Publications

November 2014
Article

Government Green Procurement Spillovers: Evidence from Municipal Building Policies in California

By: Timothy Simcoe and Michael W. Toffel

We study how government green procurement policies influence private-sector demand for similar products. Specifically, we measure the impact of municipal policies requiring governments to construct green buildings on private-sector adoption of the U.S. Green Building... View Details

Keywords: Public Procurement; Green Building; Quality Certification; Environmental Policy; Buildings and Facilities; Environmental Sustainability; Policy; Government and Politics; Green Technology Industry; Public Administration Industry; California

January 2006 (Revised November 2006)
Case

Blogs at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (A)

In May 2005, JP Rangaswami, the chief information officer at investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW), wonders how to extend the bank's use of blogs. Corporations are now increasingly using these tools to diffuse news, opinions, and knowledge and improve... View Details

Keywords: Blogs; Information Technology; Performance Productivity; Governance Compliance; Investment Banking; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry

February 2001 (Revised September 2005)
Case

Howard Schultz and Starbucks Coffee Company

By: Nancy F. Koehn

Investigates the entrepreneur's strategic initiatives to develop a mass market for specialty coffee in the 1980s and 1990s. These initiatives included the development of premium products, rapid expansion of company-owned stores--each with attractive retail environments... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Groups and Teams; Brands and Branding; Growth Management; Employee Relationship Management; Consumer Behavior; Organizational Design; Leadership Style; Customer Relationship Management; Competitive Advantage; Vertical Integration; Food and Beverage Industry

April 2009 (Revised June 2020)
Case

Al Capone

By: Tom Nicholas and David Chen

In 1929, Chicago, IL mob boss Al Capone was at the height of his power. As head of the extensive crime organization known as "The Outfit" during most of U.S.'s Prohibition Era (1920-1933), Capone oversaw hundreds of brothels, speakeasies, and roadhouses which served as... View Details

Keywords: Bootlegging; Entrepreneurship; Crime and Corruption; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Business History; United States; Chicago

January–February 2015
Article

The Truth about CSR

By: Kasturi Rangan, Lisa Chase and Sohel Karim

The article discusses corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs. In the authors' view many of these programs consist of disparate, uncoordinated initiatives that fail to maximize their impact. They recommend a more coherent strategy that divides CSR efforts into... View Details

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November 2007 (Revised January 2010)
Case

ThedaCare: System Strategy

By: Michael E. Porter and Sachin H. Jain

Over the 1980s and 1990s, America's changing health care payer environment resulted in mergers of numerous community hospitals into hospital systems. Based in Appleton, Wisconsin, ThedaCare stood out among community hospital systems in its pursuit of service... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Health Care and Treatment; Problems and Challenges; Innovation and Invention; Health Industry; Wisconsin

Seth Neel is an Assistant Professor housed in the Department of Technology and Operations Management (TOM) at HBS, and a Faculty Affiliate in Computer Science at SEAS. He is Principal Investigator of the Trustworthy AI Lab in Harvard's new View Details

Francis Okomo-Okello

Keywords: Financial Services; Hotels

December 2014 (Revised February 2023)
Module Note

Legal Analysis: Customers

By: Lena G. Goldberg

This Note introduces the Module on Responsibilities to Customers taught in Leadership and Corporate Accountability, a required course in the Harvard Business School MBA program. The Note outlines the asymmetries inherent in the company-customer relationship and... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Corporate Accountability; Ethics; Legal Liability; Customer Relationship Management

05 Dec 2006
First Look

First Look: December 5, 2006

success contrast with anecdotes where the diffusion of CRM into organizations continues to be a slow process and/or where CRM implementation outcomes have fallen short of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 2013
Teaching Plan

Barclays and the LIBOR Scandal

By: Clayton S. Rose and Aldo Sesia

In the summer of 2012, Barclays plc, one of the largest banks in the world, agreed to settle with authorities and acknowledged that the firm had manipulated LIBOR (London Inter-Bank Offered Rate)—a benchmark reference rate that was fundamental to the operation of... View Details

Keywords: Financial Systems; Financial Services; Corruption; Regulation; General Management; Management; Leadership; Economic Systems; Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Culture; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; United Kingdom

March 2009 (Revised November 2021)
Case

The Walt Disney Company and Pixar Inc.: To Acquire or Not to Acquire?

By: Juan Alcacer, David J. Collis and Mary Furey

Soon after Robert Iger took over as CEO of the Walt Disney Company in late 2005, he turned his attention toward Pixar, the animation studio with which Disney had worked since 1991 and was responsible for producing hits such as Toy Story and Finding Nemo. Disney's own... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Decision Making; Animation Entertainment; Film Entertainment; Contracts; Distribution; Partners and Partnerships; Vertical Integration; Motion Pictures and Video Industry

19 Nov 2019
Cold Call Podcast

Lessons from IBM in Nazi Germany

Keywords: Re: Geoffrey G. Jones; Information Technology

22 Jul 2014
Blog Post

From FIELD to Field, Putting What I’ve Learned at HBS into Practice

If you asked me two months ago whether I learned anything during my first year at Harvard Business School, my response would have been a resounding “Yes!” But, if you followed up by asking me for an example View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Technology

Feb 2013
Survey

Competitiveness at a Crossroads

Second in the series of U.S. Competitiveness surveys, Harvard Business School gleaned responses from nearly 7,000 alumni and more than 1,000 members of the general public. The... View Details

Edward B. Berk

Ted Berk is the Barry and Teri Volpert Fellow and a Senior Lecturer of Business Administration in the Finance Unit at Harvard Business School. He teaches Private Equity Finance in the elective curriculum and Finance I & II in the required curriculum.

Ted... View Details

2013
Case

Travelers Insurance: Focusing on Climate Change and Natural Catastrophe Risk

By: Andrew J. Hoffman

The dilemma Evan Blue faces stems from a report by sustainability advocacy group Ceres that calls on companies to take climate change into consideration in their risk models and develop response strategies. The fictional vice president of Traveler's Insurance is tasked... View Details

Keywords: Climate Change; Business Strategy; Risk and Uncertainty; Insurance Industry