Publications

June 2015
Article

The Organization of Enterprise in Japan

By: Tom Nicholas

Recent research reveals that the joint stock corporation was not a superior form of business organization in many countries historically. In Japan, however, it played a more fundamental role. Between 1896 and 1939 joint stock enterprises accounted for 44 percent of... View Details

Keywords: Japan; Legal Form; Enterprise; Modernization; Business Organization; Entrepreneurship; Japan

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2010
Chapter

When Does Leadership Matter? A Contingent Opportunities View of CEO Leadership

By: Noam Wasserman, Nitin Nohria and Bharat Anand

There is by now a long-standing debate on the impact that CEOs have on company performance. Studies of leadership describe how CEOs can significantly impact company performance, while the "constraints" perspective argues that leaders are sufficiently constrained by... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Leadership; Performance Improvement; Research; Opportunities

August 2011 (Revised November 2017)
Case

Adaptive Engineering, LLC

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

The owner and CEO of Adaptive Engineering was facing an important decision: should he focus on rebuilding its core professional services business which had generated significant revenue and cash flow over the past several years, or should he focus on developing and... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Decision Making; Service Industry; Technology Industry

Research Summary

By: Srikant M. Datar

Datar's research interests are in the cost management and management control areas. He has published his research on activity-based management, quality, productivity, time-based competition, new product development, bottleneck management, incentives and ... View Details

June 1990
Supplement

In the Shadow of the City, Video

Depicts the site and operation of an international development project. A serious conflict has developed between the two principals, an Ethiopian woman and a British entrepreneur. The film shows the stakes involved. View Details

Keywords: Conflict and Resolution

March 2020
Article

A Revolution in Economics? It's Just Getting Started...

By: Shawn A. Cole, William Pariente and Anja Sautmann

We have each experienced thrills and pain while supporting the mission of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, which facilitated many of the experiments described in the 2019 Nobel Prize citation. J-PAL in many ways seeks to fulfill what Angrist and Pischke... View Details

Keywords: Randomized Control Trials; Economics; Research; Innovation and Invention

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April 2004
Case

Marks & Spencer: The Phoenix Rises - A Multimedia Case Study

By: Joseph L. Bower

Enables students to interactively research the steps Marks & Spencer's top executives took to restore prosperity and explore in depth the major issues remaining. The perspective is that of Luc Vandevelde, who arrived at the venerable U.K. retailer in 2001, and that of... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Corporate Strategy; Management Teams; Retail Industry; United Kingdom

13 Mar 2018
First Look

March 13, 2018

historians in recent years, academic research on business groups has, to date, remained within the boundary of emerging markets. The major aim of this volume is to explore the long-term evolution of different varieties of large... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Program

Leading in the Digital Era

that can transform your organization, deliver more value, and build competitive advantage, you will benefit from cutting-edge research into the culture of companies and leaders... View Details

2001
Working Paper

Contextuality Within Activity Systems

By: Michael E. Porter and Nicolaj Siggelkow

Research on the interactions among activities in firms and the extent to which these interactions help create and sustain competitive advantage has rapidly expanded in recent years. In this research, the two most common approaches have been the complementarity... View Details

Keywords: Value Chain; Strategy; Competitive Strategy

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January 2015 (Revised July 2019)
Case

Rebranding Godiva: The Yıldız Strategy

By: Rohit Deshpande and Esel Çekin

This case concerns Yıldız Holding’s acquisition of Godiva Chocolatier from its previous owner, Campbell Soup, and its salient strategy in preserving Godiva’s “made in Belgian” brand position. Provenance Paradox, a problem faced by companies in emerging countries trying... View Details

Keywords: Branding; Internationalization; Provenance Paradox; Acquisitions; Positioning; Innovation; Customer-centricity; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Emerging Markets; Product Positioning; Change Management; Innovation and Management; Customer Focus and Relationships; Food and Beverage Industry; North America; Turkey; Japan

November 2012
Teaching Plan

The Langer Lab: Commercializing Science (TP)

By: Vicki L. Sato and Annelena Lobb

The Langer Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was a unique operation. Its head, Robert Langer, had always focused on selecting ideas to research that would have the greatest positive impact for humanity, and he encouraged an unusual... View Details

Keywords: Computers; Industry Evolution; Entrepreneurship; Intellectual Capital; R＆D; Technology Transfer; Patents; Research and Development; Massachusetts

08 Sep 2020
Blog Post

2+2 Where Are They Now Spotlight: Ashley Zumwalt-Forbes (MBA 2017)

paired student teams with technologies developed at the University, alongside an experienced industry mentor. The student teams were responsible for developing a commercialization strategy for the inventor... View Details

14 Apr 2021
News

The High Cost of the Slow COVID Vaccine Rollout

December 2018
Case

Formula E Championship Racing (A)

By: Robert F. Higgins and James Weber

Formula E founder and CEO Alejandro Agag obtained the rights to develop a new electric car racing series from the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Agag needed to develop the series from scratch—developing a race car and finding teams willing to race,... View Details

Keywords: Electric Car Racing; Entrepreneurship; Global Range; Strategy

October 1990 (Revised August 2009)
Case

Cambridge Software Corporation

Cambridge Software Corp. must decide whether or not to offer multiple versions of a new software product. The firm has identified five market segments for the software and is deciding which, if any, of three product versions (a high end "industrial" version, a... View Details

Keywords: Software; Decision Making; Product Marketing; Information Technology Industry

August 2014 (Revised October 2014)
Case

Beyoncé

By: Anita Elberse and Stacie Smith

In December 2013, music superstar Beyoncé is about to surprise her fans with the release of her self-titled album. The team at her company Parkwood Entertainment, which general manager Lee Anne Callahan-Longo described as "a management, music, and production company... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Beyoncé; Internet and the Web; Music Entertainment; Distribution Channels; Product Launch; Music Industry

Research Summary

Divergent change in organizations

By: Julie Battilana

The first stream of research in Professor Battilana’s work aims to identify the conditions that enable individual actors to initiate divergent change within organizations as well as the conditions enabling successful implementation of such change. It combines... View Details

Winter 2021
Article

Dealmaking Disrupted: The Unexplored Power of Social Media in Negotiation

By: James K. Sebenius, Ben Cook, David A. Lax, Isaac Silberberg and Paul Levy

While social media has had profound effects in many realms, the theory and practice of negotiation have remained relatively untouched by this potent phenomenon. In this article, we survey existing research in this area and develop a broader framework for understanding... View Details

Keywords: Bargaining; 3D Negotiation; Negotiation; Conflict and Resolution; Social Media