Publications

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

Educators

January 2008
Case

Procter & Gamble Brazil (A): 2 1/2 Turnarounds

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Matthew Bird

Juliana Azevedo Schahin, a local marketing director for Procter & Gamble in Sao Paulo, had worked closely with Tarek Fahahat, a regional executive based in Caracas, to solve the growth and profitability problems of P&G Brazil. They did so through the creation of... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Brands and Branding; Demand and Consumers; Product Development; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Expansion; Consumer Products Industry; Caracas

Educators

2008
Working Paper

Spanning the Institutional Abyss: The Intergovernmental Network and the Governance of Foreign Direct Investment

By: Juan Alcacer and Paul Ingram

Global economic transactions such as foreign direct investment must extend over an institutional abyss between the jurisdiction, and therefore protection, of the states involved. Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), whose members are states, represent an important... View Details

Keywords: International Finance; Foreign Direct Investment; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Governance Controls; International Relations; Social Issues

2008
Working Paper

Minimally Altruistic Wages and Unemployment in a Matching Model

By: Julio J. Rotemberg

This paper presents a model in which firms recruit both unemployed and employed workers by posting vacancies. Firms act monopsonistically and set wages to retain their existing workers as well as to attract new ones. The model differs from Burdett and Mortensen (1998)... View Details

Keywords: Retention; Selection and Staffing; Employment; Wages; Mathematical Methods

May 2004 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Ultra: The Quest for Leadership (A)

By: Dwight B. Crane and Ricardo Reisen de Pinho

Ultra is one of a small group of competing Brazilian petrochemical companies, each of which buys raw material and is a minority owner of Copene, a "cracking" company that provides ethylene and other materials. Because of an industry restructuring, an auction of shares... View Details

Keywords: Capital; Capital Budgeting; Investment; Risk and Uncertainty; Risk Management; Industry Structures; Cash Flow; Cost of Capital; Valuation; Bids and Bidding; Economy; Ownership Stake; Chemical Industry; Brazil

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October 2001 (Revised December 2001)
Case

EU Takeover Directive

By: Guhan Subramanian and Michelle Kalka

The draft 13th Company Law Directive, originally written in the 1980s and first formally proposed in 1990, was intended to harmonize the takeover laws of the member states of the European Union (EU). From its inception, though, this bill was controversial. Nations... View Details

Keywords: Conflict of Interests; Mergers and Acquisitions; Laws and Statutes; Policy; Problems and Challenges; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Germany; United Kingdom; European Union

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June 2001
Teaching Note

Coordinating + Managing Supply Chains: Course Overview Note TN

By: Ananth Raman

Describes the MBA elective course on supply chain management at HBS. Coordinating and Managing Supply Chains focuses on the managerial aspects of supply chains. Acquaints students with practical issues in a variety of supply chains and then identifies barriers to, and... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Framework; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Management Practices and Processes; Managerial Roles; Marketing; Supply Chain Management; Performance Improvement; Planning; Behavior; Integration

June 2001
Teaching Note

Teaching IT Executive Education Courses TN

By: Richard L. Nolan

In the information age, it is important that IT be addressed in an effective way accessible to practicing executives. Teaching IT to executives continues to change in concepts and content as IT penetrates deeply into every area of business. Driven by Moore's Law, the... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Developing Countries and Economies; Business Education; Managerial Roles; Organizational Structure; Performance Effectiveness; Performance Improvement; Information Technology

December 1999 (Revised March 2000)
Case

Workplace Safety at Alcoa (B)

At the May 1996 annual shareholders meeting, Alcoa CEO Paul O'Neill reported that Alcoa was making great progress toward becoming a world-class leader, both in terms of workplace safety and profitability. This validated of O'Neill's decade-long emphasis on safety as... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Working Conditions; Quality; Cost; Profit; Management Systems

Educators

October 1995 (Revised January 1998)
Case

Cybersmith

Cybersmith is a new company that has created a new retailing concept. This particular store has been reported in over 250 newspapers, and by every major American television network. Some would classify it as an on-line cafe, but management has positioned the store as... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Joint Ventures; Consumer Behavior; Product Marketing; Innovation and Invention; Retail Industry; Cambridge

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Translations available in Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Indonesian, Korean, Portuguese, Turkish, Vietnamese.

Western concerns about the rise of China and India are raising alarms today, much as they were fifty years ago. China and India currently operate in... View Details

Facebook's Platforms

In early 2009, Facebook was the largest global on-line social network, with 175 million members. However, it generated relatively little revenue from its advertising... View Details

2016
Working Paper

The Climate Custodians

By: Robert G. Eccles and Tim Youmans

Can custody banks become key players in climate change? Custody banks joining the battle against climate change will signal a significant shift in governance ideology for this highly regulated industry so critical to the global financial system. While global custody... View Details

Keywords: Pollutants; Climate Change; Capital Markets; Investment Banking; Institutional Investing; Policy

SSRN

November 29, 2011
Article

The Role of The Board in Creating a Sustainable Strategy

By: Robert G. Eccles, Ioannis Ioannou and George Serafeim

While conceptually elegant, the belief that a corporation's role is to maximize value for shareholders is under increasing challenge as society's expectations for companies change. An equally elegant new concept that takes account of these dual pressures has yet to... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Corporate Strategy; Business and Shareholder Relations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance Expectations; Governing and Advisory Boards; Management Practices and Processes; Decisions; Risk and Uncertainty; Cost vs Benefits; Information