Publications

September 1991 (Revised December 1993)
Case

Tombow Pencil Co. Ltd.

Tombow Pencil Co. Ltd., one of Japan's two premier pencil manufacturers, has been using a subcontractor network in order to respond to changing market conditions. The system currently faces a new challenge as Tombow moves to address a volatile business market for... View Details

Keywords: Production; Supply Chain Management; Manufacturing Industry; Japan

February 2004 (Revised November 2004)
Case

Golden Age of Home Video Games, The: From the Reign of Atari to the Rise of Nintendo

Details events in the home video-game industry from the late 1970s until the early 1990s. Tells the story of the rise and fall of Atari Corp., the dominant player in arcade and home video games in the 1970s and early 1980s. During this period, Atari became the fastest... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Value Creation; Change Management; Marketing Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Video Game Industry

01 Nov 2024
In Practice

Layoffs Surging in a Strong Economy? Advice for Navigating Uncertain Times

Management Practice in the General Management Unit at HBS. Frances X. Frei and Anne Morriss: Managers, it’s story time The tech sector continues to shed workers after hiring prodigiously during the demand... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Technology; Information Technology

2011
Other Unpublished Work

Do Public and Private Firms Behave Differently? An Examination of Investment in the Chemical Industry

By: Albert W. Sheen

I compare the capacity expansion decisions of U.S. public and private producers of seven commodity chemicals from 1989-2006. I find that private firms invest differently, and more efficiently, than public firms. Specifically, private firms are more likely than public... View Details

Keywords: Private Ownership; Chemicals; Investment; Public Ownership; Chemical Industry; United States

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June 2015 (Revised November 2015)
Case

Akbank: Options in Digital Banking

By: Rajiv Lal and Esel Çekin

This case discusses the digitalization strategies of a leading bank in Turkey, Akbank, and how to position its digital banking products going forward. The Turkish banking industry was undergoing a transformation prompted by the demands of the country's digitally savvy,... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Banking; Emerging Market; Regulations; Channels; Digitization; Information Technology; Competition; Brands and Branding; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Emerging Markets; Distribution Channels; Banks and Banking; Digital Transformation; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; Turkey

10 Aug 2016
Research & Ideas

Prospective Students Steer Clear of Schools Rocked by Scandal

after the incident was well documented—but this is just one school. To get a feel for how bad publicity affects applications on a broader scale, the researchers studied 124 public scandals at the top 100 universities in the United States,... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Education

November 1987 (Revised March 1990)
Case

Ethyl Corp. in 1979

Describes the competitive situation facing the market leader in antiknock additives, the Ethyl Corp. Demand is declining rapidly and Ethyl has to decide whether to close capacity, and if so, how. Raises issues of corporate as well as SBU strategy because antiknock... View Details

Keywords: Business Units; Corporate Strategy; Performance Capacity; Auto Industry; Chemical Industry

2016
Working Paper

Reviews, Reputation, and Revenue: The Case of Yelp.com

By: Michael Luca

Do online consumer reviews affect restaurant demand? I investigate this question using a novel dataset combining reviews from the website Yelp.com and restaurant data from the Washington State Department of Revenue. Because Yelp prominently displays a restaurant's... View Details

Keywords: Revenue; Network Effects; Reputation; Social and Collaborative Networks; Food and Beverage Industry; Service Industry; Washington (state, US)

SSRN

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April 2023
Case

Strive Asset Management

By: Suraj Srinivasan, Lynn S. Paine and Aldo Sesia

Strive Asset Management, which launched in 2022, was actively targeting several leading U.S. companies in the upcoming 2023 proxy voting season to stop acquiescing to those large asset managers and other institutional shareholders who were pressing those companies to... View Details

Keywords: ESG; Shareholder Activism; Asset Management; Investment Funds; Corporate Governance; Risk Management; Climate Change; Diversity; Equity; Financial Services Industry; United States

07 Oct 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Specific Knowledge and Divisional Performance Measurement

Keywords: by Michael C. Jensen & William H. Meckling

20 Feb 2008
First Look

First Look: February 20, 2008

highlight a two-stage process for marketing resource allocation. In stage one, a model of demand is estimated. This model empirically assesses the impact of marketing actions on consumer demand of a... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

March 2022
Article

Assessing the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Clinician Ambulatory Electronic Health Record Use

By: A Jay Holmgren, Lance Downing, Mitchell Tang, Christopher Sharp, Christopher Longhurst and Robert S. Huckman

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic changed clinician electronic health record (EHR) work in a multitude of ways. To evaluate how, we measure ambulatory clinician EHR use in the United States throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Materials and Methods: We use EHR... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Electronic Health Records; Productivity; COVID-19 Pandemic; Health Care and Treatment; Health Pandemics; Information Technology; Performance Productivity; United States

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07 Oct 2015
What Do You Think?

What is the Best Immigration Model for the US?

On Immigration Does the US Have Anything to Learn from Europe? We should not confuse the potential economic benefits of immigration for the United States with what is happening in Europe and specifically Germany. While the benefits can be... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

August 2021
Case

Apax Digital

By: Jo Tango and Alys Ferragamo

The Apax Digital team faced important decisions as they contemplated raising a second fund. Apax Digital Fund I was a $1.1 billion vehicle focused on mid-market growth equity and growth buyouts in the technology sector. The fund had performed well, and the Managing... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Acquisition; Investment Portfolio; Decision Choices and Conditions; Venture Capital; Technology Industry; Financial Services Industry; United States

August 1999 (Revised January 2002)
Case

Brita Products Company, The

By: John A. Deighton

Clorox's Brita skillfully exploits a tide of water safety concerns, growing a home water (filtration) business from inception to a 15% U.S. household penetration in ten years. The dilemma in the case arises as the period of increasing returns seems to be drawing to a... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Acquisition; Retention; Safety; Natural Environment; Emerging Markets; Investment Return; Equity; Demand and Consumers; United States

22 Jan 2014
Research & Ideas

High-Tech Immigrant Workers Don’t Cost US Jobs

Many high-tech companies in the United States look overseas to fill talent gaps in their employment ranks by hiring skilled immigrants, often sponsoring the visas these workers need to live in this country. Critics say this can create an... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Computer; Financial Services

08 Mar 2012
Research & Ideas

Unplugged: What Happened to the Smart Grid?

efficiency, remote troubleshooting, and customer personalization—has been delayed despite wide acceptance by many experts that the existing power system is falling far short of America's energy needs. In 2009, energy demand in the View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Energy; Utilities

July – August 2008
Article

Leaders in Denial

By: Richard S. Tedlow

Henry Ford's stubborn refusal to admit the changeability of consumer demand allowed Chrysler and GM to horn in on his market. Half a century later the whole U.S. auto industry made the same mistake: Enter the Japanese. But denial comes in many forms, as Sears, Digital... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Judgments; Leadership; Demand and Consumers; Auto Industry; United States