Publications

SSRN

August 2022 (Revised October 2023)
Case

Bajaj Finance: Building an Omnipresent Financial Services Firm

By: Das Narayandas and Rachna Tahilyani

Bajaj Finance, India’s largest consumer finance firm with $20.9 billion of assets across 50.5 million customers, is on a journey to transform itself from a traditional firm that sells loans and other financial products through brick-and-mortar outlets to an omnipresent... View Details

Keywords: Financial Institutions; Transformation; Financial Instruments; Customer Satisfaction; Internet and the Web; Customer Focus and Relationships; India

Summer 2016
Article

The Real Lessons From Kodak's Decline

By: Willy C. Shih

Eastman Kodak is often mischaracterized as a company whose managers didn't recognize soon enough that digital technology would decimate its traditional business. However, what really happened at Kodak is much more complicated—and instructive. Kodak suffered from a... View Details

Keywords: Technological Change; Disruption; Ecosystem; Semiconductors; Photography; Scaling-up; Scaling; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Information Technology; Product; Consumer Products Industry; United States

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2014
Working Paper

The Decoupling Effect of Digital Disruptors

By: Thales S. Teixeira and Peter Jamieson

While the Internet's first wave of disruption was marked by the unbundling of digital content, the second wave, decoupling, promises to generate more casualties in an even broader array of industries. Digital start-ups are disrupting traditional businesses by inserting... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation; Information Technology

July 2022
Teaching Note

Arçelik (A), (B): From a Dealer Network to an Omnichannel Experience

By: Ayelet Israeli, Fares Khrais and Menna Hassan

Arçelik Turkey, the country’s market leader in household appliances, was at an omnichannel crossroads in January 2020. Arçelik was a B2B player utilizing a dealership network with an umbrella of brands and had one of the largest brick-and-mortar store networks in... View Details

December 2012
Article

Behavioral Ethics: Toward a Deeper Understanding of Moral Judgment and Dishonesty

By: Max Bazerman and Francesca Gino

Early research and teaching on ethics focused on either a moral development perspective or philosophical approaches, and used a normative approach by focusing on the question of how people should act when resolving ethical dilemmas. In this paper, we briefly describe... View Details

Keywords: Ethical Decision Making; Corruption; Unethical Behavior; Behavioral Decision Research; Behavior; Ethics

29 Jul 2021
Blog Post

Exploring the Intersection of Business & Health Care: Summer Fellow Derek Soled (MD/MBA 2022)

The HBS Summer Fellows Program enables students to apply their classroom training as they explore career opportunities in roles or regions where compensation is generally lower than the traditional MBA level. This summer, we are... View Details

2024
Working Paper

When Insurers Exit: Climate Losses, Fragile Insurers, and Mortgage Markets

By: Ishita Sen, Pari Sastry and Ana-Maria Tenekedjieva

This paper studies how homeowners insurance markets respond to growing climate losses and how this impacts mortgage market dynamics. Using Florida as a case study, we show that traditional insurers are exiting high risk areas, and new lower quality insurers are... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Natural Disasters; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Insurance Industry; Florida

SSRN

August 2022 (Revised November 2022)
Case

Altos Ventures (A)

By: Jo Tango and Alys Ferragamo

In December 2012, Altos Ventures General Partners Han Kim, Anthony Lee, and Ho Nam met to discuss the future of the firm. Altos had already adjusted its strategy multiple times. It began as a U.S.-focused venture capital investor whose first two funds were backed by a... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Venture Capital; Investment Portfolio; Partners and Partnerships

November 2004 (Revised November 2005)
Case

Kodak and The Digital Revolution (A)

By: Giovanni M. Gavetti, Rebecca Henderson and Simona Giorgi

The introduction of digital imaging in the late 1980s had a disruptive effect on Kodak's traditional business model. Examines Kodak's strategic efforts and challenges as the photography industry evolves. After discussing Kodak's history and its past strategic moves in... View Details

Keywords: History; Information Technology; Business Model; Leadership; Disruption; Industry Growth; Business Strategy; Consumer Products Industry

