Publications

December 10, 2013
Article

A Market-based Mechanism to Improve Capital Expenditures

By: Eric D. Werker

Keywords: Finance; Infrastructure; Debt; Political Risk; Expenditure; Ghana; Africa

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January 2020 (Revised March 2020)
Case

Huawei: A Global Tech Giant in the Crossfire of a Digital Cold War

By: William C. Kirby, Billy Chan and John P. McHugh

By 2020, Ren Zhengfei, CEO of Huawei, had transformed the small telephone switch manufacturer he founded in 1987 into a $120 billion telecommunications company poised to lead the lucrative rollout of fifth-generation (5G) cellular networks. However, an emerging... View Details

Keywords: International Strategy; Government And Business; Digital Infrastructure; Political Risk; Information Technology; Infrastructure; Business and Government Relations; Government and Politics; Information Infrastructure; Technology Industry; China; United States

Teaching Interest

Africa: Building Cities: Immersive Field Course

By: John D. Macomber

This second year elective takes students into the field to assess and report on the opprtunities in the next decade for the private finance and delivery of public infrastructure in the Global South. In January of 2016 and 2017 the cities studied were Addis Ababa,... View Details

Keywords: Cities; Urbanization; Economic Development; Infrastructure; Sustainability; Africa; Latin America; Peru; Argentina; Ethiopia; Tanzania

December 2020
Article

Taking Innovation to the Streets: Micro-geography, Physical Structure and Innovation

By: Maria P. Roche

In this paper, we analyze how the physical layout of cities affects innovation by influencing the organization of knowledge exchange. We exploit a novel data set covering all Census Block Groups in the contiguous United States with information on innovation outcomes,... View Details

Keywords: Microgeography; Innovation; Street Infrastructure; Knowledge Exchange; Interactions; Geography; City; Innovation and Invention; Knowledge Sharing

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Research Summary

Sustainability, Real Estate and the Built Environment

By: John D. Macomber

Research interests include:

Real estate development, design, and construction, notably how design creates value;
Sustainable cities, in particular entrepreneurship and project finance in light of global trends in urbanization and resource... View Details

Keywords: Infrastructure Finance; Sustainability; Urban Development; City Growth

Teaching Interest

Overview

By: John D. Macomber

Teaching and research interests center around the matching of private and instituional capital into large public infrastructure and resilience projects that shape the future of cities and urban environments around the world. The world's population is increaslingly... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Infrastructure Finance; Water; Cities; Urbanization; Transportation; Architecture; Urban Planning; Construction; Africa; Latin America; Climate Change

August 2019
Case

Kazakhstan Railways: From the Middle of Nowhere to a Center of Trade?

By: Willy Shih and Esel Çekin

This case describes the evolution of Kazakhstan's rail connectivity strategy post-collapse of the Soviet Union and its now central role in China's Belt and Road Initiative. This meant shifting from a north-south orientation towards an east-west one, as well as the... View Details

Keywords: Geopolitics; China’s Infrastructure Exports: The ‘Belt And Road’ Initiative; Logistics; Trade; Economic Growth; Geopolitical Units; Geography; Rail Transportation; Rail Industry; Transportation Industry; Central Asia; Kazakhstan; China

June 2017
Teaching Note

Qalaa Holdings and the Egyptian Refining Company

By: Victoria Ivashina and Jeffrey Boyar

Teaching Note for HBS No. 217-011 View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Infrastructure; Emerging Markets; Africa; Structuring And Financing Large Projects; Financial Services Industry; Egypt

Research Summary

Overview

By: William C. Kirby

A historian by training, Professor Kirby examines contemporary China's business, economic, and political development in an international context. He writes and teaches on the growth of modern companies in China (Chinese and foreign; state-owned and private); Chinese... View Details

October 2012 (Revised April 2017)
Case

Brazil's Enigma: Sustaining Long-Term Growth

By: Laura Alfaro, Hilary White and Haviland Sheldahl-Thomason

Over the past decade, Brazil's future as a leading world economic power appeared certain. An expanding middle class and commodity boom had fueled economic growth, with GDP growth hitting a peak of 7.5% in 2010. However, the high cost of conducting business in Brazil,... View Details

