Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(378)
- Faculty Publications (137)
- 2007
- Working Paper
Intra-Industry Foreign Direct Investment
By: Laura Alfaro and Andrew Charlton
We use a new firm level data set that establishes the location, ownership, and activity of 650,000 multinational subsidiaries -- close to a comprehensive picture of global multinational activity. A number of patterns emerge from the data. Most foreign direct investment... View Details
- June 2007
- Article
Which Levers Boost ROI?
By: Margeaux Cvar and John A. Quelch
The article refers to ROI, or return on investment, and focuses on a rational strategy for financial markets that uses outside industry comparisons. The first step is to identify parallel businesses that have similar characteristics such as growth, capital, and market... View Details
- January 2006 (Revised February 2006)
- Case
E.ON Corporate Strategy
By: Forest L. Reinhardt and Sebastian Frankenberger
Examines the corporate strategy of German energy giant E.ON. The firm is vertically integrated, horizontally diversified across electricity and natural gas, and active in numerous countries in Europe as well as in the United States. Explores the costs and benefits of... View Details
- October 2005 (Revised June 2007)
- Case
Apollo Hospitals--First-World Health Care at Emerging-Market Prices
By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Tarun Khanna and Carin-Isabel Knoop
The Apollo Hospitals Group, one of Asia's premier health care organizations, had come to rival the best health care organizations on the globe. Apollo offered advanced medical procedures, such as cardiac surgery using the beating heart technique, at very high levels of... View Details
- May 2005 (Revised October 2022)
- Case
The Octopus and the Generals: The United Fruit Company in Guatemala
By: Geoffrey Jones and Marcelo Bucheli
Examines the overthrow of President Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala in 1954 in a U.S.-backed coup in support of the United Fruit Co. Over the previous half century, United Fruit had built a large vertically integrated tropical fruit business that owned large banana... View Details
- April 2005 (Revised April 2005)
- Background Note
Corporate Strategies in Media and Entertainment Businesses
By: Bharat N. Anand
In recent years, many debates in corporate strategy have centered around information goods markets, and the media and entertainment sector in particular. Vertical integration is the norm in many parts of the media sector, despite conventional wisdom that it offers no... View Details
Keywords: Corporate Strategy
- February 2005 (Revised March 2009)
- Case
Arauco (A): Forward Integration or Horizontal Expansion?
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Jorge Tarzijan and Jordan Mitchell
Celulosa Arauco is a major Chilean producer of market pulp and wood products. Owning over 1.2 million hectares of forest in Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay, the company's key advantage is the ideal growing conditions in which the company's forests are located. As of... View Details
- June 2004 (Revised June 2006)
- Supplement
Vertex Pharmaceuticals: R&D Portfolio Management (A)
By: Gary P. Pisano, Lee Fleming and Eli Strick
Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a drug discovery company that recently decided to pursue a vertically integrated business model, chose to build up its clinical development and commercial capabilities and infrastructure. For the first time in its history, Vertex will... View Details
- February 2004 (Revised April 2007)
- Case
Random House
By: Bharat N. Anand, Kyle F. Barnett and Elizabeth Lea Carpenter
On June 12, 2003, the proposed merger of Random House and Time Warner Book Group was called off by the CEO of Random House's parent company, Bertelsmann. The announcement was welcomed by several critics who had questioned the logic of further consolidation in the book... View Details
- February 2003 (Revised May 2003)
- Case
Mobile Energy Services Company
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Aldo Sesia
When Al "Chainsaw" Dunlap became CEO of the Scott Paper Co., the company owned a large, vertically integrated production facility in Mobile, Alabama. Dunlap sold part of the production facility, a cogeneration power plant (later known as Mobile Energy Services Co.), to... View Details
- March 2002 (Revised January 2010)
- Case
BP and the Consolidation of the Oil Industry, 1998-2002
By: Forest L. Reinhardt, Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and David J Hanson
Examines the economics of the oil and gas industry with a focus on 1998 through 2001. Discusses the rationale behind using a growth in scale as a means to increase profitability and to gain competitive advantage. Also examines the classic strategic implications of... View Details
- December 2001
- Case
Qwest Communications International Inc.
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Christopher Hackett
Describes the evolution of Qwest from a small fiber-optic construction firm in 1996 to a global telecommunications giant in 2001. Focuses on Qwest's pivotal acquisition of "Baby Bell" US West, a regional Bell operating company many times Qwest's size. Discusses the... View Details
- July 2001 (Revised December 2001)
- Case
American Express Interactive
Follows the protagonist, Sonia Sharpe, as she and her American Express Interactive Team attempt to develop and market an interactive, on-line, corporate travel service in a highly competitive environment. Looks at the possible resources and partnerships a company needs... View Details
Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Partners and Partnerships; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Product Positioning; Applications and Software; Technological Innovation; Global Strategy; Expansion; Information Technology; Vertical Integration; Financial Services Industry; Travel Industry
- February 2001 (Revised September 2005)
- Case
Howard Schultz and Starbucks Coffee Company
By: Nancy F. Koehn
Investigates the entrepreneur's strategic initiatives to develop a mass market for specialty coffee in the 1980s and 1990s. These initiatives included the development of premium products, rapid expansion of company-owned stores--each with attractive retail environments... View Details
- April 2000
- Article
The Fable of Fisher Body
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Daniel F. Spulber
General Motors' (GM) acquisition of Fisher Body is the classic example of market failure in the literature on contracts and the theory of the firm. According to the standard account, GM merged vertically with Fisher Body in 1926, a maker of auto bodies, because of... View Details
- November 1999 (Revised June 2002)
- Case
Debate Over Unbundling General Motors: The Delphi Divestiture and Other Possible Transactions, The
Ever since General Motors (GM) announced in February 1997 its intention to divest Delphi Automotive Systems--its upstream parts manufacturing operations--Wall Street had called for further unbundling, and various stakeholders competed for their claim of value... View Details
- March 1999 (Revised April 1999)
- Case
Environmental Risk Management at Chevron Corporation
By: Forest L. Reinhardt, Monica M Mandelli and Jennifer Burns
Chevron Corp., headquartered in San Francisco, manages a worldwide, vertically integrated value chain from the oil well to the gasoline station. Mishandling of oil at any stage of production can damage the natural environment, human health, corporate profitability, or... View Details
- May 1998
- Teaching Note
Merck-Medco: Vertical Integration in the Pharmaceutical Industry TN
By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Marie Bell
Teaching Note for (9-598-091). View Details
Keywords: Pharmaceutical Industry