Publications

07 Aug 2012
First Look

First Look: August 7

Roundtable. These findings are consistent with the view that financial markets placed a positive value on shareholder access, as implemented in the SEC's 2010 Rule. The Size and Composition of Corporate Headquarters in Multinational... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2010 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Roll Back Malaria and BCG: The Change Initiative

By: Nava Ashraf, Rachel Gordon and Catherine Ross

Roll Back Malaria, a global partnership dedicated to fighting malaria has not met its founders' expectations of effectively combatting malaria. In 2005, after several internal evaluations, RBM leadership has decided to engage the Boston Consulting Group to work on a... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Management Practices and Processes; Performance Evaluation; Communication Strategy; Communication Intention and Meaning; Non-Governmental Organizations; Change Management; Multinational Firms and Management; Negotiation; Health Industry

December 2007
Background Note

Tools and Tactics for Transformation: Three "Whats" and Three "Hows"

By: James K. Sebenius and Stephen Friedman

Important transformation at Goldman Sachs, where one of the authors was Chairman, required analysis, political leadership, and management in order to fundamentally shift the strategy, people, and culture on a sustainable basis. After describing the actions needed to... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Tactics; Business Strategy; Organizational Culture; Transition; Strategic Planning; Core Relationships; Multinational Firms and Management; Leadership Style; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Private Equity

24 Feb 2009
First Look

First Look: February 24, 2009

social scientific work on entrepreneurship and weigh their value to business history research. First, we consider how scholars can employ research on entrepreneurial cognition to understand the historical ownership advantages of View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

January 2002
Case

Noranda Inc.: Mining, Smelting, and Sustainability?

By: Richard H.K. Vietor

Noranda is a $7 billion international mining and smelting company headquartered in Canada. It has been cited for its fine environmental record. This case explores the issue of sustainability--in this case, for a mining company. Over time, and under nongovernmental... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Mining; Cost Management; Multinational Firms and Management; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Environmental Sustainability; Mining Industry

November 2003 (Revised March 2006)
Case

Dow Chemical's Bid for the Privatization of PBB in Argentina

By: Mihir A. Desai and Alexandra de Royere

What price should Dow Chemical bid for PBB, a petrochemical complex that is being privatized by the Argentine government? To answer this question, students are forced to consider the role of country risk, the underlying currency exposure of the business, and how to... View Details

Keywords: Bids and Bidding; Privatization; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Cash Flow; Emerging Markets; Valuation; Business and Government Relations; Multinational Firms and Management; Risk and Uncertainty; Energy Industry; Argentina

10 Nov 2009
First Look

First Look: Nov. 10

Amazon.com, a $19 billion multinational online retailer, had won its board of directors' approval to offer to merge the two companies. Amazon had been courting Zappos since 2005, hoping a merger would enable Amazon to expand and... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

01 May 2007
First Look

First Look: May 1, 2007

production shifts to the South, Northern resources will be reallocated to R&D, driving an increase in the global rate of innovation. We test the model's predictions by analyzing responses of U.S.-based multinationals and domestic... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

10 Feb 2014
HBS Case

Stressing Safety in South Africa’s Platinum Mines

multinational that employs more than 150,000 people and produces 40 percent of the world's platinum. She was the first woman and first non-South African to head the company. Addressing how to change the culture of a large and diverse... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Manufacturing

17 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

Harvard Business School Faculty Comment on Crisis in Japan

from the epicenter, the rotating power outages promise to be a significant near term challenge. An e-mail exchange with a good friend at a major Japanese multinational over the weekend highlighted for me the uncertainty that lies ahead.... View Details

Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty

March 2014
Teaching Note

Roll Back Malaria and BCG: The Change Initiative

By: Nava Ashraf and Natalie Kindred

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Management Practices and Processes; Performance Evaluation; Communication Strategy; Communication Intention and Meaning; Non-Governmental Organizations; Change Management; Multinational Firms and Management; Negotiation; Health Industry

18 Sep 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, September 18, 2018

knowledge inflows into the multinational subsidiary, the literature is rooted in how subsidiaries inherit knowledge from the headquarters (HQ). In this paper we take the first step to liberate the construct of “subsidiary knowledge... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

28 May 2013
First Look

First Look: May 28

outside the U.S. Ishrak is trying to decide whether these steps are sufficient to transform Medtronic from a multinational into a truly global company and restore its growth. Purchase this case: http://hbr.org/search/413065-PDF-ENG... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2016
Case

IC Group A/S

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

IC Group owned several of Scandinavia's leading premium fashion brands. How should it respond to the decline of its primary wholesale distribution channels (independent fashion boutiques and department stores)? Should it open more physical stores or focus on... View Details

19 Jul 2004
Research & Ideas

Why Innovations Sit on the Shelf

shift toward greater candor. Primarily that's because employees don't believe that management, particularly the CEO, will actually listen and act on their comments. Often, such initiatives have a negative effect on the company, fostering cynicism. In one View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer, Russell Eisenstat & Derek Schrader

03 May 2004
Research & Ideas

Business History around the World

stayed important. The service sector was strong. Multinational activity was extensive and persistent. The two countries even shared the ownership of two of the world's largest multinationals, Shell and Unilever. Many allegedly distinctive... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia Churchwell

September 2010
Teaching Note

Acumen Fund: Measurement in Impact Investing (TN) (A) and (B)

By: Alnoor Ebrahim

Teaching Note for 310011 and 310017. View Details

Keywords: Projects; For-Profit Firms; Networks; Health Care and Treatment; Performance Evaluation; Investment Portfolio; Asset Pricing; Competition; Multinational Firms and Management; Venture Capital; Investment Return; Poverty; Financial Services Industry; Kenya