Publications

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23 Jan 2024
Book

More Than Memes: NFTs Could Be the Next Gen Deed for a Digital World

"This technology has the power to revolutionize multibillion-dollar industries and small businesses alike, enhancing current revenue lines and creating entirely new ones." And just as neighborhoods often form a sense of community and... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Information Technology; Technology; Financial Services

November 2024
Supplement

Epic Games: Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite (B)

By: Andy Wu and Ronald Wang

In a significant ruling on April 24, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld portions of the district court’s decision against Epic Games back in September 2021. However, Apple’s anti-steering provisions, which restricted app developers from... View Details

Keywords: Lawsuits and Litigation; Market Transactions; Applications and Software; Technology Industry; Technology Industry

January 2017
Case

T. Rowe Price and the Dell Inc. MBO (A)

By: Lena G. Goldberg

T. Rowe Price’s mutual funds, separate accounts, institutional investors, and retirement accounts were, in the aggregate, Dell Inc.’s third largest shareholder in 2013 when Dell announced a management-led buyout, or MBO, structured as a merger. In considering whether... View Details

Keywords: Fiduciary Duties; Management Buy-out; Mergers and Acquisitions; Valuation; Business and Shareholder Relations; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; Delaware

August 2008 (Revised March 2010)
Case

Finland's S Group: Competing with a Cooperative Approach to Retail

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Tarun Khanna, Samuli Skurnik and Jordan Mitchell

The case looks at the two dominant Finnish retailers: S Group and Kesko. S Group is a customer-owned cooperative, which has a unique holding structure whereby 1.7 million residents (or 70 percent of Finnish households) own 22 regional cooperatives. In turn, the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Cooperative Ownership; Public Ownership; Competitive Advantage; Retail Industry; Finland

October 2024
Case

Estímulo: Blended Finance in Brazil

By: Vikram S. Gandhi, James Barnett, Maxim Pike Harrell and Marina Osborn

In December 2022, Estímulo — a Brazilian impact investment fund supporting small businesses—found itself at a crossroads. The fund was established in 2020 to provide emergency relief through accessible credit and financial education. When low default rates from... View Details

Keywords: Credit; Financial Management; Financing and Loans; Investment; Social Enterprise; Business Model; Financial Services Industry; Brazil; South America; Latin America

2010
Working Paper

Employee Selection as a Control System

By: Dennis Campbell

Theories from the economics, management control, and organizational behavior literatures predict that when it is difficult to align incentives by contracting on output, aligning preferences via employee selection may provide a useful alternative. This study... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Decision Making; Governance Controls; Employees; Selection and Staffing; Management Systems; Financial Services Industry

Web

2023 Reunion Presentations - Alumni

streaming and esports, and more industry consolidation? Drawing on dozens of recent case studies, Professor Elberse walked participants through the likely future of the entertainment industry and outline the... View Details

16 Nov 2021
HBS Case

How a Company Made Employees So Miserable, They Killed Themselves

can make extreme means seem justifiable.” A company spiraling into debt France Télécom’s troubles started in the late 1990s, after the French government turned the national telephone monopoly into a publicly traded company, now known as Orange. The telecommunications... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

02 Oct 2007
First Look

First Look: October 2, 2007

unidimensional concept captured by the cumulative production volume or number of projects completed by a team. Implicit in this approach is the assumption that teams are stable in their membership and internal organization. In practice, however, such stability is rare,... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

November 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

United Technologies: Are the Parts Worth More Than the Whole?

