Publications

2024
Working Paper

When Batteries Meet Hydrogen: Dual-Storage Investments for Load-Shifting Purposes

By: Christian Kaps and Simone Marinesi

Power systems account for nearly 40% of global emissions. As the world tries to reduce emissions by increasing renewable penetration, storage technologies are playing an increasingly important role in matching variable renewable supply with demand. Batteries have... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Renewable Energy; Transition; Utilities Industry; Battery Industry

SSRN

March 2025
Case

Taylor Guitars: Making Employee Ownership Work the Taylor Way

By: Dennis Campbell, Petros Kusmu and Stacy Straaberg

In 2013, guitar manufacturer Taylor Guitars’ co-founders Bob Taylor and Kurt Listug were considering several exit options including selling to a competitor or to a private equity firm. The co-founders decided, instead, to embark on a seven-year process to transfer 100%... View Details

June 2003
Case

Memphis City Schools

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Kevin Morris

Associate Superintendent Marieta Harris needs a plan for continuing the momentum of systemic change in this urban school district while facing shifts of leadership and curriculum philosophy, uneven progress on reforms, new tests that put a high proportion of schools on... View Details

Keywords: Curriculum and Courses; Leading Change; Transition; Education Industry

06 Nov 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, November 6, 2018

Transition to Democracy Promotion The Pivot: Neoconservatives, the Philippines, and the Democracy Agenda By: Fibiger, Mattias Abstract—No abstract available. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=54829... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

02 Jan 2001
Research & Ideas

Can Japan Compete? [Part One]

where one applicant out of 10,000 got a job at MITI — to change their world view and do something different Change is starting to occur. Officials are quitting MITI and the Ministry of Finance early. Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori is more of a View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace & Hilah Geer

November 2003 (Revised August 2005)
Case

Reinventing the Automobile: General Motors' AUTOnomy Project

By: Alan D. MacCormack and Kerry Herman

Describes the history of General Motor's attempts to develop a hydrogen fuel-cell powered car. As of 2003, GM developed several prototypes of such a vehicle to demonstrate the viability of the overall concept. Many uncertainties remained, however, with respect to the... View Details

Keywords: Problems and Challenges; Management; Information Technology; Transition; Competency and Skills; Disruptive Innovation; Machinery and Machining; Auto Industry

June 1992 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Hennessy and Harvey-Jones: Two Responses to the Crisis in Chemicals

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Responding to the crisis in chemicals in the early 1980's, Allied Chemical (U.S.) and ICI (U.K.) appoint new chairmen to revitalize each company's strategy, culture, and organization. Hennessy, an outsider with a background in managing conglomerates, has strong ideas... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Leading Change; Crisis Management; Management Style; Managerial Roles; Organizational Culture; Corporate Strategy

Find at Harvard

January 2018
Teaching Note

Still Leading (B1): Hon. Bob McDonald—Profiting from Purpose

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone

This case is included in the Still Leading series, which is part of an opening series of cases used in the Advanced Leadership Initiative at Harvard University. This case can also be taught as a standalone case as it is rich with many key leadership lessons that fall... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Personal Development and Career; Values and Beliefs; Transition

23 Aug 2004
Research & Ideas

Strategy for Small Fish

enormous collective negotiating power with respect to keystones. The same mobility that allows them to escape devastating technological transitions allows them to potentially "leave" a keystone that is trying to extract too much... View Details

Keywords: by Marco Iansiti & Roy Levien

25 Mar 2001
Research & Ideas

Who Wants to Be an Entrepreneur? [Part II]

reliable, branded beauty services in office parks and hotels, but she focused first on the high-visibility airport market, where customers in transit needed the services she could provide—and might relish them as an alternative to waiting... View Details

Keywords: by John S. Rosenberg

January 2020
Teaching Note

Enfoca: Private Equity in Peru

By: Victoria Ivashina and Terrence Shu

Teaching Note for HBS No. 219-030. View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Emerging Markets; Capital Markets; Transition; Strategy; Peru

December 1993
Case

Bay State Milling Co.

By: Ray A. Goldberg

Flour milling in recent years has had a great deal of consolidation. The fourth generation of a privately held firm is debating how to protect themselves in the industry as consumption, production, competition, logistics, technology, and patterns are all changing. View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Transition; Economics; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Operations; Consolidation

February 2001 (Revised October 2002)
Background Note

Entrepreneurial History: A Conceptual Overview

By: Nancy F. Koehn

Analyzes HBS cases on five entrepreneurs and the companies they built: Josiah Wedgwood, Henry Heinz, Marshall Field, Howard Schultz of Starbucks, and Michael Dell. These five cases and their accompanying teaching notes comprise a course module on entrepreneurial... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Demand and Consumers; Competition; Business History; Entrepreneurship; Customer Focus and Relationships; Business Strategy; Society

20 Sep 2016
First Look

September 20, 2016

and CEO, Michael Lebowitz, now wondered what he needed to do to keep his company competitive in the years to come. Had he found the right way to organize his people and structure the organization following the transition from... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

02 Sep 2008
First Look

First Look: September 3, 2008

from a family perspective, his business runs into challenges when he merges it into a Canadian company and winds up with 30% ownership. McCrea eventually resigns and has to deal with his role in the failure of the company and the View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

22 Apr 2020
Research Event

How Investors Are Sizing Up Climate Change’s Risks—and Opportunities

also looking at the “transition risks” associated with shifting to a lower-carbon economy. New and more stringent regulations and practices will likely spur that transition, though it’s unclear how, when, and to what extent these changes will materialize. Stiroh noted... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Financial Services

September 2021
Case

Publicis Groupe 2021: Changing Nearly Everything

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Tonia Labruyere and Vincent Dessain

After succeeding long-time CEO Maurice Levy as top leader of the world’s third largest advertising, marketing, and communications company, headquartered in France, Arthur Sadoun accelerates digital transformation through a new platform drawing on talent from any of the... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Change Management; Transition; Transformation; Leadership; Digital Transformation; Advertising Industry; France; United States

April 1996
Case

Confronting the Third Industrial Revolution

By: David A. Moss

Comprises three pieces. The first piece, which forms the body of the case, is adapted from a speech delivered by the author before the Harvard Business School Political Forum in early 1995. Originally entitled "The Economic Foundations of American Social Policy:... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Policy; Economy; Government and Politics; Society; United States