Publications

20 May 2014
First Look

First Look: May 20

the World Management Survey (WMS) has collected firm-level management practices data across multiple sectors and countries. We developed the survey to try to explain the large and persistent TFP differences across firms and countries.... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 2006 (Revised October 2006)
Case

Chrysanthemum and Dragon: JAFCO Asia in China

By: Rawi E. Abdelal and David Lane

In the autumn of 2002, JAFCO Asia, a subsidiary of JAFCO Co., Ltd., became the first foreign private equity firm to open an office in Beijing's Haidian Science Park. JAFCO was the only Japanese private equity firm operating in China. As such, Managing Director Vincent... View Details

Keywords: History; International Relations; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Government Relations; Expansion; Market Entry and Exit; Performance Effectiveness; Foreign Direct Investment; Business Strategy; Financial Services Industry; China; Beijing; Japan

May 2004 (Revised April 2005)
Case

Prudential Securities

By: Boris Groysberg, Paul M. Healy and Amanda Cowen

Prudential Insurance Co. attempted to diversify into financial services by building an investment banking franchise. Prudential's initial foray into the industry was its acquisition of The Bache Group in 1982. In 2000, the company decided to exit investment banking.... View Details

Keywords: Investment Banking; Corporate Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Diversification; Mergers and Acquisitions; Financial Services Industry; Insurance Industry

15 Jan 2008
First Look

First Look: January 15, 2008

product design, production, distribution, and system integration may be split up among hundreds or even thousands of firms. Different firms will design and produce the different components of a complex artifact (like the processor,... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

28 Feb 2012
First Look

First Look: Feb. 28

to pass, suggesting that the alternatives that competition provides to customers intensify pressure to illegally provide leniency. We also show that, at least in contexts when pricing is restricted, firms use illicit quality as an View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

14 Nov 2005
Research & Ideas

How Can Start Ups Grow?

those one-out-of-ten firms grow into successful, sustained enterprises? Assistant professor Mukti Khaire believes that small companies can grow by developing intangible social resources such as legitimacy, status, and reputation. In an... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Advertising

January 2010 (Revised August 2011)
Case

Ganeden Biotech, Inc.

By: Robert C. Pozen, Dale Alan Winger and Matthew Kenneth Ahlers

The CEO of Ganeden Biotech, a small firm with several viable probiotic products but limited resources, must decide what markets to invest in and what intellectual property strategies will best serve its immediate and longer-term business interests. View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Investment; Intellectual Property; Market Entry and Exit; Business Strategy; Biotechnology Industry

26 Jan 2016
First Look

January 26, 2016

forthcoming Stanford University Press Lead and Disrupt: How to Solve the Innovator's Dilemma By: O'Reilly, Charles A., and Michael Tushman Abstract—In the past few years, a number of well-known firms have failed—think of Blockbuster,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 2009 (Revised November 2018)
Case

Sanctuary Soft: International Expansion Strategies

By: Boris Groysberg, Geoff Marietta, Tim Marshall and Adam Hartley

Sanctuary Soft CEO Elizabeth Smalley faced increasing pressure from her primary investor to expand operations internationally. If successful, the expansion could enlarge Sanctuary’s customer base and enable the firm to better serve existing clients’ overseas offices.... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Labor; Laws and Statutes; Market Entry and Exit; Information Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Web Services Industry; Banking Industry; China; India; Germany; United Kingdom; United States

October 1987 (Revised February 1992)
Case

Motorola and Japan (A)

By: David B. Yoffie and John J. Coleman

In 1981, Motorola was reevaluating its strategy towards Japan. The firm had been successful in penetrating the Japanese market, and it was confronting increased Japanese competition at home. How it should respond and with what kind of organization were the central... View Details

Keywords: Market Entry and Exit; Standards; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Telecommunications Industry; Japan

20 Mar 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Waste, Recycling and Entrepreneurship in Central and Northern Europe, 1870-1940

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones & Andrew Spadafora

July 2003 (Revised September 2003)
Case

Refinancing of Shanghai General Motors (B), The

By: Mihir A. Desai and Mark Veblen

This case provides the outcome to "The Refinancing of Shanghai General Motors (A)" in which the CFO of General Motors' joint venture in Shanghai, Shanghai General Motors (SGM), wants to refinance almost $900 million of project finance it raised to begin operations. The... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Multinational Firms and Management; Joint Ventures; Financing and Loans; Auto Industry; Shanghai

02 Apr 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, April 2, 2019

before and after the policy change. We find that these responses increase significantly after the policy change. These stronger responses partly occur while the review is still ongoing and persist on average for two years. Corroborating these results, we also document... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

08 Jan 2008
First Look

First Look: January 8, 2008

Financing Constraints, and Entrepreneurship Authors:William R. Kerr and Ramana Nanda Abstract We study how US branch-banking deregulations affected the entry and exit of firms in the non-financial sector... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

2016
Working Paper

The Reference Wars: Encyclopedia Britannica's Decline and Encarta's Emergence

By: Shane Greenstein

The experience of Encyclopædia Britannica provides the canonical example of the decline of an established firm at the outset of the digital age. Competition from Microsoft's Encarta in 1993 led to sharp declines in the sales of books, which led to the distressed sale... View Details

Keywords: Market Entry and Exit; Service Operations; Emerging Markets; Applications and Software; Books; Information Technology Industry; Information Industry

Read Now

July 2006 (Revised March 2010)
Case

Symantec vs. McAfee: Competing in the Consumer Anti-virus Industry

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Jordan Mitchell

Symantec and McAfee hold 53.6% and 18.8% respectively, of the anti-virus software market as of 2006. While the market is concentrated with five firms controlling over 90%, Microsoft is on the eve of releasing a consumer security subscription packed called OneCare Live.... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Market Entry and Exit; Competitive Strategy; Software; Information Technology Industry

Find at Harvard

30 Jun 2009
First Look

First Look: June 30

by both venture capital firms and venture capital-financed companies in three cities-San Francisco, Boston, and New York. We find that firms open new satellite offices based on the success rate of venture... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

November 1997 (Revised October 2000)
Case

Interactive Minds (A)

By: William A. Sahlman, Michael J. Roberts and Christina L. Darwall

The efforts of two recent Harvard Business School graduates to start a venture capital/consulting firm focused on opportunities related to the Internet are recounted. Raises the question of what the nature of this opportunity is, how well-positioned the protagonists... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Internet and the Web; Market Entry and Exit; Financing and Loans; Business Startups; Consulting Industry