Publications

March 2011
Case

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Company in 2011

By: Willy Shih and Jia Cheng

When David Wang took over as the CEO of SMIC, he knew that if he was to capitalize on the company's strategic location in the China market, he would have to transform the company mindset and its operating structure from its roots in the manufacturing of DRAMs to the... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Resource Allocation; Market Entry and Exit; Business Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Customization and Personalization; Semiconductor Industry; China

February 2005
Case

Mahindra & Mahindra: Creating Scorpio

By: Tarun Khanna, Rajiv Lal and Merlina Manocaran

Details the emergence of a private sector automobile manufacturer in India that has created globally competitive and cheap versions of an SUV commonly available worldwide. Asks us to think about the parent corporation's next steps in leveraging this success. In... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Global Range; Multinational Firms and Management; Emerging Markets; Commercialization; Expansion; Auto Industry; India

June 1998 (Revised January 2001)
Case

Browser Wars, 1994-1998, The

By: David B. Yoffie and Mary Kwak

Analyzes the competition between Netscape and Microsoft in the market for Web browsers and related products. Despite its first mover advantage, Netscape sees its market share fall once Microsoft becomes "hard-core" about the Internet. By the spring of 1998, the future... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Internet and the Web; Innovation and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Competition; Supply and Industry; Information Technology Industry

16 Mar 2023
Blog Post

HySynergy and Crossbridge Energy

“chicken-and-egg” problem: Every energy producer needs off-takers (buyers) and the cooperative strategy between HySynergy and Crossbridge Energy reduces the first-mover risk in order to spur investment from both parties. Additionally, our... View Details

December 2011 (Revised April 2012)
Case

On Two Wheels in Paris: The Vélib' Bicycle-Sharing Program (Supplement)

By: Peter A. Coles and Elena Corsi

Keywords: Partners and Partnerships; Contracts; Negotiation; Growth and Development Strategy; Bicycle Industry; Paris

27 Sep 2021
News

AI Adoption Skyrocketed Over the Last 18 Months

01 Dec 2003
News

Meg's World

It’s been hard for eBay CEO Meg Whitman (MBA ’79) to stay out of the limelight lately. Fortune put her on the cover of its August 11 edition and named eBay eighth among the magazine’s “100 Fastest-Growing Companies.” CBS MarketWatch named Whitman the recipient of its... View Details

Keywords: Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

01 Sep 2010
News

Alumni Books

collapse, reveal how botched policy responses made a bad situation worse, and focus on lessons that the practice of finance must learn to avoid a repeat in the future. How to Be a Fierce Competitor: What Winning Companies and Great View Details

01 Dec 2011
News

A Modest Tax Proposal

them to defer American taxes forever on their foreign profitsÂ as long asÂ they were kept abroad.Â It would be unfair to suddenly impose a 20 percent tax on aÂ strategy that until now has been perfectly legitimate. This three-part... View Details

Keywords: Robert C. Pozen; tax holidays

08 Mar 2017
News

Energy Efficiency as a Common Purpose

less of our product. And we do that through innovative billing strategies that allow them to repay investments in their own household that make it more efficient on their utility bill. “The AMP program for me was a real life-changing... View Details

September 2016 (Revised September 2017)
Case

Collage.com: Scaling a Distributed Organization

By: Christopher Stanton and Shikhar Ghosh

Kevin Borders and Joe Golden, co-founders and co-CEOs of Collage.com, must decide how to grow their custom photo-products startup in the face of fierce competition. From 2011 through 2016, the business evolved from a hobby to a startup with $22 million in revenue and... View Details

Keywords: Remote Work; Internet and the Web; Organizational Structure; Competitive Strategy; Employees; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Service Industry

December 2013 (Revised July 2015)
Case

VP Group: Vegpro Grows Beyond Kenya

By: Jose Alvarez and Natalie Kindred

In 2013, Kenyan horticulture producer and exporter VP Group is weighing potential expansion opportunities against the growing risks in its production and export markets. With $121 million in 2012 revenues, VP Group has grown rapidly in recent years by expanding its... View Details

23 Nov 1999
Research & Ideas

The Future of the Venture Capital Cycle

long-run supply and demand conditions. In the short run, intense competition between private-equity groups may lead to a willingness to pay a premium for certain types of firms (e.g., firms specializing in tools and content for the Internet). This is unlikely to be a... View Details

Keywords: by Paul A. Gompers & Josh Lerner; Financial Services

20 Aug 2024
Blog Post

Chasing a Dream: My Summer Internship at Chelsea Football Club

Johann Farhat (MBA 2025) holds a Civil Engineering degree from the American University of Beirut. After graduating, he spent three years in management consulting at Strategy& in Dubai before moving to Madrid to work at Amazon for... View Details

01 Sep 2009
News

E Ink’s Wild Ride

Chappell Russ Wilcox (MBA ’95) was two years out of HBS, married to classmate Gina Wilcox and working as a strategy consultant following a stint as a product manager at a Boston-area technology firm. But he... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; e-books; e-reading; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; Information; Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing; Manufacturing

March 2005
Article

Sovereign Debt As a Contingent Claim: A Quantitative Approach

By: Laura Alfaro and Fabio Kanczuk

We construct a dynamic equilibrium model with contingent service and adverse selection to quantitatively study sovereign debt. In the model, benefits of defaulting are tempered by higher future interest rates. For a wide set of parameters, the only equilibrium is one... View Details

Keywords: Sovereign Finance; Borrowing and Debt; Interest Rates; Balance and Stability; Risk and Uncertainty; Risk Management; Mathematical Methods; Management Style; Segmentation; Debt Securities; Banking Industry