Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(737)
- Faculty Publications (173)
- 2008
- Working Paper
Firm-Size Distribution and Cross-Country Income Differences
By: Laura Alfaro, Andrew Charlton and Fabio Kanczuk
We investigate, using plant-level data for 79 developed and developing countries, whether differences in the allocation of resources across heterogeneous plants are a significant determinant of cross-country differences in income per worker. For this purpose, we use a... View Details
- April 2008
- Case
Engstrom Auto Mirror Plant: Motivating in Good Times and Bad
By: Michael Beer and Elizabeth Collins
In May 2007, the Engstrom Auto Mirrors plant, a relatively small supplier based in Indiana, faces a crisis. The business was in the second year of a downturn. Sales had started to decline in 2005; a year later, plant manager Ron Bent had been forced to lay off more... View Details
- February 2008 (Revised December 2011)
- Case
Sealed Air China
By: Regina Abrami, William C. Kirby, F. Warren McFarlan and Tracy Yuen Manty
With a 10-year history of doing business in China, Sealed Air was now betting on the country to help propel its growth as a global company. The company identified China as one of the initial investments in the company's Global Manufacturing Strategy that aimed to... View Details
- January 2008 (Revised October 2015)
- Case
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited: A Global Company's China Strategy
By: William C. Kirby, Michael Shih-Ta Chen and Keith Wong
After fifty-five years in the semiconductor industry, Morris Chang, founder and Chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), was seeing a change. After four decades of regular double-digit growth the industry was still growing-but now at a much slower... View Details
- January 2008
- Article
Entrepreneurship and Urban Success: Toward a Policy Consensus
By: Zoltan J. Acs, Edward L. Glaeser, Robert E. Litan, Lee Fleming, Stephan J. Goetz, William R. Kerr, Steven Klepper, Stuart S. Rosenthal, Olav Sorenson and William C. Strange
Like all politics, all entrepreneurship is local. Individuals launch firms and, if successful, expand their enterprises to other locations. But new firms must start somewhere, even if their businesses are conducted largely or exclusively on the Internet. Likewise,... View Details
- 2007
- Working Paper
Plant-Size Distribution and Cross-Country Income Differences
By: Laura Alfaro, Andrew Charlton and Fabio Kanzcuk
We investigate, using plant-level data for 79 developed and developing countries, whether differences in the allocation of resources across heterogeneous plants are a significant determinant of cross-country differences in income per worker. For this purpose, we use a... View Details
- December 2006 (Revised September 2007)
- Case
Ponsse: From Finland to Global
By: David E. Bell and Mary L. Shelman
Finland-based Ponsse Oyj, with 2005 turnover of $250 million, is the only dedicated forest equipment company of size that remained in a consolidating industry. Competitors included global giants such as John Deere and Komatsu. Since his arrival at Ponsse in 2004, CEO... View Details
- October 2006 (Revised November 2006)
- Case
Integrated Packaging Corporation: Struggling to Do the Right Thing (A)
By: Herman B. Leonard and Orson Watson
As a child, Al Fuller had seen his working-class, African-American neighborhood disintegrate as factory jobs moved away. He resolved to help inner-city communities do better when he grew up. Some years later, as an accomplished university graduate with several years... View Details
- October 2006 (Revised January 2009)
- Case
Vitreon Corporation: The Hyalite Project
By: Roy D. Shapiro
Considers decisions facing the leader of a manufacturing staff project team assigned to a plant where yields have deteriorated sharply. The process is complex: the plant organization is not cooperative, and there are deep disagreements about what is wrong and how to... View Details
- May 2006
- Case
Esterline Technologies: Lean Manufacturing
By: Richard L. Nolan, Karen A. Brown and Subodha Kumar
Raises the issue of the appropriate role of IT in lean manufacturing. Most large manufacturing companies have implemented ERP IT systems to support lean manufacturing practices. The Kerry plant of Esterline Technologies attempted an ERP implementation and then... View Details
- April 2006 (Revised November 2021)
- Case
Endesa Chile: Raising the Ralco Dam (A)
By: Kathleen L. McGinn, Paula J. Laschober and Dina Pradel
Endesa Chile, the largest electricity generation company in Chile, is building a major power plant on the Biobio River in Southern Chile. A historic conflict involving the indigenous people of the Biobio River, the Chilean government, and international conservation... View Details
- March 2006
- Case
The Whitesides Lab
By: H. Kent Bowen and Francesca Gino
A significant part of the long-term economic growth in developed economies depends on the translation of scientific research into new products and processes. Focuses on the front end of this value creation stream. The laboratory of George Whitesides has a 30-year... View Details
- January 2006
- Case
Jack Strang at SequenceLabs
By: Mukti Khaire, John J. Gabarro and Lynda M. Applegate
How can entrepreneur manage his firm if things go wrong despite having a great idea, a solid team, and financial backing? Jack Strang founded a biotech firm with his friend Peter Evans, to develop molecular pathway-based "cures" for metabolic disorders. The idea was... View Details
- December 2005 (Revised August 2006)
- Case
Bloemenveiling Aalsmeer
By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Vincent Marie Dessain, Daniela Beyersdorfer and Anders Sjoman
The Dutch "Verenigde Bloemenveiling Aalsmeer Cooperative" (VBA) was on of the world's largest flower exchanges. Around 6,300 flower growers, one half of them located in the Netherlands, used the auction to sell cut flowers and plants to more than 1,000 wholesalers. In... View Details
- November 2005 (Revised March 2006)
- Case
Genentech - Capacity Planning
By: Daniel C. Snow, Steven C. Wheelwright and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld
While facilitating a complex clinical approval process over the next two to three years for a family of new cancer drugs, Genentech must develop a long-term capacity plan for a major class of new cancer products. Adding to the complexity and uncertainty is the fact... View Details
- August 2005 (Revised May 2006)
- Case
Cherkizovsky Group, The (A) (Abridged)
By: Lynn S. Paine
Describes the transformation of a formerly state-owned meat processing plant in Russia into a privately owned and operated food processing conglomerate under Russia's economic reforms of the 1990s. Among the challenges the CEO, Igor Babaev, and his top management team... View Details
- July 2005
- Teaching Note
Globalizing Consumer Durables: Singer Sewing Machine before 1914 (TN)
Teaching Note to (9-804-001). View Details
- November 2004
- Case
Deere & Company
By: Ray A. Goldberg and Hal Hogan
John Deere & Co. wants to improve shareholder value and provide incentives to do so. The task is difficult in a volatile agriculture and construction industry. It also wants to be more global and provide machinery that traces commodities from the field to the consumer. View Details
- July/August 2004
- Article
Stakeholders and Environmental Management Practices: An Institutional Framework
By: Magali Delmas and Michael W. Toffel
Despite burgeoning research on companies' environmental strategies and environmental management practices, it remains unclear why some firms adopt environmental management practices beyond regulatory compliance. This paper leverages institutional theory by proposing... View Details
- spring 2004
- Article
Multinationals and Linkages: An Empirical Investigation
By: Laura Alfaro and Andres Rodriguez-Clare
Several recent papers have used plant-level data and panel econometric techniques to carefully explore the existence FDI externalities. One conclusion that emerges from this literature is that it is difficult to find evidence of positive externalities from... View Details