Publications

January 2009 (Revised November 2010)
Case

The Dojima Rice Market and the Origins of Futures Trading

By: David A. Moss and Eugene Kintgen

In 1730, Japanese merchants petitioned shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune to officially authorize trade in rice futures at the Dojima Exchange, the world's first organized (but unsanctioned) futures market. For many years, the Japanese government had prohibited the trade of... View Details

Keywords: Futures and Commodity Futures; Price; Food; Business History; Market Transactions; Business and Government Relations; Japan

September 1990 (Revised December 1990)
Case

Kaiser Steel Corporation, 1972

By: Timothy A. Luehrman and William Schiano

Addresses corporate restructuring. Asks students to consider how Kaiser should respond to strong competition from imported steel. Focuses particularly on labor relations in the U.S. steel industry and the feedback from contract negotiations and wage settlements into... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Decisions; Investment; Contracts; Negotiation; Labor and Management Relations; Competition; Steel Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

This paper studies exclusive vertical contracts in network industries and asks whether exclusive arrangements intended to be anti-competitive in one market segment can be pro-competitive in another. The setting is news agencies in the early 20th-century United States,... View Details

12 Jul 2016
News

Tesla’s Strategy Is Risky and Aggressive, but It Has Worked

4 PM – 5 PM EDT, 30 Sep 2021
Virtual Programming

HBS Perspectives in Health: Healthy Buildings and Productivity Organizational Imperatives Pre, During and Post Covid

Join the HBS Health Care Initiative for a discussion and Q&A with HBS professor John Macomber and Harvard School of Public Health associate professor and director of the Healthy Buildings Program Joseph Allen on their recent book, Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces... View Details

09 Mar 2016
HBS Seminar

Katja Seim of The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

1986
Working Paper

Price Competition with a Distribution of Switch Costs and Reservation Prices

By: Jerry R. Green and Suzanne Scotchmer

When there is a distribution of switch costs and of reservation prices for a good, and marginal cost of producing the good is zero, equilibrium in pure price strategies may (and sometimes must) exhibit price dispersion. Equilibrium may or may not exist, and there may... View Details

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November 2008
Case

HNA Group: Moving China's Air Transport Industry in a New Direction

By: William C. Kirby, F. Warren McFarlan and Tracy Manty

HNA Group, the parent company of Hainan Airlines, was positioning itself to go global and make a mark for itself as the largest private airline in China. Positioned squarely behind the "Big Three" state-owned carriers, Hainan Airlines sought to create a world-class... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Management Practices and Processes; Private Ownership; Competitive Advantage; Air Transportation Industry; China

12 Sep 2017
Working Paper Summaries

The Better is the Enemy of the Good

Keywords: by Christine L. Exley and Judd B. Kessler

January 1997 (Revised March 1997)
Case

Crisis at the Federal Reserve: Arthur Burns and the Stagflation of 1973-75

By: David A. Moss and Wyatt C. Wells

Briefly examines the history of the Federal Reserve System up through 1970 and then delves into how the central bank, under the leadership of Arthur F. Burns, responded to the "stagflation" of the early 1970s. It culminates with the Federal Reserve's response to the... View Details

Keywords: Central Banking; Inflation and Deflation; Government Administration; Financial Crisis; United States

October 2012
Course Overview Note

FIELD 2—Working with Global Partners

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee

Most FIELD 2 teams develop great working relationships with their Global Partner. But managing Global Partner expectations can be challenging. This note describes three scenarios with which FIELD teams struggled in the past and asks the reader to make decisions about... View Details

Keywords: Fieldwork; Partnerships; Global; Collaboration; Global Business; Global Collaboration; Partners and Partnerships

January 2019 (Revised October 2020)
Technical Note

Brand Storytelling

By: Jill Avery

Marketers have long appreciated the value and power of storytelling. Stories fill brands with resonant and relevant meaning and empower brands to serve as critical elements in the lives of consumers. Mastering the art of brand storytelling is an increasingly important... View Details

Keywords: Brand Communication; Brand Management; Brand Storytelling; Marketing; Marketing Communications; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Advertising; Consumer Behavior; Consumer Products Industry

October 2002 (Revised February 2011)
Case

Union Corrugating Company (A)

By: Paul W. Marshall and Julia Stevens

Lauri Union graduates from Harvard Business School and takes over her family's steel-corrugated roofing and siding manufacturing firm, which her mother has most recently run. The industry is mature, entry barriers to competitors are low, and the company is over 50... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leading Change; Family Business; Entrepreneurship; Organizational Culture; Family Ownership; Gender; Manufacturing Industry; Steel Industry; Industrial Products Industry

22 Sep 2012
News

IPhone 5 defines Apple success, Tim Cook-style

1997
Dictionary Entry

Incommensurable Values

By: Nien-he Hsieh

Values, such as liberty and equality, are sometimes said to be incommensurable in the sense that their value cannot be reduced to a common measure. The possibility of value incommensurability is thought to raise deep questions about practical reason and rational choice... View Details

Keywords: Measurement and Metrics; Values and Beliefs

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04 Nov 2014
News

Eureka moments born outside the office

20 Nov 2012
News

First Impressions: The Science of Meeting People

July 2025
Module Note

Supply and Demand for Strategists

By: Quan Le, Quan Le and Quan Le

This module note introduces students to the foundational microeconomic principles of supply and demand. It uses the example of an aluminum plant (specifically, production quantity and shutdown decisions) to discuss short-run vs. long-run decisions, marginal costs, sunk... View Details

January 2001 (Revised March 2001)
Case

Range, The (A)

By: Kathleen L. McGinn, Tracy Thompson and Michael Smith

Reveals the potential benefits and pitfalls of reorganization into teams in order to respond to environmental change. Takes place in the newsroom of a metropolitan daily newspaper. Both management and employees struggle to find new balance after a major restructuring... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Groups and Teams; Restructuring; Balance and Stability; Organizational Structure; Business Processes; Journalism and News Industry