Publications

21 Sep 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Intra-Industry Foreign Direct Investment

Keywords: by Laura Alfaro & Andrew Charlton

2021
Working Paper

Technology Differentiation and Firm Performance

By: Sam Arts, Bruno Cassiman and Jianan Hou

Prior work has extensively studied how investing in R&D and building a technology portfolio relate to superior firm performance. However, the value of a firm’s technology portfolio should also be driven by the degree to which it is more unique and technologically... View Details

Keywords: Technology Portfolio; Differentiation; Competitiveness; Organizations; Technology; Performance; United States

SSRN

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February 2017
Teaching Note

The Tate's Digital Transformation

By: Jill Avery

John Stack was the visionary Head of Digital Transformation at the Tate, a collection of four major art galleries in the UK, including Tate Modern, the most visited gallery devoted to modern and contemporary art in the world. Stack was the architect of the Tate’s... View Details

Article

Milestones in Marketing

By: John A. Quelch and Katherine Jocz

Marketing flourished in U.S. business schools in the prosperous years following World War II. Students preparing for assistant-product-manager positions at the likes of Procter & Gamble, Lever, and General Foods enrolled in courses in marketing management, management... View Details

Keywords: Education; Business History; Marketing; Practice

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August 2000 (Revised November 2000)
Case

Building Brand Community on the Harley-Davidson Posse Ride

The second Harley-Davidson Posse Ride, a grueling 2,300 mile, 10-day trek from South Padre Island, Tex., to the Canadian Border is billed "for serious riders only." Harley Owner's Group (H.O.G.) Director Mike Keefe must decide whether this rolling rally deserves a... View Details

Keywords: Relationships; Customer Focus and Relationships; Brands and Branding; Motorcycle Industry; United States

26 Jul 2024
Research & Ideas

Why Great Ideas Get Stuck in Universities

Entrepreneurs must overcome many barriers to get discoveries to market, but academic researchers face an additional one they might not realize: themselves. Academics tend to develop a myopic focus on the unique expertise they spend their... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Biotechnology; Health

31 Aug 2010
First Look

First Look: August 31

Authors:Geoffrey Jones and Asli M. Colpan Publication:Chap. 3 in The Oxford Handbook of Business Groups Abstract Business groups—collections of legally independent firms interconnected by multiple economic and social linkages that exhibit widely diversified View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 2001 (Revised May 2002)
Case

Spir-It, Inc. (A): Building the Business

Early in February 1934, two and a half months after the end of prohibition, Jack Sindler sat with a friend in Boston's Ritz Hotel bar enjoying a drink. Sindler worked for the Converse Rubber Co., and he was always inventing something. He held several patents for rubber... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Production; Market Entry and Exit; Management Succession; Entrepreneurship; Product Launch; Acquisition; Growth and Development; Product Development; Manufacturing Industry; Boston

Find at Harvard

March 2018 (Revised July 2020)
Case

Nectar (A)

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Thomas O. Jones

In late 2017, Nectar was a rapidly emerging player in the “bed-in-a-box” online market for direct-to-consumer foam memory mattresses. Barely a year old, it had achieved a revenue run rate of $85M and looked ahead to another year of blistering growth. The founding team... View Details

Keywords: Direct-to-consumer; Growth and Development Strategy; Product; Diversification; Decision Making; Growth Management; Entrepreneurship

September 2021 (Revised December 2023)
Case

On the Bubble: Startup Bootstrapping

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Tom Quinn and Annelena Lobb

Bubble was a software company in the low-code/no-code market, making tools that allowed users without traditional programming backgrounds or technical skills to build software. The case covers cofounder Joshua Haas’s engineering background, as he experienced a high... View Details

2012
Case

Qingdao TGOOD Electric Corporation

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Zheng Xiaoming, Chen Hao and Hong Zhang

Founded in 2004, TGOOD is now the largest specialized developer and producer of cubicle-type transformation and distribution equipment in China, with the main products of outdoor cubicle-type power equipment supplemented by indoor switchgear cabinets, offered mainly to... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Human Resource Management; Strategy; China; China

01 May 2024
What Do You Think?

Have You Had Enough?

Is About Control, Delegation, or Theater? 2006: How Important Is 'Executive Intelligence' for Leaders? 2003: Can We Have Too Much Productivity Improvement? Key historic events: The COVID-19 pandemic: What Are Lessons for Leaders from This... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

2007
Other Unpublished Work

Implementing Technology

By: Diego Comin and Bart Hobijn

We introduce a tractable model of endogenous growth in which the returns to innovation are determined by the technology adoption decisions of the users of new technologies. Technology adoption involves an implementation investment that determines the initial... View Details

Keywords: Learning; Investment; Investment Return; Innovation and Invention; Growth and Development Strategy; Performance Productivity; Technology Adoption

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23 Feb 2009
Research & Ideas

Creative Entrepreneurship in a Downturn

need for substitutes.” Another outcome of a drop-off in consumption and employment is a need for products that become more valuable during such periods when consumers have more time on their hands. An astounding number of media companies... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

Program

Aligning Strategy and Sales

strategic asset, this sales channel strategy program will help you enable essential company-wide alignment. By aligning strategy and sales, you will explore new ways to help sales professionals meet their numbers, how to improve your company's return on investment in... View Details

October 2022
Case

Lyra Health: Transforming Mental Health

By: Rembrand Koning and Nicole Keller

In January 2022, Lyra Health was deciding between several different alternatives to grow the business. Founded in 2015, Lyra Health, was a digital mental health platform that combined technology with human therapists and coaches to deliver high quality mental health... View Details

Keywords: Mental Health; Health Care and Treatment; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Customer Value and Value Chain; Growth and Development Strategy; Expansion; Health Industry; Technology Industry; San Francisco

09 Aug 2011
First Look

First Look: August 9

me to achieve my top priorities?; (3) Do I give subordinates timely and direct feedback they can act on? Have I developed a succession roadmap?; and (4) Is my leadership style still effective, and does it reflect who I truly am? This... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

John A. Quelch

John A. Quelch is Executive Vice Chancellor and Distinguished Professor of Social Science at Duke Kunshan University. He is also John DeButts Professor at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. Between 2017 and 2023 he was the Leonard M. Miller University... View Details

Keywords: consumer products; consumer products; consumer products; consumer products; consumer products; consumer products; consumer products; consumer products; consumer products; consumer products; consumer products; consumer products; consumer products; consumer products

February 2012
Case

Henkel: Building a Winning Culture

By: Robert Simons and Natalie Kindred

This case illustrates a CEO-led organizational transformation driven by stretch goals, performance measurement, and accountability. When Kasper Rorsted became CEO of Henkel, a Germany-based producer of personal care, laundry, and adhesives products, in 2008, he was... View Details

Keywords: Performance Measurement; Performance Appraisals; Human Resource Management; Values; Organizational Transformations; Pay For Performance; Strategy Execution; Values and Beliefs; Work-Life Balance; Organizational Culture; Human Resources; Performance Evaluation; Compensation and Benefits