Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(794)
- Faculty Publications (201)
- April 2012 (Revised August 2013)
- Case
General Motors Technical Center India – Powertrain Engineering
By: Willy Shih, William Jurist, Brian McIntosh and Helen Wang
Prabjot Nanua was proud of the growing capabilities of the General Motors Technical Center India Powertrain Engineering group that he oversaw. Since 2003, engineers there had expanded the center's capabilities, developing a reputation within GM for completing... View Details
- February 2012
- Article
A 'Core Periphery' Framework to Navigate Emerging Market Governments—Qualitative Evidence from a Biotechnology Multinational
By: Prithwiraj Choudhury, James Geraghty and Tarun Khanna
We build on the emerging literature of influence-based models to study how multinational firms can navigate host governments. Our "core-periphery" framework posits that the actions that an MNC takes with actors in what we call the "periphery"—comprised of state,... View Details
- November 2011 (Revised November 2012)
- Case
L'Occitane en Provence
By: Bo Becker, Daniela Beyersdorfer, Scott Mayfield and Mayuka Yamazaki
Cosmetics company L'Occitane en Provence must decide if it is the right time to go public, and, if so, where to list. The firm could list on Euronext in Paris, close to the firm's headquarters in southern France, on one of the large exchanges in the U.S., or perhaps in... View Details
- November 2011
- Article
KFC's Radical Approach to China
By: David E. Bell and Mary L. Shelman
Global companies face a crucial question when they enter emerging markets: how far should they go to localize their offerings? Typically they try to sell core products or services pretty much as they've been sold in Europe or the United States, with headquarters... View Details
- October 2011
- Case
Levendary Cafe: The China Challenge
By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Arar Han
Just weeks into her new job, Mia Foster, a first time CEO with no international management experience, is faced with a major challenge at Levendary Cafe, a $10 billion US-based fast food chain. Strategically, many of her corporate staff have become concerned that the... View Details
Keywords: Globalization; International Management; Foreign Subsidiaries; General Managers; Strategy; Management Style; Strategic Planning; Business Subsidiaries; Multinational Firms and Management; Adaptation; Entrepreneurship; Relationships; Standards; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; China; United States
- 2011
- Working Paper
The Organization of Firms Across Countries
By: Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen
We argue that social capital as proxied by trust increases aggregate productivity by affecting the organization of firms. To do this we collect new data on the decentralization of investment, hiring, production, and sales decisions from Corporate Headquarters to local... View Details
- June 2011 (Revised October 2012)
- Case
IBM China Development Lab Shanghai: Capability by Design
By: Willy Shih, Kamen Bliznashki and Fan Zhao
When IBM shifted from a traditional territory-based multinational organization to what it called a globally integrated enterprise, it established its headquarters for "Growth Markets" in Shanghai and "Established Markets" in New York. This positioned its China... View Details
- 9 May 2011 - 11 May 2011
- Conference Presentation
How Firms Respond to Mandatory Information Disclosure
By: Anil Doshi, Michael Toffel and Glen W. S. Dowell
When new institutional pressures arise, which organizations are particularly likely to resist or
acquiesce? When subjected to new information disclosure mandates, an increasingly popular form
of market-based government regulation, which types of organizations are... View Details
- 2011
- Working Paper
Historical Trajectories and Corporate Competences in Wind Energy
By: Geoffrey Jones and Loubna Bouamane
This working paper surveys the business history of the global wind energy turbine industry between the late nineteenth century and the present day. It examines the long-term prominence of firms headquartered in Denmark, the more fluctuating role of U.S.-based firms,... View Details
- December 2010 (Revised June 2011)
- Case
Back to the Future: Redeveloping Unilever House
By: A. Eugene Kohn, Arthur I Segel and Andrew Pierson Terris
Steve Williams, General Counsel of Unilever PIc, has two key decisions to make prior to commencing construction on the redevelopment of Unilever House - the company's London corporate headquarters. The purpose of the redevelopment is to reinvigorate the corporate... View Details
- June 2010
- Case
