Publications

09 Jan 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, January 9, 2018

December 13, 2017 Harvard Business Review What It Takes to Become a Great Product Manager By: Austin, Julia Abstract—As an aspiring product manager (PM), there are three primary considerations when evaluating the role: Core Competencies, Emotional Intelligence (EQ),... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2010
Article

We Cannot Go On: Disruptive Innovation and the First World War Royal Navy

By: Gautam Mukunda

Insights from Disruptive Innovation theory (DI) are often used in the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of national security policy. DI explains why successful companies are sometimes defeated by new competitors with relatively unsophisticated products.... View Details

Keywords: Technology; History; National Security; Framework; Adaptation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Technological Innovation; Machinery and Machining; Disruptive Innovation; Theory; Developing Countries and Economies; Technology Industry

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January 2018 (Revised October 2021)
Case

Château Margaux: Launching the Third Wine (Abridged)

By: Elie Ofek

Château Margaux, one of only five prestigious estates in the Bordeaux Medoc wine region to have been classified as a "first-growth", is facing a host of strategic decisions in early 2013. Up until this point the estate had been selling two red wines, a first wine whose... View Details

Keywords: New Product Launch; Marketing Plan; Brand Management; Go To Market Strategy; Channels Of Distribution; Wine Industry; Marketing Strategy; Distribution Channels; Product Launch; Brands and Branding; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; France

July 2007 (Revised March 2008)
Background Note

Staging Two-Sided Platforms

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Andrei Hagiu

Firms that aspire to develop two-sided platforms face a formidable challenge. Prospective users on each side will not invest in the platform until they are confident there will be enough users on the other side. Traditional strategies for dealing with this... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Risk Management; Two-Sided Platforms; Supply Chain; Strategy; Retail Industry

September 2015 (Revised March 2017)
Case

Château Margaux (Abridged)

By: Elie Ofek, Eric E. Vogt and Robert J. Dolan

Château Margaux, one of only five prestigious estates in the Bordeaux Medoc wine region to have been classified as a "first-growth", is facing a host of strategic decisions in early 2013. Up until this point the estate had been selling two red wines, a first wine whose... View Details

Keywords: New Product Launch; Marketing Plan; Brand Management; Go To Market Strategy; Channels Of Distribution; Wine Industry; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Distribution Channels; Product Launch; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; France

September 2016 (Revised January 2017)
Case

SOHO China: Transformation in Progress

By: Charles F. Wu

In 2016, against the backdrop of a challenging Chinese macroeconomic environment, SOHO China, the largest owner and developer of Class-A real estate in Beijing and Shanghai, was struggling to convince analysts of the merits of its new “build-to-hold” strategy. Founded... View Details

Keywords: China; REIT; Real Estate; Shared Office; Coworking; Public Company; NAV; Macroeconomics; Going Public; Transition; Growth and Development Strategy; Real Estate Industry; China

28 Jun 2011
First Look

First Look: June 28

PublicationsManager-Specific Effects on Earnings Guidance: An Analysis of Top Executive Turnovers Authors:Francois Brochet, Lucile Faurel, and Sarah McVay Publication:Journal of Accounting Research (forthcoming) Abstract We investigate how managers contribute to the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Research Summary

Markets of Progress: Coffee, Commerce, and Community in the Soconusco, Chiapas, 1867-1920

Markets of Progress presents a new holistic story of rural development in Mexico at the turn of the century. In the Soconusco, as in regions throughout the world, the accelerating circulation of commodities and capital, ideas and immigrants reshaped society... View Details

Keywords: Commodities; Coffee; Mexico; Foreign Investment; Institutions; Immigration; Developing Agriculture; Development; Export Crop; Emerging Market; Property Rights; Labor History; History; Capital Markets; Business History; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Latin America; Mexico; Central America

