Publications

March 2022
Case

In Data We Trust: Be Mobile Africa and Furthering Financial Inclusion Across the African Continent

By: Lauren Cohen, Grace Headinger and Pierre Marchesseault

To Cédric Jeannot, leveraging technology to promote financial inclusion was personal. After no established financial institution would accept his technology platform to lower transaction costs for free, Jeannot launched FinTech company Be Mobile Africa in May 2020.... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Fintech; Emerging Market; Fundraising; Financial Inclusion; Strategy; Expansion; Management; Entrepreneurship; Personal Finance; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Growth and Development Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Banking Industry; Africa; Togo; Nigeria; Ghana

Article

The Tipping Point of Animacy: How, When, and Where We Perceive Life in a Face

By: Christine E. Looser and Thalia Wheatley

Faces capture humans' attention; yet, beyond aesthetic appreciation, it is presumably not the face itself that interests people but the mind behind it. Minds think, feel, and act in ways that have direct consequences for well-being, but despite their importance, how... View Details

Keywords: Social Psychology; Mind Perception; Face Perception; Identity; Cognition and Thinking

Find at Harvard

2014
Working Paper

Management Practices, Relational Contracts and the Decline of General Motors

By: Susan Helper and Rebecca Henderson

General Motors was once regarded as one of the best managed and most successful firms in the world, but between 1980 and 2009 its share of the US market fell from 62.6 to 19.8 percent, and in 2009 the firm went bankrupt. In this paper we argue that the conventional... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Structure; Decision Making; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry

Read Now

August 2005 (Revised April 2007)
Case

DICOM Group plc and Captiva Software Corp.

By: Paul M. Healy

Compares two companies in the information capture software industry. Asks students to analyze and compare the performance of two companies (one in the United Kingdom and the other in the United States) from the perspective of a buy-side analyst reporting to the manager... View Details

Keywords: History; Financial Management; Environmental Accounting; Activity Based Costing and Management; Financial Reporting; Performance; Performance Evaluation; Financial Statements; Economic Growth; Fair Value Accounting; Information Industry; Computer Industry; United Kingdom; United States

Fast Answer

Black Business Leaders and Entrepreneurship

data plus Social Explorer tables which include easy reports with age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, household relationship, place of birth, education, employment status, income, tenure, cost and value of... View Details

04 Dec 2000
What Do You Think?

Have We Overdone Deregulation and Privatization?

selective increases in capacity, new approaches to managing consumption, and increased merger and acquisition activity, with attendant realization of synergies and lower View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

07 Sep 2021
News

Increasing Access and Expanding Opportunity

educating great people who are concerned about the world and who understand that the way they manage a business will affect their employees, customers, and their communities. It would be hard to do that if... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Gillespie

26 Sep 2013
Research & Ideas

Behind India’s Economic and Political Woes

has real microeconomic consequences causing consternation for companies, small businesses, and entrepreneurs. Q:Do you think the Indian political climate has contributed to the current economic situation? A:... View Details

Keywords: by Zeenat Potia

14 Nov 2017
First Look

New Research and Ideas: November 14, 2017

expensive. How can health care organizations change this? One key is to prioritize quality improvement over cost cutting. By harnessing IT to help design better clinical practices, it’s possible to achieve better patient outcomes View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

Web

Aligning Reimbursement with Value - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

Measure Outcomes & Cost for Every Patient Aligning Reimbursement with Value Systems Integration Geography of Care Information Technology Aligning Reimbursement w... Aligning Reimbursement with Value Value-based health care delivery... View Details

March–April 2013
Article

Vaporware, Suddenware and Trueware: New Product Preannouncements under Market Uncertainty

By: Elie Ofek and Ozge Turut

A firm may want to preannounce its plans to develop a new product in order to stimulate future demand. But given that such communications can affect rivals' incentives to develop the same new product, a firm may decide to preannounce untruthfully in order to deter... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Announcements; Competition; Product Launch; Product Development

Find at Harvard

October 2002 (Revised November 2002)
Case

Welfare State and its Impact on Business Competitiveness, The: Sweden Inc. for Sale?

By: Huw Pill, Petter Johnsson, Ola Nordquist and Ingrid Vogel

The Swedish Model--sometimes presented as a third way between savage capitalism and unrealistic socialism--was much lauded in the 1960s. It was viewed as a strategy that addressed social concerns while supporting economic growth. However, the financial and currency... View Details

Keywords: Economic Systems; Welfare; Government and Politics; Taxation; Competition; Public Administration Industry; Sweden

01 Sep 2018
News

September 2018 Alumni and Faculty Books

(MBA 1984) and Dan Olmsted Skyhorse Publishing Even as the autism rate soars and the cost to our nation climbs into the billions, a dangerous new idea is taking hold: There... View Details

Article

Family Control of Firms and Industries

We test what explains family control of firms and industries and find that the explanation is largely contingent on the identity of families and individual blockholders. Founders and their families are more likely to retain control when doing so gives the firm a... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Cost vs Benefits; Governance Controls; Family Ownership; Business and Shareholder Relations; Competitive Advantage

Find at Harvard

Read Now

31 Jan 2022
Research & Ideas

Where Can Digital Transformation Take You? Insights from 1,700 Leaders

for instance, in innovation labs designed for that purpose. 6. Ethical decision-making and proactive governance As technological advances give rise to previously unimaginable use cases, digitally mature organizations recognize that they... View Details

Keywords: by Linda A. Hill, Ann Le Cam, Sunand Menon, and Emily Tedards

28 May 2019
News

How bad are Pioneer’s job cuts? At over 27% of workers, they’re deeper than after 9/11 and the financial crisis

September 1993 (Revised December 1993)
Background Note

Note on Pricing and Public Policy

By: Willis M. Emmons III

Surveys a number of essential issues related to pricing and public policy in market economies. Begins with a brief review of the price-determination process in competitive markets, then examines a range of topics involving pricing and public policy in monopoly and... View Details

Keywords: Price; Business Strategy; Policy; Valuation; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Competition; Economic Systems; Monopoly; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Cost

Web

Cluster Studies - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

important new direction in economic policy, building on earlier efforts in macroeconomic stabilization, privatization, market opening, and reducing the costs of doing business. Cluster Mapping Jun 2017... View Details

2017
Working Paper

Creating the Market for Organic Wine: Sulfites, Certification, and Green Values

By: Geoffrey Jones and Emily Grandjean

This working paper examines the history of organic wine, which provides a case study of failed category creation. The modern organic wine industry emerged during the 1970s in the United States and Western Europe, but it struggled to gain traction compared to other... View Details

Keywords: Product Launch; Failure; Problems and Challenges; Complexity; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry