Publications

05 Aug 2008
First Look

First Look: August 5, 2008

analyses of data covering 69 two-digit SIC industries at two points in time, 1991 and 1999. Across industries, we find that the likelihood of internalization of advertising services decreases as the size of advertising outlays increase... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

29 Jun 2007
First Look

First Look: June 29, 2007

under severe economic conditions. We show that many structured finance instruments can be characterized as economic catastrophe bonds, but offer far less compensation than alternatives with comparable payoff profiles. We argue that this... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

20 Feb 2008
First Look

First Look: February 20, 2008

what-if and formal optimization approach). We discuss pros and cons of these approaches and illustrate them through applications and case studies. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/08-069.pdf Positions of Power and Status: Reciprocity in the Venture... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

May 2020
Case

Schlumberger's WesternGeco Division

By: John R. Wells, Sneha Biswas and Benjamin Weinstock

In October 2017, Maurice Nessim, President of WesternGeco, a business unit of Schlumberger, faced a difficult decision. In the face of falling oil prices and increasing pressure on costs, did it make sense to sell off the company’s specialized fleet of seismic survey... View Details

Keywords: Market Entry and Exit; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Decision Making; Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Energy Industry; Energy Industry

June 2013
Case

Hess Corporation

By: Jay W. Lorsch and Kathleen Durante

On January 29, 2013, Elliott Management, a hedge fund run by Paul E. Singer, which owned 4.5% of Hess Corporation stock, put forward a slate of five independent directors it wanted elected to improve the company's performance. Elliott argued that Hess lacked focus and... View Details

Keywords: Takeover Attempt; Board; Hess; Governing and Advisory Boards; Organizational Structure; Acquisition; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry

March 1990 (Revised May 1993)
Case

Pennzoil Co.

Focuses on Pennzoil's motor oil business. Designed to address the business strategy issues of how a firm chooses its scope to create competitive advantage in its core business. "Scope" can be broadly defined to include vertical scope (forward and backward integration),... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Competitive Advantage; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry

08 Sep 2010
First Look

First Look: September 8, 2010

monopoly of nitrates. The Guggenheims invested in Chilean nitrates after synthetics were developed by German chemists. Their strategies to modernize the industry collapsed with the outbreak of the Great Depression, during which Chile... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

July 15, 2022
Article

Does Elon Musk Have a Strategy?

By: Andy Wu and Goran Calic

Does Elon Musk have a strategy? Or is he just out there winging it? Looking at Musk’s many companies, common themes stand out across three areas: what fits into his vision for problems to solve, how he designs an organization as a solution to those problems, and why he... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Strategy; Vision; Resources; Organization; Platform; Closed Systems; Leadership; Complexity; Organizational Design; Vertical Integration; Problems and Challenges; Success; Auto Industry; Auto Industry; Auto Industry; Auto Industry

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18 Dec 2012
First Look

First Look: December 18

discounting is robust to various controls for unobserved proposal quality and alternative explanations. Additional tests suggest information effects rather than strategic effects account for the novelty penalty. Only a minority of the... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

17 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: January 17

natural experiment that required agents to describe commissions for a specific product caused agents to shift recommendations to an alternative product, which had even higher commissions but no disclosure requirement. We do find some... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

18 Mar 2001
Research & Ideas

Want to Be an Entrepreneur? [Part I]

has perhaps skewed its enrollment more toward international, minority, and women students, who perceive opportunities to start new businesses in underserved communities earlier in their careers than ever before. Her course has evolved into a practicum, View Details

Keywords: by John S. Rosenberg

July 2011 (Revised September 2011)
Case

CEO Compensation at GE: A Decade with Jeff Immelt

By: V.G. Narayanan and Lisa Brem

When ISS, a large shareholder advisory group, recommended a "no" vote on Jeff Immelt's award of 2 million stock options in April 2011, GE's compensation committee had to decide whether to rescind or amend the award or ignore the ISS recommendation. Was Immelt's 2010... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Stock Options; Stock Shares; Annual Reports; Executive Compensation; Compensation and Benefits; Business and Shareholder Relations; Performance Evaluation; Corporate Governance; Corporate Accountability; Energy Industry; Energy Industry

17 Nov 2009
First Look

First Look: Nov. 17

Working PapersUser, and Open Collaborative Innovation: Ascendent Economic Models Authors:Carliss Y. Baldwin and Eric von Hippel Abstract In this paper we assess the economic viability of innovation by producers relative to two increasingly important View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

December 2022
Supplement

Driving Decarbonization at BMW - Video Supplement

By: Shirley Lu, George Serafeim and Michael W. Toffel

Videos of Thomas Becker, Vice President of Sustainability and Mobility at BMW Group, in support of the case "Driving Decarbonization at BMW" (HBS No. 123-008) View Details