Publications

January 2008
Case

The Deutsche Bank (A)

By: David A. Moss

Founded in 1870 to help finance surging German exports and imports, the Deutsche Bank soon moved into domestic banking. In fact, its founders aimed to create both a commercial bank and an investment bank under one roof—that is, a "universal bank." By the end of the... View Details

Keywords: History; Investment Banking; Commercial Banking; Banking Industry; Germany

18 Aug 2008
Research & Ideas

How Disruptive Innovation Changes Education

have made the market difficult to penetrate and lasting reform hard to come by. That said, our lenses show how any organization can innovate successfully, and the forces at work in schools and districts are the same as those in other... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Education

January 1993 (Revised June 1995)
Case

Arbitrage in the Government Bond Market?

Documents a pricing anomaly in the large and liquid treasury bond market. The prices of callable treasury bonds seem to be inconsistent with the prices of noncallable treasuries and an arbitrage opportunity appears to exist. Permits instructors to introduce the... View Details

Keywords: Bonds; Price; Valuation; Capital Markets

05 Dec 2023
Research & Ideas

Lessons in Decision-Making: Confident People Aren't Always Correct (Except When They Are)

individual decisions. How robustly people participate was strongly predicted by people’s confidence in the correctness of their answer. Whether auctions, betting markets, or committees created improvements was strongly predicted by the... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

08 Sep 2003
Research & Ideas

A Bold Proposal for Investment Reform

For companies to redeem credibility with investors, argue Harvard Business School professors Paul Healy and Krishna Palepu, "fundamental and even radical reforms must be made to the way America's markets process the flows of... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen; Financial Services

16 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Angels Face the Innovator’s Dilemma

Innovator's Dilemma as well as studies conducted more recently—might help angels, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs get around one of the heartbreaking paradoxes of success. Outpacing Consumers Every market entails a trajectory of... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Financial Services

17 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Let Customers Call the Shots

information, and even price. Consumers can shape the marketing interaction, making it more relevant for themselves, and this should lead to greater involvement and responsiveness. The hope is an improvement in View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

21 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

Bio-Piracy: When Western Firms Usurp Eastern Medicine

emerging market entities as imitators. (Cases of bio-piracy indicate the opposite.) From a practical perspective, they wanted to suss out factors that might thwart bio-piracy altogether. In a series of new papers, the researchers trace a... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Legal Services; Biotechnology

08 Mar 2016
First Look

March 8, 2016

rhetoric and symbolic activities in the process of creating new markets. This study analyzes how entrepreneurial firms use these cultural strategies to position themselves in a nascent market category they... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 2025
Case

Initial Financial Statements at Blank Corporation: Bridging Content and Commerce

By: Jung Koo Kang, Panje Jayden Kim and David Allen

This accounting case is intended to teach students how to compile an income statement, a balance sheet, and a cash flow statement. It focuses on Blank Corporation, an innovative South Korean company that bridged content and commerce by selling products directly through... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Financial Statements; Business Startups; Social Media; Advertising; Digital Marketing; Cash Flow; Consumer Products Industry; South Korea

April 2016
Supplement

Preparing a Concession Bid at TAV Airports Holding - Exhibit 7 Supplement Model

By: C. Fritz Foley and Çiğdem Çelik

In 2013, TAV Airports Holding prepared a bid for the concession to build and operate the third Istanbul airport. This process involved input from various parts of the firm with operating and financial expertise. Burcu Geriş, the CFO of TAV Airports Holding, and her... View Details

Keywords: Partners and Partnerships; Valuation; Investment; Bids and Bidding; Projects; Management Teams; Air Transportation Industry; Turkey

13 Jul 2009
Research & Ideas

Diagnosing the Public Health Care Alternative

U.S. Senator) Tom Coburn (R-OK) argue against a government-run public market for health insurance. Reform must include incentives for entrepreneurship and innovation, which only a private market could... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Health

2008
Book

Climate Change: What's Your Business Strategy?

By: Andrew J. Hoffman and John G. Woody

Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges facing the world today. And increasingly, it's become a crucial business issue. How will you and your company respond?

In Climate Change: What's Your Business Strategy? Andrew Hoffman and John... View Details

Keywords: Carbon Footprint; Climate Change; Business Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Policy

Find at Harvard

2023
Working Paper

Where Strategy Matters: Evidence from a Global Startup Field Study

By: Nataliya Langburd Wright

The role of strategy for innovative startups is theoretically ambiguous and much debated among practitioners. I interviewed executives of 253 scaling software ventures from 34 countries and scored the alignment of their market and organizational choices to detect... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship And Strategy; Scaling Technology Ventures; Global Contextual Intelligence; Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Global Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy

SSRN

Read Now

January 2011
Case

AIC Netbooks: Optimizing Product Assembly

By: Steven C. Wheelwright and Sunru Yong

AIC Systems, located in Taichung, Taiwan, is a manufacturer of printed circuit boards, primarily for motherboards and video cards for personal computers. The firm is considered an original design manufacturer (ODM) and takes an active role in innovating and designing... View Details

Keywords: Performance Management; Quantitative Analysis; Manufacturing; Production Planning; Production Management; Diversification; Production; Performance Efficiency; Product Design; Performance Improvement; Mobile Technology; Manufacturing Industry; Electronics Industry; Taiwan

August 2008 (Revised July 2009)
Case

Gazprom (A): Energy and Strategy in Russian History

By: Rawi E. Abdelal, Sogomon Tarontsi and Alexander Jorov

Critics have accused Gazprom, the world's largest natural gas producer, of eschewing market principles in favor of the foreign policy priorities of the Russian government, ever since the energy giant cut off the supply to Ukraine in January of 2006. The purported... View Details

Keywords: History; International Relations; Trade; Energy Industry; Russia; Soviet Union; Ukraine; Europe

October 2023 (Revised February 2024)
Case

Bizongo and e-B2B in India

By: Álvaro Rodríguez Arregui and Radhika Kak

Bizongo, an Indian e-B2B platform was co-founded by three college graduates in 2015 with the goal of creating the "Alibaba of India" when the B2B e-commerce landscape was practically non-existent. The founders saw a significant opportunity in connecting mid-sized... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Decision Choices and Conditions; Entrepreneurship; Digital Platforms; E-commerce; Business Strategy; India