Publications

January 2006 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Capitalism and Democracy in a New World

By: Bruce R. Scott, Sarah Potvin and Alison Adams

Focuses on the formulation of the Northwestern Ordinance as the core of a development strategy for capitalism and democracy in the United States. A precursor to the Constitution, the Northwestern Ordinance was based on the New England Model to achieve a broad and... View Details

Keywords: Equality and Inequality; Economic Systems; Income; Laws and Statutes; Government and Politics; Growth and Development Strategy; Power and Influence; United States

September–October 2016
Article

Growing New Corporate Businesses: From Initiation to Graduation

By: Sebastian Raisch and Michael Tushman

Large companies initiate many new businesses, but few of them reach scale. The ambidexterity literature describes how companies create exploratory businesses, but says little about how they subsequently scale these businesses. The strategy literature uses real option... View Details

Keywords: Ambidexterity; Comparative Case Study; Corporate Venturing; Exploration; Organization Design; Real Option Theory; Organizational Design; Corporate Strategy; Corporate Entrepreneurship

Find at Harvard

September 2014
Case

FormPrint Ortho500

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Alisa Zalosh

The Senior Vice President of FormPrint's Medical Products business unit is considering issues raised by the upcoming introduction of a new 3D printing system, the Ortho500, which could print custom exoskeletal orthopedic splints, braces, and casts that conformed to a... View Details

Keywords: B2B Marketing; Technological Innovation; Market Entry and Exit; Marketing Strategy; Distribution Channels; Product Development; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

February 2011 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Utilis: Designing, Producing, and Selling Rapid Deployment Shelters for a Troubled World

By: Herman B. Leonard, Daniela Beyersdorfer and Simon Harrow

How can a company that supplies disaster response and humanitarian agencies best handle the intrinsically unpredictable and highly volatile demand for its products? Utilis is a French supplier of rapid-deploy high-end tent solutions for civilian and military uses (such... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; Demand and Consumers; Strategic Planning; Natural Disasters; Competitive Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Industrial Products Industry; France

Omar Olivarez is a doctoral candidate in the Technology & Operations Management unit. His interests lie at the intersection of automation, labor, innovation, and managerial views of the firm. Omar received his BBA in Management Information Systems from The... View Details

01 Aug 2023
Cold Call Podcast

Can Business Transform Primary Health Care Across Africa?

Keywords: Re: Regina E. Herzlinger; Pharmaceutical; Health

2020
Working Paper

Contract Duration and the Costs of Market Transactions

By: Alexander MacKay

The optimal duration of a supply contract balances the costs of reselecting a supplier against the costs of being matched to an inefficient supplier when the contract lasts too long. I develop a structural model of contract duration that captures this tradeoff and... View Details

Keywords: Vertical Relationships; Transaction Costs; Contract Duration; Identification; Supply Chain; Cost; Contracts; Auctions; Mathematical Methods

SSRN

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21 Aug 2020
News

A Virtual Reality Check for Publishing

16 Jul 2012
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt: ‘The Strategist’

matter how hard you and your people work, no matter how wonderful your culture, no matter how good your products, or how noble your motives, if you don't get strategy right, everything else you do is at risk. My goal in this book is to... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia A. Montgomery

April 2016 (Revised June 2019)
Case

The Walt Disney Studios

By: Anita Elberse

In December 2015, Alan Horn, chairman of The Walt Disney Studios, celebrates the world premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens—only the latest in a string of big bets that he has overseen. Disney pursues a “tentpole strategy” that revolves around at least eight... View Details

13 Jun 2011
HBS Case

Mobile Banking for the Unbanked

In many developing countries it's common for a person to have a mobile phone but not a bank account. In fact, more than 1 billion people fit this description, and the number is only likely to increase. To that end, many companies are... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Banking; Communications; Telecommunications

December 2021
Case

Burning Glass Technologies: From Data to Product

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Amy Klopfenstein

In May 2021, Matt Sigelman, CEO of Burning Glass Technologies, a company that provided labor market analytics for a variety of markets, navigates his company’s transition from data company to product company. Burning Glass originated as a service that used artificial... View Details

Web

PhD Programs - Doctoral

through which firms create value and sustain performance over time. Strategy scholars develop a foundation in microeconomics and econometrics, and may supplement their understanding with additional economics... View Details

18 Apr 2007
HBS Case

How Magazine Luiza Courts the Poor

developed a flexible procedure for credit approval, using nontraditional metrics to enable customers with lower, less easily established incomes (a pushcart vendor, for example) to make purchases. "Their loan repayment rates are the... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

August 2022
Article

Contract Duration and the Costs of Market Transactions

By: Alexander MacKay

The optimal duration of a supply contract balances the costs of reselecting a supplier against the costs of being matched to an inefficient supplier when the contract lasts too long. I develop a structural model of contract duration that captures this tradeoff and... View Details

Keywords: Supply Contracts; Intermediate Goods; Switching Costs; Vertical Relationships; Transaction Costs; Contract Duration; Identification; Supply Chain; Cost; Contracts; Auctions; Mathematical Methods

08 May 2019
HBS Seminar

Mara Lederman, University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management

April 1994 (Revised October 2002)
Case

Frito-Lay, Inc.: A Strategic Transition (1987-1989)

By: Lynda M. Applegate

Describes the actions taken by the new CEO to return the company to profitability, to clarify the vision, and then to build the infrastructure (human, capital, and information) needed to support the long-term change in strategy and organization. Ends with senior... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Information Technology; Management Teams; Business Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry