Publications

March – April 2009
Article

Market Research and Innovation Strategy in a Duopoly

By: Dominique Lauga and Elie Ofek

We model a duopoly in which ex-ante identical firms must decide where to direct their innovation efforts. The firms face market uncertainty about consumers' preferences for innovation on two product attributes and technology uncertainty about the success of their R&D... View Details

Keywords: Profit; Innovation and Management; Demand and Consumers; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Research and Development; Competitive Strategy

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September 1993 (Revised December 1993)
Case

Cott Corp.: Private Label in the 1990s

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Robert S. Kaplan

Private label cola, Cott, gets 30% of the market in Canada. How does it move into the U.S. market? How do retailers evaluate its benefit costs? Does Cott use an existing structure or build new ones? Does Cott diversify from drink to snack foods? View Details

Keywords: Private Sector; Cost Management; Labels; Growth and Development Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Industry Structures; Diversification; Food and Beverage Industry

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14 Apr 2009
First Look

First Look: April 14, 2009

Publications The Role of Execution in Managing Product Availability Authors: Nicole DeHoratius and Zeynep Ton Publication: Chap. 4 in Retail Supply Chain Management, edited by Narendra Agarwal and Stephen A.... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

05 Jul 2016
First Look

July 5, 2016

practical use by managers or teaching by instructors of MBAs and executive MBAs. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=51126 The Climate Custodians By: Eccles, Robert G., and Tim Youmans Abstract—Can... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2003
Conference Paper

Follow the Money: What Really Drives Technology Innovation in Construction

By: John D. Macomber

Technology enthusiasts, academics, and software companies remain concerned about the slow pace of innovation in the construction industry. Tools are widely available that seem to provide eminently sensible and clearly apparent improvement to the process of design and... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Technological Innovation; Construction; Design; Performance Improvement; Motivation and Incentives; Knowledge Management; Adoption; Business Model; Capital Structure; Supply Chain

September 2011 (Revised February 2013)
Case

Trucost: Valuing Corporate Environmental Impacts

By: Michael W. Toffel and Stephanie van Sice

Trucost provided corporate environmental performance data and analysis to institutional investors and corporate managers, but after operating for a decade had yet to achieve profitability. Trucost was struggling to effectively differentiate its high quality products... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Distribution Channels; Investment; Measurement and Metrics; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Information; Value; Environmental Sustainability; Financial Services Industry

June 2008 (Revised May 2017)
Case

Cook Composites and Polymers Co.

By: Deishin Lee, Michael W. Toffel and Rachel Gordon

This case describes how a company improves resource efficiency and process quality in its manufacturing process by developing a waste by-product into a new product. The case describes how CCP cleans production equipment between batches using styrene, which becomes a... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Product Development; Business Processes; Performance Efficiency; Natural Environment; Wastes and Waste Processing; Pollutants; Environmental Sustainability; Chemical Industry; Manufacturing Industry

02 Nov 2010
First Look

First Look: November 2, 2010

Abstract A perennial question facing managers is how much decision latitude to give their employees at work. The current research investigates how decision latitude affects employees' perceptions of managers' personalities and, in turn,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

22 Feb 2016
Research & Ideas

The ‘Mother of Fair Trade’ was an Unabashed Price Protectionist

industries looking for ways to manage markets. Many states in the early 1930s created administrative boards to control competitive practices, wages, and retail prices industry by industry. “The crisis of the Great Depression played a... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Retail; Health; Legal Services

09 May 2018
Research & Ideas

A Simple Way for Restaurant Inspectors to Improve Food Safety

Technology and Operations Management Unit at Harvard Business School, and Mike Toffel, the Senator John Heinz Professor of Environmental Management at HBS, experts in scheduling and in inspections,... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Food & Beverage; Service

22 Jan 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, January 22, 2019

enterprises seem incapable of transformative innovation, it is due to how we design and manage them, rather than anything inherent in their scale. In fact, Creative Construction argues, if used properly, scale can be an asset, rather than... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

03 Aug 2009
Research & Ideas

Corporate Social Responsibility in a Downturn

the firm's business practices. We have built a simple classification system that when combined with an "assessment" model could yield powerful diagnostics on how to migrate and manage a company's portfolio of CSR programs.... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

02 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

Digital Initiative Summit: The Business of Crowdsourcing

always seeking new demand for creative projects to keep up with the supply of community members eager to take up challenges. "We're displacing a way of doing business in a big organization for the last 70 years," said DeJulio, who was a... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

16 Aug 2024
In Practice

Election 2024: What's at Stake for Business and the Workplace?

partisanship will continue to cloud economic judgment around the 2024 election. For managers and finance professionals, these insights highlight two important aspects of operating a business today: In a polarized political environment,... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

08 Mar 2016
Research & Ideas

Solving an Economic Mystery Surrounding Argentina and Chile

between 1998 and 2002. Chile did better in this era of globalization, and boomed supplying copper to China. Chile produced one-tenth of the world’s copper, but once more was badly affected when Chinese and world demand declined in the... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

01 May 2006
What Do You Think?

Who Will Cast a Longer Shadow on the 21st Century: Friedman or Galbraith?

Schwartz, The Monetary History of the United States, he had earlier argued, however, for a significant government role in managing monetary policy to guard against the booms and busts that characterized the early part of the twentieth... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

November 2019
Case

Hapag-Lloyd AG:Complying with IMO 2020

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Mette Fuglsang Hjortshoej and Emer Moloney

A new environmental regulation known as IMO 2020 was creating what one industry analyst called “the biggest shakeup for the oil and shipping industries in decades.” According to the new regulation, all ocean-going ships would have to limit their sulfur emissions by... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Ship Transportation; Strategic Planning; Game Theory; Pollutants; Supply Chain; Corporate Accountability; Capital Budgeting; Environmental Sustainability; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Governance Compliance; Shipping Industry; Transportation Industry; Germany

January 2025
Teaching Note

Vytal: Packaging-as-a-Service

By: George Serafeim, Michael W. Toffel and Stacy Straaberg

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 124-007. The Germany-based startup Vytal operated the largest digital-native reusable packaging-as-a-service network globally, having raised nearly €15 million, established a large network of restaurant partners, and prevented the use of... View Details