Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(1,670)
- Faculty Publications (322)
- 2011
- Other Unpublished Work
Deference from Low-status Firms: Maintaining Status without Resources
By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski and Bharat N. Anand
This paper proposes a set of conditions under which high-status firms retain their positions, even if they lose resources. Firms are considered high status if they obtain ties from other high-status firms. Within the class of high-status firms, we distinguish between... View Details
- March 2011
- Case
United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge
By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Carole Carlson
The case, set within the European organization of a giant multinational breakfast foods company, describes a launch decision for a new cereal product. As the case evolves, the decision has major strategic and organizational implications for Lora Brill, European VP. The... View Details
Keywords: Subsidiaries; Market Entry; Multinational Corporations; Strategy; Business Subsidiaries; Managerial Roles; Multinational Firms and Management; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Marketing Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Product Launch; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Europe
- February 2011 (Revised November 2012)
- Case
Product Development at OPOWER
By: Thomas Eisenmann and Rob Go
OPOWER, a software startup that helps utilities engage their customers in ways that reduce energy consumption, is scaling rapidly. The company's new head of product management has designed a system to address a point of constant tension: whether to build custom... View Details
- 2011
- Working Paper
The Importance of Work Context in Organizational Learning from Error
By: Lucy H. MacPhail and Amy C. Edmondson
This paper examines the implications of work context for learning from errors in organizations. Prior research has shown that attitudes and behaviors related to error vary between groups within organizations but has not investigated or theorized the ways in which... View Details
- December 2010 (Revised June 2011)
- Case
Back to the Future: Redeveloping Unilever House
By: A. Eugene Kohn, Arthur I Segel and Andrew Pierson Terris
Steve Williams, General Counsel of Unilever PIc, has two key decisions to make prior to commencing construction on the redevelopment of Unilever House - the company's London corporate headquarters. The purpose of the redevelopment is to reinvigorate the corporate... View Details
- November 2010 (Revised May 2014)
- Case
Dow's Bid for Rohm and Haas
By: Benjamin C. Esty and David Lane
This case analyzes Dow Chemical Company's proposed acquisition of Rohm and Haas in 2008. The $18.8 billion acquisition was part of Dow's strategic transformation from a slow-growth, low-margin, and cyclical producer of basic chemicals into a higher-growth,... View Details
- 2010
- Book
Buy-In: Saving Your Good Idea from Getting Shot Down
By: John P. Kotter and Lorne A. Whitehead
You've got a good idea. You know it could make a crucial difference for you, your organization, your community. You present it to the group but get confounding questions, inane comments, and verbal bullets in return. Before you know what's happened, your idea is dead,... View Details
- August 2010 (Revised January 2013)
- Case
Urban Water Partners (A)
By: Karthik Ramanna, George Serafeim and Aldo Sesia
The case explores a new business venture to bring clean water to residents of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, who otherwise cannot afford it. Management has enough money to get the company through August 2010 but needs more capital thereafter. An HBS alumnus is interested in... View Details
- August 2010 (Revised January 2013)
- Supplement
Urban Water Partners (B)
By: Karthik Ramanna, George Serafeim and Aldo Sesia
The case explores a new business venture to bring clean water to residents of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, who otherwise cannot afford it. Management has enough money to get their company through August 2010, but needs more capital thereafter. An HBS alumnus is interested... View Details
- 2014
- Working Paper
Financing Risk and Innovation
By: Ramana Nanda and Matthew Rhodes-Kropf
We provide a model of investment into new ventures that demonstrates why some places, times, and industries should be associated with a greater degree of experimentation by investors. Investors respond to financing risk―a forecast of limited future funding―by modifying... View Details
- June 2010
- Article
Leadership Competencies for Implementing Planned Organizational Change
By: Julie Battilana, Mattia Gilmartin, Anne-Claire Pache, Metin Sengul and Jeffrey A. Alexander
This paper bridges the leadership and organizational change literatures by exploring the relationship between managers' leadership competencies (namely, their effectiveness at person-oriented and task-oriented behaviors) and the likelihood that they will emphasize the... View Details
- 2010
- Book
The Squam Lake Report: Fixing the Financial System
In the fall of 2008, fifteen of the world's leading economists-representing the broadest spectrum of economic opinion-gathered at New Hampshire's Squam Lake. Their goal: the mapping of a long-term plan for financial regulation reform. The Squam Lake... View Details
- May 2010
- Column
Block-by-Blockbuster Innovation
Executives often find themselves debating the merits of incremental innovations versus game-changers, but that's a false dichotomy, says HBR columnist Rosabeth Moss Kanter. Even if a company is lucky enough to come up with the next Kindle, Swiffer, or smartphone,... View Details
- February 2010
- Case
Shurgard Self-Storage: Expansion to Europe (Abridged)
Shurgard, a U.S.-based firm that rents storage facilities to consumers and small businesses, is considering financing options for rapid expansion of its European operations. Five years after entering Europe, Shurgard Europe has opened 17 facilities in Belgium, France,... View Details
- January 2010
- Case
Five and Six Dulles Station
By: Arthur I Segel
Cricket Real Estate Advisors needs to decide if they should invest in a proposed joint venture development with Buddy Holly & Associates. Holly is a successful northern Virginia office developer who plans to develop two buildings containing 232,750 rentable square... View Details
- September 2009
- Article
Are You Having Trouble Keeping Your Operations Focused?
As a business broadens over time, it can lose the operational edge that led to its original success. Core strengths atrophy, efficiency or quality suffers, and sharper rivals close in to take advantage of the loss of focus. In his classic article "The Focused Factory"... View Details
- August 2009 (Revised August 2010)
- Supplement
Eddie Bauer (B)
By: Paul M. Healy, Sharon P. Katz and Aldo Sesia
In February 2007, shareholders of Eddie Bauer, the specialty apparel retailer, were scheduled to vote on management's proposed sale of the company to two private equity firms. More than 50% of outstanding shares in Eddie Bauer needed to be voted in favor of the deal... View Details
- July 2009 (Revised July 2009)
- Case
Blue Ocean or Stormy Waters? Buying Nix Check Cashing
By: Peter Tufano
Kinecta Federal Credit Union has the opportunity to purchase Nix Check Cashing as part of their "blue ocean" strategy to reach the financially underserved and increase credit union membership and deposits. But they face financial as well as reputational risk. Check... View Details
- June 2009 (Revised November 2020)
- Case
Busse Place
By: Arthur I Segel, William J. Poorvu, Richard Kessler, Justin Seth Ginsburgh and Eric Fleiss
Busse Corporate Center's largest tenant recently declared bankruptcy, leaving the building 38% occupied and significantly overleveraged. In a depressed suburban Chicago office market, Hannah Sanchez, the leasing agent, has to negotiate lease proposals with three... View Details
- April 2009
- Journal Article
Perspectives on the Productivity Dilemma
By: Paul S. Adler, Mary Benner, David James Brunner, John Paul MacDuffie, Emi Osono, Bradley R. Staats, Hirotaka Takeuchi, Michael Tushman and Sidney G. Winter
For more than a century, operations researchers have recognized that organizations can increase efficiency by adhering strictly to proven process templates, thereby rendering operations more stable and predictable. For several decades, researchers have also recognized... View Details