Publications

Ranjay Gulati is the Paul R. Lawrence MBA Class of 1942 Professor of Business Administration and the former Unit Head of the Organizational Behavior Unit at Harvard Business School. He is an expert on leadership, strategy, and organizational issues... View Details

Keywords: industrial goods; industrial goods; industrial goods; industrial goods; industrial goods; industrial goods; industrial goods; industrial goods

24 Jul 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, July 24, 2018

through word of mouth (WOM); whereas in another context (a cloud-based file storage service), customers who joined through WOM referrals tended to exhibit higher usage. Yet, examining how routes of adoption relate to specific types of... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

April 2022
Case

Mastercard: Creating a World Beyond Cash

By: Sunil Gupta, Linda A. Hill, Julia Kelley and Emily Tedards

In late 2021, Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach and Chairman and former CEO Ajaypal “Ajay” Banga considered how Mastercard could best position itself for continued success in the years to come. Since Mastercard’s initial public offering in 2006, the company had grown and... View Details

August 2018 (Revised April 2023)
Case

Facebook—Can Ethics Scale in the Digital Age?

By: George A. Riedel and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Since its founding in 2004, Facebook has built a phenomenally successful business at global scale to become the fifth most valuable public company in the world. The revelation of Cambridge Analytica events in March 2018, where 78 million users' information was leaked... View Details

Keywords: Facebook; Ethics; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Trust; Business Model; Corporate Accountability; Social Media

2008
Book

On Competition

By: M. E. Porter

Competition is one of society's most powerful forces for making things better in many ﬁelds of human endeavor. The study of competition and the creation of value, in their full richness, have preoccupied me for several decades. Competition is pervasive, whether it... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Practice; Competitive Strategy; Theory; Value Creation

23 Apr 2018
News

Governor Baker Swears In New Commission on Digital Innovation and Lifelong Learning

November 2000 (Revised April 2002)
Case

Blaine and Mason, LLP: Gross Versus Net Revenue Reporting (A)

By: David F. Hawkins

The managing partners of a public accounting firm must resolve a number of staff requests for assistance in deciding how audit clients should report their revenues. Each example explores whether revenues should be reported on a gross or net basis. View Details

Keywords: Financial Statements; Accounting Audits; Business Earnings; Budgets and Budgeting; Financial Reporting; Revenue; Accounting Industry

December 2020
Article

Multinational Firms and the Politics of International Trade in Multidisciplinary Perspective

By: Grace A. Ballor and Aydin B. Yildirim

From the technical analyses of wide ranges of scholars to the public discourse backlashes against globalization, there is a huge volume of work historicizing, quantifying, and problematizing the complex role of multinational corporations (MNCs) in international trade.... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Corporations; International Trade; Big Business; Economic Governance; Global Value Chains; Trade Policy; Corporate Regulation; Multinational Firms and Management; Trade; Policy; Governance; Globalization

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2010
Working Paper

Boundary Spanning in a For-profit Research Lab: An Exploration of the Interface Between Commerce and Academe

By: Christopher C. Liu and Toby E. Stuart

In innovative industries, private-sector companies increasingly are participants in open communities of science and technology. To participate in the system of exchange in such communities, firms often publicly disclose what would otherwise remain private discoveries.... View Details

Keywords: For-Profit Firms; Higher Education; Information Publishing; Innovation and Invention; Science-Based Business; Social and Collaborative Networks; Boundaries; Biotechnology Industry; Biotechnology Industry

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March 1992 (Revised June 1992)
Case

Thermo Electron Corp.

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

George Hatsopoulos, CEO at Thermo Electron Corp., is considering whether to issue shares in a subsidiary via an initial public offering (IPO). The company has developed an unusual corporate structure in which subsidiaries fund new ventures by raising debt and equity in... View Details

Keywords: Financial Management; Business Subsidiaries; Resource Allocation; Valuation; Organizational Structure; Business Headquarters; Initial Public Offering; Capital Structure; Capital Markets; Financial Strategy; Corporate Finance; Semiconductor Industry; Semiconductor Industry

September 2017 (Revised November 2017)
Case

John Rogers and Ariel Investments

By: Steven Rogers and Greg White

The strong, public advocacy of a highly successful African American CEO has the potential to negatively impact his company. The CEO is deciding if he should listen to the advice of others who are urging him to “tone it down”. View Details

Keywords: Advocacy; Diversity; Investment Management; Affirmative Action; Disruption; Cost vs Benefits; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Fairness; Moral Sensibility; Values and Beliefs; Corporate Accountability; Leading Change; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Problems and Challenges; Financial Services Industry; Chicago

February 2005
Case

Nomura Holdings

By: Tarun Khanna, Masako Egawa and Atsuko Nakajima

Nomura Holdings, Japan's largest investment bank, faced with intensifying competition in the global financial markets, was trying to decide how global its operations should be despite its Japan-centered business. Was the question of how global Nomura should be related... View Details

Keywords: Global Range; Corporate Governance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Corporate Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Japan

Web

Live from Klarman Hall - Alumni

constraints on scale, scope, and learning that have limited business growth for hundreds of years. From Airbnb to Ant Financial, research shows how AI-driven processes are vastly more scalable than traditional ones, enable companies to straddle View Details

June 2013 (Revised August 2013)
Case

AVA.ph: Growing a Filipino E-Commerce Company

By: William R. Kerr and Henry Motte-Munoz

AVA is a three-year old e-commerce company in the Philippines. From its early start mimicking the Gilt Groupe concept of online flash sales, the company has grown into a broader e-commerce platform for local fashion commerce. Oliver Segovia needs to evaluate where AVA... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Business Growth and Maturation; Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Fashion Industry; Fashion Industry; Philippines

September 2008 (Revised August 2010)
Exercise

If We Blew It Up, Then We Could....

By: Stacey Childress

By setting up a thought experiment, this exercise challenges students to examine their own assumptions about the meaning of the word "public" in public education, as well as to understand competing assumptions held by others. View Details

Keywords: Education; Social Issues; Education Industry; United States

2016
Working Paper

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Modern Administrative State, 1912–1925: Trade Associations, Codes of Fair Competition, and State Building

By: Laura Phillips Sawyer

From its founding in 1912 through the interwar years, the Chamber's history shows a persistent preoccupation with progressive economics and policy-making. Rather than flouting the new ideas of institutional economics, which favored federal regulators overseeing data... View Details

Keywords: Organizations; Trade; Business and Government Relations; Competition; United States

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February 1990 (Revised December 1993)
Case

Fusion Systems Corp. in Japan (A)

Describes the international business of Fusion Systems Corp., a small high technology American firm, and a five-year patent dispute the company has in Japan with Mitsubishi Electric. Also describes key features of the intellectual property systems in Japan and related... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Conflict and Resolution; Technology Industry; Japan; United States