2015
Working Paper

Business Groups Exist in Developed Markets Also: Britain Since 1850

By: Geoffrey Jones

Diversified business groups are well-known phenomena in emerging markets, both today and historically. This is often explained by the prevalence of institutional voids or the nature of government-business relations. It is typically assumed that such groups were much... View Details

Keywords: Business Groups; Business History; Economic History; Conglomerates; Entrepreneurship; Globalization; Management; Organizations; United Kingdom

SSRN

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January 2008 (Revised March 2011)
Case

Henry J. Kaiser and the Art of the Possible

By: Anthony J. Mayo, Mark Benson and David Chen

From his humble beginnings as a local salesman in New York, Henry J. Kaiser rose to become one of the leading industrialists of 20th century America. Though he had no technical engineering training, Kaiser mastered the management and execution of plans for several... View Details

Keywords: History; Mission and Purpose; Transition; Management Practices and Processes; Construction; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Leadership Style; Business History; Business Growth and Maturation; Civil Society or Community; Business Strategy; Planning; Construction Industry; Shipping Industry; United States

February 2024
Case

Tabby: Winning Consumers' Digital Wallets

By: Eva Ascarza and Fares Khrais

Hosam Arab (MBA 2009), cofounder and CEO of Tabby, a Saudi-based fintech startup, raised its Series D funding round in October 2023, four years after its inception, valuing it as a regional unicorn. Tabby's core product, a buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) service, allowed... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Startups; Risk Management; Competitive Strategy; Expansion; Financial Services Industry; Technology Industry; Saudi Arabia

10 Apr 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Where Does it Go? Spending by the Financially Constrained

Keywords: by Shawn A. Cole, John Thompson & Peter Tufano; Financial Services

10 Apr 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research, April 10, 2018

Spring 2018 MIT Sloan Management Review The Store Is Dead—Long Live the Store By: Bell, David R., Santiago Gallino, and Antonio Moreno Abstract—In this article, we pursue two interconnected themes: the expansion of online-first retailers into offline stores that serve... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

09 May 2012
Research & Ideas

Clayton Christensen’s “How Will You Measure Your Life?”

colleagues and peers falling from grace because they made this mistake. Nick Leeson, the twenty-six-year-old trader who famously brought down British merchant bank Barings in 1995 after racking up $1.3 billion in trading losses before... View Details

25 Apr 2023
Op-Ed

How SHEIN and Temu Conquered Fast Fashion—and Forged a New Business Model

under globally recognized brand names, including the private labels of mass merchants such as Walmart, Costco, and Target. Most of those profits accrued to the brands, rather than the Chinese suppliers. E-commerce and the gradual... View Details

Keywords: by John Deighton; Fashion; Retail; Consumer Products

2018
Chapter

Britain: Global Legacy and Domestic Persistence

By: Geoffrey Jones

This chapter explores the British experience in a volume which examines the historical evolution of business groups in developed Western economies. The chapter argues that during the nineteenth century British merchant houses established business groups with... View Details

Keywords: Business Groups; Conglomerates; Globalization; Entrepreneurship; Business History; Organizations; Business Conglomerates; United Kingdom

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23 Jul 2001
Research & Ideas

Sam Walton: Great From the Start

rules which did not make sense to him—which meant almost all of them. —Richard S. Tedlow Walton seemed to have a lot of strikes against him. But he was a spectacular success in his first store. Why? Much of what was to make him a great View Details

Keywords: by Richard S. Tedlow; Retail

July 2020 (Revised September 2021)
Case

Mr. Five Percent: Calouste Gulbenkian and the Origins of Global Oil

By: Geoffrey Jones and Yazeed Al-Rashed

This case describes the business career of Calouste Gulbenkian, a skilled intermediary who was able to secure 5 percent of a vast oil concession covering much of the Middle East that was signed in 1928. Gulbenkian was an ethnic Armenian born in the Ottoman Empire,... View Details

Keywords: Oil; Globalization; Energy Sources; History; Biography; Energy Industry; Turkey; Central Asia; Middle East