Publications

2008
Working Paper

Opening Platforms: How, When and Why?

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

Platform-mediated networks encompass several distinct types of participants, including end users, complementors, platform providers who facilitate users' access to complements, and sponsors who develop platform technologies. Each of these roles can be opened-that... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Governance Controls; Market Participation; Digital Platforms

Read Now

2008
Book

On Competition

By: M. E. Porter

Competition is one of society's most powerful forces for making things better in many ﬁelds of human endeavor. The study of competition and the creation of value, in their full richness, have preoccupied me for several decades. Competition is pervasive, whether it... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Practice; Competitive Strategy; Theory; Value Creation

Article

Contested Meanings of Freedom: Workingmen's Wages, the Company Store System and the Godcharles v. Wigeman Decision

By: Laura Phillips Sawyer

In 1886, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck down a law that prohibited employers from paying wages in company store scrip and mandated monthly wage payments. The court held that the legislature could not prescribe mandatory wage contracts for legally competent... View Details

Keywords: Wages; Rights; Fairness; Lawsuits and Litigation; Laws and Statutes; Pennsylvania

Web

Harvard Business School Online Courses & Learning Platforms

reach of HBS Online to learners worldwide, we no longer require an application for our certificate programs. Start your journey today. Explore our Programs Free Entrepreneurship and Innovation Flowchart Which HBS Online Entrepreneurship & Innovation Course is View Details

January 2023
Case

Rentokil: The Terminix Acquisition

By: Ted Berk, Emily R. McComb and Julia Kelley

When announcing their agreement to merge in December 2021, creating a clear leader in global pest control, UK-based Rentokil and Tennessee-based Terminix described extensive benefits of the cross-border combination. The companies touted the advantages of their combined... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Valuation; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Business and Shareholder Relations

Educators

November 10, 2020
Article

Value-Based Health Care in Four Different Health Care Systems

By: Mjåset Christer, Umar Ikram, Navraj S. Nagra and Thomas W. Feeley

Health care systems across the world have increasingly embraced a value-based health care (VBHC) agenda. They do so for different reasons, using different foundations, and variations on the tools and tactics to effect their strategic goals. The role of governments,... View Details

Keywords: Value-based Health Care; Comparative Analysis; Health Care and Treatment; Value; Global Range; Performance Improvement

Read Now

May 2000 (Revised April 2003)
Case

Contractual Innovation in the UK Energy Markets: Enron Europe, The Eastern Group, and the Sutton Bridge Project

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Peter Tufano

In December 1996, Enron Europe and The Eastern Group were on the verge of signing an innovative transaction in the utility industry. Eastern was going to buy a long-term option to convert natural gas into electricity from Enron, thereby giving it the economic right to... View Details

Keywords: Project Finance; Infrastructure; Supply and Industry; Corporate Finance; Utilities Industry; Energy Industry

Educators

Many companies operate units that are dispersed across different types of markets, serving significantly diverging customer bases. Such dispersion is likely to compromise headquarters' ability to control local managers' behavior and satisfy the needs of different... View Details

03 Oct 2022
Research & Ideas

Why a Failed Startup Might Be Good for Your Career After All

Measuring success from 5 million resumes The researchers focused on entrepreneurs backed by venture capitalists, but they faced a challenge right off the bat. How do you measure success for job holders in different roles in industries as... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

01 Dec 2023
News

The Imposter Among Us

Edited by Jen McFarland Flint; Illustrations by Peter Arkle It was their rst day at Harvard and like the rest of his cohort, Edgar Wallner (PMD 22, 1971) will never forget meeting Robert Gaines-Cooper. Frankly, it would have been difficult to miss the Englishman, who... View Details

Keywords: Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

26 Sep 2023
Research & Ideas

Unpacking That Icky Feeling of 'Shopping' for Diverse Job Candidates

from historically marginalized groups—even when the real goal is to create a more diverse workplace, because it’s both the right thing to do and good for business. New research by Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Summer Jackson... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

15 May 2024
Research & Ideas

A Major Roadblock for Autonomous Cars: Motorists Believe They Drive Better

self-driving vehicles and other AI tools. De Freitas coauthored the study with HBS doctoral student Stuti Agarwal; Anya Ragnhildstveit, a doctoral student at the University of Cambridge; and Carey K. Morewedge, a professor at Boston University's Questrom School of... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Transportation; Auto

Web

Entrepreneurial Management - Faculty & Research

the company's shareholders and leaders. Some want to use the program as a fig leaf for laying off staff; others think it costs too much and might put the company at a competitive disadvantage relative to companies that are hiring technologically skilled people View Details

17 Jan 2024
HBS Case

Psychological Pricing Tactics to Fight the Inflation Blues

psychological pricing: How do we structure price offerings such that customers walk away feeling they made the right decision?” Ofek says. It’s all about enticing customers to make purchases at price points they find acceptable, says... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald; Consumer Products; Retail

09 Jan 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, January 9, 2018

have mastered the core competencies, have a high EQ, and work for the right company for them. The latter requires thinking about the level of technical skill the company requires, its philosophy of the PM role, the stage of the company,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Fast Answer

Patent terminology: Inventor, Applicant, and Assignee

the claimed invention. However, they may or may not have an ownership interest in the legal rights of the patent. Assignee: Organization(s) and individual(s) that have an ownership interest in the legal View Details

2021
Article

Fundraising for Stigmatized Groups: A Text Message Donation Experiment

By: Katerina Linos, Laura Jakli and Melissa Carlson

As government welfare programming contracts and NGOs increasingly assume core aid functions, they must address a long-standing challenge—that people in need often belong to stigmatized groups. To study other-regarding behavior, we fielded an experiment through a... View Details

Keywords: Demographics; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Communication Strategy; Civil Society or Community; Non-Governmental Organizations; Welfare; Greece

January 2020
Case

Khan Academy 2018 (Abridged)

By: William A. Sahlman and Nicole Tempest Keller

Founded in 2008, Khan Academy was a global educational nonprofit with a mission to provide a free, world-class education for anyone anywhere in the world. By 2018, the organization had expanded into numerous content areas, product areas, and geographic markets.... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneur; Sustainability; Scaling; Social Entrepreneurship; Nonprofit Organizations; Education; Entrepreneurship; Strategy; Teaching; Education Industry

Educators

January 2020
Teaching Note

Chile: Unrest in the Copper Nation

By: Laura Alfaro and Sarah Jeong

For decades, Chile enjoyed the stability of being the world’s largest producer of copper. Keynes would have advised that this period of growth would have been the time for the government to save, that “the boom, not the slump, is the right time for austerity at the... View Details

Keywords: Copper Production; Protests; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Metals and Minerals; Production; Economy; Emerging Markets; Chile