Publications

January 2004
Article

Corporate Venturing: The Origins of Unilever's Pregnancy Test

By: Geoffrey Jones and Alison Kraft

The relative ability of different sizes of firm and organisational designs to develop and sustain dynamic capabilities in innovation and create new businesses remains a matter of contention. While Chandler among many others has emphasised the pre-eminent role of large... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Organizational Design; Technological Innovation; Business Startups; Venture Capital; Brands and Branding; Multinational Firms and Management; Product Development; Product Launch; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Great Britain

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Featured Topics - Faculty & Research

Featured Topics Business and Environment Business History Entrepreneurship Finance Globalization Health Care Human Behavior and Decision-Making Leadership Social Enterprise Technology and Innovation... View Details

14 Dec 2016
HBS Seminar

Siobhan O'Mahony and Rebecca Karp, Boston University

November 1998 (Revised June 1999)
Case

MedSim

An Israeli high-tech start-up has developed an innovative simulator which makes possible non-patient training in medical ultrasound. The marketing function moves to the United States, the largest market, while other functions remain in Israel. The case describes a... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Training; Health Care and Treatment; Problems and Challenges; Business Startups; Globalized Markets and Industries; Technology Industry; Health Industry; Israel; United States

30 May 2005
Research & Ideas

Germany’s Pioneering Corporate Managers

When you think about which countries have produced the greatest management innovations, the United States and Japan are likely to top your list. But it was Germany in the late 1800s and early 1900s that was a cauldron of innovative and... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

22 Mar 2011
First Look

First Look: March 22

to use credit to build assets and finance consumption. Moving Forward explores what caused the crisis and, more important, focuses on the path ahead. The challenge remains the same as ever: protect consumers, ensure fairness, and guarantee soundness of the financial... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

22 May 2012
First Look

First Look: May 22

firms-triggered a global initiative that eventually spanned more than 900 BCG teams in 30 countries across five continents. These teams confronted their nonstop workweeks and changed the way they worked, becoming more efficient and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2024 (Revised March 2025)
Case

Burn the Gondolas? Venice, the Ghetto, and the Seasons of Capitalism

By: Sophus A. Reinert, Charlotte Robertson and Robert Fredona

This case uses the history of Venice—from the driving of the first pylons in the lagoon to the abdication of the city’s last doge, across the ages of Marco Polo and Vivaldi—to explore the invention and global diffusion of capitalism, as well as the cyclical rise and... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; History; Power and Influence; Prejudice and Bias; Economic Systems; Italy

May–June 2025
Article

Sustainability as a Business-Model Transformation

By: Ivanka Visnjic, Felipe Monteiro and Michael L. Tushman

Many global companies have made public commitments to sustainability targets. Fulfilling these commitments will require firms to transform their business models and organizational architectures. A few pioneers are leading the way, demonstrating that companies can make... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Business Model

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12 Feb 2001
Research & Ideas

Creating Value Across Borders

With many of today's entrepreneurs starting ventures simultaneously in several countries, it is critical for the global businessperson to understand the financial and business environments in different countries and to accurately assess... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

Web

Capstone | MBA

at parsing the complexities of medical research. The capstone lets students demonstrate to their advisors (and to themselves) that they have the foundation to successfully enter any new field of scientific interest – not only as researchers, or only as executives, but... View Details

September 2023 (Revised January 2024)
Case

AI21 Labs in 2023: Strategy for Generative AI

By: David Yoffie, Orna Dan and Elena Corsi

Israeli generative artificial intelligence company AI21 Labs was founded in 2017 to realize the vision of true machine intelligence. It sought to reinvent writing and reading and in 2020 it launched Wordtune, an app using GenAI software to offer alternate text... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; AI and Machine Learning; Innovation Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Applications and Software; Competitive Strategy; Technology Industry; Israel

2010
Book

International Differences in Entrepreneurship

By: Josh Lerner and Antoinette Schoar

Often considered one of the major forces behind economic growth and development, the entrepreneurial firm can accelerate the speed of innovation and dissemination of new technologies, thus increasing a country's competitive edge in the global market. As a result,... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Economic Growth; Entrepreneurship; Globalized Economies and Regions; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Supply and Industry; Business and Government Relations

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22 Jul 2002
Research & Ideas

How Business Strategy Tamed the “Invisible Hand”

Ghemawat The organizational challenges involved in World War II were a vital stimulus to strategic thinking. The problem of allocating scarce resources across the entire economy in wartime led to many innovations in management science.... View Details

Keywords: by Pankaj Ghemawat

Jeffrey T. Polzer

Jeff Polzer is the UPS Foundation Professor of Human Resource Management in the Organizational Behavior Unit at Harvard Business School. He studies how people collaborate in teams and across organizational networks to accomplish their individual and collective... View Details

September 2008 (Revised February 2009)
Case

Ocean Tomo: Building a Market for Intellectual Property

By: Peter A. Coles, Andrei Hagiu and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

Ocean Tomo's management team sought to turn the company into the leading intermediary for intellectual property. Despite its increasingly important role in the global marketplace, IP remained a notoriously illiquid asset—difficult to value, harder to trade, and often... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Markets and Industries; Intellectual Property; Resource Allocation; Auctions; Market Design; Service Operations

2 Sep 2021
Interview

Amy Edmondson

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Deepak Jayaraman

Amy C. Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School. Amy has been recognized by the biannual Thinkers50 global ranking of management thinkers since 2011, and most recently was ranked #3 in 2019. She studies teaming,... View Details

Keywords: Psychological Safety; Organizational Culture; Communication; Performance Effectiveness