Publications

April 2012
Article

Local R&D Strategies and Multi-location Firms: The Role of Internal Linkages

By: Juan Alcacer and Minyuan Zhao

This study looks at the role of firms' internal linkages in highly competitive technology clusters, where much of the world's R&D takes place. The leading players in these clusters are multilocation firms that organize and integrate knowledge across sites worldwide.... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Technological Innovation; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Research and Development; Risk and Uncertainty; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Technology

Find at Harvard

July 1993 (Revised April 1999)
Case

ABB's Relays Business: Building and Managing a Global Matrix

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Describes the development and management of the relays business area (BA) in ABB's global matrix organization. Focuses on three levels of management--corporate, BA, and operating company. Highlights the roles and responsibilities of individuals at each level as ABB... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Business or Company Management; Business Strategy; Organizational Structure; Managerial Roles; Management Practices and Processes; Employees; Organizational Culture; Success; Manufacturing Industry

August 2021 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Danaher Corporation (Abridged)

By: Bharat Anand, David J. Collis and Sophie Hood

Between 1985 and 2007, Danaher has been one of the best-performing industrial conglomerates in the U.S. This case examines the corporate strategy of this diversified, global corporation. It describes the firm's portfolio strategy and the Danaher Business System—a... View Details

Keywords: Business Conglomerates; Global Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Value Creation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Competitive Strategy

August 2010 (Revised January 2012)
Case

Leaders Who Make a Difference: Sam Palmisano's Smarter IBM: Day 1

By: Joseph L. Bower and Sonja Ellingson Hout

Sam Palmisano became CEO of IBM in 2002. He dramatically energized the organization through portfolio changes and a values driven approach to managing the company. View Details

Keywords: Values and Beliefs; Multinational Firms and Management; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Emerging Markets; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Corporate Strategy; Information Technology Industry; New York (state, US)

10 Oct 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, October 10, 2017

had from such a historical understanding of political economy and of power in an economic age. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=53309 forthcoming Encyclopedia of International Economics and Global Trade, Vol. 3: Foreign Direct Investment... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

21 Jul 2009
First Look

First Look: July 21

usual. Purchase this case: http://hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=409116 Philips versus Matsushita: Competing Strategic and Organizational Choices Harvard Business School Case 909-415 Traces the evolving competition between two major View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

02 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Why Have Marketers Ignored America’s Man-of-Action Hero?

in MBA branding and advertising courses for decades. This study provides additional evidence that building culture share brands is qualitatively different than conventional brand management. I'm also working on a study with HBS professor John Quelch in which we... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls

21 Apr 2008
Research & Ideas

The New Math of Customer Relationships

companies are riding the coattails of globalization to send their offerings around the world. Is it more difficult for multinationals or other global companies to practice service profit chain management given this dispersing of... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

01 Oct 2002
News

The Class of 1977

Mühlemann revitalized CSFB with new management and restored its institutional competitiveness on Wall Street. John Hess runs Amerada Hess, a Fortune 150 multinational oil and natural-gas company in the energy sector vital to the lives of... View Details

Keywords: Desmond Wong

10 Feb 2014
HBS Case

Stressing Safety in South Africa’s Platinum Mines

multinational that employs more than 150,000 people and produces 40 percent of the world's platinum. She was the first woman and first non-South African to head the company. Addressing how to change the culture of a large and diverse... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Manufacturing

17 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

Harvard Business School Faculty Comment on Crisis in Japan

from the epicenter, the rotating power outages promise to be a significant near term challenge. An e-mail exchange with a good friend at a major Japanese multinational over the weekend highlighted for me the uncertainty that lies ahead.... View Details

Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty

February 2010
Case

Shurgard Self-Storage: Expansion to Europe (Abridged)

By: Richard G. Hamermesh

Shurgard, a U.S.-based firm that rents storage facilities to consumers and small businesses, is considering financing options for rapid expansion of its European operations. Five years after entering Europe, Shurgard Europe has opened 17 facilities in Belgium, France,... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Growth and Maturation; Multinational Firms and Management; Logistics; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Trade; Equity; Corporate Finance; United States; Europe

March 1993
Supplement

Burroughs Wellcome and AZT (B)

By: Willis M. Emmons III

Describes Burroughs Wellcome's response to protests over the pricing of its AIDS drug AZT in September 1989. Also presents short-term reactions by government officials, AIDS activists, and investors to Burroughs Wellcome's strategy. View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Health Pandemics; Multinational Firms and Management; Price; Crime and Corruption; Risk and Uncertainty; Business Strategy; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Business and Shareholder Relations; Pharmaceutical Industry

01 Mar 2011
News

James McNerney Jr.

Island native Jim McNerney (MBA ’75). Later, his résumé would include stints at blue-chip companies like Procter & Gamble, McKinsey & Co., and General Electric, where he led various divisions of the multinational giant (including GE... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; interview; Transportation Equipment Manufacturing; Manufacturing; Air Transportation; Transportation

21 Jan 2014
First Look

First Look: January 21

Case 713-522 Microsoft in Korea Microsoft Korea sees a potential opportunity to dramatically improve its subsidiary's performance by actively recruiting and promoting female senior managers in South Korea. The question is to what extent View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

06 Nov 2006
Research & Ideas

How South Africa Challenges Our Thinking on FDI

its neighboring countries. Now take a country like South Africa where the domestic corporate scene is actually quite developed and creative, exporting ideas, exporting managers to the multinationals who work there. What sort of foreign... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

Web

Winning with Digital Platforms Online Course | HBS Online

skills you need to thrive. Access Your Free E-book Upskill Your Team, Transform Your Organization Whether you represent a large multinational corporation or a small local business, we have a solution for your learning and development... View Details

April 2010
Teaching Note

Global Talent Management at Novartis (TN)

By: Jordan I. Siegel

Teaching Note for 708486. View Details

Keywords: Performance Evaluation; Talent and Talent Management; System; Multinational Firms and Management; Motivation and Incentives; Developing Countries and Economies; Pharmaceutical Industry; China