Publications

November 1991 (Revised January 1997)
Case

Motorola, Inc.: Bandit Pager Project (Abridged)

By: Steven C. Wheelwright

Describes the development of a fully automated production line for manufacturing radio pagers. The company regarded the project as highly successful; it becomes clear in the case, however, that there were some shortcomings as well. Some marketing issues were not... View Details

Keywords: Time Management; Marketing; Product Development; Production; Success; Projects; Technology; Telecommunications Industry

December 1989 (Revised June 1991)
Case

Motorola, Inc.: Bandit Pager Project

By: Steven C. Wheelwright

Describes the development of a fully automated production line for manufacturing radio pagers. The company regarded the project as highly successful; it becomes clear in the case, however, that there were some shortcomings as well. Some marketing issues were not... View Details

Keywords: Time Management; Marketing; Product Development; Production; Success; Projects; Technology; Telecommunications Industry

October 2001 (Revised August 2005)
Case

Zipcar

By: Myra M. Hart and Wendy Carter

Provides a detailed description of the processes and tasks associated with creating a new venture in an emerging industry (subscription car-sharing for urban dwellers). Chronicles the entrepreneur's concept development, industry analysis, market research, identity... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Leadership Development; Venture Capital; Business Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Plan; Budgets and Budgeting; Management Teams; Partners and Partnerships; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Auto Industry; Service Industry

2008
Working Paper

Unraveling Yields Inefficient Matchings: Evidence from Post-season College Football Bowls

By: Guillaume R. Frechette, Alvin E. Roth and M. Utku Unver

Many markets have "unraveled" and experienced inefficient, early, dispersed transactions, and subsequently developed institutions to delay transaction timing. However, it has previously proved difficult to measure and identify the resulting efficiency gains. Prior to... View Details

Keywords: Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Television Entertainment; Market Timing; Market Transactions; Marketplace Matching; Sports Industry

Read Now

April 1993 (Revised May 1993)
Case

Northern Telecom (A): Greenwich Investment Proposal

By: Robert J. Dolan

The business products division has developed a business proposal asking for $50 million to fund the creation of a new telephone system for the small business market. The company's last entry into this marketplace lost $70 million. The new product would face 100... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Communication Technology; Market Entry and Exit; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Investment; Product Development; Telecommunications Industry; Canada

Find at Harvard

28 Mar 2023
Research & Ideas

The FDA’s Speedy Drug Approvals Are Safe: A Win-Win for Patients and Pharma Innovation

and effective in preventing severe disease, and their accelerated review will go down in history as having saved millions of lives. But COVID vaccines weren’t the first medical products to be brought to market through an expedited... View Details

Keywords: by Kasandra Brabaw; Pharmaceutical

July 2012 (Revised August 2015)
Case

SOHO China: Design, Development, and Social Harmony

By: Arthur I Segel and Mukti Khaire

Founded in 1995 by Zhang Xin and her husband Mr. Pan Shiyi, SOHO China has developed into a world-class real estate development firm that has consistently delivered high-quality projects known for their cutting-edge designs and investment potential. Despite the... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate; Organizational Culture; Leasing; Design; Asset Management; Salesforce Management; Sales; Real Estate Industry; China

October 1993 (Revised September 1994)
Case

Becton Dickinson: Worldwide Blood Collection Team

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Kathleen Scharf

Describes Becton Dickinson's evolving attempt to develop products and strategies to meet worldwide competitive and market needs. Traces the evolution of a classic parent company-led product-market strategy to truly transnational product and strategy development.... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Product Development; Innovation and Management; Competitive Advantage; Multinational Firms and Management

Research Summary

corporate strategy, international strategy, strategy process

David Collis' research is primarily concerned with how companies create value across markets, whether those markets are different businesses (corporate strategy), or different countries (international strategy). Additionally, he is interested in how... View Details

06 Apr 2017
HBS Seminar

Arkadiy Sakhartov, Wharton, University of Pennsylvania

December 1994 (Revised February 1995)
Case

Anne Livingston and Power Max Systems (A): Interviewing with the PowerPlayer Software Engineering Team

Follows the entry and early experiences of engineer Anne Livingston, an African American woman, as she joins Power Max Systems in 1991 as software engineering manager for the new product development group. Power Max is facing stiff competition and wants to be first to... View Details

Keywords: Race; Personal Development and Career; Organizational Culture; Gender; Information Technology Industry

Find at Harvard

General Partner, Flybridge Capital Partners

Former entrepreneur turned VC, HBS Senior Lecturer, author of three, dad of three, husband of one, civic leader, and fan of all Boston sports.

Jeffrey J. Bussgang is a Senior... View Details

October 2009 (Revised December 2010)
Case

GE Money Bank: The M-Budget Card Initiative

By: Michael L. Tushman, Sebastian Raisch and Christian Welling

The M-Budget Card case study is about mastering the challenges of an exploratory strategic initiative in a context marked by time pressure and frequent change. M-Budget was the first of a series of highly successful projects that established GE Money Bank as a leader... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Credit Cards; Leading Change; Product Launch; Product Development; Groups and Teams; Banking Industry; Switzerland

January 2017
Article

Contract Design and Stability in Many-to-Many Matching

By: John William Hatfield and Scott Duke Kominers

We develop a model of many-to-many matching with contracts that subsumes as special cases many-to-many matching markets and buyer/seller markets with heterogeneous and indivisible goods. In our setting, substitutable preferences are sufficient to guarantee the... View Details

Keywords: Many-to-Many Matching; Stability; Substitutes; Contract Design; Contracts; Marketplace Matching; Balance and Stability

Find at Harvard

Read Now

02 Oct 2019
Working Paper Summaries

The Limitations of Dynamic Capabilities

Keywords: by David J. Collis and Bharat Anand

July 2016 (Revised October 2018)
Case

Tolaram: Innovating in Africa

By: Derek van Bever and Efosa Ojomo

Tolaram is a Singaporean company that began operations selling textiles in Nigeria in the 1970s. Executives and brothers, Haresh and Sajesh Aswani, however, saw an opportunity to create an instant noodle market in the country. In 1988, they began importing Indomie... View Details

Keywords: Fast Moving Consumer Goods; Business Model; Disruptive Innovation; Vertical Integration; Emerging Markets; Consumer Products Industry; Nigeria; Africa

Luis M. Viceira is the George E. Bates Professor in the Finance Unit and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research, course development, and teaching focus on the areas of investment management... View Details

Keywords: banking; education industry; financial services; nonprofit industry; retail financial services

Research Summary

Organizations with Dual Competitive Advantage

A close examination of several leading US service firms illustrates an unusual competitive phenomenon in that these firms are both cost and service leaders in their industries. My research documents this phenomenon, critically analyzing it in light of strategic and... View Details

March 2002 (Revised January 2003)
Case

Microsoft: Positioning the Tablet PC

By: Youngme E. Moon and Christina L. Darwall

Microsoft is preparing for the launch of the Tablet PC, which allows users to use a pen (stylus) to run Windows and Windows applications, annotate documents, and create handwritten documents for later reference or even conversion to text. Microsoft's original equipment... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Product Positioning; Market Entry and Exit; Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software; Computer Industry