Publications

October 2007 (Revised May 2008)
Case

Transforming Korea Inc: Financial Crisis and Institutional Reform

By: Laura Alfaro and Renee Kim

South Korea, as one of the Asian "tiger" economies, transformed itself into the world's 11th largest economy and major exporter by 1996, emerging from being one of the lowest income countries in the region back in the 1960s. Yet one year later in 1997, Korea was swept... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Financial Crisis; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business and Government Relations; South Korea

June 1993 (Revised November 2007)
Case

Duckworth Industries, Inc.--Incentive Compensation Programs

By: William E. Fruhan Jr.

A private company is considering an introduction of a long-run incentive compensation system in which payoffs to managers are determined by the economic value added for shareholders by their individual business units. The proposed new system is compared to a number of... View Details

Keywords: Executive Compensation; Management Teams; Business and Shareholder Relations; Motivation and Incentives; Value Creation

Teaching Interest

Senior Executive Leadership Program - India (SELPI)

By: Stefan H. Thomke

Over the past two decades, India has emerged as one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. To seize growth opportunities in this promising economy and sustain success under shifting global business conditions, companies need executives who are exceptional... View Details

April 2002 (Revised September 2002)
Case

Transformation of Seattle Public Schools, 1995-2002

Investigates the reform of the Seattle Public Schools from 1995 to 2002. To initiate reform in 1995, the district hired John Stanford, an Army general, and Joseph Olchefske, an investment banker, as the district's superintendent and chief financial officer,... View Details

Keywords: Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leading Change; Organizational Structure; Education; Business Strategy; Public Administration Industry; Education Industry; Seattle

January 2017 (Revised March 2017)
Case

Royal DSM: From Continuous Transformation to Organic Growth

By: William W. George, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Amram Migdal

Royal DSM CEO Feike Sijbesma was pondering the challenges of shifting DSM’s global organization from the constant transformations of the past 100 years to creating organic growth. When Sijbesma took the helm as CEO in 2007, he further pushed and completed the company’s... View Details

Keywords: Organic Growth; Organizational Change; M＆A; Mergers And Acquisitions; Divestment; Business Ventures; Business Divisions; Business Growth and Maturation; Restructuring; Change; Change Management; Transformation; Transition; Engineering; Chemicals; Mining; Ethics; Values and Beliefs; Finance; Capital Markets; Financial Markets; Food; Globalization; Global Strategy; Globalized Firms and Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Health; Nutrition; History; Leadership; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Management; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Management Practices and Processes; Management Style; Organizations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Design; Ownership; Public Ownership; Performance; Strategy; Adaptation; Consolidation; Corporate Strategy; Value; Value Creation; Biotechnology Industry; Chemical Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Mining Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Europe; Netherlands

03 Nov 2008
HBS Case

Economics of the Ethanol Business

Reinhardt, with Senior Researcher James Weber and Agribusiness Program Director Mary Shelman (HBS MBA '87), examines the complex political and economic underpinnings of the ethanol industry and the dilemma... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Agriculture & Agribusiness; Energy

Teaching Interest

Senior Executive Leadership Program - Middle East (SELPME)

By: Stefan H. Thomke

Change is everywhere in the Middle East today, as many countries seek to diversify their economies and encourage new industries. While the region's complexity includes distinct political and economic conditions in each country in addition to an uncertain global... View Details

August 2024
Article

The Labor Market Effects of Loan Guarantee Programs

By: Jean-Noël Barrot, Thorsten Martin, Julien Sauvagnat and Boris Vallée

We investigate the labor market effects of a loan guarantee program targeting French SMEs during the financial crisis. Exploiting differences in regional treatment intensity in a border discontinuity design, we uncover a central trade-off for such interventions. While... View Details

Keywords: Labor; Financial Crisis; Policy; France

Forthcoming
Article

The Institutional Sources of Economic Transformation: Explaining Variation in Energy Transitions

By: Jared Finnegan, Phillip Lipscy, Jonas Meckling and Florence Metz

Why are some governments more effective in promoting economic change than others? We develop a theory of the institutional sources of economic transformation. Institutions can facilitate transformation through two central mechanisms: insulation and compensation.... View Details

