Publications

March 2003 (Revised September 2004)
Case

Worker Rights and Global Trade: The U.S.-Cambodia Bilateral Textile Trade Agreement

Examines the political and economic dimensions of the campaign to improve workers' rights around the world through the inclusion of labor standards in international trade agreements. The U.S.-Cambodia Textile Trade Agreement was the first agreement of its kind to link... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Agreements and Arrangements; Rights; Working Conditions; Globalization; Consumer Products Industry; Cambodia; United States

April 2003 (Revised November 2003)
Case

Creation of the European Union, The

By: J. Gunnar Trumbull

Describes the emergence of the European Union (EU). Focuses on a critical stage in European integration--the period in the early 1990s when member states negotiated the terms of the Maastricht Treaty. This agreement set in motion the project that would eventually lead... View Details

Keywords: International Relations; Alliances; System; Negotiation Participants; Government and Politics; Agreements and Arrangements; Money; Cooperation; European Union

Article

Thinking About Technology: Applying a Cognitive Lens to Technical Change

We apply a cognitive lens to understanding technology trajectories across the life cycle by developing a co-evolutionary model of technological frames and technology. Applying that model to each stage of the technology life cycle, we identify conditions under which a... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Transformation; Outcome or Result; Economics; Cognition and Thinking; Business Model; Forecasting and Prediction

December 1994 (Revised July 1996)
Case

USSR 1988, The: The Search for Growth

For decades after the revolution of 1917, Communist Party leaders claimed that the socialist economic system was superior to the capitalist system on both moral and economic grounds. By 1985, when Mikhail Gorbachev became general secretary of the Communist Party of the... View Details

Keywords: Economic Systems; Economic Growth; Government and Politics; Soviet Union

Research Summary

The Competitive Advantage of Nations and Regions

By: Michael E. Porter

Michael E. Porter continues to extend his study first reported in The Competitive Advantage of Nations. Porter has published books and studies of other countries, states, and cities, including Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,... View Details

2012
Book

The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity Revisited

By: Josh Lerner and Scott Stern

While the importance of innovation to economic development is widely understood, the conditions conducive to it remain the focus of much attention. This volume offers new theoretical and empirical contributions to fundamental questions relating to the economics of... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Opportunities; Nonprofit Organizations; Resource Allocation; Economic Growth; Research and Development

January 2012 (Revised March 2014)
Module Note

Managers and Market Capitalism

By: Rebecca Henderson and Karthik Ramanna

The last thirty years have seen the widespread embrace of market capitalism as not only a highly efficient form of economic organization but also as one that best meets the diversity of human preferences. In large, complex societies, an increasing body of theoretical... View Details

Keywords: Economic Systems; Management

01 May 2025
HBS Seminar

Dan Iancu, Stanford Graduate School of Business

2004
Working Paper

Thinking About Technology: Applying a Cognitive Lens to Technical Change

We apply a cognitive lens to understanding technology trajectories across the life cycle by developing a coevolutionary model of technological frames and technology. Applying that model to each stage of the technology life cycle, we identify conditions under which a... View Details

Keywords: Design; Fluctuation; Technology; Perception

November 2019
Article

How Do Sales Efforts Pay Off? Dynamic Panel Data Analysis in the Nerlove-Arrow Framework

By: Doug J. Chung, Byungyeon Kim and Byoung G. Park

This paper evaluates the short- and long-term value of sales representatives’ detailing visits to different types of physicians. By understanding the dynamic effect of sales calls across heterogeneous physicians, we provide guidance on the design of optimal call... View Details

Keywords: Nerlove-Arrow Framework; Stock-of-goodwill; Dynamic Panel Data; Serial Correlation; Instrumental Variables; Sales Effectiveness; Detailing; Analytics and Data Science; Sales; Analysis; Performance Effectiveness; Pharmaceutical Industry

November 10, 2022
Article

5 Ways Startups Can Prepare for a Recession

By: Lou Shipley

Startups face unique challenges during economic downturns. They typically aren’t yet profitable and so are reliant on outside funding—and therefore are especially exposed when macroeconomic conditions change. To make it through a recession, startup CEOs should hit the... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Organizational Culture; Sales; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decisions; Inflation and Deflation; Financial Crisis; Employee Relationship Management; Business Startups; Credit

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Article

Online Community as Space for Knowledge Flows

By: Samer Faraj, Georg von Krogh, Eric Monteiro and Karim R. Lakhani

Online communities frequently create significant economic and relational value for community participants and beyond. It is widely accepted that the underlying source of such value is the collective flow of knowledge among community participants. We distinguish the... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Sharing; Value Creation; Collaborative Innovation and Invention

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This paper evaluates the short- and long-term value of sales representatives’ detailing visits to different types of physicians. By understanding the dynamic effect of sales calls across heterogeneous physicians, we provide guidance on the design of optimal call... View Details

November 2007 (Revised January 2013)
Case

Indonesia: Attracting Foreign Investment

By: Michael E. Porter and Christian H.M. Ketels

Describes the economic development of Indonesia from independence after World War II to 2006 and the post-Suharto period. The coverage of the post-Suharto period provides evidence of how political and economic conditions are intertwined after a change in the political... View Details

Keywords: History; Situation or Environment; Competitive Strategy; Emerging Markets; Policy; Foreign Direct Investment; Business and Government Relations; Public Administration Industry; Indonesia

November 1990 (Revised June 1993)
Background Note

Price-Quantity Determination

Examines the important economic considerations affecting a firm's price-quantity decision for a product. Begins with a discussion of the appropriate decision criterion. Next, it motivates the concept of a demand curve for a product and defines demand elasticity.... View Details

Keywords: Price; Accounting

July 1989
Case

NWA, Inc. - Northwest Airlines Revenue Management

Northwest Airlines is evaluating improvements to its revenue management system. This system executes a program of economic price discrimination under which the airline attempts to control the conditions on its discount fare offerings. Students must evaluate the effect... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Air Transportation; Management Systems; Corporate Finance; Air Transportation Industry; United States