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

After spending more than 50 years creating a diversified industrial conglomerate that Fortune magazine described as “arguably the most profitable conglomerate in America” in 2014, UTC’s CEO Greg Hayes was under pressure from activist investors (Dan Loeb and Bill... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Business Conglomerates; Financial Management; Corporate Governance; Organizational Structure; Investment Funds; Value Creation; Aerospace Industry; Aerospace Industry; Aerospace Industry; United States

August 2016
Case

CSI Ingenieros

By: Jay Lorsch and Emily McTague

CSI's business unit managers gathered around the downstairs conference room for the company's weekly meeting to discuss project bids. Cristina WaldAshley Hartman, who was in charge of finding projects for the engineering firm to work on, read through several she had... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Board; Board Committees; Board Dynamics; Organization; Organization Alignment; Dynamic Capabilities; Organization Design; Organizational Prototyping; Organizational Silence; Organizational Learning; Organization Behavior; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Manufacturing Industry; South America; Uruguay

January 2014 (Revised September 2015)
Case

Mittal Steel's Pursuit of Arcelor (A)

By: Paul M. Healy and Penelope Rossano

Lakshmi Mittal, CEO of Mittal Steel, a UK-based company with Indian roots, took advantage of a weakened Arcelor that had successfully won a bidding war for Canadian steel company Dofasco, with an unsolicited bid to buy the company. Mittal's plans for acquiring Arcelor... View Details

Keywords: Fiduciary Duty; Steel; India; Europe; Governance; Mergers; Board Decisions; White Knight; Strategy; Negotiation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Corporate Governance; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Steel Industry; Canada; United Kingdom; Russia; India

January 2014 (Revised May 2014)
Background Note

Rail Transportation in the United States

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Matthew Guilford

In the 20th century, automobiles and airlines pushed rail into the background as an often-troubled and neglected mode. After a review of the long history of rail in the U.S., this paper examines the situation in the 21st century, including the rail market structure,... View Details

Keywords: Railroad History; History; Rail Transportation; Rail Industry

August 2012
Supplement

Albert 'Jack' Stanley in Nigeria (C)

By: Lena G. Goldberg and Annelena Lobb

The international joint venture that successfully bid for $6 billion in contracts to build LNG trains on Nigeria's Bonny Island became entangled in a widening bribery and corruption probe triggered by an unrelated accusation against an employee of one of the JV... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Crime and Corruption; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Governance Compliance; Law; Joint Ventures; Business Subsidiaries; Government Legislation; Rail Industry; Nigeria; United States; United Kingdom

April 1997
Case

Private Management and Public Schools (B)

Examines the prospects for private management in U.S. public schools. Focuses on the education and business strategies of firms seeking to expand as a result of charter school legislation that allowed for-profit entities to enter and compete for students with access to... View Details

Keywords: For-Profit Firms; Public Sector; Value; Education; Business Strategy; Government and Politics; Education Industry; United States

27 Mar 2007
First Look

First Look: March 27, 2007

with Abernathy, Rebecca Henderson and Carliss Baldwin, Clark placed product and process designs at the center of his explanation of how innovation determines the structure and evolution of industries. Download the paper:... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

17 Jan 2023
In Practice

8 Trends to Watch in 2023

As 2023 begins, businesses and employees face an uncertain economy and labor market, as the twin dilemmas of inflation and interest rates weigh on forecasts. Harvard Business School faculty share the top trends that they believe will shape the workplace and markets... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

February 1998 (Revised December 1998)
Case

Atlantic Energy/Delmarva Power & Light (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Mathew M Millett and Tracy Aronson

Delmarva Power & Light and Atlantic Energy are neighboring electric utilities based in Delaware and New Jersey, respectively. In early 1996, they entered into merger negotiations, but were unable to reach an agreement on price because they could not agree on what... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Negotiation Offer; Government Legislation; Risk and Uncertainty; Mergers and Acquisitions; Contracts; Utilities Industry; Delaware; New Jersey

Find at Harvard

2020
Book

Work, Mate, Marry, Love: How Machines Shape Our Human Destiny

By: Debora L. Spar

Covering a time frame that ranges from 8000 BC to the present, and drawing upon both Marxist and feminist theories, the book argues that nearly all the decisions we make in our most intimate lives—whom to marry, how to have children, how to have sex, how to think about... View Details