Publications
Publications
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(1,345)
- Faculty Publications (213)
- April 2016 (Revised March 2019)
- Case
Moleskine (A)
By: Ryan Raffaelli, Raffaella Sadun and Kathy Qu
Describes the founding and growth challenges facing Moleskine, an Italian-based consumer products company known for its oilcloth-covered notebooks once used by Ernest Hemingway and Vincent van Gogh. CEO Arrigo Berni and co-founder Maria Sebregondi aim to transform the... View Details
Keywords: Creative Industries; Brand Building; Digital Innovation; Digital Services And Strategy; Process Improvement; Culture; Identity Construction; Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Leadership; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Innovation Strategy; Consumer Products Industry
- April 3, 2016
- Guest Column
The Power of C.E.O. Activism: How Politically Outspoken Executives Sway Public (and Consumer) Opinion
By: Aaron K. Chatterji and Michael W. Toffel
Some CEOs are making news by taking public stances on controversial social issues largely unrelated to their core business. This article summarizes the insights from our research paper that shows that such "CEO activism" can influence public opinion and consumer... View Details
Keywords: Leadership & Corporate Accountability; Non-market Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility; Politics; Political Influence; Political Strategy; Political Risk; Equity; Gender; Climate Change; Communication Strategy; Law; Leadership; Brands and Branding; Media; Problems and Challenges; Civil Society or Community; Social Issues; Public Opinion; United States; Georgia (state, US); North Carolina; Indiana; Indianapolis
- Article
The Corporate Brand Identity and Reputation Matrix—The Case of the Nobel Prize
By: Mats Urde and Stephen A. Greyser
The purpose of this article is to explore corporate brand identity and reputation, with the aim of integrating them into a single managerial framework. The Nobel Prize serves as an in-depth field-based case study and is analysed using the Corporate Brand Identity and... View Details
- November 2015 (Revised November 2016)
- Case
Huaxia: Building a U.S.-Style Dairy in China
By: Tarun Khanna, Nancy Hua Dai and Juan Ma
In 2015, Charles Shao, chairman of Huaxia, considered the alternatives to ensure sustainable growth of Huaxia and rebuild the overall health of China's dairy industry. He came to China in 2004 and set up Huaxia dairy farm with the goal to build a world-class dairy farm... View Details
- 2015
- Article
The Nobel Prize: The Identity of a Corporate Heritage Brand
By: Mats Urde and Stephen A. Greyser
Purpose—The purpose of this study is to understand the identity of the Nobel Prize as a corporate heritage brand and its management challenges.
Design/methodology/approach—An in-depth case study analysed within a heritage brand model and a corporate... View Details
Design/methodology/approach—An in-depth case study analysed within a heritage brand model and a corporate... View Details
- Article
Why Do Firms Have 'Purpose'? The Firm's Role as a Carrier of Identity and Reputation
By: Rebecca Henderson and Eric Van den Steen
Why do so many firms publicly espouse a "purpose" beyond simple profit maximization? And why do so many managers and employees appear to care deeply about this purpose and to believe that it is critically important? In this paper we argue that the conventional answers... View Details
- December 2014 (Revised July 2016)
- Case
HEINEKEN—Brewing a Better World
By: Forest L. Reinhardt, José Alvarez, Tonia Junker and Daniela Beyersdorfer
The Dutch company HEINEKEN, one of the leading global brewers known for its brands like Heineken, Amstel, and Desperados and for its award-winning marketing campaigns, seeks to closely integrate its long-term sustainability "Brewing a Better World" approach into its... View Details
- 2014
- Working Paper
The Nobel Prize: A 'Heritage-based' Brand-oriented Network
By: Mats Urde and Stephen A. Greyser
Purpose — Understanding the Nobel Prize as a 'true' heritage brand in a networked situation and its management challenges, especially regarding identity and reputation.
