Publications

2007
Working Paper

Intra-Industry Foreign Direct Investment

By: Laura Alfaro and Andrew Charlton

We use a new firm level data set that establishes the location, ownership, and activity of 650,000 multinational subsidiaries -- close to a comprehensive picture of global multinational activity. A number of patterns emerge from the data. Most foreign direct investment... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Business Subsidiaries; Foreign Direct Investment; Geographic Location; Supply and Industry; Vertical Integration

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July 15, 2022
Article

Does Elon Musk Have a Strategy?

By: Andy Wu and Goran Calic

Does Elon Musk have a strategy? Or is he just out there winging it? Looking at Musk’s many companies, common themes stand out across three areas: what fits into his vision for problems to solve, how he designs an organization as a solution to those problems, and why he... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Strategy; Vision; Resources; Organization; Platform; Closed Systems; Leadership; Complexity; Organizational Design; Vertical Integration; Problems and Challenges; Success; Auto Industry; Aerospace Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Energy Industry

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June 2014 (Revised October 2015)
Case

Molycorp: Financing the Production of Rare Earth Minerals (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and E. Scott Mayfield

Molycorp, the western hemisphere's only producer of rare earth minerals, was in the middle of a $1 billion capital expenditure project in its effort to become a vertically integrated supplier of rare earth minerals, oxides, and metals. Yet it had just reported lower... View Details

2008
Chapter

The Evidence Does Not Speak for Itself: Expert Witnesses and the Organization of DNA-Typing Companies

By: Arthur A. Daemmrich

During the past 15 years, new biotechnology companies have promoted DNA typing as a sophisticated criminal and paternity identification technique. Private testing laboratories produce results that link individuals with crime scenes and fathers to their children.... View Details

Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Courts and Trials; Organizational Structure; Practice; Genetics; Science-Based Business; Trust; Commercialization; Vertical Integration

June 2007
Article

Which Levers Boost ROI?

By: Margeaux Cvar and John A. Quelch

The article refers to ROI, or return on investment, and focuses on a rational strategy for financial markets that uses outside industry comparisons. The first step is to identify parallel businesses that have similar characteristics such as growth, capital, and market... View Details

Keywords: Mathematical Methods; Financial Markets; Investment Return

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January 2011 (Revised November 2014)
Case

Mochi Media

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Amit Jain

In late 2009, the management of Mochi Media, a venture-backed startup, must decide how to invest scarce resources to achieve continued growth. Mochi has developed a three-sided platform, connecting Flash game developers, sites that aggregate these games, and... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Startups; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Network Effects; Multi-Sided Platforms; Partners and Partnerships; Competition

December 2014 (Revised March 2018)
Case

John D. Rockefeller: The Richest Man in the World

By: Tom Nicholas and Vasiliki Fouka

By the late nineteenth century scale and managerial hierarchies had extended to several major industrial sectors of the U.S. economy. Although the precise mechanisms often varied, this process mainly involved horizontal integration, some form of legal or administrative... View Details

Keywords: Horizontal Integration; Wealth; Business History; Vertical Integration; Consolidation; Personal Development and Career; Energy Industry; United States

October 2013
Case

Pearle Vision: Clearly Different?

By: Rajiv Lal and Natalie Kindred

Ohio-based optical retailer Pearle Vision, part of the vertically integrated Italian eyewear group Luxottica, sold glasses and offered in-store eye exams. Once the largest U.S. optical retailer, Pearle Vision, with 266 corporate stores and 356 franchised stores in... View Details

Keywords: Eye Care; Competitive Advantage; Market Participation; Retail Industry; Health Industry; United States

March 2017
Case

Cantel Medical

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

Cantel Medical Corporation provided infection prevention and control products and services for patients, caregivers, and other healthcare providers. In 2016, Cantel generated sales of $665 million and net profits of $60 million, double the levels of five years earlier.... View Details

Keywords: Cantel; Charles Diker; Furniture Industry; Matrix Organization; Acquisition; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Conglomerates; Business Units; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Chemicals; Profit; Revenue; Geographic Scope; Multinational Firms and Management; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Business History; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Structure; Problems and Challenges; Research and Development; Opportunities; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Diversification; Expansion; Information Technology; Biotechnology Industry; Chemical Industry; Health Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States; New Jersey

