Publications

Educators

Research Summary

The Economics of Digitization

By: Shane M. Greenstein

What is the value of digital platforms that build on user-generated content? How well do existing frameworks explain the value of these businesses? While drawing on prior work, this research stream examines new issues in parts of the economy that previously were... View Details

February 2022
Module Note

Behavioral Economics and Choice Architecture

By: John Beshears

This module note for instructors describes a module on the design of choice architecture solutions to organizational problems. View Details

Keywords: Behavioral Economics; Choice Architecture; Organizations; Problems and Challenges; Decision Choices and Conditions; Economics

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management of Companies and Enterprises

01 Mar 2010
News

Lords of Strategy

golfer). Strategy came later, with the encouragement of HBS professor Chris Christensen; Porter went on to earn a Ph.D. in business economics from Harvard and later cofound the... View Details

2016
Case

Africa Strategy of China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Jie Jiao, Dayong Yang and Shanshan Cao

Founded in 1983, China Nonferrous Metal Mining (Group) Co., Ltd. ("CNMC") is one of the earliest and largest global Chinese nonferrous metal industrial enterprises. It has investments and projects in 27 countries and trade networks in nearly 100 countries with a... View Details

Keywords: Cross-cultural Management; Global Strategy; Globalization; International Business; Strategy Management; Africa; China

Web

Economic Development in Rural Areas - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

HBS ISC Competitiveness & Economic Development CED Competitiveness & Economic Development Frameworks & Key Concepts Research & Applications Research & Applications Research & Applications National... View Details

July–August 2015
Article

The Secret of Singapore: Why Cuba Should Look to Lee Kuan Yew's Thriving City-State for Economic Inspiration

By: Debora L. Spar

Between 1965 and 1991, Singapore grew at an astonishing compound annual growth rate of nearly 14%. Critics of the island's performance accused its celebrated leader, Lee Kuan Yew, of thinly veiled tendencies toward communism and authoritarianism; they argued that the... View Details

Keywords: Economic Models; Communism; Economic Policy; Economic Reform; Angel Investors; Authoritarianism; Economic Systems; Economy; Policy; Government and Politics; Singapore; Cuba

Find at Harvard

September 2016 (Revised January 2018)
Module Note

Strategy Execution Module 4: Organizing for Performance

By: Robert Simons

This module reading explores the implications of different business models on organization design. After discussing the distinction between units focused on work processes and those devoted to markets, the analysis provides insight as to when to organize businesses by... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Implementing Strategy; Execution; Customer Focused Organization; Specialization; Span Of Control; Span Of Accountability; Span Of Attention; Strategy; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure

10 Nov 2003
Research & Ideas

Globalization: The Strategy of Differences

77 percent of its profits from outside North America. But Goizueta's strategy soon ran into trouble, due in large part to the Asian currency crisis. By the end of 1999, when... View Details

Keywords: by Pankaj Ghemawat

November 1990 (Revised June 1993)
Background Note

The Economics of Product Variety

Examines the economic tradeoffs affecting a firm's decision to offer one or more versions of a product to a segmented market. Also presents some arguments for and against product variety. View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Segmentation

Educators

2008
Working Paper

Economic Impacts of Immigration: A Survey

By: Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr

This paper surveys recent empirical studies on the economic impacts of immigration. The survey first examines the magnitude of immigration as an economic phenomenon in various host countries. The second part deals with the assimilation of immigrant workers into... View Details

Keywords: Economics; Public Sector; Immigration; Labor; Europe; Scandinavia

SSRN

1999
Report

The Economics of Variety

By: Walter J. Salmon, Robert S. Kaplan and Marci K. Dew

Keywords: Economics

2023
Chapter

Economic Globalization and Populism in Latin America and Beyond

By: Paula Rettl

Both populism and economic globalization have been on the rise in the last decades, motivating increasing scholarly attention to the phenomena and their relationship (see Rodrik 2021 for a recent review). However, the relationship between populism and economic... View Details

Keywords: Populism; Economic Globalization; Latin America; Economy; Macroeconomics; Economics; Globalized Economies and Regions; Globalization; Political Elections; Government and Politics; Finance; Geographic Location; Latin America

Dec 2009
Other Presentation

The Economic Performance of Swiss Regions

By: Michael E. Porter and Michael Keller

Indicators of Economic Performance, Composition of Cantonal Economies and Clusters of Traded Industries View Details

Keywords: Economics; Switzerland

November 2009
Article

Telegraphs—Shrinking Economic Distances? A Preliminary Enquiry, 1870s-1912

By: Felipe Tamega Fernandes

This is a very preliminary report on sources and data for my research on telegraphs. Telegraphs are usually analysed in the context of railway expansion and the literature has somewhat neglected the role of telegraphic communication for the development of steamship... View Details

Keywords: Economic History; Communication Technology; Rail Transportation; Ship Transportation; Telecommunications Industry

03 Feb 2014
News

Strategy in a World of Constant Change

Keywords: strategy; competitive advantage; innovation

Article

The Strategy in Competitive Interactions

By: Eric J. Van den Steen

This paper reviews, discusses, and expands the “core guidance” definition of strategy as “the smallest set of choices to optimally guide (or force) other choices.” It first discusses what this definition contributes to the existing proposed definitions. It then... View Details

Keywords: Strategy Formulation; Strategy Definition; Strategy; Competition; Analysis; Competitive Strategy; Decision Making

Find at Harvard

September 2022
Background Note

On CUE: The Quest for Optimal Customer Unit Economics

By: Elie Ofek, Barak Libai and Eitan Muller

Startups are often evaluated by how well they perform on unit economics, defined as the ratio of a customer’s lifetime value (LTV) to acquisition costs (CAC). A common target for unit economics, advocated by many VCs and analysts, is 3:1 (i.e., LTV/CAC=3). While there... View Details

Keywords: Unit Economics; Business Startups; Performance Evaluation; Customer Value and Value Chain; Customer Relationship Management; Analysis

Educators

2023
Working Paper

The Complexity of Economic Decisions

By: Xavier Gabaix and Thomas Graeber

We propose a theory of the complexity of economic decisions. Leveraging a macroeconomic framework of production functions, we conceptualize the mind as a cognitive economy, where a task’s complexity is determined by its composition of cognitive operations. Complexity... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Complexity; Perception; Consumer Behavior; Production