Managing the Client Portfolio
By: Nitin Nohria and Ashish Nanda
The German country managing partner of a global law firm must decide how to respond to a corporate mandate to restructure its client portfolio. The case enables a discussion of different types of clients in a global professional service firm in terms of relative... View Details
- 2010
- Working Paper
Surviving the Global Financial Crisis: Foreign Direct Investment and Establishment Performance
By: Laura Alfaro and Maggie Chen
We examine in this paper the differential response of establishments to the global financial crisis, with particular emphasis on the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) in determining micro economic performance. Using a new worldwide dataset that reports the... View Details
- December 2009 (Revised April 2022)
- Case
Lyondell Chemical Company
By: Stuart C. Gilson and Sarah Abbott
Hit with an industry recession and the global financial crisis of 2008, in January 2009 LyondellBasell Industries AF S.C.A., one of the world's largest internationally diversified chemical companies headquartered in The Netherlands, placed its U.S. operations and a... View Details
- 2009
- Working Paper
International Differences in the Size and Roles of Corporate Headquarters: An Empirical Examination
By: David J. Collis, David Young and Michael Goold
This paper examines differences in the size and roles of corporate headquarters around the world. Based on a survey of over 600 multibusiness corporations in seven countries (France, Germany, Holland, UK, Japan, US, and Chile) the paper describes the differences among... View Details
Keywords: Business Headquarters; Size; Organizational Structure; Culture; Japan; France; Germany; Netherlands; United Kingdom; United States; Chile
- November 2009
- Article
Organizational Design and Control across Multiple Markets: The Case of Franchising in the Convenience Store Industry
Many companies operate units that are dispersed across different types of markets, and thus serve significantly diverging customer bases. Such market-type dispersion is likely to compromise the headquarter's ability to control its local managers' behavior and satisfy... View Details
- September 2009 (Revised April 2011)
- Case
Integrated Project Delivery at Autodesk, Inc. (A)
By: Amy C. Edmondson and Faaiza Rashid
Describes Autodesk's engagement in Integrated Project Delivery—a new model of risk management, inter-firm teamwork, and multi-objective (aesthetic, cost, and sustainability) optimization in building projects. In 2008, Autodesk, Inc., the world's largest design software... View Details
- September 2009 (Revised September 2010)
- Case
Genzyme Center (A)
By: Michael W. Toffel and Aldo Sesia
Genzyme Corporation is in the midst of planning its new corporate headquarters, which incorporates many innovative green building features. After learning that the building as planned would likely earn a LEED Silver rating, an intermediate score in the LEED green... View Details
Keywords: Green Building; LEED Rating System; Economic And Environmental Performance; Program Evaluation And Assessment; Tradeoffs Between Process- And Performance Standards; Buildings and Facilities; Business Headquarters; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Standards; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance Improvement; Environmental Sustainability; Pollutants; Green Technology Industry
- August 2009 (Revised August 2010)
- Case
Calera Corporation
By: Joseph B. Lassiter III, Thomas J. Steenburgh and Lauren Barley
Brent Constantz, founder, CEO, and president of Calera Corporation, felt a surge of optimism as he gazed at the recently commissioned prototype flue gas processing line at Calera's R&D facility in Moss Landing, California. It was late May 2009, and Calera was an... View Details
- March 2009 (Revised July 2009)
- Case
KiOR: Catalyzing Clean Energy
By: Ramana Nanda and Toby E. Stuart
Biofuels start-up KiOR was developing a proprietary technology that had the potential to dramatically impact the emerging renewable energy landscape: a process that converted cellulosic biomass into "bio-crude," a hydrocarbon mixture with properties to those of crude... View Details
- January 2009 (Revised February 2009)
- Case
Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility
By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Regina Garcia-Cuellar
Bimbo, headquartered in Mexico with 2008 sales of $7 billion, was one of the largest bakery companies in the world. Even as it had grown spectacularly in the last several decades, the company had earned a stellar reputation for its corporate social responsibility... View Details