Publications

1984
Chapter

Variations in Managerial Career Structures in High Technology Firms: The Impact of Organizational Characteristics on Internal Labor Market Patterns

By: R. M. Kanter

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Organizational Design; Technology Industry

March 2016
Case

N12 Technologies: Building an Organization and Building a Business

By: David A. Garvin and Aldo Sesia

N12 Technologies was a startup founded in 2010 that employed nanotechnology to manufacture a patented material to improve the performance of carbon fiber composites, which were used in a wide variety of products, ranging from bicycles to automobiles to aircraft parts.... View Details

Keywords: Startup; Organizational Structure; Nanotechnology; Business Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Management Systems; Commercialization; Industrial Products Industry; Industrial Products Industry; Industrial Products Industry; Industrial Products Industry; Industrial Products Industry; United States

2013
Case

Innovation and Development of China Machine Press in the New Century

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Ning Jia and Guo Jia

China Machine Press (CMP), founded in 1952, is a leading multi-field, multi-discipline and multimedia publishing group in China with large scale, comprehensive and specialized business that integrates paper media, audiovisual media and online media, and combines... View Details

Keywords: General Management; Organizational Structure; Strategy; China; China

October 2016
Case

Supercell

By: William R. Kerr, Benjamin F. Jones and Alexis Brownell

Supercell is a young Finnish smartphone game company with an unusual team structure and company philosophy. It is already one of Finland’s most valuable companies, and despite being only six years old, it has put up some impressive numbers: as of 2016, it has released... View Details

Keywords: Supercell; Finland; Video Games; Firm Structure; Startups; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Groups and Teams; Video Game Industry; Finland

January 2014 (Revised June 2015)
Teaching Note

Amgen Inc: Pursuing Innovation and Imitation? (A), (B)

By: Ian Mackenzie

Keywords: Strategic Change; Biosimilars; Medical Biotechnology; Emerging Markets; Industry Structure; Uncertainty; Strategy Development; Implementation; Corporate Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

Research Summary

Overview

By: Jorge Tamayo

Professor Tamayo’s research focuses on theoretical modeling and structural estimation of firm decision-making and productivity.

Professor Tamayo studies dynamic competition for customer membership. Generally, firms that implement a membership model charge a... View Details

Keywords: Industrial Organization, Industrial Development; Management Practices and Processes; Management Skills; Management Style; Energy Generation; Performance Efficiency; Market Design; Crime and Corruption; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry

September 2020 (Revised December 2020)
Supplement

Hitachi Rail Limited (B)

By: David J. Collis, Akiko Kanno and Nobuo Sato

This supplement describes the strategy and organisation changes made by British executive, Alistair Dormer, after he is made head of Hitachi Rail's global business. The company acquires an Italian company, continues to win contracts in the UK, but struggles to bring... View Details

Keywords: Organization Structure; Leader Selection; Mergers ＆ Acquisitions; Strategy; Global Strategy; Organizational Structure; Leadership; Mergers and Acquisitions; Integration; Values and Beliefs; Rail Industry; Japan

December 2014 (Revised November 2015)
Case

Alibaba Goes Public (A)

By: Krishna Palepu, Suraj Srinivasan, Charles C.Y. Wang and David Lane

In 2014 Alibaba debuted on the New York Stock Exchange, creating not only the largest IPO in history but this initial desire to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange was denied due to the company's desire to preserve its partner's control over decision rights. Why did... View Details

Keywords: Dual-class Share Structure; Alibaba; IPOs; VIE; Corporate Governance; Financial Services Industry; United States; Hong Kong; China

2013
Teaching Note

Innovation and Development of China Machine Press in the New Century (TN)

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Ning Jia and Guo Jia

China Machine Press (CMP), founded in 1952, is a leading multi-field, multi-discipline and multimedia publishing group in China with large scale, comprehensive and specialized business that integrates paper media, audiovisual media and online media, and combines... View Details

Keywords: General Management; Organizational Structure; Strategy; China; China

June 2016
Teaching Note

N12 Technologies: Building an Organization and Building a Business

By: David A. Garvin

N12 Technologies was a startup founded in 2010 that employed nanotechnology to manufacture a patented material to improve the performance of carbon fiber composites, which were used in a wide variety of products, ranging from bicycles to automobiles to aircraft parts.... View Details

Keywords: Startup; Organizational Structure; Nanotechnology; Business Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Management Systems; Commercialization; Industrial Products Industry; Industrial Products Industry; Industrial Products Industry; Industrial Products Industry; Industrial Products Industry; United States

