Publications

September 1998 (Revised December 1998)
Case

Infinity Carpets, Inc.

By: Ronald W. Moore and Thomas R. Piper

A turnaround expert must determine whether a firm in distress is worth more as a going concern than its liquidation value. If so, the finances of the firm must be restructured in a way consistent with the bargaining power of the holders of the various securities. The... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Borrowing and Debt; Financial Liquidity; Crisis Management; Value; Apparel and Accessories Industry

Educators

05 Apr 2004
Research & Ideas

Six Ways to Build Trust in Negotiations

her own positive experiences with RLX. While the RLX-Impress negotiation was particularly tricky to get off the ground, establishing trust is critical to achieving success in any negotiation, because all negotiations involve some level of... View Details

Keywords: by Deepak Malhotra

03 Mar 2003
Research & Ideas

The Ingredients of a Deal Disaster

Experienced negotiators are generally comfortable working out the terms of an economic contract: They bargain for the best price, haggle over equity splits, and iron out detailed exit clauses. But these same... View Details

Keywords: by Ron S. Fortgang, David A. Lax & James K. Sebenius

18 May 2020
Working Paper Summaries

No Line Left Behind: Assortative Matching Inside the Firm

Keywords: by Achyuta Adhvaryu, Vittorio Bassi, Anant Nyshadham, and Jorge Tamayo; Fashion

07 Mar 2005
Research & Ideas

The Rise of Innovation in Asia

software. Ideas, manpower, and money add up to tremendous innovation occurring in the country right now, he said. John Deng, CEO and president of Chinese chipmaker Vimicro, said his company is proof of... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

30 Jan 2006
HBS Case

The Case of the Mystery Writer’s Brand

in which a supplier builds a persistent demand and designs production to perpetuate that brand's most enticing qualities. The third age, embodied by the book clubs, is that of interactive marketing, where a... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Entertainment & Recreation; Information; Publishing

16 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

How the Coronavirus Is Already Rewriting the Future of Business

intermediate term, we will see companies that rely on global supply chains be hurt. Once companies run through their existing safety stocks of raw materials or parts provided by a far-flung supplier base,... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

16 Dec 2019
Research & Ideas

Taking on the Taboos That Keep Women Out of India's Workforce

“If I increase your bargaining power over the share of household income you benefit from, I strengthen your position in the household,” she explains. “And, because you’re now... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

08 Dec 2003
Research & Ideas

Is That Really Your Best Offer?

grievances? This article, the first in a series on negotiation dynamics, identifies six ways to more effectively separate fact from fiction at the bargaining table. The focus will be on the interactive quality View Details

Keywords: by Michael Wheeler

January 1999
Exercise

Seneca Systems (B): General and Confidential Instructions for R. Thompson, Vice President, Marketing

Seneca is a three-party negotiation-mediation simulation. The context is a product failure crisis in a manufacturing company with highly autonomous units. The heads of two divisions are in a dispute over who has responsibility for failures in a key product. The head of... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Participants; Business Divisions; Power and Influence; Manufacturing Industry

January 1999
Exercise

Seneca Systems (A): General and Confidential Instructions for C. Stevens, Vice President, Assembly Division

Seneca is a three-party negotiation-mediation simulation. The context is a product failure crisis in a manufacturing company with highly autonomous units. The heads of two divisions are in a dispute over who has responsibility for failures in a key product. The head of... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Participants; Business Divisions; Power and Influence; Manufacturing Industry

2025
Working Paper

Markups and Cost Pass-through Along the Supply Chain

By: Santiago Alvarez-Blaser, Alberto Cavallo, Alexander MacKay and Paolo Mengano

We study markups and pricing strategies along the supply chain. Our unique dataset combines detailed price and cost information from a large global manufacturer with matched retail prices collected online for the period July 2018 through June 2023. We show that total... View Details

Keywords: Markups; Pricing; Price; Supply Chain; Inflation and Deflation; Cost

SSRN

25 Jun 2024
Research & Ideas

How Transparency Sped Innovation in a $13 Billion Wireless Sector

Many businesses are loath to share proprietary information with others, fearing it will undercut their long-term financial prospects. They view openness as a threat to innovation. But a new years-long study of the wireless router industry... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald; Technology

2025
Working Paper

How Does Wage Inequality Affect the Labor Movement

By: Barbara Biasi, Zoë B. Cullen, Julia H. Gilman and Nina Roussille

This paper provides causal evidence on how wage inequality among workers affects the labor movement using three complementary research designs: a vignette experiment with union organizers, a natural policy experiment that increased wage inequality among Wisconsin... View Details

Keywords: Wages; Equality and Inequality; Labor and Management Relations; Labor Unions; Negotiation

Register to Read

March 2014
Case

MediaTek: From Feature Phones to Smartphones

By: Willy Shih

MediaTek was the third largest fabless semiconductor company in the world, and was the second largest supplier of the silicon microchips that powered mobile phones. Yet as the company's chairman reflected on his R&D strategy, he wondered why it hadn't moved faster on... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Decisions; Business Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Technology Adoption; Telecommunications Industry; Semiconductor Industry; China; Taiwan

Educators

January 1996 (Revised February 1997)
Case

Tennessee Valley Authority: Option Purchase Agreements

By: Peter Tufano

James Cross, VP of customer planning at the Tennessee Valley Authority, a major supplier of electric power in the Southeast United States, is considering meeting its incremental capacity needs by creating new financial contracts, Option Purchase Agreements (OPAs) to... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Risk Management; Energy Generation; Corporate Finance; Energy Industry; United States