Publications

November 2016
Case

Pete & Gerry's

By: Jose Alvarez and Natalie Kindred

Program

Real Estate Management Program

countries across the globe Build relationships with a diverse group of peers who can provide wide-ranging insights into your business challenges and career decisions Who Should Attend Real estate owners, operators, and private real estate... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate; Real Estate

02 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Not All M&As Are Alike—and That Matters

inventing an industry and a business model based on an unproven hypothesis: that major synergies can be achieved by culling resources from existing industries whose boundaries seem to be disappearing. The... View Details

Keywords: by Joseph L. Bower

24 Jul 2007
First Look

First Look: July 24, 2007

provide a home movie service that would do a better job satisfying customers than the traditional retail rental model. But as it encouraged challenges it underwent several major strategy shifts, ultimately developing a business View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

August 2019
Case

Preserving Trust at Care.com (A)

By: Krishna G. Palepu and Julia Kelley

Care.com was an online platform designed to match caregivers with individuals seeking care for themselves, others, and pets, through job postings, caregiver profiles, and directories of local day care centers. In March 2019, the Wall Street Journal had just published a... View Details

Keywords: Business Strategy; Corporate Governance; Digital Platforms; Market Design; Emerging Markets; Trust; Technology Industry; United States

20 Nov 2019
Research & Ideas

It's No Joke: AI Beats Humans at Making You Laugh

my god,” replied the lawyer, finally noticing the bloody left shoulder where his arm once was. “Where's my Rolex?!” Do you think your friends would find that joke amusing—well, maybe those who aren’t lawyers? A research team led by Harvard View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

January 2009 (Revised October 2012)
Case

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation: 'Reverse BOT'

By: Willy Shih

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) is executing a strategy that leverages the desires of municipalities in China to build clusters of high technology companies. By partnering with those cities to build new semiconductor fabs that SMIC would... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Industry Clusters; Infrastructure; State Ownership; Business and Community Relations; Semiconductor Industry; China

2009
Working Paper

Do Friends Influence Purchases in a Social Network?

By: Raghuram Iyengar, Sangman Han and Sunil Gupta

Social networks, such as Facebook and Myspace have witnessed a rapid growth in their membership. Some of these businesses have tried an advertising-based model with very limited success. However, these businesses have not fully explored the power of their members to... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Network Effects; Sales; Power and Influence; Social and Collaborative Networks; Web Sites; South Korea

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11 Mar 2001
Research & Ideas

Merchants to Multinationals: British Trading Companies in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

and the availability of limited liability to raise finance for the new business opportunities which appeared at this time. They functioned in part as venture capitalists identifying opportunities and placing potential British investors in... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones

21 Aug 2017
Lessons from the Classroom

Companies Love Big Data But Lack the Strategy To Use It Effectively

“Results show strong correlations between business performance metrics and analytics capabilities, and highlight a variety of tasks in which top performing companies use analytics ” Feng Zhu, who teaches Digital Innovation and... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

December 2005 (Revised August 2007)
Case

NewSchools Venture Fund in 2004: At a Crossroads

By: Stacey M. Childress and Caroline Joan King

Founded as one of the first venture philanthropy organizations in the United States in 1998, NewSchools Venture Fund brought new investors and new ideas to public education reform. By 2004, the organization and its founder were reassessing their model and their role in... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Education; Social Entrepreneurship; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Growth and Development Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; United States

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August 1999 (Revised October 1999)
Case

RCA Records: The Digital Revolution

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Cate Reavis

In 1995, Bertelsmann-owned RCA Records was considered a "tired and old" record label. By 1999, the company represented a number of the "hottest" acts in the music industry. Nevertheless, the company's position (as well as that of the entire music industry) was under... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Business Model; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Internet and the Web; Change Management; Marketing Strategy; Music Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States

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Research Summary

Current Research

Professor Chung models the effect of incentive compensation to study its impact on the sales force. Using data from a Fortune 500 company, he has developed a dynamic structural model of sales force response to a bonus-based compensation plan and examined how various... View Details

23 Jun 2009
First Look

First Look: June 23

High-Wire Act of Building Sustainable Partnerships Harvard Business School Case 709-411 The case describes the history and business model of Cirque du Soleil (CdS). The case... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

May 2021 (Revised July 2021)
Case

Coats: Supply Chain Challenges

By: Willy C. Shih and Adina Wong

Coats, the largest thread maker in the world, transformed its business to digital colour measurement so that it could respond better to customer demand in the garment industry for rapid product cycles and more fragmented colour choices. Its embrace of digital colour... View Details

Keywords: Inventory Management; Supply Chains; Digital; Operations; Supply Chain Management; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Asia

October 2014 (Revised May 2015)
Case

HandsOn Bay Area: Scaling Up Community Service

By: James Heskett

HandsOn Bay Area, an organization devoted to the performance of (and development of leaders for) community service, is undergoing a significant (and internally controversial) shift in its business model from "retail" projects involving individual volunteers to... View Details

October 2009 (Revised April 2010)
Supplement

Societe Generale (B): The Jerome Kerviel Affair

By: Francois Brochet

This case illustrates the tension/balance that firms with complex and risky business models must consider in designing their internal controls. It describes the environment in which a derivatives trader engaged in massive directional positions on major European stocks... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Governance Controls; Crisis Management; Financial Services Industry