Publications

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

06 Jul 2011
Research & Ideas

Are You a Level-Six Leader?

several options)? “Opportunists are the people who always ask, 'What's in it for me?'” Asking the question whom do you serve? is a powerful vector on which to build a useful typology of leadership. Based on this idea, I have constructed a six-level Purpose-Driven View Details

Keywords: by Mitch Maidique

Sara McKinley Torti

Sara Torti is a senior product and operating executive who has focused extensively on creating and scaling technology-based businesses that require a combination of detailed execution, business insight and technical acumen. She has grown products... View Details

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

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Article

Fixing What Really Ails Japan

By: Michael E. Porter and Hirotaka Takeuchi

Conventional wisdom claims that Japan’s “economic miracle” stemmed from its unique model of government guidance and its revolutionary corporate management techniques. An in-depth study proves this seriously wrong. Rampant government intervention has caused more... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Competition; Innovation and Invention; Business and Government Relations; Japan

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June 2020
Supplement

RBC: Transforming Transformation (B)

By: Ethan Bernstein, Francesca Gino and Aldo Sesia

In 2017, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), a Canadian financial icon, mandated a swat team of “enablers of collaboration” (their job description) to support the personal and commercial bank in the enterprise-wide RBC Cultural Transformation initiative. Historically,... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Information Technology; Transformation; Change Management; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Decision Making; Human Resources; Management Systems; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Groups and Teams; Management Teams; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; Canada

01 Apr 2024
In Practice

Navigating the Mood of Customers Weary of Price Hikes

ticking up again as recently as February. How should companies navigate the mood of shoppers, who remain cautious after being squeezed over the past two years, particularly in areas like food and housing? Harvard Business School faculty... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Retail; Consumer Products

June 2024
Case

Growing Foodology into Latin America's Largest Platform for Virtual Restaurants

By: Jorge Tamayo, Rembrand Koning and Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago

This case delves into the expansion strategy of Foodology, a cloud kitchen startup based in Bogotá that operated across four Latin American countries (Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru). Co-founders Daniela Izquierdo and Juan Guillermo Azuero (both HBS, 2019) grappled... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Food; Digital Platforms; Product Launch; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Business Model; Business Startups; Profit; Marketing Strategy; Expansion; Diversification; Food and Beverage Industry; Latin America; South America; Colombia; Brazil; Mexico; Peru

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

January 2010 (Revised March 2010)
Case

Transforming ASUSTeK: Breaking from the Past

By: Willy C. Shih, Ho Howard Yu and Hung-Chang Chiu

What happens when an original design manufacturer (ODM) firm tries to transform itself into a branded goods seller? The case traces the evolution of ASUSTeK from a motherboard supplier, to an ODM of desktop and notebook PCs, through its split into three companies that... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Transformation; Disruptive Innovation; Brands and Branding; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Competitive Strategy; Computer Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Taiwan

February 28, 2020
Article

How Tesla Sets Itself Apart

By: Lou Shipley

Tesla and its flamboyant, and sometimes erratic, innovator Elon Musk have turned the more than a century old industry upside down in a mere 16 years. Traditional automakers are ill prepared to compete in today’s software-centered world. Unlike nimble Tesla, they are... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Information Technology; Transportation; Business Model; Technological Innovation; Disruption; Auto Industry

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11 Feb 2002
Research & Ideas

The Quiet Leader—and How to Be One

It sounds almost paradoxical. A quiet leader? Yet quiet leaders—managers who apply modesty, restraint, and tenacity to solve particularly difficult problems—are more common than we think, says Harvard Business School professor Joseph L.... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

15 Jun 2020
Research & Ideas

A Mass Crisis Can Overwhelm Health Care. Liberia Found a Solution.

country, Liberia, that was able to meet a similar, deadly threat by supplementing a health care system emerging from decades of civil strife with a cadre of less trained, but highly capable, community health workers. Could the Liberian View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Health

01 Apr 2021
News

Kennedy: Time is ripe for remote work

February 2017 (Revised March 2018)
Case

BIM: Finding New Ways to Grow

By: Michael Chu and Gamze Yucaoglu

BIM, Turkey’s giant retailer with a hard-discount model for the popular segments, must decide whether to launch a brand-new format challenging the modern supermarkets. Since its founding in 1995, BIM has adhered to a business model based on a relentless focus on costs... View Details

Keywords: Turkey; Decision; Emerging Markets; Private Sector; For-Profit Firms; Business Model; Business Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Growth and Development Strategy; Value Creation; Change Management; Decisions; Growth Management; Retail Industry; Turkey

February 2024 (Revised September 2024)
Case

TimeCredit

By: Emanuele Colonnelli, Raymond Kluender and Shai Benjamin Bernstein

TimeCredit is an artificial intelligence (AI) startup that is developing large language models (LLMs) to generate accounting memos. The case follows Ndonga Sagnia, a Gambian Harvard Business School MBA student with an accounting background, as she decides how much... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; AI and Machine Learning; Entrepreneurial Finance; Identity; Technology Industry

September 2009 (Revised February 2011)
Case

Eden McCallum: A Network-Based Consulting Firm (A)

By: Heidi K. Gardner and Robert G. Eccles

Eden McCallum pioneered the network-based ("virtual") consulting firm model in the U.K. Contracting freelance consultants on a per-project basis keeps overheads lean so that Eden McCallum's fees are a fraction of the big firms' rates. Their flexible, low-cost model has... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Crisis; Growth and Development Strategy; Expansion; Consulting Industry; United Kingdom