Defensive Strategies - Publications - Faculty & Research

06 Dec 2017
What Do You Think?

Is It Time To Break Up Amazon, Apple, Facebook, or Google?

Can a Platform-Based Tech Giant Be Broken Up? The answer to this month’s question of whether platform-based tech giants Amazon, Apple, Facebook, or Google should be broken up was a resounding “no.” “TD in FL” put it succinctly with one of the age-old View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Technology; Web Services

27 Feb 2017
Research & Ideas

Reputation is Vital to Survival in Turbulent Markets

Jones: The theoretical contribution is to elaborate how a favorable reputation allows a firm to overcome and capitalize on the transaction uncertainty created by institutional voids. A unique aspect of the theory is that we highlight how reputation has both offensive... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

10 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

Retailing Revolution: Category Killers on the Brink

two-day shipping for Prime members help Amazon to shrink the immediacy gap, there are still many items or occasions when a customer feels the need to have a product instantly. Convenience will thus become a key defense against e-commerce... View Details

Keywords: by Rajiv Lal & Jose B. Alvarez; Retail

28 Apr 2003
Research & Ideas

Supply Chain Risk: Deal With It

risks being caused by high-profile events such as the attacks of 9/11. Based on statistical probabilities, risk managers view 9/11 as an "outlier" or exceptional event; but even so, it has spurred a host of defensive reactions.... View Details

Keywords: by David Stauffer

09 Nov 2010
First Look

First Look: November 9, 2010

assumptions, difficult choices, and, ultimately, action plans. You and they must be able to give clear, consistent answers to the seven questions if you want to be sure that your strategy is firmly on track. Read the paper:... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

14 Feb 2012
First Look

First Look: February 14

creating psychological safety, and overcoming defensive interpersonal dynamics that inhibit the sharing of ideas. Further, they can use practical management strategies to help organizations realize the... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

18 Aug 2008
Research & Ideas

How Disruptive Innovation Changes Education

our schools." The ability of these lenses to shed new light on complicated problems has been proven in contexts ranging from national defense to semiconductors; from health care to retailing; and from automobiles to financial... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Education

15 Jun 2007
Research & Ideas

Remembering Alfred Chandler

done. Nor was he the elegant Robert E. Lee, fending off superior forces through ingenious defensive maneuvers. Instead he was the relentless Ulysses S. Grant—grinding out a series of costly victories at Shiloh, Vicksburg, and finally in... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

21 Feb 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: February 21

strategies and their importance for globalization have been scarce. In The Language of Global Success, Tsedal Neeley provides an in-depth look at a single organization—the high-tech giant Rakuten—in the five years following its English... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

08 Sep 2008
HBS Case

The Value of Environmental Activists

There are many methods, most financial, to measure the success of companies in meeting goals. But the question becomes a lot harder at Harvard Business School when MBAs are challenged to measure the efforts of environmental organizations like Greenpeace and the World... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Energy; Utilities

20 Aug 2024
Book

Why Competing With Tech Giants Requires Finding Your Own Edge

its peak in 2017. Over the years, Ping An implemented its finance plus ecosystem strategy through three steps. First, it used technology to enable and increase the competitiveness of its core business of financial services. Second, it... View Details

Keywords: by Feng Zhu; Technology; Information Technology

20 Aug 2001
Research & Ideas

Making an Ally of Uncle Sam

levels, will affect structural conditions." 2 Porter integrated the impact of government into strategy development by focusing on how it affected his "five-forces" analysis of rivals, potential entrants, suppliers,... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Watkins, Mickey Edwards & Usha Thakrar

28 Nov 2016
Research & Ideas

Challenging the Belief that Liability Laws Kill Medical Device Innovation

incentivized to produce safer products to help them manage risk” “When physicians are under pressure from high liability, innovators are incentivized to produce safer products to help them manage risk,” says Hong Luo, an assistant professor in the View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Medical Devices & Supplies

12 Jul 2004
Research & Ideas

Michael Porter’s Prescription For the High Cost of Health Care

becomes the engine of progress and reform. Improvement feeds on itself. For that process to begin, however, the locus of competition has to shift from "Who pays?" to "Who provides the best value?" Getting there will require changes in the View Details

Keywords: by Michael E. Porter; Health

27 Mar 2005
Research & Ideas

Should I Pay the Bribe?

been more salient than others. I've been surprised by how little progress we have made with the standard economic model of incentives (to fight corruption). For example, I don't think we could have predicted the little use we have for View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia D. Churchwell

31 Oct 2004
Research & Ideas

The New CEO’s Wrong Message

defensiveness in colleagues and subordinates. Second-guessing a senior manager can demoralize and demotivate not only that person but others around him, while eroding his authority and confidence. What's more, the need to overrule a... View Details

Keywords: by Michael E. Porter, Jay W. Lorsch & Nitin Nohria

27 Oct 2009
First Look

First Look: October 27

has dramatically reshaped the competitive landscape and the founders must decide between pursuing their high-growth strategy versus retrenching—including cutting costs and pulling out of their first international expansion that they had... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

07 Sep 2019
Op-Ed

Even for Non-Believers, These Are the Next Steps on Climate Change

now or wait a bit. Selection It’s not possible or even a defensible investment strategy to try to reinforce every asset everywhere, and forever. High value assets in high risk areas clearly merit investment... View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber

12 Apr 2016
First Look

April 12, 2016

customers rather than take possession of and responsibility for the products or services in question, they have inherently low cost structures and fat gross margins. They are highly defensible once established, owing to network effects.... View Details