Publications

Educators

October 1997 (Revised June 1998)
Case

Woolworths South Africa

By: David B. Yoffie and Anthony St. George

Woolworths South Africa is one of the most successful retail chains in the country, modeled on Marks and Spencer of the United Kingdom. This case focuses on the sources of Woolworth's competitive advantage within South Africa and the challenges of growth in the wake of... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Growth Management; Global Strategy; Industry Structures; Marketing Strategy; Strategy; Business or Company Management; Retail Industry; South Africa

26 Apr 2023
In Practice

Is AI Coming for Your Job?

percent believe the technology will affect them personally. Harvard Business School faculty members share their thoughts below about how AI will reshape the workforce and the skills necessary to succeed in the years ahead. Joseph Fuller:... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Technology

13 Oct 2020
News

Can Entrepreneurs Make Mobile Voting Easy and Secure?

December 1998
Case

Casto Travel

By: Thomas J. DeLong and Susan Harmeling

Maryles Casto had the vision to build the largest travel agency in Silicon Valley, mirroring the growth pattern of the entire area. In 1997 the travel business changed dramatically as airlines chose not to pay travel agencies the fees they once did. Simultaneously, the... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Finance; Internet and the Web; Change Management; Markets; Travel Industry

April 2012 (Revised October 2013)
Supplement

eBay, Inc. and Amazon.com (B)

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Anant Thaker

A decade after BusinessWeek declared the competitive battle between eBay, Inc., and Amazon.com "a defining moment for e-commerce," Amazon established itself as the leader. eBay must decide what strategy to use in order to regain the upper hand: maintain its current... View Details

November 2021 (Revised December 2022)
Case

Babban Gona: Great Farm

By: Kristin Fabbe, Tarun Khanna, Caroline M. Elkins, Zeke Gillman, Eleni Kyrkopoulou and Thomaz Teodorovicz

In 2020, Babban Gona was one of the world’s largest farming operations with over 140,000 acres of maize farms, an area over ten times as large as Manhattan, and over 80,000 member-farmers in Nigeria. According to the company, the average Nigerian farmer’s net income... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Value Creation; Agribusiness; Capital Budgeting; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Nigeria; Africa

Educators

April 2018
Teaching Note

InsideSales.com (A) and (B)

By: Frank Cespedes

Teaching Note for HBS Nos. 817-018 and 817-042. InsideSales.com (ISC) has been successful selling its software to small- and medium-sized businesses (SMB). But for various reasons, the founders see “the next stage of growth” as building a scalable sales and service... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Customer Relationship Management; Growth Management; Marketing Strategy; Salesforce Management; Talent and Talent Management; Technology Industry

October 2017
Article

Elevating Repositioning Costs: Strategy Dynamics and Competitive Interactions

By: Anoop R. Menon and Dennis Yao

This paper proposes an approach for modeling competitive interactions that incorporates the costs to firms of changing strategy. The costs associated with strategy modifications, which we term “repositioning costs,” are particularly relevant to competitive interactions... View Details

Keywords: ＂Repositioning Costs; Strategy Dynamics; Strategic Interaction; Capabilities; Cost; Strategy; Change; Game Theory; Organizational Change and Adaptation

July 2016
Article

Taxation, Corruption, and Growth

By: Philippe Aghion, Ufuk Akcigit, Julia Cagé and William R. Kerr

We build an endogenous growth model to analyze the relationships between taxation, corruption, and economic growth. Entrepreneurs lie at the center of the model and face disincentive effects from taxation but acquire positive benefits from public infrastructure.... View Details

Keywords: Endogenous Growth; Public Goods; Corruption; Crime and Corruption; Entrepreneurship; Taxation; Economic Growth

Read Now

Research Summary

Selling your Heritage: The Challenge of Legacy Divestitures

This paper studies companies that diversify away from and later divest their historical cores, or "legacy" businesses. There are many reasons a firm might undertake this strategy, including a concentration of the legacy business in a declining... View Details

11 Jun 2022
News

Most Billionaires Don’t Think Employees Will Stay Fully Remote, Forbes Survey Shows

04 Dec 2018
News

The Reason Many Ultrarich People Aren’t Satisfied With Their Wealth

December 1998 (Revised August 2004)
Case

Major League Soccer--1996-1998: Now, Later...Never?

By: Stephen A. Greyser and Kirk A. Goldman

Major League Soccer (MLS) has entered the U.S. "big league" sports arena. This case reviews its first several years. Students must determine the basic business model of MLS in the context of changes in the fan acceptance of soccer in the United States. A comparison... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Success; Performance Evaluation; Sports; Sports Industry; United States

Educators

20 May 2020
Interview

Reflections on The Prosperity Paradox, with Euvin Naidoo and Efosa Ojomo

By: Euvin Naidoo and Efosa Ojomo

This week on The Disruptive Voice, we're delighted to introduce you to Euvin Naidoo and Efosa Ojomo, who join us for a conversation about innovation, prosperity, and development in Africa. Originally from KwaDukuza, South Africa, Euvin is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard... View Details

Keywords: Prosperity; Innovation and Invention; Development Economics; Africa

March 2007
Case

Ascent Media Group (A)

Ascent Media races to adapt to the changes resulting from increasing digitalization of its business, from creative post-production services to warehousing and repurposing of old media content. Raises issues of how technology interacts with creative processes and... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Technology; Management; Creativity

17 Feb 2021
News

Why Companies Are Adopting ‘Work from Anywhere’ Policies

2018
Chapter

The United States in Contemporary Perspectives: Evolving Forms, Strategy, and Performance

By: David J. Collis, Bharat Anand and J. Yo-Jud Cheng

BOOK ABSTRACT: In spite of surging interest in the business group organization among business scholars, economists, and historians in recent years, academic research on business groups has, to date, remained within the boundary of emerging markets. The major aim of... View Details