Publications

April 2008
Case

TerraCog Global Positioning Systems: Conflict and Communication on Project Aerial

By: Michael Beer and Sunru Yong

TerraCog, a successful privately held high-tech firm that develops GPS (global positioning system) and similar products for consumer markets, has recently been caught off-guard by a competitor's new product that makes novel use of satellite imagery. When TerraCog... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Behavior; Meetings; Decision Making; Group Dynamics; Human Resource Management; Conflict; Information Technology; Leadership; Conflict Management; Competition; Groups and Teams; Organizational Culture; Human Resources; Communication; Decision Choices and Conditions; Crisis Management; Technology Industry

October 1990 (Revised August 2009)
Case

Cambridge Software Corporation

Cambridge Software Corp. must decide whether or not to offer multiple versions of a new software product. The firm has identified five market segments for the software and is deciding which, if any, of three product versions (a high end "industrial" version, a... View Details

Keywords: Software; Decision Making; Product Marketing; Information Technology Industry

September 1985 (Revised October 1988)
Case

NIKE in China

By: James E. Austin and Francis Aguilar

Nike is reviewing its strategy for producing shoes in China for the U.S. market. Compares the experience in China with that in other countries. View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Production; Manufacturing Industry; China; United States

Find at Harvard

20 Mar 2019
Research & Ideas

Gender-Diverse Companies Thrive Only Where Diversity is Embraced

Do gender-diverse companies make more money than businesses run primarily by men? If research says they perform better, that could bolster the argument that women should have more access to top positions in organizations. But previous studies have View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

November 2001
Case

Tobacco and the Future of Rural Kentucky

By: Ray A. Goldberg and James M Beagle

Governor Patton decides how to use settlement funds to develop a long-term plan for Kentucky's tobacco producers and rural communities. View Details

Keywords: Financial Instruments; Social Issues; Laws and Statutes; Rural Scope; Policy; Business and Community Relations; Government and Politics; Kentucky

2015
Working Paper

Replicating Private Equity with Value Investing, Homemade Leverage, and Hold-to-Maturity Accounting

By: Erik Stafford

Private equity funds tend to select relatively small firms with low EBITDA multiples. Publicly traded equities with these characteristics have high risk-adjusted returns after controlling for common factors typically associated with value stocks. Hold-to-maturity... View Details

Keywords: Value Investing; Endowments; Investment Management; Asset Pricing; Private Equity; Investment; Management; United States

SSRN

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September 2023
Article

The Dynamics of Team Learning: Harmony and Rhythm in Teamwork Arrangements for Innovation

By: Jean-François Harvey, Johnathan R. Cromwell, Kevin J. Johnson and Amy C. Edmondson

Innovation teams must navigate inherent tensions between different learning activities to produce high levels of performance. Yet, we know little about how teams combine these activities—notably reflexive, experimental, vicarious, and contextual learning—most... View Details

Keywords: Groups and Teams; Learning; Performance Effectiveness; Collaborative Innovation and Invention

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May 2001 (Revised June 2002)
Case

Frasier (A)

By: Guhan Subramanian and Michelle Kalka

In 2001, NBC entered into contract negotiations with Paramount Television Group to keep the hit show "Frasier" on the network. Paramount, the studio that produced the show, threatened to move "Frasier" to CBS, Paramount's sister network, if NBC did not agree to a... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Television Entertainment; Media and Broadcasting Industry

15 Dec 2014
Research & Ideas

Deconstructing the Price Tag

When a company sets a price for a product, shoppers typically have no idea what it costs to produce that item. But it turns out that consumers reward efforts to lay out these figures—to deconstruct the price tag. In fact, new research... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Retail

15 Jun 2016
Research & Ideas

These VC Partners May Make Your Firm Less Innovative

align? For example, when the VC hedges its bet by investing in multiple startups that may be competitors? A startup whose VC also invests in competitors may produce fewer new products for market, according to recent research. Source:... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services; Banking

31 Mar 2002
Research & Ideas

You’re Wasting Your Employees! What You Can Do About It

operations of any company that wishes to flourish in the new age. And yet, a decade of organizational delayering, destaffing, restructuring, and reengineering has produced employees who are more exhausted than empowered, more cynical than... View Details

Keywords: by Christopher A. Bartlett & Sumantra Ghoshal

January 2021
Case

Rio Tinto Aluminum: Can Purpose Lead to Profit?

By: David Fubini and Agastya Muthanna

This case describes the tradeoffs Rio Tinto faces as it considers investments to ensure environmentally friendly, sustainability produced aluminum with the potential risks of competitive pricing and profit loses. View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Investment; Price; Competition; Profit; Cost vs Benefits; Mining Industry

03 Feb 2020
What Do You Think?

Can an Organization Have Too Much 'Rebel Talent'?

agility and innovative outcomes. Take diversity, for example. As Gino herself points out, research has found that “greater diversity produces better outcomes exactly because it is harder to work among a mix of perspectives,” and... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

December 2001 (Revised June 2002)
Case

Monsanto: Technology Cooperation and Small Holder Farmer Projects

By: James E. Austin, Diana Barrett and Stephanie Oestreich

As the leading plant technology company in the global food system, how can Monsanto share this technology with small-sale producers and not-for-profit researchers and institutions? View Details

Keywords: Food; Globalized Markets and Industries; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Nonprofit Organizations; Society; Technology; Biotechnology Industry

March 2016
Case

N12 Technologies: Building an Organization and Building a Business

By: David A. Garvin and Aldo Sesia

N12 Technologies was a startup founded in 2010 that employed nanotechnology to manufacture a patented material to improve the performance of carbon fiber composites, which were used in a wide variety of products, ranging from bicycles to automobiles to aircraft parts.... View Details

Keywords: Startup; Organizational Structure; Nanotechnology; Business Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Management Systems; Commercialization; Industrial Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; Bicycle Industry; Transportation Industry; United States

April 1985 (Revised September 1993)
Background Note

Hattori-Seiko and the World Watch Industry in 1980

By: Michael E. Porter and Edward J. Hoff

Focuses on the industry's development and evolution in three principal watch producing countries: Switzerland, the United States, and Japan. Based in part on two earlier cases by F.T. Knickerbocker and H.E.R. Uyterhoeven. View Details

Keywords: Industry Growth; Consumer Products Industry; Japan; Switzerland; United States

August 2005 (Revised July 2014)
Case

Can Bollywood Go Global?

By: Geoffrey Jones, Namrata Arora, Surachita Mishra and Alexis Lefort

Considers the opportunities and challenges facing Indian film producers in accessing the global film market. Provides a historical context by describing the history of the cinema and the rise of Hollywood to global dominance by the 1920s. Although film industries... View Details

Keywords: History; Competition; Film Entertainment; Globalized Markets and Industries; Product Development; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; India

August 2009 (Revised August 2011)
Case

Nanosolar, Inc.

Nanosolar is a start-up company in the clean tech sector. It expects to be one of the first manufacturers to produce thin-film solar panels using copper indium gallium (di)selenide (CIGS) technology. Although this technology is less efficient in producing electricity... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Renewable Energy; Marketing Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Energy Industry; Green Technology Industry; Europe; United States