Publications

2024
Working Paper

Trade Policy in the Shadow of Conflict: The Case of Dual-use Goods

By: Maxim Alekseev and Xinyue Lin

Policymakers increasingly use trade instruments to address national security concerns. This paper studies optimal policy for dual-use goods, items with both military and civilian applications. We begin by documenting that regulation and trade flows of dual-use goods... View Details

Keywords: Policy; National Security; Trade; Taxation; Financial Instruments; Macroeconomics

July 2002 (Revised August 2002)
Case

Washington Hospital Center (B): The Power of Insight

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Michelle Heskett

Dr. Craig Feied considers how to take a major technical innovation beyond his own department into a large hospital system. Reviews how proprietary information systems became indispensable in the department of emergency medicine and what it took to introduce the change... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Health Care and Treatment; Nonprofit Organizations; Medical Specialties; Organizational Culture; Crisis Management; Technological Innovation; Higher Education; Adoption; Health Industry; District of Columbia

September 2018 (Revised November 2018)
Case

From Beirut With Love (A)

By: Christina R. Wing, Esel Y. Cekin and Samer Al-Rachedy

This case describes how Robert Fadel, CEO and chairman of ABC, one of Lebanon’s leading retail and real estate groups, professionalized the family business. Robert was the second son of the company’s founder, Maurice Fadel, who had run it single-handedly. Concerned... View Details

December 1998 (Revised February 1999)
Case

City of Charlotte (A)

By: Robert S. Kaplan

The city manager's office in Charlotte, North Carolina, is attempting to align and focus the city's programs and operating departments. City managers, working collaboratively with the elected mayor and city council, have identified five strategic themes to make... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Government Administration; City; Growth and Development Strategy; Adoption; Public Sector; Management Teams; Programs; Performance Evaluation; Motivation and Incentives; Public Administration Industry; North Carolina

05 Mar 2012
Research & Ideas

Is JC Penney’s Makeover the Future of Retailing?

Ron Johnson's latest undertaking has the makings of a perfect business school case study. As the new CEO of J.C. Penney he's charged with transforming an aging department store... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Retail

Shield AI

Shield AI’s quadcopter—with no pilot and no flight plan—could clear a building and outpace human warfighters by almost five minutes in 2017. This was not to say that it was better than the warfighters or would replace their jobs, but it was evidence that autonomous... View Details

14 Mar 2019
HBS Seminar

Serguei Netessine, Wharton, University of Pennsylvania

07 Aug 2017
Blog Post

A Summer Internship with the City of Boston

Kiernan Schmitt (MBA 2018) is a 2017 Social Enterprise Summer Fellow working with the City of Boston Department of Innovation and Technology this summer. Imagine if, when it... View Details

21 Aug 2017
Blog Post

A Summer Internship with the City of Boston

Kiernan Schmitt (MBA 2018) is a 2017 Social Enterprise Summer Fellow working with the City of Boston Department of Innovation and Technology this summer. Imagine if, when it... View Details

Keywords: Consulting

November 2017
Case

Third Point Paints a Target on Sotheby's

By: Lena G. Goldberg

When faced with the increasing accumulation of its stock by activist investors led by Daniel Loeb’s Third Point LLC and the activists’ stated objective to replace management and at least some Sotheby’s Board members, Sotheby’s, the world’s oldest auction house,... View Details

Keywords: Fiduciary Duties; Activists; Activist Investors; Rights Plan; Poison Pills; Takeover Defenses; Corporate Governance; Laws and Statutes; Lawsuits and Litigation; Ownership Stake; Value Creation; Crisis Management

October 2000 (Revised April 2001)
Case

Cost of Capital at Ameritrade

By: Mark L. Mitchell and Erik Stafford

Ameritrade Holding Corp. is planning large marketing and technology investments to improve the company's competitive position in deep-discount brokerage by taking advantage of emerging economies of scale. In order to evaluate whether the strategy would generate... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Asset Pricing; Cash Flow; Cost of Capital; Investment; Marketing; Mathematical Methods; Competition; Information Technology; Internet and the Web; Financial Services Industry

November 1995 (Revised January 1998)
Case

Transformation of Pratt & Whitney North Haven (A)

By: H. Kent Bowen, Linda A. Hill, Andrew P. Burtis, Sylvie Ryckebusch and John Schiavone

Pratt & Whitney is a leader in the development and manufacturing of gas turbine engines for commercial and military aircraft. Economic conditions for the airline and defense industries are forcing the airplane engine builders to restructure. Ed Northern, a new general... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Restructuring; Production; Opportunities; Economy; Aerospace Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Connecticut

2014
Other Teaching and Training Material

Marketing Reading: Brand Positioning

By: Jill Avery and Sunil Gupta

This Reading addresses the principles of brand positioning and demonstrates how companies can strategically craft powerful, resonant, and unique brand positions to help products stand out amidst the cacophony of the marketplace. Strategic brand positioning provides... View Details

Keywords: Brand Positioning; Branding; Consumer Research; Defensive Strategies; Market Positioning; Marketing; Product Differentiation; Product Positioning; Strategic Positioning; Value Proposition; Customer Relationship Management; Organizational Structure; Customer Satisfaction; Brands and Branding

April 2000
Case

Financing of Project Achieve, The (A)

By: Mihir A. Desai

An entrepreneur is forced to analyze the tradeoffs between different equity providers through a detailed analysis of venture financing terms and cash flow forecasts. The founder of a Web-based IMS for schools must negotiate a term sheet, determine funding needs, value... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Forecasting and Prediction; Venture Capital; Cash Flow; Equity; Negotiation Deal; Valuation

October 2010
Article

Unleashing the Power of Marketing

By: Beth Comstock, Ranjay Gulati and Stephen A Liguori

The article examines marketing management at General Electric Co. (GE). The transformation of the company's marketing department into an integral part of product development, product management, and strategic planning after years of relative neglect is considered.... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Product Marketing; Strategic Planning; Human Resources; Marketing Strategy; Customer Relationship Management; Marketing; Advertising Industry; Technology Industry

Find at Harvard

Article

Enfranchisement of Service Workers

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and James Heskett

Enfranchisement is achieved through an integration of empowerment with methods of pay for performance. Evidence from Ito Yokado Group in Japan and Nordstrom in the US demonstrates the positive effects of enfranchisement. Successful efforts to enfranchise employees: 1.... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Franchise Ownership; Employees; Compensation and Benefits; Service Industry; Japan; United States

Read Now

07 Feb 2013
News

The unexpected cost of going public

January 2015
Article

Are Incentives Without Expertise Sufficient? Evidence from Fortune 500 Firms

By: Emilie R. Feldman and Cynthia A. Montgomery

Agency theory predicts that incentives will align agents' interests with those of principals. However, the resource-based view suggests that to be effective, the incentive to deliver must be paired with the ability to deliver. Using Fortune 500 boards as an... View Details

Keywords: Board Of Directors; Corporate Governance; Incentives; Expertise; Motivation and Incentives; Governing and Advisory Boards; Experience and Expertise; Agency Theory