Keywords: Policy; Business and Government Relations; Supply and Industry; Demand and Consumers; Transformation; Economic Systems; Climate Change

February 2019
Article

Who Benefits Most in Disease Management Programs: Improving Target Efficiency

By: Timothy Simcoe, Maryaline Catillon and Paul Gertler

Disease management programs aim to reduce cost by improving the quality of care for chronic diseases. Evidence of their effectiveness is mixed. Reducing health care spending sufficiently to cover program costs has proved particularly challenging. This study uses a... View Details

Keywords: Health Economics; Target Efficiency; Diabetes; Disease Management; Program Evaluation; Heterogeneity; Economics; Health; Quality; Health Care and Treatment; Cost Management; Health Industry

01 Aug 2023
Cold Call Podcast

Can Business Transform Primary Health Care Across Africa?

Keywords: Re: Regina E. Herzlinger; Pharmaceutical; Health

March 2024 (Revised July 2024)
Case

The CHIPS Program Office

By: Mitchell B. Weiss and Sebastian Negron-Reichard

In February 2023, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo weighed signing off on a Notice of Funding Opportunity (“NOFO”) with at least one unconventional provision: a pre-application (“pre-app”) to the actual application for parts of $39 billion in direct semiconductor... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Public Sector; Government Administration; Government Legislation; Motivation and Incentives; Semiconductor Industry; Public Administration Industry; United States

December 2018
Case

Tiantong & Partners: Transforming Litigation Practice in China

By: Ashish Nanda and Lisa Rohrer

Jiang Yong founded Tiantong & Partners in 2002, seeking to radically improve the level of litigation-related services in China. By 2015, Tiantong was the premier Chinese litigation firm with the highest per lawyer revenues. The firm focused exclusively on high-stakes... View Details

Keywords: Law Firm; Law Firms; Growth; Legal Industry; Regulation; Professional Services; Law; Lawsuits and Litigation; Internet and the Web; Growth and Development; Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Decision Choices and Conditions; Legal Services Industry; China

23 Apr 2018
Research & Ideas

Sponsorship Programs Could Actually Widen the Gender Gap

with a focus on gender. A few years ago, the two of them decided to team up on a laboratory study on the value of sponsorship. “We took her applied interest—how companies are actually using sponsorship programs to address [the gender... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

2025
Book

Space to Grow: Unlocking the Final Economic Frontier

By: Matthew Weinzierl and Brendan Rosseau

Your guide--using the compelling stories of changemakers and the tools of economics--to the transformation and future possibilities of the business and economics of space.

Space is a place of unparalleled possibility for humanity, and it's undergoing a... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Economics; Innovation and Invention; Market Entry and Exit; Aerospace Industry

February 1997 (Revised October 1999)
Case

Shock Therapy in Eastern Europe: The Polish and Czechoslovak Economic Reforms

Provides information on economic reform programs in Poland and Czechoslovakia in 1990. Students are asked to compare and contrast the economic situations in the two countries, as well as the political constraints on reform. View Details

Keywords: Macroeconomics; Poland; Slovakia; Czech Republic

June 2019
Article

Social Risk, Fiscal Risk, and the Portfolio of Government Programs

By: Samuel G. Hanson, David S. Scharfstein and Adi Sunderam

We develop a model of government portfolio choice in which a benevolent government chooses the scale of risky projects in the presence of market failures and tax distortions. These two frictions generate motives to manage social risk and fiscal risk. Social risk... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Government and Politics; Programs

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15 Sep 2008
Research & Ideas

The Coming Transformation of Social Enterprise

but in many cases they won't. If you are looking for a social and not an economic return, then loyalty to the program rather than an exit strategy may be a better use of funds. The venture philanthropy... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson

Summer, 2021
Article

The Economics of Energy Efficiency in Developing Countries

By: Meredith Fowlie and Robyn C. Meeks

Almost all of the world’s energy demand growth is projected to occur in low- and medium-income countries (LMICs). Targeted energy efficiency investments have the potential to mitigate tensions between economic growth objectives and sustainable development commitments.... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Energy; Energy Policy