Publications

April 2006 (Revised October 2008)
Case

Marketing New York City

By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Anita Elberse and Marie Bell

New York City is a pioneer in the emerging field of municipal marketing. The city's first chief marketing officer must develop a marketing organization with a self-funded business model that creates value for the city by leveraging the city's assets, including physical... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Government and Politics; Goals and Objectives; Marketing Strategy; Partners and Partnerships; Value Creation; New York (city, NY)

November 2010 (Revised June 2011)
Case

La Fageda

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Joan Enric Ricart and Jordan Mitchell

La Fageda is a manufacturer of high-quality, naturally-made yogurts in northern Catalonia, Spain. La Fageda is substantially different from its main competitors such as multinational Danone in that it is a 270-person workers' cooperative with 60 percent of its... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Business Model; Production; Cooperative Ownership; Quality; Competition; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Spain

15 Jan 2014
Research & Ideas

Managing the Family Business: It Takes a Village

Editor's note: This is the first of occasional columns on managing the family business written by Senior Lecturer John A. Davis. In this first of two articles, Davis discusses leadership models. Part One: Global Norms And The One-leader... View Details

25 Aug 2015
News

How to Change Careers When You Don't Know What You Want To Do Next

Program

Advanced Management Program

Summary Market volatility, digital transformation, and innovation are changing the way companies compete in every industry—and increasing the demand for business leaders who are global changemakers. Whether you are looking to move up to... View Details

29 Mar 2022
Book

5 Qualities That Help Companies Thrive for Decades—Even Centuries

How do companies survive not just for years, but for decades? For centuries even? During a global pandemic, researchers are studying anew what makes companies resilient, agile, and enduring. After all, Japanese construction firm Kongō Gumi, which builds temples, has... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

2016
Working Paper

Historical Change and the Competitive Advantage of Firms: Explicating the 'Dynamics' in the Dynamic Capabilities Framework

By: Geoffrey Jones and R. Daniel Wadhwani

This working paper aims to deepen the scholarly dialogue between strategy and history. It does so by examining how historical models of change can contribute to theory and research on the competitive advantage of firms during periods of rapid innovation. Focusing on... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Dynamic Capabilities; Innovation; Temporality; Context; Microfoundations; Business History; Competitive Advantage; Change; Innovation and Invention

SSRN

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May 2023 (Revised June 2023)
Case

Novartis (A): Reimagining Medicine

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Claudio Feser, Karolin Frankenberger and David Redaschi

This case unfolds around the first-ever approved personalized cancer treatment, how Novartis wrapped it into a new business model design, and how Novartis scaled it. Novartis — one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world — is, among other ventures,... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Business Model; Leadership; Pharmaceutical Industry; Switzerland

December 2018 (Revised March 2019)
Case

iyzico: Fundraising in Emerging Markets (A)

By: Marco Di Maggio and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in 2016 as Barbaros Ozbugutu, co-founder and CEO of the Istanbul-based payment technology start-up iyzico, contemplates the offers the company received for its Series C round. The case then describes iyzico’s origins and provides a detailed overview of... View Details

Keywords: Iyzico; Fundraising; Business Startups; Venture Capital; Emerging Markets; Private Sector; For-Profit Firms; Management; Information Technology; Growth Management; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Negotiation Offer; Decision Making; Turkey

15 Feb 2017
Op-Ed

What Africa Can Teach the United States About Funding Infrastructure Projects

the great cities of America. But there will likely be massive arguments about how to raise the money and how to invest it. The solution may lie in finance models that have proven successful in several nations across the Atlantic Ocean—not... View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber; Construction

19 Dec 2023
Research & Ideas

15 Podcast Episodes That Grabbed Listeners in 2023

Happiness, artificial intelligence, and climate change were just some of the themes that caught the attention of Harvard Business School podcast listeners in 2023. Here are some of the most-downloaded episodes of the year: Deep Purpose... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

May 2023 (Revised June 2023)
Supplement

Novartis (B): Reimagining Medicine

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Claudio Feser, Karolin Frankenberger and David Redaschi

This case unfolds around the first-ever approved personalized cancer treatment, how Novartis wrapped it into a new business model design, and how Novartis scaled it. Novartis — one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world — is, among other ventures,... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Business Model; Production; Business Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry

July 2008 (Revised February 2009)
Case

(PRODUCT) RED (A)

By: Youngme E. Moon, Michael I. Norton and David Chen

Describes the launch and initial results of the (PRODUCT) RED campaign, a social marketing initiative conceived by U2's Bono and Bobby Shriver to combat AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. The company licensed the (RED) brand to partner companies, which initially included Gap,... View Details

Keywords: Investment Funds; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Social Marketing; Social Enterprise; Africa

29 May 2019
News

A Study of More Than 250 Platforms Reveals Why Most Fail

January 2022
Case

Fueling a Cleaner Future: ACWA Power and Green Hydrogen

By: Dennis Yao and Alpana Thapar

In January 2020, Paddy Padmanathan, president and CEO of ACWA Power, was reflecting on the company’s sixteen-year record of success and thinking about its future growth plans. Founded in 2004, ACWA Power was a Saudi Arabian developer, owner, and operator of power and... View Details

Keywords: Green Hydrogen; Energy; Climate Change; Supply Chain; Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; Green Technology; Projects; Alliances; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Energy Industry; Saudi Arabia; Middle East; North Africa

January 2020 (Revised March 2020)
Case

LOLA: Do You Know What's in Your Tampon?

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Aldo Sesia

LOLA is a direct-to-consumer (DTC) business launched in 2015. What started as a company to provide women with organic and transparent material-labeled tampons via a subscription model, had, by 2019 evolved to include additional menstrual and sexual wellness products.... View Details

Keywords: Direct-to-consumer; Channels; Disruption; Business Model; Brands and Branding; Internet and the Web; Strategy; Retail Industry; United States; Canada

07 Jun 2023
Blog Post

My One Case: MBA Class of 2023 Looks Back

middle-skill workforce. What case made an impact on you and why?The “QuikTrip” case stands out for me. The case features a CEO who is expanding his business to a new market and must decide what kind of growth strategy to pursue. In the... View Details

April 2019 (Revised June 2019)
Case

Western Governors University: 10x Vision

By: William R. Kerr and Susie L. Ma

Western Governors University (WGU) was a nonprofit institution of higher education whose online learning model served more than 100,000 students in 2019 and was scaling rapidly. President Scott Pulsipher wanted to expand WGU’s reach to millions more with a plan called... View Details

Keywords: Online Education; Enrollment; Scaling; Higher Education; Internet and the Web; Business Model; Expansion; Growth and Development Strategy; Education Industry; United States