Publications

May 2008 (Revised April 2018)
Case

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center: Interdisciplinary Cancer Care

By: Michael E. Porter and Sachin H. Jain

In 2006, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center was an internationally leading institution for cancer care, education, and research. Since 1996, it had successfully reorganized itself from a cancer hospital that was physically organized around clinical... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Health Disorders; Organizational Structure; Medical Specialties; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Value Creation; Service Delivery; Research; Health Care and Treatment; Education Industry; Health Industry; Texas

March 1990 (Revised June 1991)
Case

IBM Corp.: ""Make It Your Business"" (A)

By: Robert L. Simons

In 1987, IBM changed its strategy in an attempt to become a market-driven company rather than a product-driven company. The case begins with a description of the new strategy and the reasons for the change and then describes the top-down sales planning and quota system... View Details

Keywords: Commercialization; Competitive Advantage; Business Strategy; Goals and Objectives; Strategic Planning; Motivation and Incentives; Sales; Volatility; System; Information Technology Industry

22 Jan 2020
News

Making Stakeholder Capitalism a Reality

04 Dec 2017
News

How a Fast-Growing Startup Built Its Sales Team for Long-Term Success

Career Coach

Juan Leung Li

Juan draws on his own career journey and his experience supporting tech entrepreneurs and executives to coach students. Most career paths look like a straight line in hindsight -- those cases are rare. In reality, discovering fulfilling... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Angel Investing; Financial Services (All); Corporate Finance; Financial Services (All); Investment Banking; Financial Services (All); Venture Capital; Financial Services (All); Startup - Founder; Entrepreneurship; Startup - Joiner; Entrepreneurship; Technology

19 Feb 2007
Research & Ideas

Inexperienced Investors and Market Bubbles

"Past performance is no guarantee of future results." —standard financial disclaimer Neophyte investors—it is believed—play a role in creating asset price bubbles such as the tech collapse a few years ago. Just think back to the seventeenth century Tulip... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services

June 2020
Case

Career Karma: Growth in a Time of Global Uncertainty (A)

By: Laura Huang, Elizabeth Jiang and Brandon Yu

Career Karma is a startup focused on helping individuals looking to transition careers into computer engineering roles or similar fields by preparing them for formal technical training programs, or “coding bootcamps,” that would lead to a successful career pivot upon... View Details

Article

Investing in What You Know: The Case of Individual Investors and Local Stocks

By: Mark Seasholes and Ning Zhu

This paper tests the performance of individuals' equity investments. We study over 40,000 accounts and 950,000 trades from a large discount broker. Individuals invest heavily in local stocks and put 14% more into these stocks than a market-neutral portfolio... View Details

Keywords: Stocks; Local Range; Investment; Equity

Read Now

December 2013 (Revised April 2014)
Case

Seeding Growth in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

By: Ray Goldberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Djordjija Petkoski

By 2013, the agricultural sector in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) had long suffered from war, political instability, and dilapidated infrastructure. A country with 75 million inhabitants and the second lowest GDP per capita in the world in 2011, the DRC's... View Details

Keywords: National Agricultural Investment Plan (PNIA); Developing Agriculture; World Bank; Poverty Reduction; Special Economic Zones (SEZs); Small-scale Farmers; Agricultural Business Parks; Agriculture Reform; Agribusiness; Economic Growth; Infrastructure; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Africa; Congo, Democratic Republic of the

Article

Priced and Unpriced Online Markets

By: Benjamin Edelman

With forces both supporting and opposing zero prices, typical Internet-related activities—like surfing the web, web searches, and e-mail, along with behind-the-scenes practices like domain names and the allocation of IP (Internet Protocol) addresses—present a natural... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Price; Market Transactions; Service Operations; Internet

Find at Harvard

Read Now

August 2007 (Revised January 2009)
Case

Stryker Corporation: Capital Budgeting

By: Timothy A. Luehrman

Examines some parts of Stryker Corporation's systems and procedures for approving and authorizing capital spending of many different types, including buildings, machinery, and working capital for existing businesses, as well as transactions with third parties such as... View Details

Keywords: Working Capital; System; Organizational Culture; Policy; Capital Budgeting