Publications

February 2007 (Revised November 2007)
Case

Latvia: Economic Strategy after EU Accession

By: Michael E. Porter and Christian H.M. Ketels

Describes the economic development of Latvia, a small eastern European country on the shores of the Baltic Sea, from regaining independence in 1991 to European Union (EU) accession in 2004 and is set on May 1st, 2004, the day Latvia became an EU member. Latvia had... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Economic Growth; Policy; Business and Government Relations; European Union; Latvia

24 Jan 2005
Research & Ideas

Rethinking Activity-Based Costing

excessive delays, poor quality, overtime, or stressed employees. Whichever approach you prefer, it's important not to be overly sensitive to small errors. The objective is to be approximately right, say within 5 percent to 10 percent of... View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan & Steven R. Anderson

July 1988 (Revised May 1995)
Case

Du Pont's Artificial Intelligence Implementation Strategy

Describes Du Pont's attempt to follow a "small is beautiful" type approach toward implementing expert systems technology. Intended to illustrate that there is no "one right way" to implement expert systems and that the small systems approach can be a viable strategy... View Details

Keywords: Technology Adoption; Business Strategy

September 2005 (Revised January 2009)
Case

E-Duction, Inc.

By: Peter Tufano

E-Ductions, a small privately held start-up, developed a new voluntary employee benefit: a payroll-deduction-linked credit card. The CLEAR card provided workers, especially low-income and credit-challenged employees, access to a card with tight credit limits, zero APR,... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Credit; Credit Cards; Compensation and Benefits; Employees

January 2015 (Revised May 2018)
Case

$19B 4 txt app WhatsApp...omg!

By: David Collis, Ashley Hartman and Aakash Mehta

In February 2014, Facebook announced the acquisition of WhatsApp for $19 billion. WhatsApp, founded in 2009, was a relatively young company that employed only 50 people and earned merely $10 million in revenue in 2013. It was one of many mobile messaging services that... View Details

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; Video Game Industry

July 2020
Case

Michael Solomonov: Jerusalem in a Bowl

By: Boris Groysberg, Evan M.S. Hecht and Katherine Connolly Baden

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook had begun to wonder whether it might be time to rethink their opportunistic approach to the expansion of their small restaurant empire in Philadelphia, CooknSolo. The pandemic, however, caused an... View Details

Keywords: Restaurant Industry; Entrepreneur; COVID-19; Crisis; Crisis Response Plans; Entrepreneurship; Food; Health Pandemics; Crisis Management; Innovation and Invention; Leadership; Creativity; Strategy; Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Risk and Uncertainty; Situation or Environment; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

Article

Liability Structure in Small-Scale Finance

By: Fenella Carpena, Shawn Cole, Jeremy Shapiro and Bilal Zia

Microfinance, the provision of small individual and business loans, has experienced dramatic growth, reaching over 150 million borrowers worldwide. Much of the success of microfinance has been attributed to attempts to overcome the challenges of information asymmetries... View Details

Keywords: Microfinance; Emerging Markets; Financial Markets; Legal Liability; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; India

Find at Harvard

2014
Case

Meizhou Dongpo Restaurant: Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Culture

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Weiku Wu and Jia Guo

Meizhou Dongpo is a large catering group in China. On June 6, 1996, the first Meizhou Dongpo Restaurant was opened in Beijing. The enterprise entered the stage of rapid development in 2000, and set up Beijing Meizhou Restaurant Management Co., Ltd. In June 2003 the... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Leadership; National Culture; China; Restaurants; China

21 Dec 2011
Research & Ideas

The Most Common Strategy Mistakes

"Michael Porter didn't get to be a giant in the field of competition and strategy by hunting small game." Joan Magretta begins her new book on Harvard Business School's Michael Porter's work by... View Details

Keywords: by Joan Magretta

04 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: January 4

PublicationsCases about Redefining Global Strategy Authors:Pankaj Ghemawat and Jordan I. Siegel Publication:Harvard Business Publishing, 2011 An abstract is unavailable at this time. Publisher's Link:... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

February 2003 (Revised December 2005)
Case

Susan Griffin: Formulation of a Long-Term Investment Strategy

By: Dwight B. Crane and Julia Stevens

Susan Griffin, owner and cofounder of a small manufacturing company, is formulating a long-term investment strategy. Griffin plans to sell her $10 million company and invest the revenue. She must decide how to allocate her investment so that she can rely entirely on... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Business Exit or Shutdown; Investment

29 Oct 2012
Research & Ideas

Are You Paying a Tip--or a Bribe?

according to Magnus Thor Torfason, an assistant professor in Harvard Business School's Entrepreneurial Management Unit. His article for Social Psychological & Personality Science, "Here's a Tip: Prosocial Gratuities Are Linked to... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

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

2009
Book

Experiments in Financial Democracy: Corporate Governance and Financial Development in Brazil, 1882-1950

By: Aldo Musacchio

In Experiments in Financial Democracy, I challenge the idea that it was colonial institutions that sent Brazil, a civil law country, down a particular path of corporate governance and finance. Detailed archival research reveals significantly different patterns of... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Investment; Corporate Governance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business History; Business and Shareholder Relations; Brazil

Find at Harvard

17 Apr 2022
Book

How to Avoid the 'Ethical Slide' That Leads Companies Astray

Excerpt Business Ethics: What Everyone Needs to Know J. S. Nelson Most people follow at least some ethical rules in their daily lives. (The small percentage of individuals who do not are called psychopaths;... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

Research Summary

Research and Publication Interests

Michelle Craig McDonald is currently writing a Harvard Business School case study on the impact of the International Coffee Act on small producers. She is interested in early American economic development, especially the role of foreign trade and re-exported... View Details

February 15, 2022
Article

How Managers Can Build a Culture of Experimentation

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Neil Hoyne

Testing in business presents qualitatively different challenges than those in clinical trials and most scientific research. There are very few opportunities for randomized control experiments in a changing, competitive market. Yet, change and competition make testing a... View Details

Keywords: Experimentation; Management; Decision Making