Publications

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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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23 Mar 2010
First Look

First Look: March 23

are sufficiently large, a pure-strategy equilibrium exists where both B firms are active in the market. Although there is competition in the complement market, the monopoly Firm A may earn lower profits in this environment. Consequently,... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

May 2020
Case

Trust Merchant Bank

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Pippa Tubman Armerding, Dilyana Karadzhova Botha and Salim Dewji

Trust Merchant Bank (TMB), a leading bank in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), needs to decide whether to enter the soon-to-be-liberalized insurance industry. Since its founding in 2004, TMB has played a pivotal role in reshaping the DRC banking landscape by... View Details

Keywords: Retail Banking; Financial Services; Financial Inclusion; Turnaround; Fintech; Banks and Banking; Financial Condition; Insurance; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Business Model; Family Business; Entrepreneurship; Information Technology; Monopoly; Banking Industry; Insurance Industry; Africa; Congo, Democratic Republic of the

October 1990 (Revised March 1993)
Background Note

Note on Cable Television Regulation

By: Willis M. Emmons III

Examines the evolution of the U.S. cable television industry since its inception in the early 1950s. Particular emphasis is given to the roles played by technology, consumer demand, and regulation at both the local and federal level. Designed to facilitate a conceptual... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Demand and Consumers; Government Legislation; Business Growth and Maturation; Monopoly; Television Entertainment; Telecommunications Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry

07 Oct 2008
First Look

First Look: October 7, 2008

School Case 708-477 This is the story of MTC, a Kuwaiti telecom company that has grown from a sleepy, state monopoly to become one of the fastest growing telecom companies in the world, with the largest regional footprint across the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

2024
Article

Half the Firms, Double the Profits: Public Firms' Transformation, 1996–2022

By: Mark J. Roe and Charles C.Y. Wang

The number of public firms in the United States has halved since the beginning of the twenty-first century, causing consternation among corporate and securities law regulators. The dominant explanations, often advanced by Securities and Exchange commissioners when... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Law; Securities Regulation; Sarbanes-Oxley Act; Concentration Levels; Antitrust; Initial Public Offering; Public Ownership; Private Equity; Venture Capital; Mergers and Acquisitions; Monopoly; United States

24 Jun 2014
First Look

First Look: June 24

to curb the monopoly power that they create, most standard-setting organizations require the owners of patents covered by the standard to make a loose commitment to grant licenses on reasonable terms. Such commitments unsurprisingly are... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

27 Jun 2005
Research & Ideas

The Potential Downside of Win-Win

the negotiation. In April 2001, the FTC filed a complaint accusing pharmaceutical companies Schering-Plough and Upsher-Smith of restricting trade. Upsher-Smith had been preparing to introduce a generic pharmaceutical product that would threaten a near View Details

Keywords: by Max H. Bazerman

October 1987 (Revised October 1998)
Case

CVD, Inc. vs. A.S. Markham Corp. (A)

Describes the legal odyssey of two engineers who left their old employer to start a company that was directly competitive. The issues include employment contracts, technology licenses, antitrust, trade secrets, and confidential information. Provides a good opportunity... View Details

Keywords: Business Strategy; Human Resources; Contracts; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Intellectual Property; Ethics; Legal Liability; Business Startups; Monopoly

January 2020
Case

The Origins of Bell Labs

By: Tom Nicholas and John Masko

In 1947, scientists at Bell Labs invented the transistor—a tiny signal amplifier that would go on to become the fundamental building block of the digital age. But, confounding most traditional economic assumptions, it was not a vigorous startup that made this momentous... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Innovation Leadership; Technological Innovation; Patents; Monopoly; Organizational Structure; Competitive Strategy; Telecommunications Industry; Boston; Massachusetts; New York (city, NY)

July 2017
Teaching Plan

'Clarín Lies!': Bias, Post-Truth, and Populism in Argentina's Media War

By: Rafael Di Tella and Sarah McAra

Teaching Note for HBS No. 718-008. View Details

Keywords: Media Regulation; Media; Government and Politics; Policy; Newspapers; Government Legislation; Business and Government Relations; Risk and Uncertainty; Monopoly; Journalism and News Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Argentina

July 2016
Case

The EC Rains on Oracle/Sun (A)

By: Lena G. Goldberg

Oracle's proposed acquisition of Sun was on a fast track until the EC's antitrust concerns about open-source MySQL ignited a transatlantic war of words delaying the deal. Sun's performance suffered and its customers were approached by competitors while regulatory... View Details

Keywords: Law; Antitrust; EC Regulation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Multinational Firms and Management; Laws and Statutes; Monopoly; Business and Government Relations

13 Dec 2011
First Look

First Look: Dec. 13

against foreign monopolies and cartels. In the article we examine how the Norwegian authorities interacted with international cartels and trusts in seven different cases in the interwar period. The study shows that although there was a... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

15 Feb 2011
First Look

First Look: Feb. 15

of asymmetric information between buyers and sellers is significant. However, if this difference is below a certain threshold, then even the incumbent platform will distort its quantity downward. Since a monopoly incumbent would set the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

29 Apr 2014
First Look

First Look: April 29

Abstract—We study the effect of different levels of information on two-sided platform profits under monopoly and competition. One side (developers) is always informed about all prices and therefore forms responsive expectations. In... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

15 May 2012
First Look

First Look: May 15

monopoly incumbent would set the welfare-maximizing level of trade, this result indicates that platform competition may lead to a market failure: competition results in a lower level of trade and lower welfare than a monopoly. We also... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

06 Apr 2016
Research & Ideas

Should Entrepreneurs Pitch Products or Ideas for Products?

idea because the monopoly surplus is higher than that from a duopoly,” Luo explains. This intuition was originally developed by her colleagues Dennis Yao at Harvard Business School and Jim Anton from Duke University. “This threat is more... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Motion Pictures & Video; Entertainment & Recreation; Banking

November 1995 (Revised November 1999)
Case

National Power and the Privatization of the British Power Generation Industry

By: Willis M. Emmons III and Ed Simnett

The British government privatized the nation's electric utility sector in 1991 through a complex process involving the restructuring of the industry as well as the creation of a new regulatory oversight body. National Power plc, the largest of the privatized power... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Trade; Energy Generation; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Markets; Monopoly; Privatization; Opportunities; Diversification; Expansion; Energy Industry; Utilities Industry