Publications

October 1994
Background Note

Note on the Confrontation Strategy

Because of the emergence of the lean enterprise (a Japanese innovation), the nature of competition has changed. Competitive advantages are virtually impossible to sustain; instead of avoiding competition through creating sustainable competitive advantage, companies... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy

01 Jun 2001
News

Books: Judo Strategy

develop the metaphor into a systematic way of thinking about strategy. The approach they describe minimizes the importance of brute size and strength by teaching companies how to make the most of their advantages — and transform their... View Details

Keywords: Microsoft; Netscape; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

July 2017
Case

Magpie: Developing and Using Buyer Personas

By: Frank V. Cespedes

The founders of a start-up platform for publishers have developed preliminary personas of target customers and are evaluating the implications for initial target buyers, messaging, and marketing programs. The case is useful for discussing the process of developing... View Details

Keywords: Buying Process; Marketing; Sales; Distribution Channels; Segmentation; Entrepreneurship; Social Media; Consumer Products Industry; Fashion Industry; United States

November 1999 (Revised January 2000)
Case

Mexican Foundation for Rural Development

By: James E. Austin and Gerardo Lozano

The Mexican Foundation for Rural Development (MFRD) is a nonprofit network of 32 rural development centers servicing low-income farm families. Management plans to expand its operation dramatically, forming 10,000 rural cooperatives in ten years. It faces major issues... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Operations; Cooperative Ownership; Nonprofit Organizations; Society; Strategy; Mexico

Article

History-informed Strategy Research: The Promise of History and Historical Research Methods in Advancing Strategy Scholarship

By: Nicholas Argyres, Alfredo De Massis, Nicolai J. Foss, Federico Frattini, Geoffrey Jones and Brian Silverman

Recent years have seen an increasing interest in the use of history and historical research methods in strategy research. This article discusses how and why history and historical research methods can enrich theoretical explanations of strategy phenomena. The article... View Details

Keywords: Methodology; Strategy; Business History; Research; History

Research Summary

corporate strategy, international strategy, strategy process

By: David J. Collis

David Collis' research is primarily concerned with how companies create value across markets, whether those markets are different businesses (corporate strategy), or different countries (international strategy). Additionally, he is interested in how... View Details

01 Mar 2010
News

Lords of Strategy

original Hendersonianism: “In this new environment, the essence of strategy is not the structure of a company’s position in products and markets, but the dynamics of its behaviors. The goal is to identify and View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

January 2015 (Revised July 2019)
Case

Rebranding Godiva: The Yıldız Strategy

By: Rohit Deshpande and Esel Çekin

This case concerns Yıldız Holding’s acquisition of Godiva Chocolatier from its previous owner, Campbell Soup, and its salient strategy in preserving Godiva’s “made in Belgian” brand position. Provenance Paradox, a problem faced by companies in emerging countries trying... View Details

Keywords: Branding; Internationalization; Provenance Paradox; Acquisitions; Positioning; Innovation; Customer-centricity; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Emerging Markets; Product Positioning; Change Management; Innovation and Management; Customer Focus and Relationships; Food and Beverage Industry; North America; Turkey; Japan

18 Sep 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Institutional Strategies in Emerging Markets

Keywords: by Christopher Marquis & Mia Raynard

26 Mar 2006
Research & Ideas

The Office of Strategy Management

typical organization the budgeting process is partitioned from the strategy development process. The result is that key strategic investments often get lost in the pressures of daily operational management,... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

Social Strategies That Work

Over a billion people use social platforms on the Internet, making them the most frequently visited category of sites. Some platforms, such as eHarmony, MeetUp, and Twitter, allow us to connect to strangers. eHarmony alone is estimated to account for one in six new... View Details

March 2008
Background Note

Marketing Input and Innovation Strategy

By: Elie Ofek

This note develops a framework for considering the challenges of incorporating marketing input when setting innovation strategy. The framework lays out the possible innovation opportunities a firm can entertain and describes how the customer knowledge gained from... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Innovation Strategy; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Marketing; Research; Competition

17 Jan 2012
News

An adviser for global strategy

January 2010 (Revised May 2012)
Case

TopCoder (A): Developing Software through Crowdsourcing

By: Karim R. Lakhani, David A. Garvin and Eric Lonstein

TopCoder's crowdsourcing-based business model, in which software is developed through online tournaments, is presented. The case highlights how TopCoder has created a unique two-sided innovation platform consisting of a global community of over 225,000 developers who... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Innovation and Invention; Two-Sided Platforms; Motivation and Incentives; Social and Collaborative Networks; Competition; Software; Technology Industry

December 2021
Article

The Evolutionary Nature of Breakthrough Innovation: An Empirical Investigation of Firm Search Strategies

By: Dominika Kinga Randle and Gary P. Pisano

Breakthrough innovation has been an important topic of study for generations of scholars. Previous research in this domain has focused on exploring the way breakthroughs emerge from cumulative combination and recombination of prior technologies and knowledge components... View Details

Keywords: Breakthrough Innovation; Exploration And Exploitation; Search Strategy; Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Strategy

2017
Working Paper

Cluster Mapping as a Tool for Development

By: Christian H.M. Ketels

This report builds on the foundational work on cluster mapping that Prof. Michael E. Porter has led at the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness (ISC), Harvard Business School over the last two decades. He launched the U.S. Cluster Mapping Initiative in the late... View Details

Keywords: Industry Clusters; Development Economics