Publications

2018
Chapter

The Orphan Drug Act at 35: Observations and an Outlook for the Twenty-First Century

By: Nicholas Bagley, Benjamin Berger, Amitabh Chandra, Craig Garthwaite and Ariel Dora Stern

On the 35th anniversary of the adoption of the Orphan Drug Act (ODA), we describe the enormous changes in the markets for therapies for rare diseases that have emerged over recent decades. The most prominent example is the fact that the profit-maximizing price of new... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Laws and Statutes; Research and Development; Investment; Markets; Monopoly

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2012
Article

The Internalization of Advertising Services: An Inter-Industry Analysis

By: Sharon Horsky, Steven C. Michael and Alvin J. Silk

This study investigates the extent to which U.S. advertisers use in-house rather than independent advertising agencies and examines inter-industry variation in such internalization. Contrary to the widely held impression that use of an in-house advertising agency is... View Details

Keywords: Advertisers; In-house Advertising; Inter-industry Variation; Internalization; Scale Economies; Transaction Costs; Vertical Integration; Advertising Costs; Creative Industries; Marketing Strategy; Advertising Industry; Europe; North and Central America

January 2016
Case

Sentient Jet: The Uber of Private Jets

By: Anat Keinan and Sandrine Crener

Founded in 1999 in the Boston area, Sentient Jet had become a leading private aviation company in the United States. Its success was built on the introduction of a groundbreaking membership program that offered business travelers the flexibility and convenience of... View Details

26 Oct 2022
Research & Ideas

How Paid Promos Take the Shine Off YouTube Stars (and Tips for Better Influencer Marketing)

YouTube influencers amass followers by filming everything from popping pimples to reviewing lipstick, with businesses watching closely for marketing opportunities. But audience loyalty only goes so far. When YouTubers post too many paid... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin; Technology; Media & Broadcasting

March 2019
Article

Economics of Converting Renewable Power to Hydrogen

By: Gunther Glenk and Stefan Reichelstein

The recent sharp decline in the cost of renewable energy suggests that the production of hydrogen from renewable power through a power-to-gas process might become more economical. Here we examine this alternative from the perspective of an investor who considers a... View Details

Article

Moment-to-moment Optimal Branding in TV Commercials: Preventing Avoidance by Pulsing

By: Thales S. Teixeira, Michel Wedel and Rik Pieters

We develop a conceptual framework for understanding the impact that branding activity (the audio-visual representation of brands) and consumers' dispersion of attention have on their moment-to-moment avoidance decisions during television advertising. It formalizes this... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Decision Choices and Conditions; Television Entertainment; Brands and Branding; Consumer Behavior; Mathematical Methods

23 May 2000
Research & Ideas

Minding the Muse: The Impact of Downsizing on Corporate Creativity

pharmaceutical firms that rely on creativity," she says. "Today's fast-changing global markets place increased pressure on companies of every kind to continuously create new products, services, and competitive strategies if they... View Details

Keywords: by Peter K. Jacobs

July 2008
Case

eHarmony

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, Hanna Halaburda and Troy Smith

eHarmony's CEO needs to decide how to react to imitations of its business model, encroachment by competing models, and ascendance of free substitutes. The case provides four options to address these threats and asks students to choose one after they analyzed the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Decision Choices and Conditions; Growth and Development Strategy; Industry Structures; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Service Industry

14 May 2013
Blog Post

Exploring new opportunities at HBS

startup approximately 10% of the size of our entire RC class. Prior to joining the startup, I had a slightly more traditional occupation working on the Loyalty Marketing team at a national luxury retailer... View Details

Keywords: Technology

March 2022 (Revised December 2022)
Case

Perch

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Stacy Straaberg and Julia Kelley

In May 2021, Perch CEO Chris Bell needed to decide whether his e-commerce aggregator company, which bought and scaled Amazon Marketplace brands, should acquire up to three acquisition targets. The prospective acquisitions, Web Deals Direct, HomeCo, and Future Brands,... View Details

Research Summary

Experiments in Financial Democracy: Corporate Governance and Financial Development in Brazil, 1882-1950 (BOOK)

In my first book manuscript, Experiments in Financial Democracy, I challenge the idea that it was colonial institutions that sent Brazil, a civil law country, down a particular path of corporate governance and finance. Detailed archival research reveals... View Details

29 Nov 2018
News

The gig economy connects the skilled

06 Sep 2012
Working Paper Summaries

FIN Around the World: The Contribution of Financing Activity to Profitability

Keywords: by Russell Lundholm, George Serafeim & Gwen Yu

January 2003 (Revised January 2008)
Case

The British Motorcycle Industry at a Crossroads

By: Jan W. Rivkin

By 1975, the collapse of the British motorcycle industry is nearly complete. Only one British manufacturer, NVT, remains in operation. In this setting, the British government commissions the Boston Consulting Group to identify and evaluate strategic alternatives for... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Industry Structures; Business and Government Relations; Mathematical Methods; Competition; Consulting Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Motorcycle Industry; Great Britain

May 2006 (Revised June 2006)
Case

Codon Devices

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and David Kiron

In December 2005, 40-year-old John Danner was about to make his first presentation to the board of directors of Codon Devices, a one-year-old biotechnology start-up based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After a month as the company's CEO, Danner was prepared to lay out... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Venture Capital; Intellectual Property; Governing and Advisory Boards; Genetics; Competitive Advantage; Science-Based Business; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Biotechnology Industry; Cambridge

February 2011
Case

oDesk: Changing How the World Works

By: Boris Groysberg, David A. Thomas and Jennifer M. Tydlaska

It is 2010, and Gary Swart, CEO of oDesk, is contemplating the next steps for his organization. Founded in 2004 in California, oDesk operates an online marketplace which matches Employers with Contractors. oDesk provides fact-based information on Contractors, including... View Details

Keywords: Recruitment; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Digital Platforms; Marketplace Matching; Corporate Strategy; Internet and the Web; Consulting Industry

2009
Chapter

Do Private Equity-owned Firms Have Better Management Practices?

By: Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen

We use an innovative survey tool to collect management practice data from over 4,000 medium sized manufacturing firms across Asia, Europe and the US. These measures of managerial practice are strongly associated with firm-level performance (e.g. productivity,... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Management Practices and Processes; Production; Private Ownership; Performance Improvement; Performance Productivity

August 2013 (Revised November 2015)
Case

Prudential Financial - General Motors Pension Risk Transfer: Back to the Future?

By: Luis M. Viceira and Emily A. Chien

In November 2012, Prudential Financial and General Motors closed on a $25.1B pension risk transfer (PRT) transaction, the largest of its kind to date by an order of magnitude both in the U.S. market and globally. In exchange for an in-kind transfer of $25.1B in... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Asset Management; Insurance; Retirement; Financial Services Industry; Insurance Industry