Publications

Research Summary

Understanding Customers

In conventional business case studies, protagonists almost never have the option of stepping back to seek a new understanding of the customer. But to be effective in practice, managers need both the self-assurance and ability to initiate and pursue, with rigor and... View Details

10 Oct 2007
First Look

First Look: First Look: October 10

We investigate these research questions in the context of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Audit Policy. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/08-021.pdf Cases & Course MaterialsGianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

01 Feb 2011
First Look

First Look: Feb. 1

diagnostic tests for screening. Screening games can apply to the cases where by-products, partner fidelity feedback, or host sanctions do not apply, therefore explaining the evolution of mutualism in systems where it is impossible for... View Details

02 Aug 2011
First Look

First Look: August 2

access knowledge in their component divisions, while maintaining the competitiveness of those divisions by selling goods to external customers. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/11-076.pdf Cases & Course... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

12 Feb 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, February 12, 2019

the cultural differences between immigrants and natives. These results indicate that diversity might be economically beneficial but politically hard to manage. Harvard Business School Case 218-127 Introduction to Life Settlements Life... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

13 Oct 2009
Research & Ideas

7 Lessons for Navigating the Storm

their products, most demand the same from themselves. In so doing, they are at risk of letting their egos take over and letting their protective shells harden. When things go wrong—which they inevitably do—they assume the fault lies elsewhere. Yet in most View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

09 Nov 2010
First Look

First Look: November 9, 2010

better understanding of commercial realpolitik: great-power politics based on the profit motives and shared ideas of firms. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/11-028.pdf The New Face of Chinese Industrial Policy: Making Sense of Anti-Dumping View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

13 May 2013
News

Continuity of Commitment

Stacey Case is inspiring when she talks about the inherent bond between HBS alumni. Case recently hosted a get-together at her home in San Francisco for 1987 and 1988 alumni to meet Dean Nitin Nohria, where... View Details

December 2022 (Revised June 2023)
Case

Hacking the U.S. Election: Russia's Misinformation Campaign

By: Shikhar Ghosh

The case discusses the relatively low technology approach used by Russia to influence the U.S. Presidential Election in 2016. Although political parties manipulating the media was not a new phenomenon, the Russians ran a broad, well-financed, and sophisticated social... View Details

Keywords: Political Elections; International Relations; Social Media; Power and Influence; Information; Russia; United States

June 2018
Case

Meridian Systems

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Michael J. Roberts

The Meridian Systems case focuses on a start-up in the restaurant point of sale (POS) systems market. In early 2018, Meridian is getting ready to roll out a POS system based on a new technology—a tablet-based, Wi-Fi-enabled POS system (the "tablet" system, or... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Sales; Strategy; Salesforce Management; Organizational Structure; Technological Innovation; Marketing Strategy

2013
Teaching Note

The COFCO Group (TN)

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Zheng Xiaoming and Ziqian Zhao

COFCO was China's sole legitimate window for agricultural foreign trade before 1987. The reform of China's foreign trade system beginning in 1987 cost COFCO its monopoly position. Subsequently, the SOE giant capitalized on its foreign trade expertise to strategically... View Details

Keywords: China; Food; China

Summer 2016
Article

Open Content, Linus' Law, and Neutral Point of View

By: Shane Greenstein and Feng Zhu

The diffusion of the Internet and digital technologies has enabled many organizations to use the open-content production model to produce and disseminate knowledge. While several prior studies have shown that the open-content production model can lead to high-quality... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Internet and the Web; Balance and Stability; Operations; Knowledge Management; Knowledge Dissemination

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Article

Wisdom or Madness? Comparing Crowds with Expert Evaluation in Funding the Arts

By: Ethan Mollick and Ramana Nanda

In fields as diverse as technology entrepreneurship and the arts, crowds of interested stakeholders are increasingly responsible for deciding which innovations to fund, a privilege that was previously reserved for a few experts, such as venture capitalists and... View Details

Keywords: Crowdfunding; Arts; Decision Choices and Conditions; Entrepreneurship; Investment; Fine Arts Industry; Technology Industry

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Read Now

June 2014 (Revised May 2017)
Case

Southeastern Asset Management Challenges Buyout at Dell

By: Paul Healy, Suraj Srinivasan and Aldo Sesia

In late 2012, Michael Dell wants to take Dell Inc., the company he founded, private. Mr. Dell believes that the successful company's transformation from a personal computer (PC) manufacturer to an enterprise solutions and services provider (ESS) is dependent on going... View Details

2012
Working Paper

Entrepreneurship in the Natural Food and Beauty Categories Before 2000: Global Visions and Local Expressions

By: Geoffrey Jones

This working paper examines the creation of the global natural food and beauty categories before 2000. This is shown to have been a lengthy process of new category creation involving the exercise of entrepreneurial imagination. Pioneering entrepreneurs faced little... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Consumer Goods; Entrepreneurs; Environment; Food; Globalization; Business History; Agribusiness; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Asia; Europe; Latin America; Middle East; North and Central America

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2010
Working Paper

Regulating for Legitimacy: Consumer Credit Access in France and America

By: J. Gunnar Trumbull

Theories of legitimate regulation have emphasized the role of governments either in fixing market failures to promote greater efficiency or in restricting the efficient functioning of markets in order to pursue public welfare goals. In either case, features of markets... View Details

Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Credit; Financial Markets; Personal Finance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business History; Business and Government Relations; Welfare; France; United States

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15 Dec 2016
HBS Seminar

Joel Isaac, University of Cambridge

Valuing Snap After the IPO Quiet Period

Snap, the disappearing message app, went public at $17 per share on March 2, 2017, making its two 20-something founders the youngest self-made billionaires in the country. Over the next three weeks, 14 analysts make investment recommendations on Snap: two with buy... View Details

August 2022
Case

Air Wars: Deregulating the U.S. Airline Industry

By: Tom Nicholas and James Weber

In the early decades of the twentieth century, the U.S. government assisted in the development of an airline industry by subsidizing the delivery of mail and allowing mail carriers to also fly passengers. Because the government awarded mail routes to the lowest... View Details