Publications

September 2008 (Revised October 2008)
Case

Marc Abrahams: Annals of an Improbable Entrepreneur

By: Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind

Marc Abrahams was a media entrepreneur who specialized in science humor. In 2008, he sought to boost the scale and monetization potential of his business. That business, called Improbable Research, encompassed a magazine (Annals of Improbable Research), a high-profile... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Selection and Staffing; Human Capital; Growth and Development Strategy; Brands and Branding; Personal Development and Career

Find at Harvard

November 2012 (Revised August 2014)
Case

Cisco in 2012: Reorganizing for Efficiency and Flexibility

By: Ranjay Gulati, Alison Berkley Wagonfeld and Luciana Silvestri

In 2012, Cisco was under intense pressure to show results: growth in its core business was decelerating and a number of exploratory ventures and acquisitions had not proven as profitable as expected. CEO John Chambers vowed to restore the company's health in a way that... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Restructuring; Adaptation; Performance Efficiency; Emerging Markets; Information Technology Industry

17 Aug 2023
Research & Ideas

‘Not a Bunch of Weirdos’: Why Mainstream Investors Buy Crypto

“are not a bunch of weirdos. They look and act just like investors in traditional asset markets.” Understanding this market is increasingly important. Cryptocurrencies’ global value has boomed to a market... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

September 2010 (Revised April 2012)
Case

Better World Books

By: Michael I. Norton, Fiona Wilson, Jill Avery and Thomas J. Steenburgh

Better World Books, a young start-up, provides a socially conscious alternative to Amazon, collecting and selling used books to keep them out of the waste stream, while donating a portion of their profits to support global literacy efforts. The case presents an... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Marketing Strategy; Social Marketing; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Public Opinion; Social Issues; Online Technology; Retail Industry

March 2018
Article

Global Business over Time

By: Geoffrey Jones

This article explores how business enterprises have been powerful actors in the spread of global capitalism between 1840 and the present day. It also shows how global firms, emerging out of industrialized Western economies, created and co-created markets and ecosystems... View Details

Keywords: Global; Multinational; Business History; Globalization; Globalized Firms and Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Economic Systems

10 Dec 2013
First Look

First Look: December 10

time and markets. Specifically, we build a model in which two firms that differ in their capabilities enter sequentially into two markets with different potentials for profit. The model is solved using game theory under three learning... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 2001 (Revised July 2011)
Case

Grupo Elektra

By: David J. Arnold, Gustavo Herrero and Luiz Felipe Monteiro

Grupo Elektra is Latin America's largest consumer finance company based on credit sales in its hard goods retail outlets. It has started to internationalize in Latin America but now must to decide whether to enter the U.S. Hispanic market and which of its two core... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Emerging Markets; Global Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Retail Industry; Latin America; United States; Mexico

21 Sep 2016
HBS Seminar

Catherine Tucker, MIT Sloan School of Management

Program

Building a Legacy

opportunities Apply frameworks for evaluating unique investment opportunities for family real estate, niche assets, emerging markets, public market ideas, and startup/venture-backed investments Determine... View Details

08 Mar 2016
First Look

March 8, 2016

emergent online investing market, we construct a theory to explain how a firm becomes a cognitive referent in a nascent market and other firms' failure to do so. Successful firms conceptualize View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

27 Jun 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, June 27

evidence consistent with market participants perceiving staggered boards to be value reducing. Amihud and Stoyanov (2016) (AS2016) contests these findings, reporting some specifications under which the results are not statistically... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

Initiatives & Projects - Faculty & Research

interdisciplinary perspectives. Case Method Project The Case Method Project is bringing case method teaching to high schools and colleges in U.S. History, Government, and Civics & Democracy. Creating Emerging View Details

May 2017 (Revised July 2017)
Supplement

Aadhaar: From Voluntary to Mandatory

By: Tarun Khanna, Anjali Raina and Rachna Chawla

Approximately 1.1 billion residents of India (99% of the population) had a unique biometric identity—Aadhaar—by 2017. In six years, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) had achieved an unprecedented milestone in emerging and developed markets. The... View Details

2018
Working Paper

Business, Governments and Political Risk in South Asia and Latin America since 1970

By: Geoffrey Jones and Rachael Comunale

This working paper provides a new perspective on how businesses have responded to political risk in South Asia and Latin America over the last half century. The existing business history literature on political risk is focused on the experiences of Western... View Details

Keywords: Business and Government Relations; Risk Management; Government and Politics; Business History; South Asia; Latin America

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05 Dec 2023
Research & Ideas

Lessons in Decision-Making: Confident People Aren't Always Correct (Except When They Are)

vote for the accuracy of their own solution to each task. These decisions served to find out whether the aggregate outcomes that emerge from people self-selecting into participating more or less aggressively in an auction, market, or... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

December 2007
Journal Article

Industrial Policy in the United States

By: Christian H.M. Ketels

Does US government policy purposefully benefit particular industries or is industrial policy absent in the USA? Based on a review of recent US policies this paper argues that the USA applies many policies with an industry-specific impact. But these policies do not... View Details

Keywords: Microeconomics; Entrepreneurship; Policy; Innovation and Invention; Supply and Industry; Business and Government Relations; United States