Methodology — The Nobel Prize serves as an in-depth case study and is analysed within... View Details
Methodology — The Nobel Prize serves as an in-depth case study and is analysed within... View Details
- May 2014 (Revised March 2017)
- Case
Unilever's Lifebuoy in India: Implementing the Sustainability Plan
Unilever's new Global Brand VP must not only revitalize Lifebuoy soap's sagging market performance, but simultaneously impact the health of one billion people worldwide. The latter challenge comes from Unilever's new CEO who has introduced the Unilever Sustainable... View Details
Keywords: Multinational Management; Corporate Social Responsibility; Strategy Implementation; Marketing Strategy; Mission And Purpose; Change Management; International Business; Global; Fast-moving Consumer Goods; Soap; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Health Care and Treatment; Environmental Sustainability; Global Strategy; Developing Countries and Economies; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Health Industry; India
- May 2014
- Case
Goldman Sachs: Anchoring Standards After the Financial Crisis
By: Rajiv Lal and Lisa Mazzanti
Goldman Sachs, a longtime venerable financial institution headquartered in New York City, had a partnership culture that was known to value its clients. But when the financial crisis hit in 2008 and Goldman Sachs emerged relatively unscathed, its public image took a... View Details
- Article
Making 'Green Giants': Environment Sustainability in the German Chemical Industry, 1950s–1980s
By: Geoffrey Jones and Christina Lubinski
This article examines the evolution of corporate environmentalism in the West German chemical industry between the 1950s and the 1980s. It focuses on two companies, Bayer and Henkel, that have been identified as "green giants," and traces the evolution of their... View Details
- Article
Turnkey or Tailored? Relational Pluralism, Institutional Complexity, and the Organizational Adoption of More or Less Customized Practices
By: Ryan Raffaelli and Mary Ann Glynn
We examine how the organizational adoption of new practices is influenced by relational pluralism, i.e., an organization's multiple ties to actors inside and outside its industry. We theorize that institutional mechanisms of practice diffusion underlying relational... View Details
- January 2014 (Revised February 2014)
- Teaching Note
Rana Plaza: Workplace Safety In Bangladesh (A) and (B)
By: John A. Quelch and Margaret L. Rodriguez
On April 24, 2013 the Rana Plaza factory building collapsed in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Over 1,100 people were killed in the worst industrial accident since the Union Carbide plant gas leak in Bhopal, India. Most of the victims worked for garment factories,... View Details
- September 2013
- Article
Testimonials Do Not Convert Patients from Brand to Generic Medication
By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian and Gwendolyn Reynolds
Objectives: To assess whether the addition of a peer testimonial to an informational mailing increases conversion rates from brand name prescription medications to lower-cost therapeutic equivalents, and whether the testimonial's efficacy increases when... View Details
- August 2013 (Revised November 2013)
- Case
Gordon Brothers: Collateralizing Corporate Loans by Brands
By: Paul Healy and Maria Loumioti
The case explores the collateralization of intellectual property in a loan agreement between a highly leveraged apparel company and a large US bank. Leveraging intangibles in the credit market is a new practice that has significantly grown over the past few years.... View Details
- February 2013 (Revised May 2013)
- Case
Juan Valdez: Innovation in Caffeination
By: Michael I. Norton and Jeremy Dann
Corporate entrepreneurs attempt to revive Colombia's famous Juan Valdez brand in the age of Starbucks, with café chain and packaged coffee ventures. In the 1970s and 80s, the iconic "Juan Valdez" ingredient brand was the most recognized in the world of coffee. The... View Details
- February 2013
- Case
Diamond Foods, Inc.
By: Suraj Srinivasan and Tim Gray
The Diamonds Foods, Inc. case describes the major accounting blow up at the company in late 2011 that was triggered by a report by Off Wall Street, a prominent short selling research firm. Diamond Foods, a high flying growth company in 2011, grew from a walnut farmers'... View Details
Keywords: Accounting Restatements; Accounting Scandal; Accounting; Financial Analysis; Financial Statement Analysis; Short Selling; Revenue Recognition; Board Of Directors; Audit Committees; Auditing; Financial Reporting; Financial Statements; Agribusiness; Accrual Accounting; Earnings Management; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Disclosure; Corporate Governance; Valuation; Revenue; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; California; Cambridge
- February 2013
- Case
18 Months in a Startup: Zaggora.com
By: Tom Nicholas
The founders of Zaggora reflected back on a tumultuous year-and-a-half in which they had generated, from just $40,000 in personal savings, a multi-million dollar sportswear enterprise selling Hotpants to women. These were hotpants not of the 1960s hipster variety, but... View Details
- December 2012
- Article
Defending the Markers of Masculinity: Consumer Resistance to Brand Gender-Bending
By: Jill Avery
I study the Porsche Cayenne SUV launch to ethnographically analyze how men consuming a gendered brand respond to perceived brand gender contamination. Consumers' communal gender work in a Porsche brand community is analyzed to uncover brand gender contamination's... View Details
- August 2012 (Revised October 2015)
- Case
LinkedIn Corporation, 2012
By: David Yoffie and Liz Kind
Since its inception in 2003, LinkedIn had become a leading Silicon Valley institution with a brand name that was recognizable throughout the U.S. and in many countries overseas. As of March 2012, LinkedIn was the world's largest professional network on the Internet... View Details