Publications

January 2024 (Revised February 2024)
Exercise

Travelogo: Understanding Customer Journeys

By: Eva Ascarza, Nicolas Padilla and Oded Netzer

In late May 2023, Sarah Merino, the newly appointed manager of the Customer Insights group at Travelogo—an online travel booking platform—initiates a comprehensive analysis of clickstream data to understand the varied behaviors and needs of their users. In preparation... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Analysis; Analytics and Data Science; Marketing Strategy; Segmentation; Consumer Behavior; Travel Industry; United States

December 2022 (Revised February 2023)
Case

Daniel Defense: Responding to the Shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

At 11:33am on May 24, 2022, an 18-year-old man from Uvalde, Texas walked into the Robb Elementary School carrying a semi-automatic "AR-15-style” rifle manufactured by Daniel Defense and killed 19 children and two adults. Three days later, Representative Carolyn Maloney... View Details

Keywords: Gun Violence; Gun Policy; Second Amendment; Legal Liability; Government Legislation; Marketing Strategy; Business or Company Management; Product Marketing; Ethics; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Moral Sensibility; Crime and Corruption; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Manufacturing Industry; Advertising Industry; United States

March 2020
Case

Minneapolis Star Tribune

By: Joseph L. Bower, Elizabeth Hansen and Michael Norris

In the summer of 2019, Mike Klingensmith, CEO of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Twin Cities metro region’s largest newspaper, reviewed subscription trends and plans for future experimentation. The newspaper industry across the U.S. had suffered a steep decline for... View Details

Keywords: Financial Performance; Industry Evolution; Business Earnings; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategic Planning; Journalism and News Industry; Minnesota

October 2019 (Revised August 2020)
Case

Souqalmal: The Choice Is Yours (A)

By: V.G. Narayanan and Alpana Thapar

This case describes how Ambareen Musa, Founder and CEO of Souqalmal, a Dubai-based online comparison aggregator of banking and insurance products launched her business in 2011 and rapidly grew it over next couple of years. However, by 2017, the Mauritian entrepreneur... View Details

Keywords: Unit Economics; Finance; Accounting; Competitive Strategy; Financial Statements; Insurance Industry; Middle East

January 2013
Case

Luotang Power: Variances Explained

By: Robert Simons and Craig Chapman

The general manager of Luotang Power, a coal-fired power plant located in central China, reviews annual results before a meeting with the board of directors. He thought the company performed well during the year and both plant availability and fuel economy had improved... View Details

Keywords: China; Financial Statements; Management Accounting; Variance Analysis; Environmental Regulations; Incentives; Electric Power Generation; Contracts; Valuation; Energy Generation; Accounting; Performance Evaluation; Energy Industry; China

December 2007
Article

Learning to Live with Governments: Unilever in India and Turkey, 1950-1980

By: G. Jones

A noteworthy characteristic of the contemporary global economy is the uneven distribution of world foreign direct investment (FDI). In 2007 three-quarters of world FDI was located in developed countries. The residual was concentrated in a small number of emerging... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Ethics; Foreign Direct Investment; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Consumer Products Industry; India; Turkey

Find at Harvard

Web

Illumination Studies and Relay Assembly Test Room – The Human Relations Movement – Baker Library | Bloomberg Center, Historical Collections

were of particular interest to the company. Women in the Relay Assembly Test Room, ca. 1930 In a separate test room, an operator prepared parts for five women to assemble. The women dropped the completed relays into a chute where a... View Details

02 May 2023
What Do You Think?

How Should Artificial Intelligence Be Regulated—if at All?

should artificial intelligence be regulated? What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments below. (A disclaimer: AI was not used in any way in the preparation of this blog post.) References: European Union, “The Artificial... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Information Technology; Technology

Web

Organizational Behavior - Faculty & Research

fatigue. The team prepared for a pivotal strategic visit to Asia to deepen regional understanding and global alignment across the business. Keywords: Innovation Leadership ; Technological Innovation ; Leadership Development ; Leadership... View Details

Research Summary

Social Entrepreneurship

By: James L. Heskett

This project is centered around an analysis of data and experiences of 31 executive directors of not-for-profit organizations who completed the Denali Initiative on social entrepreneurship, of which I was volunteer faculty chairperson, between 1999 and 2002. The... View Details

March 2023 (Revised May 2023)
Case

Akamai Technologies: Expanding the Talent Pipeline

By: Christopher Stanton, Lynda M. Applegate, Allison Ciechanover, Emily Grandjean and Sophie Beck

In 2022, senior executives of Cambridge, MA-based Akamai Technologies met to consider whether and how to scale a successful technical training program. The program, Akamai Technical Academy (ATA), was launched in 2016 to address a key challenge at Akamai and in the... View Details

Keywords: Leading Change; Growth and Development Strategy; Diversity; Talent and Talent Management; Technology Industry; United States; Boston

September 2021
Case

Worldreader: Helping Readers Build a Better World

By: Marco Bertini, Elie Ofek and Julia Kelley

Founded in 2010, Worldreader was an international nonprofit organization that promoted reading to children around the world. For many years, Worldreader distributed e-readers to under-resourced communities and funded its operations primarily through philanthropic... View Details

October 2019
Supplement

Impax Laboratories: Executing Accretive Transactions (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

Impax Laboratories was a technology-based pharmaceutical company that used a “dual platform” strategy to sell both generic and branded treatments. While Impax had grown organically for most of its history, it was beginning to use major acquisitions for growth. In the... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Financial Statements; Mergers and Acquisitions; Capital Structure; Financial Strategy; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Corporate Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

October 2019
Case

Impax Laboratories: Executing Accretive Acquisitions (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

Impax Laboratories was a technology-based pharmaceutical company that used a “dual platform” strategy to sell both generic and branded treatments. While Impax had grown organically for most of its history, it was beginning to use major acquisitions for growth. In the... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Financial Statements; Mergers and Acquisitions; Capital Structure; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Corporate Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

September 2015 (Revised March 2017)
Case

Château Margaux (Abridged)

By: Elie Ofek, Eric E. Vogt and Robert J. Dolan

Château Margaux, one of only five prestigious estates in the Bordeaux Medoc wine region to have been classified as a "first-growth", is facing a host of strategic decisions in early 2013. Up until this point the estate had been selling two red wines, a first wine whose... View Details

Keywords: New Product Launch; Marketing Plan; Brand Management; Go To Market Strategy; Channels Of Distribution; Wine Industry; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Distribution Channels; Product Launch; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; France