August 2011 (Revised July 2014)
Case

Amil and the Health Care System in Brazil

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Ricardo Reisen de Pinho

Dr. Edson Bueno created Amil, Brazil's largest health insurer. Unlike many others, it is vertically integrated. Dr. Bueno has two opportunities for growth. Which, if any, should he pursue? View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Invention; Opportunities; Insurance; Vertical Integration; Insurance Industry; Brazil

November 2004 (Revised January 2007)
Case

Ice-Fili (Abridged)

By: John R. Wells, Pai-Ling Yin and Michael G. Rukstad

Designed as an overview of all aspects of the strategy process: industry analysis, positioning, dynamics and sustainability, and scope issues of corporate strategy, including vertical integration, horizontal diversification, and location issues. Ice-Fili is the largest... View Details

Keywords: Product Positioning; Geographic Location; Competition; Vertical Integration; Corporate Strategy; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Russia

2010
Working Paper

The New Face of Chinese Industrial Policy: Making Sense of Anti-Dumping Cases in the Petrochemical and Steel Industries

By: Regina Abrami and Yu Zheng

Why have China's petrochemical and steel industries behaved so differently in seeking trade protection through antidumping measures? We argue that the patterning of antidumping actions is best explained in terms of the political economy of economic restructuring in... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Price; Policy; Business and Government Relations; Competition; Chemical Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Steel Industry; China

January 2013
Supplement

Wanxiang Group: A Chinese Company's Global Strategy (B)

By: William C. Kirby, Nancy Hua Dai and Erica M. Zendell

Supplements the A Case 308-058. With an almost forty-year history as a business in China, the Wanxiang Group has navigated through the significantly different political and economic changes in China to succeed as a global leader in the auto parts industry, and to... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Global Strategy; Business Conglomerates; Vertical Integration; Goals and Objectives; Mergers and Acquisitions; Auto Industry; China; United States

March 2011
Article

To Join or Not to Join: Examining Patent Pool Participation and Rent Sharing Rules

By: Josh Lerner and Anne Layne-Farrar

In recognition that participation in modern patent pools is voluntary, we present empirical evidence on participation rates and the factors that drive the decision to join a pool, including the profit sharing rules adopted by the pool's founders. In most participation... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Alliances; Vertical Integration; Standards

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Research Summary

Book in progress

Expanding on my work on BP, I am starting a new book on the transformation of the major international oil companies since the 1970s. Prior to that, the oil majors largely controlled the international flow of oil, which was channelled through their vertically... View Details

January 2005 (Revised February 2006)
Background Note

Note on Corporate Strategy

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski

Introduces students to the study of corporate strategy. Focuses on questions of scope and ownership. Examines both horizontal and vertical integration. Underscores the point that economies of scope, or the existence of relationship-specific investments, are... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Contracts; Ownership; Corporate Strategy; Horizontal Integration; Vertical Integration

Article

How History Shaped the Innovator's Dilemma

By: Tom Nicholas

In 1993, four years prior to the publication of Clayton Christensen’s highly influential book, The Innovator’s Dilemma, the Business History Review (BHR) published an article by Christensen titled “The Rigid Disk Drive Industry: A History of... View Details

Keywords: Clayton Christensen; Impact; Innovation and Invention; Disruptive Innovation; Research

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September 2012 (Revised August 2015)
Case

Shanghai Pharmaceuticals

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Natalie Kindred

Shanghai Pharmaceuticals (SPH), a vertically integrated Chinese pharmaceutical conglomerate, was considering its strategic options in the context of a rapidly evolving industry, policy, and economic environment. The company—essentially a collection of subsidiaries... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Business Conglomerates; Vertical Integration; Decision Choices and Conditions; Mergers and Acquisitions; Consolidation; Health Care and Treatment; Global Strategy; State Ownership; Pharmaceutical Industry; Health Industry; Shanghai; United States; Europe