Keywords: Capital Controls; Inflation; Exchange Rates; Stimulus; Competitiveness; Productivity Growth; Foreign Investment; Infrastructure; Inflation and Deflation; Currency Exchange Rate; Brazil

Research Summary

Overview

In my research historical inquiry plays an important part in understanding the continuities from the pre-1949 past and the complex convergence of business institutions in the process of China’s current economic, political, and social modernization. Historians are able... View Details

Keywords: Business History; China; Business Government Relations; Entrepreneurs; Family Business; Industrial Development; Infrastructure; Transportation; Entrepreneurship; History; Manufacturing Industry; Transportation Industry; Rail Industry; Construction Industry; Asia

January 2024
Case

Huawei: Resilience amid Autarky and Adversity

By: William C. Kirby and Daniel Fu

In September 2023, Huawei made a dramatic return to the global smartphone space with the launch of its Mate 60 Pro smartphone, equipped with an indigenously designed, 7nm chip. This came despite a myriad of export controls and restrictions imposed against the company... View Details

June 2013 (Revised June 2013)
Teaching Note

Brazil's Enigma: Sustaining Long-Term Growth & Currency Wars

By: Laura Alfaro and Hilary White

Over the past decade, Brazil's future as a leading world economic power appeared certain. An expanding middle class and commodity boom had fueled economic growth, with GDP growth hitting a peak of 7.5% in 2010. However, the high cost of conducting business in Brazil,... View Details

07 Jul 2019
HBS Case

Walmart's Workforce of the Future

Any discussion of the future of retail—or how we work—has to include Walmart. As of 2017, 90 percent of the US population lived within 10 miles of a Walmart store; with 11,766 locations worldwide and $514 billion in annual revenues, the discount store also has the... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

13 Mar 2014
Research & Ideas

Can We Get To Where We Need To Go?

much bigger, "gleaming" roadways, and he feels a growing concern that America's transportation and infrastructure systems are lacking attention and falling behind. “We suffer through an extremely aged and outdated... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Transportation; Air Transportation; Auto

April 2001 (Revised March 2003)
Background Note

Web and IT Hosting Facilities: Technology Note

Introduces students to the data centers where IT infrastructure is increasingly physically housed. These centralized hosting facilities represent in the information age the equivalent of power utilities in the industrial age. Students are introduced to issues of... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Information Technology; Infrastructure; Web Services Industry

April 2021
Exercise

Valuing Employment Exercise

By: George Serafeim, Ethan Rouen and Katie Panella

The Valuing Employment exercise can be used to show the importance of impact measurement in designing incentives and contracts. The exercise has two phases. In the first phase, participants play the role of managers at the State of Massachusetts Infrastructure... View Details

Keywords: Bid Evaluation; Workforce; Impact Measurement; Bids and Bidding; Contracts; Design; Measurement and Metrics

June 2013 (Revised March 2015)
Case

Open Innovation at Siemens

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Katja Hutter, Stephanie Healy Pokrywa and Johann Fuller

The case describes Siemens, a worldwide innovator in the Energy, Healthcare, Industry, and Infrastructure & Cities sectors, and its efforts to develop and commercialize new R&D through open innovation, including internal and external crowdsourcing contests. Emphasis is... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Innovation Management; Crowdsourcing; Innovation Strategy; Innovation and Management; Knowledge Management; Knowledge Sharing; Research and Development; Information Technology; Energy Industry; Health Industry; Green Technology Industry; Manufacturing Industry

October 2015
Case

Bigbelly

By: Mitch Weiss and Christine Snively

To accelerate Bigbelly's sales growth and its "smart cities" positioning, its CEO planned to shift his company from equipment sales to a subscription service. Jack Kutner hoped to re-position Bigbelly's solar-powered trash compacting stations beyond trash and recycling... View Details