Publications

25 Feb 2002
Research & Ideas

MNCs in Asia: Investing in the Future

The unparalleled size of Asia's markets has always caught the eye of multinational corporations. More recently, as government policies and cultural attitudes in the region continue to evolve, the strategies of View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

November 2010 (Revised June 2011)
Case

La Fageda

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Joan Enric Ricart and Jordan Mitchell

La Fageda is a manufacturer of high-quality, naturally-made yogurts in northern Catalonia, Spain. La Fageda is substantially different from its main competitors such as multinational Danone in that it is a 270-person workers' cooperative with 60 percent of its... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Business Model; Production; Cooperative Ownership; Quality; Competition; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Spain

03 Oct 2005
What Do You Think?

What’s the Future of Globally Organized Labor?

will emerge new kinds of collective actions that will address the contemporary issues of multinational workforces and globalized networks of trade and commerce." These comments raise several questions: Just what new kinds of... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

December 1992 (Revised June 1996)
Case

Siemens Corporation (A): Corporate Advertising for 1992

By: Stephen A. Greyser and Norman Klein

Describes the approach of the German-based multinational company, Siemens Corp., to establishing an identity in the United States. The specific goals for the 1991-92 corporate advertising campaign are described. Examples of print and television messages are included,... View Details

Keywords: Advertising Campaigns; Trade; Marketing Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Performance Evaluation; Germany; United States

January–February 2017
Article

Africa's New Generation of Innovators

By: Clayton M. Christensen, Efosa Ojomo and Derek van Bever

With a young, urbanizing population, abundant natural resources, and a growing middle class, Africa seems to have all the ingredients necessary for huge growth. Nevertheless, a number of multinationals have recently left the continent, discouraged by widespread... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Economic Growth; Africa

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February 2005 (Revised June 2007)
Case

Unilever in India: Hindustan Lever's Project Shakti--Marketing FMCG to the Rural Consumer

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Rohithari Rajan

With liberalization of India's economy and the opening up of markets to foreign multinationals such as Procter & Gamble, the Indian subsidiary of Unilever--Hindustan Lever Ltd. (HLL)--was under pressure to grow revenues and profits. HLL had a long and stellar record of... View Details

Keywords: Economy; Market Entry and Exit; Business Subsidiaries; Revenue; Profit; Market Participation; Programs; Rural Scope; Poverty; Multinational Firms and Management; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; India

September 1972 (Revised September 1983)
Case

Timex Corp.

The evolution of Timex from its inception in the 1940s to its position as a leading multinational watch manufacturer in the early 1970s. Focuses on Timex's strategy for marketing, on a worldwide basis, and its line of inexpensive watches. View Details

Keywords: Product; Marketing Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Global Strategy; Manufacturing Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry

13 Nov 2012
First Look

First Look: November 13

Chen Abstract The explosion of multinational activities in recent decades is rapidly transforming the global landscape of industrial production. But are the emerging clusters of multinational View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

08 Aug 2011
Research & Ideas

The Death of the Global Manager

ears around the world is critical” Nearly 20 years later and in its sixth edition, Bartlett's case-filled textbook (which he describes as a "continuing passion") offers the opportunity to reexamine the ever-changing nature of View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

V. Kasturi Rangan

Kash Rangan is the Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing at the Harvard Business School. Formerly the chairman of the Marketing Department (1998-2002), he is now the co-chairman of the school's Social Enterprise Initiative. He has taught in a wide variety of MBA... View Details

Keywords: consumer products; consumer products; consumer products; consumer products; consumer products; consumer products; consumer products; consumer products; consumer products; consumer products; consumer products

17 Jan 2023
Cold Call Podcast

Nestlé’s KitKat Diplomacy: Neutrality vs. Shared Value

Keywords: Re: Geoffrey G. Jones; Consumer Products

April 2011 (Revised September 2011)
Case

Willy Jacobsohn and Beiersdorf: Managing Expropriation and Anti-Semitism

By: Geoffrey G. Jones and Christina Lubinski

This case examines the management of home and host country risk by Beiersdorf during the interwar years. It can be used both in business history courses and more generally to teach political risk management by multinational corporations. Beiersdorf, a German personal... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; War; Business History; Multinational Firms and Management; Global Strategy; Ownership; Government and Politics; Business and Government Relations; Consumer Products Industry; Germany

2025
Working Paper

How Firms Respond to Worker Activism: Evidence from Global Supply Chains

By: Yanhua Bird, Jodi L. Short and Michael W. Toffel

Social movement pressures can lead organizations to concede and improve social performance to avoid disruption costs, but we theorize that such responses evoke concession costs that prompt organizations to shift resources and attention from other social domains whose... View Details

Keywords: Worker Activism; Labor Standards; Tradeoffs; Global Supply Chains; Internal Governance Structure; Public Opinion; Supply Chain; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Working Conditions

SSRN

Read Now

Nien-hê Hsieh is the Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration in the General Management Unit at Harvard Business School. His research and teaching aims at helping business leaders and organizations determine and deliver on their responsibilities. He... View Details

January 2008
Case

Lenovo: Building A Global Brand (Multimedia case)

By: John A. Quelch and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Announced in December 2004, the $1.75 billion acquisition of IBM's PC division by Lenovo, China's largest PC maker, made headlines around the world. A relative upstart in the business, Lenovo acquired the division of IBM that invented the PC in 1981. While Lenovo was... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Information Infrastructure; Global Strategy; Acquisition; Brands and Branding; Manufacturing Industry; Computer Industry; China

Article

Recent Advances in the Empirics of Organizational Economics

By: Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen

We present a survey of recent contributions in empirical organizational economics, focusing on management practices and decentralization. Productivity dispersion between firms and countries has motivated the improved measurement of firm organization across industries... View Details

Keywords: Economics; Management Practices and Processes; Performance Productivity; Geographic Location; Motivation and Incentives; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Competition; Human Capital; Markets; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Multinational Firms and Management; India; Brazil; United States

Read Now

19 Oct 2010
First Look

First Look: October 19, 2010

charitable giving, crowding out intrinsic motivations to give by corrupting a purely social act with economic considerations. Purchase the Book: http://www.psypress.com/the-science-of-giving-9781848728851 Americans Do I.T. Better: U.S. View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2006
Article

The End of Nationality? Global Firms and 'Borderless Worlds'

By: G. Jones

This article provides a historical perspective to current debates whether large global firms are becoming "stateless" and whether this is a historically new phenomenon. It shows that a great deal of international business in the nineteenth century was not easily fitted... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Multinational Firms and Management; Trade; Ownership; International Finance; Economic Systems; International Accounting; Globalized Economies and Regions; Geographic Location; Nationality; Boundaries; Global Strategy

March 2001 (Revised March 2003)
Case

Kelon (A): China's Corporate Dragon

By: Yasheng Huang and David Lane

Kelon was founded in the small, rural town of Rongqi in the Guangdong Province in 1984. In a six-year span, Kelon became China's largest refrigerator maker. In the 1990s it faced fierce competition from other Chinese firms as well as from multinational corporations.... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Multinational Firms and Management; Ownership; Consumer Products Industry; China