Publications

2018
Working Paper

Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 5 Complementarity

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

The purpose of this chapter is to relate the theory of task networks and technology set forth in previous chapters to theories of firm boundaries from economics and management. Complementary goods have more value when used together than separately. Complementarity may... View Details

Keywords: Complementarity

SSRN

July 2018
Case

LIXIL Group Corporation: Building a New Company in an Old Industry

By: Boris Groysberg and Akiko Kanno

In the spring of 2018, Kinya Seto, president and CEO of LIXIL Group Corporation, a major housing and building products and services company, called a meeting at the company’s head office in central Tokyo to discuss how to implement the new three-year strategic plan.... View Details

Keywords: Turnaround; Leadership And Change Management; Consolidation; Change Management; Leadership; Global Strategy; Business Model; Consumer Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Japan

February 2023 (Revised March 2025)
Case

Graphic Packaging: Project Cowboy (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and E. Scott Mayfield

In July 2019, Graphic Packaging CEO Michael Doss was proposing a $600 million investment in a new machine to produce coated recycled board (CRB), a type of paper packaging used for consumer products (cups, cereal boxes, beverage boxes, etc.) that utilized recycled... View Details

Keywords: Capital Budgeting; Growth Management; Demand and Consumers; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Expansion; Value Creation; Supply and Industry; Pulp and Paper Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States; North America

Research Summary

Managing Multiple Identities at Work

By: Lakshmi Ramarajan

Peoples’ work identities, which are often a deep source of meaning for them, may conflict with or complement cultural, familial, or personal identities they value. A central focus of Professor Ramarajan’s work is understanding, on the individual level, how these... View Details

March 2022
Article

Where to Locate COVID-19 Mass Vaccination Facilities?

By: Dimitris Bertsimas, Vassilis Digalakis Jr, Alexander Jacquillat, Michael Lingzhi Li and Alessandro Previero

The outbreak of COVID-19 led to a record-breaking race to develop a vaccine. However, the limited vaccine capacity creates another massive challenge: how to distribute vaccines to mitigate the near-end impact of the pandemic? In the United States in particular, the new... View Details

Keywords: Vaccines; COVID-19; Health Care and Treatment; Health Pandemics; Performance Effectiveness; Analytics and Data Science; Mathematical Methods

2022
Article

Which Explanation Should I Choose? A Function Approximation Perspective to Characterizing Post hoc Explanations

By: Tessa Han, Suraj Srinivas and Himabindu Lakkaraju

A critical problem in the field of post hoc explainability is the lack of a common foundational goal among methods. For example, some methods are motivated by function approximation, some by game theoretic notions, and some by obtaining clean visualizations. This... View Details

Keywords: Mathematical Methods; Decision Choices and Conditions; Analytics and Data Science

2012
Working Paper

Risky Business: The Impact of Property Rights on Investment and Revenue in the Film Industry

By: Venkat Kuppuswamy and Carliss Y. Baldwin

Our paper tests a key prediction of property rights theory, specifically, that agents will respond to marginal incentives embedded in property rights when making non-contractible, revenue-enhancing investments (Grossman and Hart, 1986; Hart and Moore, 1990). Using rich... View Details

Keywords: Property Rights; Property; Rights; Investment; Contracts; Revenue; Motivation and Incentives; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; United States

SSRN

May 2012 (Revised August 2014)
Case

McKesson

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Natalie Kindred

McKesson, a large, diversified drug distribution and health care IT company, is considering development of new business offerings to help private practice physicians remain independent. The company, with $122 billion in 2010 revenues, just made its first foray into... View Details

Keywords: Health Care Industry; Health Care Policy; Organizational Transformations; Health Services; Health Care and Treatment; Business Model; Service Operations; Change Management; Corporate Strategy; Information Technology; Policy; Pharmaceutical Industry; Health Industry; United States

04 Apr 2016
HBS Seminar

Shelley Correll, Stanford University

Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting in China: Symbol or Substance?

This study focuses on how and why firms strategically respond to government signals regarding appropriate corporate activity. We integrate institutional theory with research on corporate political strategy to develop a political dependence model that explains (a) how... View Details

2021
Chapter

The Economic and Political Effects of Immigration: Evidence from the Age of Mass Migration

By: Marco Tabellini

Between 1850 and 1920, during the Age of Mass Migration, more than 30 million Europeans moved to the United States. European immigrants provided ample supply of cheap labor as well as specific skills and know-how, contributing to American economic growth. These... View Details

Keywords: Age Of Mass Migration; Political Ideology; Political Economy; Assimilation; Immigration; Economics; History; United States

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February 2024
Case

More than Optics: Olympus's Vision to Become a Leading Global MedTech Company

By: David J. Collis and Haisley Wert

In August 2022, CEO Yasuo Takeuchi reflected on Olympus Corporation’s recent transformation from being known as a Japanese consumer camera company to becoming a leading global medical technology (MedTech) company. Over the past dozen years, Takeuchi and prior... View Details

Keywords: Global Human Resource Management; Medical Technology; Corporate Strategy; Transformation; Globalization; Business Model; Leading Change; Organizational Structure; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Japan; United States

July 2015 (Revised October 2015)
Case

Building Strong Partnerships at the Inter-American Development Bank

By: Amy C. Edmondson, Erin L. Henry, Andreas Georgoulias and Natalie Bartlett

Building Strong Partnerships at the Inter-American Development Bank details the development of the bank's new Office of Outreach Partnerships to sustain a culture of innovation through maintaining and generating partnerships in order to fulfill the bank's greater... View Details

2012
Chapter

When Identities, Interests, and Information Collide: How Subgroups Create Hidden Profiles in Teams

By: Jeffrey T. Polzer, Lisa Kwan and Lisa B. Kwan

Purpose—We review how team members' identities and interests affect team functioning, paying special attention to subgroup dynamics triggered by fault lines and coalitions. This review sets the stage for describing novel pathways through which identities and... View Details

Keywords: Information; Conflict of Interests; Interests; Groups and Teams; Identity; Performance

Find at Harvard

September 2012 (Revised May 2015)
Case

Philips-Visicu

By: Regina E. Herzlinger, Natalie Kindred and Sara M. McKinley

Would the advent of global payment models and ACOs create sufficient demand for a telemedicine offering covering the care continuum, from hospitals to the home? This was the decision facing Royal Philips Electronics (Philips), the Netherlands-based producer of... View Details

April 2001 (Revised July 2002)
Case

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (A)

By: Susan M. Fournier, Kerry Herman, Laura Winig and Andrea Carol Wojnicki

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO), a branded and integrated content and media company dedicated to "elevating the role of the homemaker," went public on October 19, 1999, creating a company with a market value of $1.73 billion, and a stake for Stewart worth $1.2... View Details

Keywords: Management; Media; Identity; Personal Characteristics; Brands and Branding; Media and Broadcasting Industry