Publications

May 2020
Teaching Note

Talismark

By: Richard S. Ruback, Royce Yudkoff and Ahron Rosenfeld

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 211-097. Talismark negotiated waste hauling contracts for small and medium size companies. Its owners, Charles Muszynski and Marshall Staiman, were able to grow the business by more than 30% per year since it was founded, but believed... View Details

Keywords: Small Business; Small Business Administration; Infrastructure; Restructuring; Business Processes; Information Management; Sales; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Wastes and Waste Processing

July 2022
Case

Operation Overlord

By: Boris Groysberg, Greg Goullet, Katherine Connolly Baden and Sarah L. Abbott

On June 6, 1944, nearly 5,000 ships, 11,000 planes, and 160,000 infantrymen under an Allied joint-command of American, British, and Canadian leaders were sent across the English Channel, with hopes of re-establishing a foothold in Nazi-occupied France. Known as D-Day,... View Details

Keywords: Execution; Data Analytics; Leadership; Planning; Operations; Crisis Management; War; Organizational Structure; Decision Choices and Conditions; Information Management; France; England

December 1991 (Revised October 1998)
Case

Eli Lilly and Co.: Manufacturing Process Technology Strategy--1991

By: Gary P. Pisano, Steven C. Wheelwright and Jonathan West

Outlines the evolution of Lilly's corporate manufacturing strategy over the past decade. The corporate vice president of manufacturing must decide on the next phase of Lilly's strategy for the early 1990s, as well as to what extent and what role process development... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Management Practices and Processes; Industry Structures; Product Development; Production; Research and Development; Competitive Advantage; Corporate Strategy; Manufacturing Industry

Teaching Interest

Overview

By: Ethan S. Bernstein

Professor Bernstein currently teaches a second-year MBA course in Managing Human Capital (MHC). He is also the faculty chair for the Harvard Business School Online Developing Yourself as a Leader course and teaches in a variety of executive education... View Details

July 2021
Article

Big Data for Social Benefits: Innovation as a Mediator of the Relationship between Big Data and Corporate Social Performance

By: Goran Calic and Maryam Ghasemaghaei

Over the last decade, the use big data in firms has seen a rapid increase. Whilst scholars have begun to unpack the relationship between big data utilisation and financial performance, significant uncertainty exists about the ethical uses of this new asset. Whether... View Details

Keywords: Analytics and Data Science; AI and Machine Learning; Performance Improvement; Organizational Change and Adaptation

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29 Jul 2008
First Look

First Look: July 29, 2008

the role of observable (to us) boundaries between individuals in structuring communications inside the firm? We measure three general types of boundaries: organizational boundaries (strategic business unit... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

31 Mar 2022
Op-Ed

Navigating the ‘Bermuda Triangle’ in Professional Services

In professional services, successful firms tend to be either small or super-sized. There’s very little middle ground. Take health care, for example. Shouldice is a small, 89-bed hernia hospital in Canada that, over the past several decades, has provided excellent... View Details

Keywords: by Ashish Nanda

15 Jun 2010
First Look

First Look: June 15

be sustainable, new types of hybrid organizations need to create a common organizational identity that strikes a balance between the logics they combine. Our evidence further suggests that the crucial early levers for developing such an... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

January 15, 2019
Article

Is Your Company's Strategy Aligned with Your Ownership Model?

By: Josh Baron

The legacy of Vanguard founder John Bogle has brought attention to the transformative influence of ownership structures within the business world. Bogle's revolutionary insight into the limitations of active fund management led to the widespread adoption of index... View Details

Keywords: Ownership Type; Business Strategy; Organizational Structure; Strength and Weakness; Competitive Advantage

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Web

Topics - HBS Working Knowledge

Adaptation (52) Organizational Culture (92) Organizational Design (139) Organizational Structure (16) Organizations (518) Outcome or Result (36)... View Details

April 2006 (Revised April 2007)
Case

Endeca Technologies: New Growth Opportunities

By: Paul A. Gompers and Kristin Perry

Steve Papa, CEO of Endeca Technologies, must decide whether to expand into a new market with a new application of his company's technology. Endeca has experienced significant success with its information access software in the online retail industry, and in September... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Market Entry and Exit; Production; Organizational Structure; Partners and Partnerships; Opportunities; Expansion; Internet and the Web; Applications and Software; Information Technology Industry

Find at Harvard

July 2014 (Revised November 2015)
Case

American Airlines in 2011

By: Willy Shih

The American Airlines in 2011 case was developed to provide a setting for the comparative analysis of two very different business models in the U.S. domestic airline industry—the network carrier and the low cost carrier (LCC). These models offer very different value... View Details

Keywords: American Airlines; Network Carrier; Low-cost Carrier; LCC; Business Model; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Disruption; Transportation Industry; Travel Industry; Air Transportation Industry; United States

Yifei Wu is a doctoral student in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School with primary research interests in innovation, entrepreneurship and digitization in emerging markets. She works with impact-driven technology ventures to understand challenges and... View Details

20 Dec 2022
Op-Ed

Employee Feedback: The Key to Retention During the Great Resignation

between advocacy and inquiry. The senior team advocates an organizational direction and then launches an inquiry into the organization’s strengths and its barriers to success. 3. Make sure the conversation is constructive. Keep the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer

November 2021
Article

Corporate Strategy and the Theory of the Firm in the Digital Age

By: Markus Menz, Sven Kunisch, Julian Birkinshaw, David J. Collis, Nicolai J. Foss, Robert E. Hoskisson and John Prescott

The purpose of this article is to reinvigorate research in the intersection of corporate strategy and the theory of the firm in light of the rapid advancement of digital technologies. Using the theory of the firm as an interpretive lens, we focus our analysis on the... View Details

Keywords: Digitalization; Multi-business Firm; Scale And Scope; Theory Of The Firm; Corporate Strategy; Technological Innovation; Competitive Advantage; Organizational Design; Theory; Research; Digital Transformation