Publications

Find at Harvard

Lynn Sharp Paine is a Baker Foundation Professor and John G. McLean Professor of Business Administration, Emerita, at Harvard Business School. A member and former chair of the General Management unit, she has served in numerous leadership positions including Senior... View Details

30 May 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Ambidexterity as a Dynamic Capability: Resolving the Innovator’s Dilemma

Keywords: by Charles A. O’Reilly III & Michael L. Tushman

06 Oct 2010
Research & Ideas

John Kotter: Four Ways to Kill a Good Idea

"confounding questions, inane comments, and verbal bullets." This excerpt looks at attack strategies used by naysayers: fear mongering, delay, confusion, ridicule. For more information, read... View Details

Keywords: by John Kotter & Lorne A. Whitehead

August 2004 (Revised September 2005)
Case

Canyon Ranch

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Gabriele Piccoli

How should Canyon Ranch leverage its uniqueness in the face of increasing competition and an entrenched customer definition of the firm? The firm is attempting to create demand for return visits and foster the customization and personalization of the Canyon Ranch... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Information Technology; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Experience and Expertise; Analytics and Data Science; Customization and Personalization

16 Oct 2007
First Look

First Look: October 16, 2007

Dewey, wait for the scheduled auction with several interested publishers, or pull out of the race? Allows for an in-depth examination of new-product acquisition, development, and launch View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 2019 (Revised December 2019)
Case

Marcus by Goldman Sachs

By: Rory McDonald, Samir Junnarkar and David Lane

Five years on from the 2008 financial crisis, Goldman Sachs remained wounded. Revenues at the global investment bank had stagnated below pre-crisis levels, and the firm had yet to rebound from a substantial decline in securities-trading revenues. Marcus by Goldman... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Banks and Banking; Innovation Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Organizational Culture; Financial Services Industry; United Kingdom

03 Apr 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Clear and Present Danger: Planning and New Venture Survival Amid Political and Civil Violence

Keywords: by Shon Hiatt & Wesley Sine

May 2024
Article

Design of Off-Grid Lighting Business Models to Serve the Poor: Field Experiments and Structural Analysis

By: Bhavani Shanker Uppari, Serguei Netessine, Ioanna Popescu and Rowan P. Clarke

A significant proportion of the world's population has no access to grid-based electricity and so relies on off-grid lighting solutions. Rechargeable lamp technology is gaining popularity as an alternative off-grid lighting model in developing countries. In this paper,... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Developing Countries and Economies; Consumer Behavior; Poverty; Logistics; Business Model; Utilities Industry

2018
Working Paper

Ratcheting, Competition, and the Diffusion of Technological Change: The Case of Televisions Under an Energy Efficiency Program

By: Tomomichi Amano and Hiroshi Ohashi

In differentiated goods markets with societal implications, quality standards are commonly implemented to avoid the under-provision of innovation. Firms have clear incentives to engage in strategic behavior because policymakers use market outcomes as a benchmark in... View Details

Keywords: Product Differentiation; Energy Efficiency Standards; Ratcheting; Diffusion Of Innovation; Technological Innovation; Competition; Quality; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy

SSRN

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September 2021 (Revised June 2023)
Case

Serving Bud Moore (A)

By: David G. Fubini and Patrick Sanguineti

In only his third year at a Leading Strategy Consulting Firm (LSC), Gregory Davis has been assigned to a select group tasked with advising General Motors (GM), one of the largest companies in the world by revenue, on how to reorganize their entire North American... View Details

Keywords: Groups and Teams; Decisions; Relationships; Cooperation; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Outcome or Result; Restructuring

Research Summary

Overview

Dr. Burch’s research focuses on capitalism, work, and gender in the twentieth-century United States. Her work reinterprets the history of direct selling by placing it at the center, rather than on the margins, of narratives about advanced capitalism. Examining the... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Political Economy; Labor History; Gender; Marketing; Sales Force Management; Direct Sales; United States

Jeffrey F. Rayport

Jeffrey F Rayport is a faculty member in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School, where he teaches in the School’s MBA and Executive Education Programs and on HBS Online. His primary focus in teaching and research is growth-stage technology... View Details

Career Coach

Rich Schneider

term career objectives, and tactics relating to individual firm recruiting and interviewing. For alumni, he utilizes his considerable professional and life experience to help individuals work through major... View Details

Keywords: Consulting; Consumer Products; Health Care; Manufacturing; Sports

16 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Angels Face the Innovator’s Dilemma

Great Firms to Fail, Christensen said he believes exciting opportunities await those who come up with ideas for other forms of high-tech start-up financing. When mainstream venture companies become huge... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Financial Services

04 Feb 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Unravelling in Two-Sided Matching Markets and Similarity of Preferences

Keywords: by Hanna Halaburda

October 1997 (Revised October 1997)
Case

Egon Zehnder International (B)

By: Michael Y. Yoshino, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Cate Reavis

In 1994, Egon Zehnder faced stagnation in the U.S. market and needed to discuss plans for intiating growth. Due to market demand the firm was not forced to implement options contemplated in 1994 to initiate growth. View Details

Keywords: Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Growth and Development; Growth Management; Organizational Structure; Strategic Planning; Business Strategy; Consulting Industry; United States

July 2011
Article

Mixed Source

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Gaston Llanes

We study competitive interaction between a profit-maximizing firm that sells software and complementary services and a free open source competitor. We examine the firm's choice of business model between the proprietary model (where all software modules are... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Open Source Distribution; Profit; Sales; Applications and Software; Service Operations; Business Model; Decision Choices and Conditions; Quality; Value Creation

Find at Harvard

May 2017
Case

Promontory, Inc.

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Amy Handlin

Promontory, Inc. is a small, privately owned firm in the promotional products (specialty advertising) industry. After starting the firm two years ago with the intention of pursuing a high-quality/high-price strategy, the CEO is seeking methods of increasing sales... View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management; Marketing Strategy; Customization and Personalization; Business Model; Sales; Advertising Industry

October 2015
Article

How Smart, Connected Products Are Transforming Companies

By: Michael E. Porter and James E. Heppelmann

The evolution of products into intelligent, connected devices is revolutionizing business. In a November 2014 article, "How Smart, Connected Products Are Transforming Competition," Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter and PTC president and CEO James... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Organizational Structure; Operations; Business Strategy