January 2015 (Revised April 2015)
Case

Lagkagehuset: Building a Bakery Chain

By: Krishna G. Palepu and Emer Moloney

A Danish bakery chain that was acquired by a private equity firm in 2008, and has grown from 3 to 31 stores, plans to address reoccuring operational and organizational issues before growing further. View Details

Keywords: Organizational Structure; Chain; Retail; Bakery; Operations; Retail Industry; Denmark

2016
Working Paper

The Mirroring Hypothesis: Theory, Evidence and Exceptions

By: Lyra J. Colfer and Carliss Y. Baldwin

The mirroring hypothesis predicts that organizational ties within a project, firm, or group of firms (e.g., communication, collocation, employment) will correspond to the technical patterns of dependency in the work being performed. A thorough understanding of the... View Details

Keywords: Modularity; Innovation; Product And Process Development; Organization Design; Design Structure; Organizational Ties; Mirroring Hypothesis; Industry Architecture; Product Architecture; Complex Technical Systems; Information Technology; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Relationships; Innovation and Invention; Product Development

SSRN

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March 2019
Teaching Note

Zespri Grows

By: David E. Bell and John Masko

Teaching Note for HBS No. 519-047. View Details

Summer 2014
Article

Taiwan's PC Industry, 1976–2010: The Evolution of Organizational Capabilities

By: Howard H. Yu and Willy C. Shih

The stellar growth of Taiwan's personal computer (PC) industry over the past three decades represents a paradox. Participating in the global production system, local firms in Taiwan grew in association with established firms in the West. Despite their technical... View Details

Keywords: Personal Computer; PC; PC Industry; Taiwan PC Industry; Taiwan PC Manufacturers; Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Growth and Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Industry Clusters; Industry Growth; Industry Structures; Information Technology; Technological Innovation; Mobile Technology; Information Technology Industry; Taiwan

Find at Harvard

June 2013 (Revised February 2014)
Case

FanMode: Launching a Global Sports Venture

By: Shikhar Ghosh, William R. Kerr and Alexis Brownell

Neven Murugan is developing FanMode, an app that allows sports fans all over the world to broadcast their reactions in real time into stadiums where their team is playing. It also provides social networking across sports fans. The company is growing, and its founders... View Details

Keywords: App Development; Location Choices; Structure Of The Firm; Global; Entrepreneurship; Social Media; Sports Industry; Sports Industry; United Kingdom; South Africa

April 2022
Supplement

MicroStrategy: Accounting for Cryptocurrency (B)

By: Jonas Heese and Annelena Lobb

In early 2022, the technology firm MicroStrategy unveiled a series of letters with the SEC that questioned its accounting practices around its holdings of Bitcoin. Since 2020, the firm had shifted its strategy to include not just selling software but buying and holding... View Details

Keywords: Cryptocurrency; Bitcoin; Holding Structures; SEC; Accounting; Finance; Financial Strategy; Technology Industry

2015
Working Paper

Client Service, Compensation, and the Sell-Side Analyst Objective Function: An Empirical Analysis of Relational Incentives in the Investment-Research Industry

By: David A. Maber, Boris Groysberg and Paul M. Healy

This paper investigates how sell-side analysts build and sustain their client networks; the economic gains to successfully managing this challenge; and the metrics through which these incentives are delivered. In a typical semiannual period, the average analyst... View Details

Keywords: Networks; Measurement and Metrics; Operations; Customer Focus and Relationships; Jobs and Positions

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October 2020 (Revised June 2021)
Case

Francisco Partners Private Credit Opportunity Fund

By: Luis M. Viceira, John D. Dionne, Soracha Prathanrasnikorn and Ari Sunshine

In April 2020, Scott Einsenberg, the Head of Credit at the private equity firm Francisco Partners, is deciding whether to go ahead with extending a private lending agreement to Eventbrite, Inc. (NYSE: EB), a leading global event management and online ticketing... View Details

Keywords: Private Debt; Private Credit; Industry Evolution; Private Equity; Investment; Analysis

October 2015
Article

Agglomerative Forces and Cluster Shapes

By: William R. Kerr and Scott Duke Kominers

We model spatial clusters of similar firms. Our model highlights how agglomerative forces lead to localized, individual connections among firms, while interaction costs generate a defined distance over which attraction forces operate. Overlapping firm interactions... View Details

Keywords: Agglomeration; Clusters; Industrial Organization; Silicon Valley; Technology Flows; Patents; Networks; Information Technology; Industry Clusters; Entrepreneurship; California