Publications

Article

Three Principles to REVISE People's Unethical Behavior

By: Shahar Ayal, Francesca Gino, Rachel Barkan and Dan Ariely

Dishonesty and unethical behavior are widespread in the public and private sectors and cause immense annual losses. For instance, estimates of U.S. annual losses indicate $1 trillion paid in bribes, $270 billion lost due to unreported income, as well as $42 billion... View Details

Keywords: Behavior; Ethics; Policy

February 2002 (Revised December 2003)
Case

H-E-B Own Brands

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Marie Bell

H-E-B is a $9 billion grocery chain located in Southwest Texas. This case focuses on H-E-B's private label strategy, a product category that accounts for 19% of H-E-B's sales and one that earns gross margins 50% higher than national brands. A leader in its markets,... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development; Market Entry and Exit; Supply Chain Management; Private Ownership; Sales; Strategy; Competitive Strategy

December 2010
Article

An Exploration of Technology Diffusion

By: Diego Comin and Bart Hobijn

We develop a model that, at the aggregate level, is similar to the one sector neoclassical growth model, while, at the disaggregate level, has implications for the path of observable measures of technology adoption. We estimate our model using data on the diffusion of... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Income; Technology Adoption; Macroeconomics; Innovation and Invention

April 2011
Article

The Origins of Japanese Technological Modernization

By: Tom Nicholas

Explanations of Japanese technological modernization from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century have increasingly focused on domestic capabilities as opposed to the traditional emphasis on knowledge transfers from the West. Yet, the literature is mostly... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Sharing; Body of Literature; Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Patents; Measurement and Metrics; Expansion; Growth and Development Strategy; Economic Growth; Developing Countries and Economies; Information Technology; Technology Industry; Japan; Germany; Great Britain; United States

16 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Surveying the VC Landscape

and the Impact on Innovation, you explore the implications of the recent collapse in venture activity on innovation. Given recent cuts in corporate support for R&D, do you feel this is cause for concern to the innovation process? Or do you feel View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen; Financial Services

20 Mar 2019
Working Paper Summaries

In the Shadows? Informal Enterprise in Non-Democracies

Keywords: by Kristin Fabbe, Allison Spencer Hartnett, and Steve L. Monroe

2020
Working Paper

EMEs and COVID-19: Shutting Down in a World of Informal and Tiny Firms

By: Laura Alfaro, Oscar Becerra and Marcela Eslava

Emerging economies are characterized by an extremely high prevalence of informality, small-firm employment and jobs not fit for working from home. These features factor into how the COVID-19 crisis has affected the economy. We develop a framework that, based on... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Emerging Economies; Informality; Firm-size Distribution; Health Pandemics; Developing Countries and Economies; Economy; System Shocks; Latin America

January 2004 (Revised November 2004)
Case

Rwandan Tea Industry, The: Looking into the Future

By: Debora L. Spar

In 2003, the Rwandan government was focused on transforming the nation's tea industry into a world-class competitor. To accomplish this objective and stave off the downward prices that plagued the international tea market, the government believed that the industry... View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Market Entry and Exit; Competitive Strategy; Privatization; Government and Politics; Developing Countries and Economies; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Rwanda

October 2012 (Revised December 2013)
Case

Urbanizing China

By: Lakshmi Iyer and G.A. Donovan

In 2012, China attained a historic development milestone with more Chinese citizens living in cities than in the countryside. China's rapid urbanization, and the accompanying conversion of agricultural land to non-agricultural uses, raised a number of economic, social,... View Details

Keywords: China; Urbanization; Industrialization; Property Rights; Local Government Finance; Social Protest; Business Environment; Food Security; Safety; Change Management; Food; Urban Development; Social Issues; Growth and Development Strategy; Public Administration Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; China

March 17, 2017
Article

How Economics Can Shape Precision Medicines

By: Ariel Dora Stern, Brian M. Alexander and Amitabh Chandra

Many public and private efforts in coming years will focus on research in precision medicine, developing biomarkers to indicate which patients are likely to benefit from a certain treatment so that others can be spared the cost—financial and physical—of being treated... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Research; Economics; Motivation and Incentives

Register to Read

09 Jun 2023
Blog Post

Learning Curve

Patti Melcher (MBA 1986) never intended to open a school. After getting her start in investment banking in Houston’s energy sector after her time at HBS, Melcher became an early employee at SCF Partners, helping to invest the View Details

07 Dec 2017
HBS Seminar

Eric von Hippel, MIT Sloan School of Management

May 2004
Supplement

Slingshot Technology, Inc. Supplement: Partnership Agreements

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Elizabeth Collins

Slingshot Technology Inc. (STI) is a privately held software start-up founded in 1995 focused on identifying emerging spaces in the IT services industry and partnering with vendors selling promising but unproven technologies in those spaces. The vendors used STI to... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Emerging Markets; Partners and Partnerships; Intellectual Property; Information Technology Industry; Consulting Industry

06 Feb 2023
Blog Post

Meet the Black Investment Club

In 2020, Paul Ampofo (MBA 2020) and Brian Sykes (MBA 2020) founded the Black Investment Club at Harvard Business School to address the massive underrepresentation of Black investors in venture capital, private equity, and investment... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Private Equity; Private Equity

February 2013 (Revised February 2014)
Case

Phu My Hung

By: John Macomber and Dawn H. Lau

Privately held city development promoters decide whether to partner on next phase or go it alone in a 20-year, 4000-acre project. Set outside of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, this decades-long project led by two Taiwanese families reshaped and built the economic... View Details

Keywords: Urban Development; Infrastructure; Real Estate Industry; Viet Nam

11 Jun 2013
First Look

First Look: June 11

residential mortgages. This expansion was itself fueled by the development of non-bank credit intermediation (or "shadow banking"). Whether the growth of the financial sector has been socially... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

August 2015 (Revised June 2021)
Case

Amazon.com, 2021

By: John R. Wells, Benjamin Weinstock, Gabriel Ellsworth and Galen Danskin

In February 2021, Amazon announced 2020 operating profits of $22,899 million, up from $2,233 million in 2015, on sales of $386 billion, up from $107 billion five years earlier (see Exhibit 1). The shareholders expressed their satisfaction (see Exhibit 2), but not all... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Analysis; Retail; E-commerce; Amazon; Internet; Amazon.com; AmazonFresh; Jeff Bezos; Cloud Computing; Marketplaces; Streaming; E-reader Market; Digital Media; Mobile App; Online Retail; Shipping; Database; Tablet; Kindle; Kindle Fire; Smartphone; Delivery; Digital Platforms; Competition; Internet and the Web; Corporate Strategy; Digital Marketing; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Film Entertainment; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Music Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Profit; Revenue; Global Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Taxation; Business History; Human Resources; Resignation and Termination; Books; Human Capital; Working Conditions; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Management Practices and Processes; Industry Growth; Industry Structures; Media; Distribution; Distribution Channels; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Infrastructure; Logistics; Product Development; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Organizational Culture; Public Ownership; Work-Life Balance; Problems and Challenges; Labor and Management Relations; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Diversification; Expansion; Integration; Horizontal Integration; Vertical Integration; Information Infrastructure; Information Technology; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Price; Applications and Software; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Working Capital; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain; Retail Industry; Advertising Industry; Distribution Industry; Electronics Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Information Technology Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Music Industry; Publishing Industry; Shipping Industry; Technology Industry; Video Game Industry; Web Services Industry; United States; Washington (state, US); Seattle