Publications

June 2024
Article

Oral History and Business History in Emerging Markets

By: Geoffrey Jones

This article describes the motivation, structure and use of the Creating Emerging Markets (CEM) oral history-based project at the Harvard Business School. The project consists of lengthy interviews with business leaders from emerging markets. By June 2024 183... View Details

Keywords: Emerging Economies; Oral History; Emerging Markets; Business History; Research

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March 2022 (Revised January 2025)
Technical Note

Statistical Inference

By: Iavor I. Bojinov, Michael Parzen and Paul Hamilton

This note provides an overview of statistical inference for an introductory data science course. First, the note discusses samples and populations. Next the note describes how to calculate confidence intervals for means and proportions. Then it walks through the logic... View Details

Keywords: Data Science; Statistics; Mathematical Modeling; Mathematical Methods; Analytics and Data Science

November 2005 (Revised February 2007)
Case

Governing Sumida Corporation

By: Lynn S. Paine, Masako Egawa, Chisato Toyama and Kim Bettcher

Describes the corporate governance changes adopted by Japan's Sumida Corp. between 1999 and 2005, setting them in the context of changes in Japan's commercial code during this period. Sumida was the first Japanese company to adopt a new U.S.-inspired "committee system"... View Details

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards; Corporate Governance; Change Management; Business or Company Management; Management Teams; Law; Japan

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Teaching Interest

Overview

I served as a Teaching Fellow for the Applied Business Analytics second-year MBA course. This course sought to teach MBA students how businesses can improve their strategic decisions using statistics and machine learning techniques. (e.g., regression models, random... View Details

Keywords: Analytics; Machine Learning; Statistics

October 2009 (Revised March 2011)
Case

Qualcomm Incorporated 2009

By: David B. Yoffie, Andrei Hagiu and Elizabeth A. Kind

Paul Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm Incorporated, smiled as he reflected on the success of Qualcomm's code division multiple access (CDMA) technology. By the summer of 2009, CDMA was the basis for all third generation technologies available for cellular... View Details

Keywords: Business Units; Diversification; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Growth and Development Strategy; Telecommunications Industry

December 1987 (Revised May 1991)
Case

One Leather Street

By: William J. Poorvu and Jeffrey A. Libert

Presents a problem involving rehabilitating a small office building in Boston. Describes an investment decision which is knowingly underfunded. As construction proceeds, the developer realizes that it is not up to building code and faces difficult business and ethical... View Details

Keywords: Financial Management; Ethics; Investment; Decisions; Decision Choices and Conditions; Property; Real Estate Industry; Construction Industry; Boston

Research Summary

Overview

Empirically, Ryann uses a combination of in-depth qualitative field research and visual and textual archival data to examine moral action at multiple levels of analysis. Through observation and interviews, she aims to capture the lived experience of individuals and... View Details

James W. Riley

James Riley is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration in the Organizational Behavior Unit at Harvard Business School. He teaches LEAD in the MBA required curriculum.

Professor Riley is an economic sociologist. He conducts ethnographic research to... View Details

September 1992 (Revised August 2004)
Supplement

Martin Marietta: Managing Corporate Ethics (C2)

By: Lynn S. Paine

A jury must decide whether an employee, discharged for misusing company time and filling out false time cards for work on U.S. government contracts, has been wrongfully terminated. Designed to show how the human resource manager's perspective on employee discipline... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Governance Compliance; Policy; Resignation and Termination; Perspective

04 Jun 2020
News

ESG investors get their heads around social risks

January 2017
Case

Flatiron School

By: Thomas Eisenmann and Halah AlQahtani

In late 2016, the founders of Flatiron School, a startup offering 12-week coding bootcamps, are formulating their growth strategy. Their new online-only program has matched the excellent job placement results for their in-person bootcamps. Should Flatiron shift... View Details

Keywords: Scaling Start-ups; Growth Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Distribution Channels; Growth and Development Strategy; Internet and the Web; Business Startups; Diversification; Expansion; Education Industry; United States

March – April 2009
Article

Market Research and Innovation Strategy in a Duopoly

By: Dominique Lauga and Elie Ofek

We model a duopoly in which ex-ante identical firms must decide where to direct their innovation efforts. The firms face market uncertainty about consumers' preferences for innovation on two product attributes and technology uncertainty about the success of their R&D... View Details

Keywords: Profit; Innovation and Management; Demand and Consumers; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Research and Development; Competitive Strategy

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2022
Chapter

Capitalism and the Environment

By: Geoffrey Jones

Capitalism drove the environmental decimation of the planet. The environment was seen as a free good, while the consequences of dirty industrial and agricultural processes were seen as external to the firm. Public policies largely allowed this to happen, as politicians... View Details

Keywords: History; Environment; Sustainability; Capitalism; Ethics; Business History; Environmental Sustainability; Green Technology; Pollution; Climate Change

24 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Five Questions for Debora L. Spar

In the long run, even the most fundamental innovations have a way of being influenced by government, says Harvard Business School professor Debora Spar. That's why business leaders need political skills, too. Silverthorne: In Next: The... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

September 2012 (Revised November 2012)
Case

Integrated Reporting in South Africa

This case presents a 20-year history of the evolution of corporate governance and corporate reporting in South Africa starting in 1992 with a focus on the three King codes of corporate governance (King I in 1994, King II in 2000, and King III in 2009). From a reporting... View Details

Keywords: Integrated Reporting; Sustainability Reporting; Stock Exchanges; South Africa; Corporate Reporting; Regulation; Nonfinancial Performance; History; Corporate Disclosure; Markets; Integrated Corporate Reporting; Performance; Corporate Governance; South Africa

February 1995
Case

James Cranfield

By: John J. Gabarro and Andrew P. Burtis

Describes the attitudes, feelings, and perceptions of the manager who will conduct the performance appraisal interview. A rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details

Keywords: Performance Evaluation; Attitudes; Perspective; Emotions