Publications

Find at Harvard

Read Now

20 Dec 2011
First Look

First Look: December 20

innovation in open systems is an important trend in the modern global economy. In general, distributed innovation is made possible by the modularity of the underlying product or process. But despite the documented technical benefits of... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

19 May 2003
Lessons from the Classroom

Business Plan Winner Targets India Dropouts

microfinance applied to the problems of education. Specifically, we came to believe that an innovative microfinance-based solution could have a meaningful impact on the reduction of the high dropout rates in primary schools that cause... View Details

Keywords: by Carla Tishler; Financial Services

January 2003 (Revised March 2003)
Case

Southwest Airlines 2002: An Industry Under Siege

By: James L. Heskett

The company's management is faced with long-term questions regarding the rate and manner of growth in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and general industry malaise. View Details

Keywords: Cost; Product; Risk and Uncertainty; Growth and Development; Air Transportation Industry

18 Apr 2017
First Look

First Look at New Ideas, April 18

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=52520 Interest Rate Conundrums in the Twenty-First Century By: Hanson, Samuel G., David O. Lucca, and Jonathan H. Wright Abstract—A large literature argues that long-term interest View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

21 Jul 2009
First Look

First Look: July 21

for making CBA more effective, rather than eliminating CBA as a decision-making tool. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/10-001.pdf Reputation and Competition: Evidence from the Credit Rating Industry (revised) Authors:Bo... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

07 Apr 2023
Research & Ideas

When Celebrity ‘Crypto-Influencers’ Rake in Cash, Investors Lose Big

finance—investing outside of the traditional financial system, usually in blockchain-based digital assets. She said that she was “already liking” Tronix (TRX) tokens, a crypto product whose founder was recently charged with fraud. Lohan... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

Research Summary

Overview

Professor Keenan studies barriers to and motivators of prosocial behavior, using a combination of field, laboratory, and online experimental methods. Her recent work investigates donors’ aversion to overhead spending by nonprofits, including its negative effects on the... View Details

29 Jan 2021
Op-Ed

How Influencers, Celebrities, and FOMO Can Win Over Vaccine Skeptics

is uncertain about what vaccine supplies, if any, are available or when they will be. The World Health Organization estimates that at least 60 to 70 percent of the population would need to be vaccinated to reach herd immunity. While vaccines are in short supply now,... View Details

Keywords: by Rohit Deshpandé, Ofer Mintz, and Imran S. Currim

Jul 2012
Article

A Better Way to Tax U.S. Businesses

The U.S. corporate tax code is broken. High rates and perverse incentives drive capital away from the corporate sector and toward other uses and countries. This is bad news for U.S. workers, because corporations aren't making investments... View Details

June 7, 2016
Comment

Can Brand Trump Win a Presidency?

By: John A. Quelch

In the marketplace, Brand Trump is authentic. It stands for aspiration and success, but more the ostentatious and flashy success that appeals to the newly wealthy, the entrepreneur, the outsider. For these consumers, brand Trump clearly delivers; Trump hotels, and... View Details

Read Now

December 2005 (Revised December 2008)
Case

SchoolNet: Pursuing Opportunity beyond Federal Mandates

Settling into his seat on the train bound for New York, CEO Jonathan Harber reflected on the evolution of SchoolNet's position in the educational technology market and its important relationship with Philadelphia. Specifically, how could it transition from a project to... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Education; Performance Improvement; Partners and Partnerships; Expansion; Technology Adoption; Philadelphia

Find at Harvard

March 2004 (Revised September 2005)
Case

Newell Rubbermaid: Strategy in Transition

By: Cynthia A. Montgomery, Rhonda Kaufman and Carole Winkler

Describes the transformation of a company's corporate-level strategy. Begins by laying out the strategy that brought the Newell Co. stunning success for nearly three decades. The highly integrated, internally consistent strategy was tailored for manufacturing and... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Corporate Strategy; Transformation; Problems and Challenges; Acquisition; Product Development; Brands and Branding; Manufacturing Industry; Retail Industry; United States

June 2009 (Revised April 2019)
Case

Crosley

By: Tom Nicholas and David Chen

In October 1941, a top secret envoy from the U.S. military was sent to Crosley Corporation in Cincinnati, Ohio to request their assistance to construct a weapon that would drastically strengthen the defenses of U.S. troops: the proximity fuze. Such a fuze would allow... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; History; Production; National Security; Organizational Structure; Corporate Strategy; Research and Development; Product Development; Business and Government Relations; Creativity; Innovation and Invention; Ohio

29 Jan 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, January 29, 2019

of countries with deteriorated corporate financial fragility indicators (Altman’s Z-score). Firm size plays a critical role in the relationship between leverage, firm fragility, and exchange rate movements in emerging markets. While the... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

March 1990 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Analog Devices, Inc.: The Half-Life System

By: Robert S. Kaplan

The company has committed to major improvements in quality, cost, and on-time delivery performance. Despite strong senior management support, however, the actual rate of improvement was disappointing until a new measurement philosophy was introduced. The new approach... View Details

Keywords: Quality; Performance Improvement; Earnings Management; Financial Reporting; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Productivity; Business or Company Management; Cost Management; Measurement and Metrics; Management Teams; Semiconductor Industry

February 2016 (Revised June 2016)
Case

Janalakshmi Financial Services' HR Dilemma

By: Doug J. Chung and Radhika Kak

Janalakshmi Financial Services (JFS), an Indian microfinance institution, had grown rapidly by providing financial products to its main customer base, the urban poor. However, the company was facing several challenges. JFS’s productivity was declining, and it was... View Details

Keywords: Microfinance; Salesforce Management; Compensation and Benefits; Sales; Strategy; Financial Services Industry

December 1986 (Revised March 1991)
Supplement

Caterpillar-Komatsu in 1986

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Provides an update to the global competitive interaction between Caterpillar and Komatsu described in companion cases Caterpillar Tractor and Komatsu Ltd. Caterpillar's response to Komatsu's growing market share is outlined, then the impact of rapidly changing... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Currency Exchange Rate; Price; Global Strategy; Policy; Market Participation; Strategy; Industrial Products Industry; Industrial Products Industry; Industrial Products Industry

February 2015 (Revised March 2022)
Case

Quincy Apparel (A)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Lisa Mazzanti

Quincy Apparel designs, manufactures and sells work apparel for young professional women that offers the fit and feel of high-end brands at a lower price. In late 2012, Quincy's cofounders are debating how to approach a crucial board meeting. Their seed-stage startup... View Details

Keywords: Retail; Failure; Online Retail; Women's Apparel; Business Startups; Business Plan; Business Model; Entrepreneurship; Production; E-commerce; Retail Industry; Technology Industry; Fashion Industry; New York (city, NY)

April 2020 (Revised April 2023)
Supplement

TransDigm in 2017: The Beginning of the End or the End of the Beginning?

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

TransDigm was a highly acquisitive company that manufactured a wide range of highly engineered aerospace parts for both military and commercial customers. Over the ten years ending in 2016, its stock price had increase ten times, and both EBITDA and revenues had grown... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Ethics; Private Equity; Financial Strategy; Growth Management; Performance Evaluation; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Horizontal Integration; Value Creation; Competitive Advantage; Aerospace Industry; Air Transportation Industry; United States