Publications

March 2015 (Revised September 2016)
Technical Note

Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent: The Three Kingdoms of the Chinese Internet

By: Feng Zhu and Aaron Smith

This note provides an overview of the Chinese Internet by describing its leading three companies: Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent (BAT). While BAT had previously focused their respective businesses on distinct sectors of the online economy—Baidu for search, Alibaba for... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Internet; Information Technology Industry; China

03 Oct 2012
What Do You Think?

Can We Bring Back the “Industrial Commons” for Manufacturing?

US. A "commons" fosters the process-oriented innovation that in turn contributes to the vitality of the industrial sector and the health of the economy. Respondents to this month's column were somewhat pessimistic that such... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Manufacturing

10 Jan 2007
HBS Case

The Challenge of Managing National Security

private sector that, in highly turbulent environments, overly centralized organizations get overwhelmed by the informational burdens placed on them. So while it makes good political theater to give... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons; Service

September 2017 (Revised June 2019)
Case

Dianrong: Marketplace Lending, Blockchain, and 'The New Finance' in China

By: Christopher J. Malloy, Lauren H. Cohen and Anthony K. Woo

This case examines the strategic positioning of Dianrong, one of the largest online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms in China, in its attempt to become a foundational player in the expansion of the FinTech sector in Asia. Dianrong had recently announced the... View Details

Keywords: Financing and Loans; Internet and the Web; Supply Chain; Finance; Innovation and Invention; Competition; Product Positioning; Strategy; Financial Services Industry; China

2023
Working Paper

The Market for Healthcare in Low Income Countries

By: Abhijit Banerjee, Abhijit Chowdhury, Jishnu Das, Jeffrey Hammer, Reshmaan Hussam and Aakash Mohpal

Patient trust is an important driver of the demand for healthcare. But it may also impact supply: doctors who realize that patients may not trust them may adjust their behavior in response. We assemble a large dataset that assesses clinical performance using... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Quality; Developing Countries and Economies; Trust

06 Nov 2017
Research Event

Who is Responsible for the Future of Cities?

The panel was moderated by John Macomber, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School whose work ponders how public/private partnerships can fuel urban development for the better. As a business person, he spends most of his time with people who agree and assume that... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

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

Find at Harvard

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

Research Summary

Energy, IT, real estate, and sustainability

By: Rebecca M. Henderson

Professor Henderson’s current research focuses on the energy, information technology, and real estate sectors and the challenges firms encounter as they attempt to act in more sustainable ways. This work is an outgrowth of her decade-long examination of the... View Details

Article

Toward a Corporate Culture of Health: Results of a National Survey

By: Michael Anne Kyle, Lumumba Seegars, John M. Benson, Robert J. Blendon, Robert S. Huckman and Sara J. Singer

Context: The private sector has a large potential role in advancing health and well-being, but attention to corporate practices around health tends to focus on a narrow range of issues and on large businesses. Systematically describing private sector engagement in... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Health; Social Determinants Of Health; Health Policy; Public Health; Organizations; Health; Policy; Surveys

Find at Harvard

2022
Working Paper

The Limits of Decentralized Administrative Data Collection: Experimental Evidence from Colombia

By: Natalia Garbiras-Diaz and Tara Slough

States collect vast amounts of data for use in policymaking and public administration. To do so, central governments frequently solicit data from decentralized bureaucrats. Because central governments use these data in policymaking, decentralized bureaucrats may face... View Details

Keywords: Decentralization; Policy-making; Policy/economics; Policy Evaluation; Governance; Government Administration; Government and Politics; Government Legislation; Policy; Public Opinion; Analytics and Data Science; Latin America; South America; Colombia

April 2005 (Revised April 2005)
Background Note

Corporate Strategies in Media and Entertainment Businesses

By: Bharat N. Anand

In recent years, many debates in corporate strategy have centered around information goods markets, and the media and entertainment sector in particular. Vertical integration is the norm in many parts of the media sector, despite conventional wisdom that it offers no... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy

Research Summary

India Transformed? Insights from the Firm Level 1988-2005 (with Anusha Chari)

By: Laura Alfaro

Using firm-level data this paper analyzes, the transformation of India’s economic structure following the implementation of economic reforms. The focus of the study is on publicly-listed and unlisted firms from across a wide spectrum of manufacturing and services... View Details

January 2016
Teaching Note

Groom Energy Solutions: Selling Efficiency

By: Michael W. Toffel, Kira Fabrizio and Stephanie van Sice

This case examines a start-up service provider that helps clients improve the energy efficiency of their factories, warehouses, and commercial and office spaces by integrating and installing lighting, heating, and cooling technologies. The company seeks to double... View Details

Keywords: Energy Efficiency; Energy Efficiency Paradox; Environment; Environmental Strategy; Growth; Energy; Energy Conservation; Entrepreneurship; Environmental Sustainability; Energy Industry

2023
Working Paper

Spatial Mobility, Economic Opportunity, and Crime

By: Gaurav Khanna, Carlos Medina, Anant Nyshadham, Daniel Ramos-Menchelli, Jorge Tamayo and Audrey Tiew

Neighborhoods are strong determinants of both economic opportunity and criminal activity. Does improving connectedness between segregated and unequal parts of a city predominantly import opportunity or export crime? We use a spatial general equilibrium framework to... View Details

Keywords: Urban Development; Transportation Networks; Crime and Corruption; Transportation Industry; Medellín; Colombia; South America

December 2015 (Revised April 2019)
Case

Chicken Republic

By: Jose Alvarez and Natalie Kindred

Deji Akinyanju, founder of Nigerian fast-food chain Chicken Republic, and Ayo Oduntan, founder of an integrated Nigerian poultry operation (Amo Byng Group), are among a growing cadre of skilled food-industry entrepreneurs for whom the opportunities to serve the... View Details