Publications

06 Nov 2007
First Look

First Look: November 6, 2007

Working PapersThe Effects of a Centralized Clearinghouse on Job Placement, Wages, and Hiring Practices Authors:Muriel Niederle and Alvin E. Roth Abstract New gastroenterologists participated in a labor market clearinghouse (a... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2019
Chapter

Appraisal after Dell

By: Guhan Subramanian

This essay presents new data on appraisal litigation and appraisal outs. I find that appraisal claims have not meaningfully declined in 2016 and that perceived appraisal risk, as measured by the incidence of appraisal outs, has increased since the Dell appraisal in May... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Contracts; Negotiation Process

Find at Harvard

Read Now

October 2003 (Revised January 2004)
Case

Burberry

By: Youngme E. Moon, Erika Kussmann, Emma Penick, Susan Wojewoda and Kerry Herman

In 2003, Rose Marie Bravo, Burberry's CEO, is debating how to maintain the currency and cachet of the brand across its broad customer base, while entering new product categories and expanding distribution. In the past five years, the brand has become one of the hottest... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Management Teams; Luxury; Product Launch; Distribution; Product Positioning; Advertising; Market Entry and Exit; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Fashion Industry; United Kingdom

November–December 2017
Article

Innovation Streams and Executive Leadership

By: Michael Tushman

Incumbent firms face steep challenges in dealing with technological change and associated innovation streams. The firm's senior leadership team, and especially R&D leadership, plays a central role in shaping a firm's ability to both exploit existing capabilities and... View Details

Keywords: Ambidexterity; Exploit Vs. Explore; Dynamic Capabilities; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Technology Adoption; Innovation Leadership

Find at Harvard

April 2010 (Revised June 2011)
Background Note

Television Competes for a Digital Audience

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Nancy Bartlett

In the face of major disruption in the industry television networks have sought new revenue sources, implemented cost-cutting measures and strategized on ways to monetize online access to content. Programming changes, new advertising strategies, and deals via online... View Details

Keywords: Television Entertainment; Marketing Strategy; Media and Broadcasting Industry

April 2004 (Revised May 2006)
Background Note

Achieving Profitable Growth and Market Value

By: James L. Heskett and Richard G. Hamermesh

Provides an overview of how a new venture needs to change as it passes from the initial start-up to the growth phase. Explores how a venture's leadership, strategy, and execution need to evolve to deal with rapid growth. View Details

Keywords: Growth Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Change Management

Research Summary

Cultural Entrepreneurship and the Business of the Arts

By: Rohit Deshpande

A more recent research program focuses on creating and managing ventures connected with the arts and culture. This research extends the concept of Customer-Centricity into the context of Audience Engagement. This primarily case-based work explores how successful... View Details

February 2003 (Revised February 2009)
Case

Yahoo!: Becoming a Competitor in the Career Listings Space (A)

By: Kathleen L. McGinn and Nicole Nasser

In late 2001, Yahoo!'s new executive leadership team faces a decision. With online advertising revenues significantly off, the company has decided to explore new strategic businesses, including online recruiting. The team must decide whether to make a bid for... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Decisions; Recruitment; Management Teams; Negotiation Deal; Employment Industry

02 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

Retail Reaches a Tipping Point—Which Stores Will Survive?

Alvarez, and research associate Dan Greenberg (Harvard MBA 2012). Their new book Retail Revolution: Will Your Brick-and-Mortar Store Survive?, predicts, among many other things, the continuing decline of major brick and mortar brands... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

October 2018
Case

Accomplice: Scaling Early Stage Finance

By: Ramana Nanda, Raffaella Sadun and Olivia Hull

Accomplice, an early-stage venture capital firm based in Boston, is raising its second fund in November 2017. Since 2009, the firm has followed a seed-led investment model, investing in tech companies at the earliest stages, often when products and business models are... View Details

Keywords: Early Stage Finance; Seed Finance; Scouts; Venture Capital; Business Startups; Private Equity; Investment Portfolio; Organizational Structure; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Partners and Partnerships; Networks; Adaptation; Corporate Strategy; Technology; Financial Services Industry; Massachusetts; Boston; Cambridge; United States

October 1994
Case

Bankers Trust: Global Investment Bank

By: Andre F. Perold and Kuljot Singh

In October 1992, Eugene Shanks, president of Bankers Trust New York Corp., and Brian Walsh, head of the Global Investment Bank (GIB) business unit, are considering a proposal for a large and complex financing involving the North Sea Oil Co. (NSOC). The financing... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Risk Management; Value Creation; Business History; Capital Markets; Financing and Loans; Financial Markets; Corporate Finance; Banking Industry; Energy Industry

July 3, 2014
Comment

Comment on the Final Round of Iranian Nuclear Talks Before the Joint Plan of Action Expires (on July 20, 2014)

By: James K. Sebenius

As six months of talks soon end with wide gaps likely remaining on key issues, P5+1 and Iranian diplomats will undoubtedly cite some tangible progress, then argue for a six-month extension. This will likely become a pattern, with some version of the interim deal... View Details

Keywords: International Relations; Negotiation Tactics; Negotiation Deal; Iran; United States

Read Now

August 2014 (Revised December 2015)
Case

Showrooming at Best Buy

By: Thales Teixeira and Elizabeth Anne Watkins

Best Buy is a consumer electronics retailer with nearly 2,000 stores worldwide. In 2012, the rising popularity of price-matching apps for mobile phones made price differences between retailers transparent, online and offline. Shoppers' desire to test electronics... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Price; Consumer Behavior; Applications and Software; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Retail Industry; Electronics Industry

December 2002 (Revised June 2003)
Case

Vignette: The Rebar Dilemma

By: G. Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

Martin Smith, a new associate at an LBO firm, must respond to a problem posed by his boss, based on an historical deal that suddenly came undone. After months of negotiation, his firm's plan to buy a bankrupt competitor of one of its portfolio companies and close it... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Competition; Growth and Development Strategy; Business or Company Management

11 Oct 2006
What Do You Think?

How Do We Respond to the “Dependency Ratio” Dilemma?

these trends impact social costs so favorably that they could render dependency ratios largely meaningless? What do you think? Original Article Without knowing it, we have already heard a great deal about "dependency ratios." We... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

January 1998 (Revised March 1998)
Case

Viacom, Inc.: Carpe Diem (Condensed)

By: Joseph L. Bower and Thomas R. Eisenmann

Viacom has built a powerful position in the global entertainment industry through skillful and bold acquisitions. Now its expansion is challenged by the moves of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Different businesses within Viacom have contradictory positions on how to deal... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Cost vs Benefits; Decisions; Entertainment; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

April 1997 (Revised July 2003)
Case

Viacom, Inc.: Video Supplement

By: Joseph L. Bower, Thomas R. Eisenmann and Sonja Ellingson Hout

Viacom reached a powerful position in the global entertainment industry through skillful and very bold acquisitions. Now its further expansion is challenged by the moves of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Different businesses within Viacom have contradictory positions on... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Cost vs Benefits; Decisions; Entertainment; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

February 1996 (Revised November 1996)
Case

Viacom, Inc.: Carpe Diem

By: Joseph L. Bower and Thomas R. Eisenmann

Viacom has reached a powerful position in the global entertainment industry through skillful and very bold acquisitions. Now its further expansion is challenged by the moves of Rupert Murdock's News Corp. Different businesses within Viacom have contradictory positions... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Cost vs Benefits; Decisions; Entertainment; Global Strategy; Management; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Entertainment and Recreation Industry