Publications

September 2019 (Revised July 2021)
Case

Gap, Inc., 2019

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In 2000, The Gap, Inc. (Gap) was the world’s largest player in specialty fashion retailing, and companies such as Inditex of Spain, H&M of Sweden, and Fast Retailing of Japan were less than a quarter of Gap’s size. But after two decades of growth, Gap’s progress... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Change; Fashion; Multinational; Brands; Fast Fashion; Competition; Multinational Firms and Management; Performance Improvement; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Change Management; Strategy; Retail Industry; Fashion Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Sweden; Spain; United States

February 2019
Case

Volvo Cars: Acquisition by Geely

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Willy Shih and Nancy Dai

Zheijiang Geely Holding Company's acquisition of Volvo Cars was widely viewed with skepticism because of the poor track record of cross-border auto industry acquisitions. This case looks at the acquisition and post-acquisition integration from the point of view of... View Details

Keywords: Merger Integration; Organization Culture; Organization Behavior; Organizational Alignment; Mergers and Acquisitions; Integration; Alignment; Organizational Culture; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Auto Industry; China; Sweden

March 2023 (Revised November 2023)
Module Note

The Social Purpose of the Firm

By: Debora L. Spar and Julia M. Comeau

The Social Purpose of the Firm (SPF) is a short module designed to explore how, and under what circumstances, business leaders can harness the power of capitalism and markets to “make a difference in the world” – that is, to address a significant societal problem as a... View Details

Keywords: Social Accounting; Purpose; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Enterprise; Mission and Purpose; United States; Sweden; Kenya; Netherlands

November 2017 (Revised April 2019)
Case

Summa Equity: Building Purpose-Driven Organizations

By: George Serafeim

In 2015, Reynir Indahl left top Nordic private equity firm Altor Equity Partners to found Summa Equity (Summa). After long contemplation following the financial crisis, Indahl was convinced the financial system was producing negative externalities and that the current... View Details

June 2020
Case

What IKEA Do We Want?

By: Juan Alcácer, Cynthia A. Montgomery, Emilie Billaud and Vincent Dessain

In 2018, Swedish furniture maker IKEA was undergoing a significant transformation. Challenged by the rise of online shopping and changing consumer behavior, and mourning the death of its founder, the Company's top executives knew they had to step out of their comfort... View Details

Keywords: Business Strategy; Transformation; Leading Change; Mission and Purpose; Business Model; Emerging Markets; Customer Focus and Relationships; Organizational Culture; Disruption; Consumer Products Industry; Retail Industry; Europe; Netherlands; Sweden; China; India; United States

29 Jan 2021
Op-Ed

How Influencers, Celebrities, and FOMO Can Win Over Vaccine Skeptics

response to the swine flu pandemic, Sweden created vaccination badges for young people to post on social media, providing them prestige and social status. 3. Late majority and laggards: Incentivize their FOMO The late majority and... View Details

Keywords: by Rohit Deshpandé, Ofer Mintz, and Imran S. Currim

23 Mar 2016
Research & Ideas

Researchers Prove C-Suite Gender Gap—but Can’t Explain It

she takes off to raise children, or the quality of her network connections. Career paths are different for men and women in Sweden and elsewhere. ©iStockPhoto/Delpixart “Our results point towards the possibility that male and female... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

14 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Restarting Under Uncertainty: Managerial Experiences from Around the World

other countries outside China such as Germany and Sweden before local contagion even started, allowing precious time to acquire personal protective equipment before it became scarce. Second, since the company was able to foresee large... View Details

Keywords: by Raffaella Sadun, Andrea Bertoni, Alexia Delfino, Giovanni Fassio, and Mariapaola Testa

25 Apr 2023

Life at HBS Chat in Stockholm (In-Person)

Join for a unique opportunity to learn more about the application process, the MBA experience and life at HBS directly from HBS alumni. HBS Club of Sweden will host an in-person event (also possible to join via zoom) and feature alumni... View Details

01 Mar 2018
News

What I Do: Philippe Hellich (MBA 1996)

