Publications

February 2009
Article

Getting Known by the Company You Keep: Publicizing the Qualifications and Former Associations of Skilled Employees

By: Peter Roberts and Mukti Khaire

When product quality cannot be ascertained in advance of purchase, producers must convince relevant audiences that they are worthy of consideration as quality players. We propose that quality-oriented producers will selectively publicize information about their skilled... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Employees; Product; Quality; Food and Beverage Industry; Australia

Video

Hope Electronics

13 Feb 2020
News

How Partisanship Is Destroying America’s Competitiveness

November 1991
Case

Monsanto's March into Biotechnology (B)

By: Dorothy A. Leonard

Monsanto has yet to receive FDA approval for BST, a growth hormone for cows. Anti-BST groups have successfully lobbied Wisconsin and Minnesota, major milk producing states, to ban milk from BST-injected cows; the FDA has charged Monsanto with improperly promoting BST... View Details

Keywords: Animal-Based Agribusiness; Safety; Food; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Law Enforcement; Conflict and Resolution; Research and Development; Technology; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Biotechnology Industry; Minnesota; Wisconsin

February 1993 (Revised June 2011)
Case

David Fletcher

By: Linda A. Hill and Melinda B. Conrad

David Fletcher, manager of the Emerging Growth Fund at a New York investment management firm, decides to assemble a team of analysts to which he can delegate part of his workload. The case explores the challenges of being a producing manager and Fletcher's efforts to... View Details

Keywords: Problems and Challenges; Groups and Teams; Management Teams; Investment Funds; Management Style; Selection and Staffing; Financial Services Industry; New York (city, NY)

March 2024
Case

Ava DuVernay's Array: Disrupting the Hollywood Film Industry

By: Anita Elberse and Morgan Brewton-Johnson

In February 2023 acclaimed filmmaker Ava DuVernay is filming her latest movie, Origin, a daring adaptation of Isabel Wilkerson’s book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. With Origin, DuVernay is pioneering a method to finance the endeavor—through a combination of... View Details

Keywords: Financing and Loans; Intellectual Property; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Disruption; Motion Pictures and Video Industry

Article

Big Other: Surveillance Capitalism and the Prospects of an Information Civilization

By: Shoshana Zuboff

This article describes an emergent logic of accumulation in the networked sphere, 'surveillance capitalism,' and considers its implications for 'information civilization.' The institutionalizing practices and operational assumptions of Google Inc. are the... View Details

Keywords: Surveillance Capitalism; Big Data; Google; Information Society; Privacy; Internet Of Everything; Rights; Economic Systems; Analytics and Data Science; Internet and the Web; Ethics

SSRN

October 2022
Case

Afrigen Biologics: Vaccines for the Global South

By: Debora L. Spar and Julia Comeau

The majority of vaccines used on the continent of Africa (99%) are produced offshore. This makes African nations reliant on the West for major health care needs, a problem which was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Afrigen Biologics (in partnership with the WHO)... View Details

Keywords: Vaccination; Vaccine; mRNA; COVID; COVID-19; Inequity; Hub-and-spoke; Health Care and Treatment; Health Pandemics; Production; Social Issues; Business and Government Relations; South Africa; Africa

October 2020 (Revised February 2021)
Case

Twiga Foods: Revolutionizing African Retail (A)

By: Shikhar Ghosh, Pippa Tubman Amerding and Wale Lawal

Twiga is a leading agricultural produce supplier in Kenya offering services to mostly informal retailers. Under Peter Njonjo, a co-founder and Twiga’s new CEO, the company is considering multiple options for expanding its business, including offering packaged foods and... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Expansion; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Structure; Retail Industry; Nairobi

October 1983 (Revised July 1984)
Case

Information Resources, Inc. (B)

The company's plans are revealed. A stock offering has produced $20 million to be used for development. View Details

Keywords: Initial Public Offering

January 2011
Article

Developing Superior Negotiation Case Studies

By: James K. Sebenius

While a great deal of excellent advice exists for producing case studies on managerially relevant topics in general, negotiation cases have distinctive aspects that merit explicit treatment. This article offers three types of tailored advice for producing cases on... View Details

Keywords: Education; Cases; Negotiation

September 2023
Technical Note

Note on Difficult Conversations in the Family Enterprise

By: Christina R. Wing

The best time to have a difficult conversation is, ideally, as soon as possible. Engaging in challenging conversations early can produce beneficial results for several reasons, such as resolving issues, improving communication, preserving relationships, and increasing... View Details

Keywords: Conversation; Family Business; Interpersonal Communication; Conflict and Resolution

November 2004 (Revised January 2007)
Case

Ice-Fili (Abridged)

By: John R. Wells, Pai-Ling Yin and Michael G. Rukstad

Designed as an overview of all aspects of the strategy process: industry analysis, positioning, dynamics and sustainability, and scope issues of corporate strategy, including vertical integration, horizontal diversification, and location issues. Ice-Fili is the largest... View Details

Keywords: Product Positioning; Geographic Location; Competition; Vertical Integration; Corporate Strategy; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Russia

May 8, 2020
Article

Which Covid-19 Data Can You Trust?

By: Satchit Balsari, Caroline Buckee and Tarun Khanna

The COVID-19 pandemic has produced a tidal wave of data, but how much of it is any good? And as a layperson, how can you sort the good from the bad? The authors suggest a few strategies for dividing the useful data from the misleading: Beware of data that’s too broad... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Health Pandemics; Analytics and Data Science

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May 1988 (Revised November 1990)
Case

Airbus vs. Boeing (B): The Storm Intensifies

By: Malcolm S. Salter

Discusses the growing competition faced by U.S. producers of civil aircraft due to the success and expanding product line of Airbus Industries. Designed to foster discussion of international trade policy as it affects producers in the industry and to encourage firm... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Policy; Negotiation; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Aerospace Industry; United States

2010
Working Paper

Developing Negotiation Case Studies

By: James K. Sebenius

While a great deal of excellent advice exists for producing case studies on managerially relevant topics in general, negotiation cases have distinctive aspects that merit explicit treatment. This article offers three types of tailored advice for producing cases on... View Details

Keywords: Debates; Cases; Goals and Objectives; Negotiation; Perspective

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James Riley is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration in the Organizational Behavior Unit at Harvard Business School. He teaches LEAD in the MBA required curriculum.

Professor Riley is an economic sociologist. He conducts ethnographic research to... View Details

Article

Scandal, Social Movement, and Change: Evidence from #MeToo in Hollywood

By: Hong Luo and Laurina Zhang

Social movements have the potential to effect change in firm decision-making. In this paper, we examine whether the #MeToo movement, spurred by the Harvey Weinstein scandal, led to changes in the likelihood of Hollywood producers working with female writers on new... View Details

Keywords: Gender Inequality; Social Movement; Scandal; Creative Industries; Project Selection; Gender; Equality and Inequality; Social Issues; Film Entertainment; Projects; Change