Publications

14 Mar 2018
Research & Ideas

Feeling Stressed? Try Sniffing Your Romantic Partner's Shirt

might be as simple as tucking a loved one’s t-shirt into your suitcase. The study provides scientific validation for anyone who has taken comfort in a partner’s clothing. Case in point: Whillans, a native of Canada who is currently in a... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

April 2021
Case

Transforming BlackBerry: From Smartphones to Software

By: Ranjay Gulati and Nicole Tempest Keller

On the verge of failure, BlackBerry brought in John Chen as CEO in 2013 to orchestrate a bold turnaround of the company. Once an iconic leader in the smartphone market, BlackBerry was best known for its tactile QWERTY keyboard, strong security, and a focus on business... View Details

Keywords: Pivot; Managing Change; Turnaround; Smartphone; Change Management; Leading Change; Transformation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Digital Platforms; Change; Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software; Competitive Strategy; Cybersecurity; Technology Industry; Transportation Industry; Canada

12 Apr 2022
Book

Racism, Colonialism, and Britain's Legacy of Violence

millions of pounds sterling. There were also opportunity costs. Soldiers were economically productive at home, and perhaps Britain would be better off with an informal empire, much like that of the nineteenth century? Retooled as the British Commonwealth of Nations,... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

September 2002
Background Note

Note on WTO Disputes: Five Major Cases

By: David A. Moss and Nick Bartlett

Summarizes five major trade disputes before the World Trade Organization (WTO): (1) the Brazil-Canada aircraft dispute, (2) the European Union/United States foreign sales corporation dispute, (3) the Asian/United States shrimp and sea turtle dispute, (4) the United... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Conflict Management; Negotiation; Brazil; Canada; European Union; Asia; United States

2015
Report

Clusters and Regional Economies: Implications for the Great Lakes - St. Lawrence Region

By: Christian H.M. Ketels

The Great Lakes – St. Lawrence Region, covering eight U.S. states and two Canadian provinces located around the lakes and waterways that have given this region its name, is what economic developers call a 'macro region'. It is an area of intensive economic interaction... View Details

Keywords: Clusters; Regional Policy; Great Lakes; Economic Development; Industry Clusters; Economy; Canada; United States

Read Now

24 Apr 2023
HBS Case

What Does It Take to Build as Much Buzz as Booze? Inside the Epic Challenge of Cannabis-Infused Drinks

Legalization turned cannabis into a multibillion-dollar industry seemingly overnight, but this hot new market has had more—and more unusual—growing pains than most. Many experts predict significant market expansion ahead as more states legalize medical and recreational... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald; Consumer Products; Food & Beverage

December 2022 (Revised January 2023)
Case

Cann: High Hopes for Cannabis Infused Beverages

By: Ayelet Israeli and Anne V. Wilson

Founded in 2018 by Jake Bullock and Luke Anderson, Cann sold “social tonics,” or cannabis-infused beverages. By 2022, the company had several notable celebrity investors and talent partners, had sold over 10 million beverages to consumers, was distributing in six... View Details

03 Jun 2022
Research & Ideas

In a Work-from-Anywhere World, How Remote Will Workers Go?

typically for six months to a year. In fact, Choudhury notes, Canada and other countries have crafted immigration policies to retain talent longer-term. He estimates that digital nomads currently number in the thousands. Chile is also... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

13 Nov 2017
Research & Ideas

Want to Be Happier? Spend Some Money on Avoiding Household Chores

typical month. And when they asked 98 working adults in Canada how they would spend an extra $40, only 2 percent said they would steer money toward time-saving services. Why? Perhaps people feel guilty avoiding chores—or they worry... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

17 Aug 2021
Op-Ed

Dispensing Justice: The Case for Legalizing Cannabis Nationally

drug-related crimes, loss of state autonomy, and negative health consequences for vulnerable sections of the population. These concerns are misplaced. Experiences of US states and countries such as Uruguay, Australia, and Canada suggest... View Details

Keywords: by Ashish Nanda and Tabatha Robinson

31 Mar 2022
Op-Ed

Navigating the ‘Bermuda Triangle’ in Professional Services

In professional services, successful firms tend to be either small or super-sized. There’s very little middle ground. Take health care, for example. Shouldice is a small, 89-bed hernia hospital in Canada that, over the past several... View Details

Keywords: by Ashish Nanda

May 2017 (Revised March 2018)
Case

Predicting Consumer Tastes with Big Data at Gap

By: Ayelet Israeli and Jill Avery

CEO Art Peck was eliminating his creative directors for The Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic brands and promoting a collective creative ecosystem fueled by the input of big data. Rather than relying on artistic vision, Peck wanted the company to use the mining of big... View Details

27 Apr 2016
Research & Ideas

How the FBI Reinvented Itself After 9/11

coordinate these cases with field offices from the top down. Many countries maintain two separate entities for law enforcement and national security: The United Kingdom has Scotland Yard and MI5, for example, and Canada has the Royal... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

31 Mar 2023
Research & Ideas

Can a ‘Basic Bundle’ of Health Insurance Cure Coverage Gaps and Spur Innovation?

By the early 1980s, several high-income countries—including Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand—had universal health insurance covering 100 percent of the population. Meanwhile, 40 years later, the United States continues to lag behind,... View Details

Keywords: by Kasandra Brabaw; Insurance; Health

05 Sep 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Global Currency Hedging

Keywords: by John Y. Campbell, Karine Serfaty-de Medeiros & Luis M. Viceira; Financial Services

May 2016 (Revised September 2017)
Case

Canadian Pacific's Bid for Norfolk Southern

By: Benjamin C. Esty and E. Scott Mayfield

In December 2015, Canadian Pacific Railroad (CPR) has just made its third bid to acquire Norfolk Southern Corporation (NSC), one of the largest railroads in the United States. Having rejected the prior offers, NSC’s CEO James Squires and the NSC board must now value... View Details

Keywords: Capital Structure; Cash Flow; Cost of Capital; Financial Strategy; Investment Activism; Bids and Bidding; Negotiation Offer; Corporate Strategy; Rail Transportation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Transformation; United States; Canada

August 2012 (Revised July 2017)
Case

Netflix: Valuing a New Business Model

By: Francois Brochet, Suraj Srinivasan and Michael Norris

In autumn 2011, Netflix was working to right the ship after publicly stumbling through a price hike and strategic shift and then retreat. The company was changing its business model to focus on streaming video service rather than the DVDs by mail that had brought the... View Details

Keywords: Performance Measurement; Online Business; Asset Recognition; Accounting; Performance Evaluation; Online Technology; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; United States; Canada; Latin America; West Indies

December 1993 (Revised August 1998)
Case

Bitter Competition: The Holland Sweetener Company versus NutraSweet (A)

The NutraSweet Co. has very successfully marketed aspartame, a low-calorie, high-intensity sweetener, around the world. NutraSweet's position was protected by patents until 1987 in Europe, Canada, and Japan, and until the end of 1992 in the United States. The case... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Competitive Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; Canada; Japan; United States; Europe

October 2017 (Revised October 2020)
Case

Coaching Makena Lane

By: Ethan Bernstein and Om Lala

Makena Lane has a gift for producing results, even in the challenging retail context of the 2010s, but she also has a knack for “ruffling some feathers” in the process. Recruited to a Fortune 500 grocery and pharmacy retailer after climbing to Associate Principal in... View Details