23 Jan 2013
Research & Ideas

Three-Dimensional Strategy: Winning the Multisided Platform

traditional resellers. Also, MSPs can be less capital intensive for start-ups. No wonder, then, that an increasing number of entrepreneurial ventures such as thredUP have been attracted to the MSP model. But in 2012 thredUP's management... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

Emily Williams

Emily Williams is an assistant professor of business administration in the Finance Unit, teaching the Finance II course to MBA students. Professor Williams’ research focuses on financial intermediation, traditional intermediation and payments, the use of technology... View Details

October 2004
Background Note

Introduction to Cost-Accounting Systems

By: David F. Hawkins and Jacob Cohen

Introduces traditional cost accounting systems. View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; System

September 2011 (Revised December 2012)
Case

Pepsi-Lipton Brisk

By: Thales S. Teixeira and Alison Caverly

This case showcases key decisions in promoting the re-launch of Brisk, a ready-to-drink iced tea by Pepsi-Lipton. The decisions are: creative, media and metrics selection. It also deals with budget allocation to traditional (Super Bowl, television) and new (viral ads... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Channels; Marketing Communications; Advertising Campaigns; Decision Making; Media; Product Launch; Resource Allocation; Performance Effectiveness; Budgets and Budgeting; Food and Beverage Industry

20 Oct 2010
Op-Ed

Export Competitiveness: Reversing the Logic

export is what has often been understood as "export competitiveness". In this thinking, exports become the target and ultimate goal of economic policy. While the crisis has increased the demand for growth strategies, it has also raised serious concerns about... View Details

Keywords: by Christian Ketels

20 Nov 2019
Video

Susana Balbo

Susana Balbo, owner and chief winemaker of Susana Balbo Wines based in Argentina, discusses innovating through two different means: innovating by applying technology to a traditional product in order to keep... View Details

August 2015 (Revised June 2021)
Case

Amazon.com, 2021

By: John R. Wells, Benjamin Weinstock, Gabriel Ellsworth and Galen Danskin

In February 2021, Amazon announced 2020 operating profits of $22,899 million, up from $2,233 million in 2015, on sales of $386 billion, up from $107 billion five years earlier (see Exhibit 1). The shareholders expressed their satisfaction (see Exhibit 2), but not all... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Analysis; Retail; E-commerce; Amazon; Internet; Amazon.com; AmazonFresh; Jeff Bezos; Cloud Computing; Marketplaces; Streaming; E-reader Market; Digital Media; Mobile App; Online Retail; Shipping; Database; Tablet; Kindle; Kindle Fire; Smartphone; Delivery; Digital Platforms; Competition; Internet and the Web; Corporate Strategy; Digital Marketing; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Film Entertainment; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Music Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Profit; Revenue; Global Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Taxation; Business History; Human Resources; Resignation and Termination; Books; Human Capital; Working Conditions; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Management Practices and Processes; Industry Growth; Industry Structures; Media; Distribution; Distribution Channels; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Infrastructure; Logistics; Product Development; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Organizational Culture; Public Ownership; Work-Life Balance; Problems and Challenges; Labor and Management Relations; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Diversification; Expansion; Integration; Horizontal Integration; Vertical Integration; Information Infrastructure; Information Technology; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Price; Applications and Software; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Working Capital; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain; Retail Industry; Advertising Industry; Distribution Industry; Electronics Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Information Technology Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Music Industry; Publishing Industry; Shipping Industry; Technology Industry; Video Game Industry; Web Services Industry; United States; Washington (state, US); Seattle

30 Oct 2017
News

Exclusive Q&A: How Retailers Can Escape The ‘Content Trap’

1997
Book

The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail

By: Clayton M. Christensen

His work is cited by the world's best known thought leaders, from Steve Jobs to Malcolm Gladwell. In this classic bestseller, innovation expert Clayton M. Christensen shows how even the most outstanding companies can do everything right—yet still lose market... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation; Leadership

2007
Book

Global Competitiveness Report 2007-2008

By: Augusto Lopez-Claros, Michael Porter, Xavier Sala-i-Martin and Klaus Schwab

The World Economic Forum continues its tradition of excellence with the 29th edition of the annual Global Competitiveness Report featuring the latest indicators from the Executive Opinion Survey. The Report assesses over 130 developed and... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Economies and Regions; Strength and Weakness; Competition