Publications

This report presents the findings of HBS' 2013-14 survey on U.S. competitiveness. While HBS alumni saw strengths in elements of the business environment that influence firms' success, the weaknesses in elements that drive prosperity for the average American indicate... View Details

Research Summary

An Impossibility Theorem on Beliefs in Games (with H. Jerome Keisler)

A 'paradox' of self-reference in beliefs in games is identified, which yields a game-theoretic impossibility theorem akin to (a weak form of) Tarski's Theorem of mathematical logic. A rough interpretation of the theorem is that if a model of a game is available to the... View Details

Article

What Professional Service Firms Must Do to Thrive

By: Ashish Nanda and Das Narayandas

When the going gets tough, professional service firms (PSFs) often get desperate and chase all kinds of business just to keep the lights on. Consultancies, financial services firms, VC/PE firms, and the like offer services and sign up clients they should never have... View Details

Keywords: Professional Service Firms; Client Mix; Strategic Positioning; Organizations; Performance Effectiveness; Decision Making; Framework

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2016
Working Paper

The Impact of Patent Wars on Firm Strategy: Evidence from the Global Smartphone Market

By: Feng Zhu

Strategy scholars have documented in various empirical settings that firms seek and leverage stronger institutions to mitigate hazards and gain competitive advantage. In this paper, we argue that such “institution-seeking” behavior may not be confined to the pursuit of... View Details

Keywords: Patent Wars; Patent Litigation; Intellectual Property (IP) Enforcement; Institutions; Smartphone; Patent Thicket; Digital Platforms; Patents; Lawsuits and Litigation; Globalized Markets and Industries; Business Strategy; Telecommunications Industry

03 Apr 2020
News

Real Leaders Are Forged in Crisis

November – December 2011
Article

Explaining Influence Rents: The Case for an Institutions-Based View of Strategy

By: Gautam Ahuja and Sai Yayavaram

Research in strategy has identified and tried to explain four types of rents: monopolistic rents, efficiency rents, quasi rents, and Schumpeterian rents. Building on previous work on political and institutional strategies, we add a fifth type of rent: influence rents.... View Details

Keywords: Institutions; Influence Rents; Generic Strategies; Strategy; Organizations; Renting or Rental; Economics

May 2015
Article

Admitting Mistakes: Home Country Effect on the Reliability of Restatement Reporting

By: Suraj Srinivasan, Aida Sijamic Wahid and Gwen Yu

We study the frequency of restatements by foreign firms listed on U.S. exchanges. We find that the restatement rate of U.S. listed foreign firms is significantly lower than that of comparable U.S. firms and that the difference depends on the firm's home country... View Details

Keywords: Accounting Restatements; Home Country Enforcement; Earnings Management; Globalized Firms and Management; Law; Financial Reporting; Financial Markets; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues

SSRN

2019
Report

A Recovery Squandered: The State of U.S. Competitiveness 2019

By: Michael E. Porter, Jan Rivkin, Mihir Desai, Katherine M. Gehl, William R. Kerr and Manjari Raman

In this report, the authors synthesize their views on U.S. competitiveness and unveil the findings of the 2019 HBS surveys on U.S. competitiveness. Specifically, this report—built on the survey findings and eight years of prior research on the competitiveness of the... View Details

Keywords: U.S. Competitiveness; Competitive Strategy; Macroeconomics; Government and Politics; United States

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July 2015
Exercise

An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Remingtons Housewares

By: Guhan Subramanian and Kait Szydlowski

A three party, multiple-issue negotiation exercise dealing with a potential merger between two leading department stores, called for by an activist investor hedge fund in a letter to both companies. Company management will now attempt to navigate next moves, which are... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Activist Investors; Takeover Defense; Negotiation Types; Mergers and Acquisitions; Corporate Governance; Investment Activism; Retail Industry

July 2015
Exercise

An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Fultons Department Stores

By: Guhan Subramanian and Kait Szydlowski

A three party, multiple-issue negotiation exercise dealing with a potential merger between two leading department stores, called for by an activist investor hedge fund in a letter to both companies. Company management will now attempt to navigate next moves, which are... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Activist Investors; Takeover Defense; Negotiation Types; Mergers and Acquisitions; Corporate Governance; Investment Activism; Retail Industry

July 2015
Exercise

An Activist Approach: Castle Rock-Fultons-Remingtons

By: Guhan Subramanian and Kait Szydlowski

A three party, multiple-issue negotiation exercise dealing with a potential merger between two leading department stores, called for by an activist investor hedge fund in a letter to both companies. Company management will now attempt to navigate next moves, which are... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Activist Investors; Takeover Defense; Negotiation Types; Mergers and Acquisitions; Corporate Governance; Investment Activism; Retail Industry

09 Feb 2015
News

Good Business Needs Bad Lobbyists

17 Nov 2011
News

Practicing Moral Humility

2024
Working Paper

Bank Runs and Interest Rates: A Revolving Lines Perspective

By: Falk Bräuning and Victoria Ivashina

Revolving credit is at the core of the banking business. Corporate revolving credit lines are demandable claims; thus, similar to a traditional bank run on deposits, sudden widespread drawdowns on credit lines can be destabilizing to the banking sector. However, we... View Details

Keywords: Financial Liquidity; Credit; Financial Crisis; Interest Rates; Banks and Banking

SSRN

25 Jan 2008
Working Paper Summaries

What Do Non-Governmental Organizations Do?

Keywords: by Eric D. Werker & Faisal Z. Ahmed

30 Nov 2013
News

Schumpeter: Going off the rails

December 2011
Article

Platform Envelopment

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Geoffrey Parker and Marshall Van Alstyne

Due to network effects and switching costs in platform markets, entrants generally must offer revolutionary functionality. We explore a second entry path that does not rely upon Schumpeterian innovation: platform envelopment. Through envelopment, a provider in one... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Economic Systems; Development Economics; Business or Company Management; Business Strategy; Network Effects; Information Technology Industry; Technology Industry

2008
Working Paper

The Supply Side of Innovation: H-1B Visa Reforms and U.S. Ethnic Invention

By: William R. Kerr and William F. Lincoln

This study evaluates the impact of high-skilled immigrants on US technology formation. Specifically, we use reduced-form specifications that exploit large changes in the H-1B visa program. Fluctuations in H-1B admissions levels significantly influence the rate of... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Patents; Ethnicity; Immigration; Innovation and Invention; United States