Publications

August 2005 (Revised April 2015)
Background Note

Employment At Will: A Legal Perspective

By: Lynn S. Paine and Christopher M. Bruner

Provides a brief overview of the employment-at-will doctrine, an important concept unique to the U.S. legal system and business landscape. Briefly surveys the history and development of this doctrine and certain limitations and exceptions to it, as well as some of the... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Resignation and Termination; Employment; Common Law; Laws and Statutes; Business and Government Relations; United States

March 2001 (Revised March 2016)
Case

Charlene Barshefsky (A)

By: James K. Sebenius and Rebecca Hulse

Describes the challenges former U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky faced while negotiating a trade agreement with China to improve its domestic intellectual property rights enforcement. After briefly describing Barshefsky's past experience with trade... View Details

Keywords: Trade; International Relations; Copyright; Negotiation Style; Negotiation Tactics; Alliances; Business and Government Relations; China; United States

July 2009 (Revised June 2011)
Case

RiskMetrics Group

By: Jay W. Lorsch and Kaitlyn Simpson

RiskMetrics Group, a risk and governance consultancy, had a great deal of influence on U.S. companies. This case examines the history and growth of the company, the governance services it offers, the extent of its impact on shareholders, the controversy surrounding its... View Details

Keywords: Conflict of Interests; Risk Management; Governing and Advisory Boards; Corporate Governance; Power and Influence; Consulting Industry; United States

06 Dec 2012
News

Wall Street Doesn't Understand Innovation

April 2002 (Revised October 2003)
Case

Pension Plan of Bethlehem Steel, 2001, The

By: Peter Tufano

Bethlehem Steel's 2001 bankruptcy filing inspires an employee's daughter to evaluate her father's pension plan, weeks after September 11's tragedies exacerbated a weakening U.S. economy and just months before her father planned to retire. Battered equity markets and... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Financial Instruments; Retirement; Steel Industry; United States

20 Oct 2003
Research & Ideas

Gaps in the Historical Record: Development of the Electronics Industry

begin with consumer electronics. That industry began with radio. Two enterprises commercialized, that is, brought the technology into public use: Radio Corporation of America (RCA), a joint venture of the three leading U.S. electrical and... View Details

Keywords: by Alfred D. Chandler Jr.; Consumer Products

February 2008 (Revised July 2008)
Case

Wanxiang Group: A Chinese Company's Global Strategy

By: Regina M. Abrami, William C. Kirby, F. Warren McFarlan, Keith Chi-ho Wong and Tracy Manty

With an almost forty-year history as a business in China, the Wanxiang Group has navigated through the significantly different political and economic changes in China to succeed as a global leader in the auto parts industry and to develop into a broad business... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Conglomerates; Global Strategy; Business History; Growth and Development Strategy; Vertical Integration; Auto Industry; Hangzhou; United States

07 Jul 2015
News

Misty Copeland: A Role Model For Girls Everywhere Who Want To Find Their Power

09 Aug 2010
News

How to Speed Up Energy Innovation

July 1990 (Revised August 1990)
Case

Kaiser Steel Corporation, 1950

By: Timothy A. Luehrman and William Schiano

Examines Kaiser Steel's initial equity offering in 1950. The first case in a sequence that will trace the history of corporate restructurings that occurred 30 to 40 years later, in the 1980s. Subsequent cases examine foreign competition and labor unrest, hostile... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Competition; Initial Public Offering; Capital Structure; Restructuring; Capital Markets; Ownership; Steel Industry; United States

May 2018
Case

Environmental Platform LEEDership at USGBC

By: Michael W. Toffel, Timothy S. Simcoe and Aldo Sesia

By 2018, it was clear that U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) had significantly contributed to the growth of green building and over its 25-year history had become a powerful brand in the construction sector with its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Standards; Business Model; Leadership; Problems and Challenges; Construction Industry; Green Technology Industry

18 Jan 2011
News

Coca-Cola studies Expedition 206, cites need to "let people participate"

05 Jul 2006
Working Paper Summaries

What Roosevelt Took: The Economic Impact of the Panama Canal, 1903-29

Keywords: by Noel Maurer & Carlos Yu

20 Dec 2010
Research & Ideas

Panama Canal: Troubled History, Astounding Turnaround

the limits of attempts by outside governments to improve business and political conditions in other countries. Answering them, however, required a long and detailed romp through the history of US involvement with what Secretary of War... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Transportation

September 2002 (Revised November 2002)
Case

Transformation at the IRS

By: Amy C. Edmondson, Frances X. Frei and Corey B. Hajim

Describes the service transformation occurring at the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Plagued by a history of poor service, enormous complexity, and an insular employee base, the 100,000-person organization grapples with a turnaround process that attempts to change... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Service Operations; Organizational Structure; Taxation; Organizational Culture; Transformation; Public Administration Industry; United States

Research Summary

Overview

The focus of Professor Gross’ research agenda is U.S. technological innovation, innovation policy, and the effects of technological change on economic activity. He is also interested in learning about what drives individual creative behavior. Methodologically, he is... View Details

08 Feb 2017
News

How Immigrants Changed the Geography of Innovation

February 2001 (Revised February 2002)
Case

Estee Lauder and the Market for Prestige Cosmetics

By: Nancy F. Koehn

Opens with a brief history of the U.S. cosmetics market and its rapid development in the 1920s. Also recounts Lauder's initial involvement in the sector, making skin care products and selling them in Manhattan beauty parlors during the Great Depression. Pays particular... View Details

Keywords: Fluctuation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Market Entry and Exit; Entrepreneurship; Luxury; Business Strategy; Society; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; United States

September 2006 (Revised August 2007)
Case

The Dubai Ports World Debacle and its Aftermath

By: Julio J. Rotemberg

Describes the political ramifications in the United States of Dubai-based DP World's acquisition of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O). Because P&O operated some port terminals in the United States, DP World obtained clearance from the... View Details

Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment; Multinational Firms and Management; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Government Legislation; National Security; Business and Government Relations; Ship Transportation; Dubai; United States