Publications

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February 2022 (Revised April 2022)
Case

BUA Group

By: John D. Macomber, Pippa Tubman Armerding and Wale Lawal

BUA Group must decide between investments in cement, road building, power generation, or sugar. Private businesses are important to economic development in Africa. Students must assess the competitive nature of each of these industries, the magnitude of capital... View Details

Keywords: Investing; Transportation; Strategy; Project Finance; Agribusiness; Construction; Infrastructure; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Nigeria; Africa

May 2022 (Revised June 2024)
Case

LOOP: Driving Change in Auto Insurance Pricing

By: Elie Ofek and Alicia Dadlani

John Henry and Carey Anne Nadeau, co-founders and co-CEOs of LOOP, an insurtech startup based in Austin, Texas, were on a mission to modernize the archaic $250 billion automobile insurance market. They sought to create equitably priced insurance by eliminating pricing... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Technological Innovation; Equality and Inequality; Prejudice and Bias; Growth and Development Strategy; Customer Relationship Management; Price; Insurance Industry; Insurance Industry

October 2019 (Revised October 2019)
Background Note

Entrepreneurship and Innovation Trends in China K-12

By: John J-H Kim, Haibo Zhao and Shu Lin

This note provides a brief survey of the major entrepreneurial and innovation trends in China’s K-12 education landscape, using trends in public policy as background, but focusing on opportunities available for the private market. The note first provides a brief... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Innovation ＆ Entrepreneurship; Education; Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention; Education Industry; China

December 2007
Case

Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts

By: David A. Moss and Eugene Kintgen

In 1830, Governor Levi Lincoln, Jr. urged the Massachusetts state legislature to introduce a limited liability regime for manufacturing corporations similar to that adopted in neighboring states. At least since 1809, shareholders in the state's manufacturing... View Details

Keywords: Capital; Debt Securities; Legal Liability; Production; Business and Shareholder Relations; Manufacturing Industry; Massachusetts

09 Mar 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Causes and Consequences of Firm Disclosures of Anticorruption Efforts

Keywords: by Paul Healy & George Serafeim

January 2002 (Revised March 2011)
Case

Finland and Nokia: Creating the World's Most Competitive Economy

By: Michael E. Porter and Orjan Solvell

Finland, with a special language and culture, has developed as a country in between the west (the Nordic region and Europe) and the east (especially its neighbor Russia). In the 1980s, a process started of moving out of an investment-driven economy into an... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Economic Growth; Growth and Development Strategy; Industry Clusters; Business and Government Relations; Competitive Strategy; Telecommunications Industry; Finland

March 2011
Article

Cheaper Patents

By: Tom Nicholas

The 1883 Patents Act in Britain provides perspective for modern patent policy reforms because it radically changed incentives for inventors by reducing filing fees by 84 percent. Patents increased 2.5 fold after the reform, which was evenly distributed across the... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Global Range; Distribution; Demand and Consumers; Organizational Structure; Business Processes; Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Policy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Fluctuation; Motivation and Incentives; Distribution Industry; United States; Great Britain

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April 2007
Case

ABN AMRO Bank N.V.: Global Change Agents

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter, Lance P. Pierce and Ryan Leo Raffaelli

ABN AMRO Global Banking Group developed its risk management function in response to expansion, and increasingly focused on environmental and social risks. The head of the function needed to influence policies and business decisions in a highly decentralized context in... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Banks and Banking; Expansion; Change; Governing and Advisory Boards; Social Enterprise; Leadership Development; History; Banking Industry; Banking Industry; Brazil; India; United States

October 1988 (Revised December 1989)
Case

Siemens Electric Motor Works (B): Pricing Interdivisional Sales

Examines Siemens' policy for pricing products transferred between the manufacturing and sales divisions of their Electric Motor Works, where both are profit centers. It is unique in that the organizational linkage between the product costing system and the transfer... View Details

Keywords: Production; Price; Organizational Structure; Profit; Business Processes; Manufacturing Industry

February 1994 (Revised February 1996)
Case

Union Carbide Corporation: Interest Rate Risk Management

By: Peter Tufano

Union Carbide's board of directors is asked to evaluate a proposal from the staff treasurer's that would articulate policies to manage its debt portfolio. The staff proposes that shareholder value will be maximized if the firm manages its exposure to interest rates by... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Interest Rates; Corporate Finance; Chemical Industry

29 Sep 2015
First Look

September 29, 2015

innovations from industry outsiders who saw economic opportunities where others didn’t—and how these mainstream firms had no choice but to innovate themselves. New models were tried: some succeeded, some failed. Commercial markets turned... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 2000
Case

WARDA: Leading a Rice Revolution in West Africa

By: Ray A. Goldberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Cate Reavis

The West Africa Rice Development Association, along with various national and international partners, was developing and transferring new rice technologies to farmers throughout West and Central Africa. While production in West Africa was growing faster than any other... View Details

Keywords: Private Sector; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Government and Politics; Technological Innovation; Leadership; Performance Effectiveness; Problems and Challenges; Research and Development; Nonprofit Organizations; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Africa

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Regina E. Herzlinger is the Nancy R. McPherson Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. She was the first woman to be tenured and chaired at Harvard Business School and serve on many established and start-up corporate health care/medical... View Details

Keywords: insurance industry; insurance industry; insurance industry; insurance industry; insurance industry

Web

Research Areas - Doctoral

environment in which businesses operate. Drawing from perspectives of economic theory, political science, and history, they examine the “rules” and policies established by government and other non-business institutions that affect... View Details

Web

Business, Government & the International Economy - Faculty & Research

pricing and supply chain spillovers. These findings offer timely evidence for policymakers, businesses, and consumers navigating the immediate consequences of trade policy changes. About the Unit The BGIE Unit conducts research on, and... View Details

October 2023 (Revised February 2024)
Technical Note

Design and Evaluation of Targeted Interventions

By: Eva Ascarza and Ta-Wei (David) Huang

Targeted interventions serve as a pivotal tool in business strategy, streamlining decisions for enhanced efficiency and effectiveness. This note delves into two central facets of such interventions: first, the design of potent decision guidelines, or targeting... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Customer Relationship Management; Analysis; Design; Business Strategy; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Retail Industry

February 2022
Case

CityScore: Big Data Comes to Boston

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott

In 2016, Martin “Marty” Walsh, the Mayor of Boston, introduced CityScore, a data dashboard that measured the city’s progress across a range of metrics. The dashboard was updated daily and publicly available. The mayor frequently discussed the CityScore targets in... View Details

Keywords: Analytics and Data Science; Government Administration; Leadership; Transformation; City; Measurement and Metrics; Public Administration Industry; Boston; United States

November 2004 (Revised February 2008)
Case

Jerry Rao: Diaspora and Entrepreneurship in the Global Economy

Focusing on one entrepreneur, Jerry Rao, this case examines the international career paths of Indian business professionals and engineers since the development of public policies beginning in the 1960s to attract them to developed countries like the United States.... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Diasporas; Entrepreneurship; Globalized Economies and Regions; Personal Development and Career; Opportunities; Information Technology Industry; India