Publications

2024
Working Paper

Private Regulation, Institutional Entrepreneurship and Climate Change: A Business History Perspective

By: Ann-Kristin Bergquist and Geoffrey Jones

Private regulatory systems, including voluntary efforts by firms to restrain their own behavior are the primary form of global climate change governance. However, when environmental challenges first rose up on the scientific and political agendas during the 1970s, the... View Details

Keywords: Certification; Climate Change; Environmental Regulation; Business History; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy

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03 Feb 2003
What Do You Think?

Can Business Schools Teach the Craft of Getting Things Done?

Summing Up Implementation or "execution" can be taught. Whether business schools are the best places to do it remains a question with the readers responding to this month's column. For many, the requirements for teaching the... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

March 2015 (Revised September 2016)
Case

Terrapin Laboratory

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Joseph B. Fuller

Describes the formation and rapid growth of a drug testing company. The company needs to decide whether to enter the painkiller testing market, in addition to growing its drug treatment center business. The associated teaching materials provide students the opportunity... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth; Entrepreneurial Management; Entrepreneurship; Growth Strategy; Market Entry; Venture Capital; Growth Management; Expansion; Financing and Loans; Health Care and Treatment; Health Testing and Trials; Business Startups; Pharmaceutical Industry; Health Industry

May 2004
Article

The Risky Business of Hiring Stars

By: Boris Groysberg, Ashish Nanda and Nitin Nohria

With the battle for the best and brightest people heating up again, you're most likely out there looking for first-rate talent in the ranks of your competitors. Chances are, you're sold on the idea of recruiting from outside your organization, since developing people... View Details

Keywords: Staffing; Employee Retention; Selection and Staffing; Employees; Retention; Competitive Advantage; Human Resources; Performance

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November 2016 (Revised February 2017)
Case

BrightStar Care: The Evolution of a Leadership Team

By: Boris Groysberg, Colleen Ammerman and John D. Vaughan

BrightStar Care was a rapidly growing franchise of home health care agencies. Founded by husband and wife team JD and Shelly Sun as a single agency near Chicago in 2002, BrightStar had opened nearly 300 franchises across the United States by 2016, generating over $300... View Details

Keywords: Health Care Services; Entrepreneurs; Board Of Directors; Boards Of Directors; Health Care Industry; Growth Strategy; Organizational Change; Brand Positioning; Entrepreneurial Organizations; Entrepreneurial Management; Franchising; Family-owned Business; Home Health Care; Managing Growth; Management Styles; Organizational Development; Talent Management; Women Executives; Women And Leadership; Business Startups; Family Business; Small Business; Talent and Talent Management; Governing and Advisory Boards; Health Care and Treatment; Human Capital; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Management Skills; Management Style; Management Succession; Management Systems; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Strategy

April 2019
Case

GE Appliances: Implementing Haier's Made-In-China Management System

By: Dennis Campbell, Marshall Meyer, Bonnie Yining Cao and Dawn H. Lau

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Manufacturing Industry; Retail Industry; Consumer Products Industry; China; United States

02 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

Digital Initiative Summit: The Business of Crowdsourcing

Gaining the community's trust is vital to building a successful business with crowdsourcing, agreed business leaders at the Digital Initiative Summit at Harvard Business School... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

2000
Book

Competitive Environmental Strategy: A Guide to the Changing Business Landscape

By: Andrew J. Hoffman

Environmental concerns can greatly affect business success, regardless of whether a business person or corporation shares those concerns. Today's corporate managers must understand the power of environmental issues, and shift their mindset from one focused on... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Environmental Management; Social Issues; Organizational Change and Adaptation

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July 2005
Case

Harvard Business School and the Making of a New Profession

By: Rakesh Khurana, Tarun Khanna and Daniel Penrice

Since its founding in 1908, Harvard Business School's mission has been to perform a much-needed service for American society by turning business management into a profession. One of the most important factors in the founding of HBS and the nation's other new business... View Details

Keywords: Business Education; Mission and Purpose; Alignment; Social Issues; Practice

May 2013
Case

Launching Krispy Natural: Cracking the Product Management Code

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Heather Beckham

Pemberton Products is a U.S. market leader in the cookie and bakery snacks segment of the sweet snack market. Looking to expand into the salty snack market, the company acquires Krispy Inc., a maker of salty snack crackers located in the southeastern U.S. To compete... View Details

Keywords: Analytics and Data Science; Competition; Organizational Culture; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Expansion; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Acquisition; Food and Beverage Industry; Ohio; United States

20 Jan 2009
Research & Ideas

Risky Business with Structured Finance

growing at such an unprecedented rate that it piqued their curiosity. "People didn't explain anything about CDOs in a compelling way," he says. "They said, 'Oh, they're slicing and dicing.' Or they resorted to mathematical... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Banking; Financial Services

08 Aug 2006
Working Paper Summaries

Entrepreneurship and Business History: Renewing the Research Agenda

Keywords: by Geoffrey G. Jones & R. Daniel Wadhwani

March 2006
Module Note

Managing Innovation in an Uncertain World: Module 4: Sensing Opportunity

By: Alan D. MacCormack

Describes the fourth module of the 30-session Harvard Business School elective course Managing Innovation in an Uncertain World. The course helps students understand the challenges that uncertainty implies for innovation and how to overcome them. The course emphasizes... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Problems and Challenges; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Projects; Opportunities; Risk and Uncertainty; Perspective; Value Creation; Networks; Alignment

02 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

Managing the Open Source vs. Proprietary Decision

Editor's note: In their new book, The Comingled Code: Open Source and Economic Development, HBS professor Josh Lerner and London School of Economics professor Mark Schankerman look at the impact of open source software on economic development, as well as the resulting... View Details

Keywords: by Josh Lerner & Mark Schankerman; Technology

May 2010
Case

CEIBS: A Global Business School Made in China

By: John A. Quelch

In 2009, just 15 years after it was founded, the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) has achieved the remarkable 8th position in the Financial Times Global MBA rankings. The case describes the short history of the school and the reasons for its success.... View Details

Keywords: Product Positioning; Quality; Business History; Competitive Advantage; Business Education; Global Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Education Industry; China

15 Oct 2012
Research & Ideas

Why Business IT Innovation is so Difficult

Harvard Business School professor Kristina Steffenson McElheran studies the effect of information technology on business process innovation. It's a topic, she is sometimes told, that is, well, less than... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish

1991
Article

How Management Bonus Plans Affect Reported Earnings

By: Paul M. Healy

Keywords: Management; Compensation and Benefits; Business Earnings

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22 Jul 2002
Research & Ideas

How Business Strategy Tamed the “Invisible Hand”

Industrial Revolution witnessed the founding of many elite business schools in the United States, beginning with the Wharton School in 1881. Harvard Business School, founded in 1908, was one of the first to... View Details

Keywords: by Pankaj Ghemawat

July 1999 (Revised January 2000)
Case

Yahoo!: Business on Internet Time

By: Jan W. Rivkin and Jay R. Girotto

In the wake of major competitive moves, CEO Tim Koogle and his senior team at Yahoo!, an Internet portal, must decide whether and how to adjust their strategy. Following deals between AOL and Netscape, Excite and @Home, Infoseek and Disney, and Snap and NBS, Yahoo!... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Organizational Structure; Industry Structures; Internet and the Web; Risk Management; Technological Innovation; Business or Company Management; Information Technology Industry; Web Services Industry