buyout of TXU: (B) Energy Future Holdings." Harvard Business School Supplement 320-065, December 2019. (Revised January 2021.)
- December 2019 (Revised June 2025)
- Case
Mãe Terra and Unilever (A)
By: Lynn S. Paine, Ruth Costas and Priscilla Zogbi
The case concerns the sale of Mãe Terra, one of Brazil's leading brands for packaged organic foods, to the consumer goods giant Unilever in 2017. Working with Unilever management, Mãe Terra’s CEO Alexandre Borges must determine whether and how to keep Mãe Terra's B... View Details
Keywords: Mergers & Acquisitions; Brand Management; Sustainability; Mergers and Acquisitions; Mission and Purpose; Social Enterprise; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Environmental Sustainability; Organizational Culture; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Brazil; Latin America
Paine, Lynn S., Ruth Costas, and Priscilla Zogbi. "Mãe Terra and Unilever (A)." Harvard Business School Case 320-075, December 2019. (Revised June 2025.)