Founded in Sweden in 1943, IKEA is the world’s largest furniture retailer, outfitting dorm rooms and designer homes around the globe. A company that engages nearly a billion customers every year and employs over 194,000 workers in 49... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; illustrations by Peter and Maria Hoey

Carl E. Wickman

In 1926, with a colleague named Orville Caesar, he formed the holding company that would eventually become Greyhound. Wickman, seeing that an increased bus transportation system was beneficial to both bus companies and the seemingly competitive railroad firms, formed a... View Details

Keywords: Transportation

Web

The Permanent Exhibit - Option Pricing in Theory & Practice: The Nobel Prize Research of Robert C. Merton - Exhibits - Historical Collections

Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel to Harvard Business School. Awarded for the development of the Black-Scholes-Merton Formula to determine the value of derivatives, the Nobel Prize Medal, Diploma, and related... View Details

01 Apr 2002
News

Emerging Research on Emerging Markets

asserted at the third annual HBS Workshop on Emerging Markets, held on campus last December. The two-day workshop, which attracted an impressive group of scholars from as far away as Sweden and as nearby as MIT, provided a forum to... View Details

Keywords: Yasheng Huang; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

September 2024 (Revised January 2025)
Teaching Note

Leading Culture Change at SEB

By: Amy Edmondson and Cat Huang

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 621-074. The Risk organization at SEB, a leading Nordic financial services group founded in 1856, undertook a culture change program focused on psychological safety, empathic listening, and strategic framing. The program enabled risk... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Leading Change; Organizational Culture; Decision Making; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; Sweden

May 2019
Supplement

Kjell and Company: Motivating Salespeople with Incentive Compensation (C)

By: Doug J. Chung

Kjell & Company was a Swedish retail electronics chain. The company’s products consisted of home electronics and accessories. The company was noted for its excellent customer service and a fair “one-for-all” HR policy. Historically, the salespeople had been compensated... View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management; Compensation and Benefits; Change Management; Behavior; Electronics Industry; Sweden

June 2017 (Revised May 2019)
Supplement

Kjell and Company: Motivating Salespeople with Incentive Compensation (B)

By: Doug J. Chung

Kjell & Company was a Swedish retail electronics chain founded in 1988 by brothers Marcus, Mikael and Fredrik Dahnelius. The company operated 84 stores, all company-owned, located mainly in the metropolitan areas of Sweden’s most popular cities: Stockholm, Gothemburg... View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management; Compensation and Benefits; Motivation and Incentives; Change Management; Behavior; Electronics Industry; Sweden

2016
Working Paper

Equal Opportunity? Gender Gaps in CEO Appointments and Executive Pay

By: Matti Keloharju, Samuli Knüpfer and Joacim Tåg

This paper uses exceptionally rich data on Swedish corporate executives and their personal characteristics to study gender gaps in CEO appointments and pay. Both gaps are sizeable: 18% for CEO appointments and 27% for pay. At most one-eighth of the gaps can be... View Details

Keywords: Equality and Inequality; Executive Compensation; Gender; Sweden

SSRN

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June 2014 (Revised April 2015)
Supplement

OrthoChoice: Bundled Payments in the County of Stockholm (B)

By: Michael E. Porter, Clifford M. Marks and Zachary C. Landman

By the end of 2008, all major hospitals (one of which was private) and three private specialized orthopedic centers signed OrthoChoice contracts. In 2009, hip and knee replacements in the County of Stockholm for relatively healthy patients began being reimbursed. By... View Details

Keywords: Hip Replacement; Bundled Payment; Knee Replacement; Value Agenda; Strategy; Health Care Industry; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Health Disorders; Health Industry; Sweden

December 1994
Case

AB SKA (Sweden)

By: David F. Hawkins, V.G. Narayanan and Robert L. Simons

A senior manager faces three accounting and control decisions related to a new R&D project: to expense or capitalize, how to implement management control over the R&D function, and how to use activity-based cost drivers for product costing. View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Management Practices and Processes; Cost Management; Activity Based Costing and Management; Research and Development; Sweden