Publications

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01 Apr 2011
Working Paper Summaries

When Power Makes Others Speechless: The Negative Impact of Leader Power on Team Performance

Keywords: by Leigh Plunkett Tost, Francesca Gino & Richard P. Larrick

February 2024 (Revised January 2025)
Case

AGENTS.inc: Pathways to Growth at an AI Startup

By: Frank Nagle, Manuel Hoffmann, Karoline Ströhlein and Susan Pinckney

The case describes the history of AGENTS.inc. Despite being a small startup, with only four employees, that had never had a funding round, the company boasted an impressive client portfolio including multiple Fortune 500 companies. While AGENTS.inc had been an early... View Details

September 2020
Case

Uber at a Crossroads (2017)

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Karen Elterman

This case describes the history of Uber, its business model—including the ways it differed from that of the traditional taxi industry—and its competition with Lyft. The case is set in 2017, a year in which Uber was plagued by even more scandals than usual, though its... View Details

09 Aug 2010
Research & Ideas

How to Speed Up Energy Innovation

Is there a special sauce for stimulating innovation in the energy sector, a concoction to spur cost-effective developments toward solving the climate change problem? HBS professor Rebecca Henderson doesn't claim to know all the ingredients for that special sauce. But... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Energy; Utilities

May 2014 (Revised July 2016)
Case

RCA: Color Television and the Department of Justice (A)

By: Willy C. Shih and Gregory Dieterich

This case examines the early history of the color television receiver market and the global consequences of an historic 1958 consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice that opened RCA's patents to licensing by domestic competitors royalty-free. This externality... View Details

Keywords: Intellectual Property; Patents; Rights; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Business History; Information Technology; Information Infrastructure; Communications Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Electronics Industry; United States; Japan

April 1994 (Revised December 1994)
Case

Vancom Transportation, Inc. (A)

Describes the history and evolution of a school/public bus transit company that has grown rapidly and successfully by gradually pushing responsibility and trust as far down the organizational ladder as possible. A real test comes however, in two major labor relations... View Details

Keywords: Employee Relationship Management; Business Strategy; Labor and Management Relations; Transportation Industry

Video

Dr. Laura Catena

Dr. Laura Catena, Managing Director of Bodega Catena Zapata, traces the history of her family winery from humble beginnings to their decision in the 1990s to target the French wine industry and establish Argentine wine as amongst the best in the world. View Details

July 2007 (Revised November 2009)
Case

World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF)

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Jordan Mitchell

Nearly all environmental organizations have a similar aim: to stop the degradation of the natural environment. However, the strategies which environmental organizations choose to employ are sometimes starkly different. Compares the models of two dissimilar... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Environmental Sustainability; Non-Governmental Organizations; Business Strategy

July 2007 (Revised November 2009)
Case

Greenpeace

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Jordan Mitchell

Nearly all environmental organizations have a similar aim: to stop the degradation of the natural environment. However, the strategies which environmental organizations choose to employ are sometimes starkly different. Compares the models of two dissimilar... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Environmental Sustainability; Non-Governmental Organizations; Business Strategy

September 2018
Case

Verisk: Trailblazing in the Big Data Jungle

By: Andrew Wasynczuk, Francesca Gino and Karim Sameh

This case revolves around Verisk Analytics' initiatives to drive innovation throughout the firm's many business verticals. Verisk, originally named ISO, started life as an insurance rating agency in the early 1970s, acting as an intermediary between insurance companies... View Details

October 2011
Case

Gene Sequencing: Staking a Position in an Expanding Industry

By: Richard G. Hamermesh, Mara Aspinall and Phillip Andrews

Towards the end of 2010, companies in the gene sequencing industry were pushing aggressive R&D programs to develop technologies and products in the race to sequence the entire human genome at a cost of $1,000. It remained to be seen when the "$1,000 genome" would... View Details

Keywords: Genetics; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Plan; Competition; Venture Capital; Biotechnology Industry