Small Companies - Publications - Faculty & Research

29 Jul 2002
Research & Ideas

Get Off the Dime!

Buffalo. We would use the same basic steps to purchase a pen, generator, or a hammer. The point was to use new technology to take advantage of economies of scale. The executive committee for our company met one month to discuss changes... View Details

Keywords: by John P. Kotter & Dan S. Cohen

02 Jun 2008
Research & Ideas

Spending on Happiness

happiness. We conducted a number of studies—from national surveys to a field study in which we examined how the manner in which employees at a Boston-based company spent a profit-sharing bonus impacted their long-term happiness—in which... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

27 Oct 2014
Research & Ideas

The Coffee Economy That Bloomed Out of Nowhere

uses the Mexican coffee economy to show how rural landholders and workers had a surprisingly large influence on foreign—and state—driven modernization projects, and how small plantations outlasted large ones in the Soconusco. "It's a... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Food & Beverage; Agriculture & Agribusiness

20 Oct 2014
Research & Ideas

Users Love Ello, But What’s the Business Model?

same way. Historically in the internet era, the notion for startups has been to build a large customer base and monetize it through advertising. But it's hard to name more than two companies that have done this successfully. If Google and... View Details

Keywords: Re: John A. Deighton & Sunil Gupta; Publishing; Financial Services

14 Jun 2004
Research & Ideas

The Big Money for Big Projects

There is nothing small about the research practiced by Harvard Business School professor Benjamin Esty. He studies the financing of some of the largest projects in the world: the Eurotunnel, Hong Kong Disneyland, and the Airbus A380, to... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen; Financial Services

05 Sep 2007
First Look

First Look: September 5, 2007

because a relative's company needed a small amount of the ingredient to make a local product. Once the real motivation surfaced, a compromise quickly followed. Understanding the other side's motives and... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

19 Sep 2011
Research & Ideas

Doomsday Coming for Catastrophic Risk Insurers?

level of risk sharing in many instances is very incomplete, very poor." Froot examines where insurance companies purchase protection asking, "Do they buy reinsurance contracts for small losses, for... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish; Financial Services

12 Feb 2016
Op-Ed

The Real Jobs Tragedy in the US: We've Lost the Skills

With a final deal reached on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), prepare for another cacophony of protest in Congress that America is signing away jobs to other parts of the world. The naysayers will be overlooking one small fact. Even... View Details

Keywords: by Joe Fuller and Matt Sigelman; Manufacturing; Electronics

16 Feb 2004
Research & Ideas

European Private Equity—Still a Teenager?

make companies more efficient when public markets are largely flat, they said. According to Nikos Stathopoulos (HBS MBA '95), a partner in Apax Partners, which was founded thirty years ago, "If you look at what drives the sources of... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Financial Services

28 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

Why Manufacturing Matters

on the country's industrial commons, which represents the collective capability to sustain innovation. Gary Pisano: Is there a future? Yes. It's not too late. There's still a manufacturing base in the United States, and it's quite large even though it's a View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson; Manufacturing

18 Jun 2001
Research & Ideas

Caught in the Cogs: When Manufacturing and IT Meet

their IT problems, Upton explained, managers are faced with a "spectrum of solutions." At one end is packaged software available off-the-shelf to all comers, including your competitors. Trouble is, when the same product is in the hands of various View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Bright Ideas: The Creative Power of Groups

attempts at group creativity in companies ranging from startups to Hewlett-Packard and Intel, is their recipe for firing up and stoking the creative process. Promoting differences of opinion, setting aside an incubation period, and... View Details

Keywords: by Laurie Joan Aron

16 Feb 2004
Research & Ideas

Marketing Wine to the World

many consolidations in the past decade. Does the rapid consolidation of New World producers make profits at the cost of diversity? Should a beer company own a vineyard? A: The scope economies across the beer and wine businesses appear... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls; Consumer Products; Entertainment & Recreation; Food & Beverage

27 Jun 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, June 27

For teams with preexisting ties within the boot camp, localized spillovers appear small or nonexistent. For teams without preexisting ties we find that outcomes improve if neighbors are high performing, but that outcomes worsen if... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

17 Oct 2012
Research & Ideas

America Needs a Manufacturing Renaissance

across businesses through movements of people from one company to another, supplier-customer collaborations, formal and informal technology sharing, and outright imitation of competitors. Although there is much talk these days about the... View Details

Keywords: by Gary P. Pisano & Willy C. Shih; Manufacturing

26 Jan 2010
First Look

First Look: Jan. 26

Working PapersCompeting Ad Auctions: Multi-homing and Participation Costs Authors:Itai Ashlagi, Benjamin Edelman, and Hoan Soo Lee Abstract We model competing auctions for online advertising, with attention to the participation costs that limit advertisers' interest... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

21 Dec 2009
Research & Ideas

Good Banks, Bad Banks, and Government’s Role as Fixer

companies that are owned by private equity. They are composed of the CEO and six directors, all of whom have relevant industry expertise. The directors make the time commitment, spending several days each month at the company. And they... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson; Banking; Financial Services

26 May 2015
Research & Ideas

Corporate Field Researchers Share Tricks of the Trade

world. Among economic scholars, field research often takes place within the walls of corporations, non-profits, small businesses, or government entities. Ideally, these organizations eventually can apply the findings of the research to... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

02 Apr 2013
First Look

First Look: April 2

413-031 Talking Strategy at Greighton Partners Since its inception, London-based private equity firm Greighton Partners had managed over $15 billion in investor capital. The firm employed about 150 professionals around the globe and had completed over 175 View Details