Publications

August 1994 (Revised June 1995)
Background Note

Managerial Effectiveness and Diversity: Organizational Choices

Defines "diversity" in organizational terms and provides a descriptive framework for understanding the ways organizations identify and respond to its challenges and opportunities. The four components or lenses of the framework are: motivators, mindset, methods,... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Organizations; Labor; Diversity Characteristics

August 2004 (Revised August 2005)
Background Note

Online Auction Markets

eBay, Yahoo!, and Amazon.com entered the online auction market within four years of one another, along with a host of smaller Web sites. Five years later, eBay clearly outstripped its competitors, despite the fact that Yahoo! and Amazon both had a huge installed base... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Auctions; Network Effects

09 Mar 2016
HBS Seminar

Katja Seim of The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

13 Oct 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Shopping for Confirmation: How Disconfirming Feedback Shapes Social Networks

Keywords: by Paul Green, Jr., Francesca Gino, and Bradley Staats

04 Mar 2015
News

Challenging the Rate of Digital Health Care

January 1985 (Revised March 2003)
Case

Conex do Brasil

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and John Young

Describes interactions between Brazilian local, Latin American regional, and USA headquarters staff during the three years after establishing a manufacturing subsidiary in Sao Paulo. In a highly protected national environment, a market entry plan is developed to meet... View Details

Keywords: Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Resignation and Termination; Goals and Objectives; Market Entry and Exit; Operations; Performance Expectations; Opportunities; Corporate Strategy; Latin America; United States; Brazil

Find at Harvard

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

04 Nov 2014
News

Eureka moments born outside the office

20 Nov 2012
News

First Impressions: The Science of Meeting People

February 2021
Case

The Tulsa Massacre and the Call for Reparations

By: Mihir Desai, Ruth Page, Suzanne Antoniou and Leanne Fan

How should historic social injustices be addressed? Survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre and their descendants, including Representative Regina Goodwin of Tulsa, believe they should be addressed through reparations and have consequently continued to push the government... View Details

January 2008 (Revised November 2009)
Supplement

China's Evolving Labor Laws (B)

By: Lynn Sharp Paine and Aldo Sesia Jr.

The (B) case describes how the various business groups responded to the Chinese government's invitation to submit comments on its draft labor contract law and details the ensuing global controversy. The (B) case also describes changes made to the working draft and... View Details

Keywords: Government Legislation; Labor; Contracts; Laws and Statutes; Business and Government Relations; Labor and Management Relations; Conflict and Resolution; China

29 Sep 2017
Working Paper Summaries

International Business and Emerging Markets: A Long-Run Perspective

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones

April 1991 (Revised November 1996)
Case

Harnischfeger Industries: Portal Cranes

Harnischfeger, the market-share leader, is facing increasing competition in the portal crane industry. The key question facing the company is how to respond to the competitive threat without undermining the attractiveness of the industry. The case discusses a number of... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Machinery and Machining; Manufacturing Industry

April 2006
Case

Big Bazaar

By: Ananth Raman and Laura Winig

Describes a high-growth Indian retailer, Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd., and two of the company's formats--Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar. Challenges students to debate the company's concept, its strategic decision on how quickly it would like to grow, and some key... View Details

Keywords: Business Units; Transformation; Growth and Development Strategy; Emerging Markets; Market Entry and Exit; Supply Chain Management; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Retail Industry; India

May 2014
Case

WeaveTech: High Performance Change

By: Michael Beer and Paul Swiercz

WeaveTech, formerly Johnson-Ware, is a clothing company that produces jackets, coats, overalls, coveralls, and fire-resistant clothing for the military. A private equity firm renamed the company after it acquired Johnson-Ware several years ago. WeaveTech now faces a... View Details

September 2001
Background Note

Assessing Your Organization's Crisis Response Plans

Organizations inevitably face crises, but few are well prepared to deal with them. This note summarizes the findings of research and experience about what it takes to respond effectively in crisis situations. Provides principles to guide crisis response planning,... View Details

Keywords: Organizations; Crisis Management

Find at Harvard

September 2013 (Revised January 2015)
Case

Wal-Mart Lobbying in India?

By: Karthik Ramanna and Vidhya Muthuram

In 2012, as part of a routine disclosure under U.S. law, Wal-Mart revealed it had spent $25 million since 2008 on lobbying to "enhance market access for investment in India." This disclosure, which came weeks after the Indian government made a controversial decision to... View Details

Keywords: Lobbying; India; Multinational Corporations; Business and Government Relations; Crime and Corruption; Retail Industry; India

November 1999
Case

Adam Opel AG (A) and (B) (Condensed)

By: Joseph L. Bower

Focuses on the strategic issue of how to approach the East German market after the Berlin wall came down in late 1989. Within an unusually rich economic-political and organizational-personal context, the chairman of GM's German subsidiary has to respond to Volkswagen's... View Details

Keywords: Adoption; Decision Choices and Conditions; Situation or Environment; Risk and Uncertainty; Auto Industry; Germany