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Publications
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- November 2023
- Case
Open Source Machine Learning at Google
Set in early 2023, the case exposes students to the challenges of managing open source software at Google. The case focuses on the challenges for Alex Spinelli, Vice President of Product Management for Core Machine Learning. He must set priorities for Google’s efforts... View Details
- October 2022
- Case
Margaret Thatcher: Changing the World
By: Robert L. Simons and Shirley Sun
This case traces the rise of Margaret Thatcher, the daughter of a shopkeeper, from a small industrial town in England to the longest-serving leader in the Western world. The case describes how she became interested in politics at an early age, attended Oxford, and... View Details
- April 2021 (Revised February 2023)
- Case
Mahatma Gandhi: Changing the World
By: Robert Simons and Max Saffer
This case traces the rise of Mohandas Gandhi from his early days in British-controlled India to the inspirational martyr who, through personal deprivation and leadership, inspired millions and became the catalyst for India to break away from Britain. The case describes... View Details
- 2020
- Chapter
Business, Ethics and Institutions. The Evolution of Turkish Capitalism in a Comparative Perspective
By: Asli M. Colpan and Geoffrey Jones
This chapter offers a survey of the evolution of Turkish capitalism from the 19th century Ottoman Empire until the present day. It shows that Turkish business over the last century and a half was shaped in an institutional context similar to those in many developing... View Details
- 2017
- Working Paper
Creating the Market for Organic Wine: Sulfites, Certification, and Green Values
By: Geoffrey Jones and Emily Grandjean
This working paper examines the history of organic wine, which provides a case study of failed category creation. The modern organic wine industry emerged during the 1970s in the United States and Western Europe, but it struggled to gain traction compared to other... View Details
- September 2016 (Revised April 2022)
- Case
Zhang Xin and the Emergence of Chinese Philanthropy
By: Geoffrey Jones and Amanda Yang
This case examines the recent emergence of Chinese business philanthropy through the case of the SOHO China Foundation established by the wife and husband real estate moguls Zhang Xin and Pan Shiyi. It begins by describing the early careers of Zhang and Pan, and how... View Details
- February 2016 (Revised August 2021)
- Case
Martin Luther King and the Struggle for Black Voting Rights
By: David Moss and Dean Grodzins
In January 1965, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., the most prominent leader of the civil rights movement in the United States, launched a campaign of civil disobedience in Selma, Alabama, to bring national attention to disenfranchisement of black voters in the South. On... View Details
Keywords: Rights; Voting; Race; Government and Politics; Conflict and Resolution; Leadership; History; Alabama
- Article
The Economy of Fear: H.P. Lovecraft on Eugenics, Economics and the Great Depression
The early twentieth-century weird writer Howard Phillips Lovecraft is today best remembered for his genre defining style of academic noir pulp fiction. Yet in focusing on certain tropes of his work, such as the many memorable monsters he created to populate his... View Details
- November 2014
- Case
Napalm: From Soldiers Field to Trang Bang
By: Tom Nicholas and Jonas Peter Akins
Napalm is one of the most destructive weapons ever to be invented. Yet, at its original inception it was nothing more than a technical challenge, and it was never intended to be used in indiscriminate antipersonnel warfare. The pathway of its development by a Harvard... View Details
- 2014
- Chapter
Technology, Innovation and Economic Growth in Britain Since 1870
By: Tom Nicholas
This chapter examines technological change in Britain over the last 140 years. It analyzes the effects of patent laws and innovation prizes that were designed to promote technical progress. It explores the challenge associated with the changing organizational structure... View Details
- 2013
- Book
The Political Economy of Empire in the Early Modern World
By: Sophus A. Reinert and Pernille Røge
This volume recasts our understanding of the practical and theoretical foundations and dynamic experiences of early modern imperialism. The imperial encounter with political economy was neither uniform across political, economic, cultural, and religious constellations... View Details
- 2012
- Working Paper
'Power from Sunshine': A Business History of Solar Energy
By: Geoffrey Jones and Loubna Bouamane
This working paper provides a longitudinal perspective on the business history of solar energy between the nineteenth century and the present day. It covers early attempts to develop solar energy, the use of passive solar in architecture before World War 2, and the... View Details
- 2012
- Book
The Rise of the Modern Firm
By: Geoffrey Jones and Walter A. Friedman
This authoritative volume focuses on the rise of modern firms, from their early history to the present day. It considers the role of laws and contracts in shaping the growth and influence of business enterprises. It presents entrepreneurs, executives and the firms they... View Details
- 2011
- Book
Translating Empire: Emulation and the Origins of Political Economy
Historians have traditionally used the discourses of free trade and laissez-faire to explain the development of political economy during the Enlightenment. But from Sophus Reinert's perspective, eighteenth-century political economy can be understood only in the context... View Details
- April 2011
- Article
The Origins of Japanese Technological Modernization
By: Tom Nicholas
Explanations of Japanese technological modernization from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century have increasingly focused on domestic capabilities as opposed to the traditional emphasis on knowledge transfers from the West. Yet, the literature is mostly... View Details
Keywords: Knowledge Sharing; Body of Literature; Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Patents; Measurement and Metrics; Expansion; Growth and Development Strategy; Economic Growth; Developing Countries and Economies; Information Technology; Technology Industry; Japan; Germany; Great Britain; United States
- March 2011
- Article
Cheaper Patents
By: Tom Nicholas
The 1883 Patents Act in Britain provides perspective for modern patent policy reforms because it radically changed incentives for inventors by reducing filing fees by 84 percent. Patents increased 2.5 fold after the reform, which was evenly distributed across the... View Details
Keywords: Patents; Global Range; Distribution; Demand and Consumers; Organizational Structure; Business Processes; Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Policy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Fluctuation; Motivation and Incentives; Distribution Industry; United States; Great Britain
- November 2010
- Technical Note
Technical Note: An Abridged History of the American Corporation
By: Rakesh Khurana, Andrew David Klaber and Eric Baldwin
This note examines the development of the corporate form in the United States from the eighteenth century to the present, focusing primarily on legal issues. It identifies several major trends in the history of the American corporation: the transition of corporations... View Details
- June 2010 (Revised January 2019)
- Case
The Guggenheims and Chilean Nitrates
By: Geoffrey Jones and Felipe Tamega Fernandes
The case describes the growth of Guggenheim Brothers as one of the largest mining companies in the world in the early twentieth century. Global expansion led the firm to Chile, first in copper and later in natural nitrates. Chile's economic growth was driven by the... View Details