Publications

December 2009 (Revised January 2024)
Case

A Letter from Prison

By: Eugene Soltes

Stephen Richards, the former global head of sales at Computer Associates, Inc. (CA), is serving a seven-year prison sentence for financial fraud. In the case, Richards responds to a number of questions about managerial responsibility and the manipulation of financial... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Corporate Accountability; Managerial Roles

31 May 2023
HBS Case

From Prison Cell to Nike’s C-Suite: The Journey of Larry Miller

View Video Editor's note: Watch the video in "full screen" mode for the best viewing experience. Before shaping one of the world’s largest sports brands, Nike executive Larry Miller spent years of his youth... View Details

Keywords: by Jamal Meneide; Entertainment & Recreation; Consumer Products

2022
Chapter

Buying Time? The Vietnam War and Southeast Asia

By: Mattias Fibiger

This article examines the “buying time thesis”—the idea that the American war in Vietnam bought time for the rest of Southeast Asia to build up political, economic, military, and diplomatic defenses against communism. It finds that there is some truth to claims that... View Details

Keywords: Vietnam War; Impact; Legacy; Geopolitics; War; History; Government and Politics; Southeast Asia

February 2019 (Revised January 2022)
Case

The U.S. – China Trade War

By: Alberto Cavallo, Mariana Cal and Anne Laski

On December 1, 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump and China’s Leader Xi Jinping faced each other across a dinner table during a G20 meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina. After what Trump called an “amazing and productive meeting,” the two leaders announced a truce in the... View Details

Keywords: Trade War; Trump; Current Account; NAFTA; Balance Of Payments; Intellectual Property Protection; Trade; Macroeconomics; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; International Relations; United States; China

26 Sep 2016
News

Letters from Prison

2020
Working Paper

Inventing the Endless Frontier: The Effects of the World War II Research Effort on Post-War Innovation

By: Daniel P. Gross and Bhaven N. Sampat

During World War II, the U.S. government launched an unprecedented effort to mobilize science for war: a newly-established Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) entered thousands of R&D contracts with industrial and academic contractors, spending one to... View Details

Keywords: World War II; Vannevar Bush; OSRD; Mission-oriented R＆D; Direction Of Innovation; Geography Of Innovation; Technology Clusters; U.S. Innovation System; Innovation and Invention; Research and Development; Problems and Challenges; War; History; Government Administration; United States

SSRN

30 May 2023
Video

From Prison to Nike’s C-Suite: Larry Miller’s Journey

06 Apr 2018
News

Trade War or a War of Words?

2016
Working Paper

The Impact of Patent Wars on Firm Strategy: Evidence from the Global Smartphone Market

By: Feng Zhu

Strategy scholars have documented in various empirical settings that firms seek and leverage stronger institutions to mitigate hazards and gain competitive advantage. In this paper, we argue that such “institution-seeking” behavior may not be confined to the pursuit of... View Details

Keywords: Patent Wars; Patent Litigation; Intellectual Property (IP) Enforcement; Institutions; Smartphone; Patent Thicket; Digital Platforms; Patents; Lawsuits and Litigation; Globalized Markets and Industries; Business Strategy; Telecommunications Industry

Article

Why Ordinary People Torture Enemy Prisoners

By: S.T. Fiske, L.T. Harris and A.J.C. Cuddy

Keywords: War; Behavior

15 Aug 2008
News

War of the Computers

April 1990 (Revised August 1997)
Case

Organizational Capabilities and U.S. War Production: The Controlled Materials Plan of World War II

By: Robert D. Cuff and Richard S. Tedlow

A vehicle for the discussion of a very important set of institutional arrangements that helped enable America to mobilize its economy for World War II. View Details

Keywords: Economy; Production; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategic Planning; War; United States

1990
Chapter

Private Time: The Political Economy of Private Prison Finance

By: Dutch Leonard

Keywords: Private Sector; Law Enforcement; Corporate Finance

January 1994 (Revised August 1998)
Case

Hold or Fold?: The War of Attrition

Costly "wars of attrition" are common. Examples include: 1) the battle over the business of market-making in British government bonds that took place following the 1986 deregulation of the London financial markets, and 2) the battle that took place in the late 1980s... View Details

Keywords: Competition

November–December 2016
Article

The Impact of Patent Wars on Firm Strategy: Evidence from the Global Smartphone Industry

By: Yongwook Paik and Feng Zhu

Strategy scholars have documented in various empirical settings that firms seek and leverage stronger institutions to mitigate hazards and gain competitive advantage. In this paper, we argue that such “institution-seeking” behavior may not be confined to the pursuit of... View Details

Keywords: Patent Wars; Patent Litigation; Intellectual Property (IP) Enforcement; Institutions; Patent Thicket; Smartphone; Patents; Corporate Strategy; Mobile Technology

Research Summary

War & Peace

By: Deepak Malhotra

A second stream of research looks at issues related to conflict resolution in the context of international and ethno-political conflict, and in particular, at the role of negotiation in ending armed conflicts. I launched a new course at HBS entitled "War & Peace:... View Details

2019
Working Paper

The Consequences of Invention Secrecy: Evidence from the USPTO Patent Secrecy Program in World War II

By: Daniel P. Gross

This paper studies the effects of the USPTO's patent secrecy program in World War II, under which over 11,000 U.S. patent applications were issued secrecy orders that halted examination and prohibited inventors from disclosing their inventions or filing in foreign... View Details

Keywords: Invention Secrecy; Invention Disclosure; Trade Secrecy; Secrecy Orders; Cummulative Innovation; Wold War 2; Patents; National Security; History; Innovation and Invention; Outcome or Result; Intellectual Property; Policy; Commercialization; United States

SSRN

October 2023
Teaching Note

Metaverse Wars

By: Andy Wu and Matt Higgins

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 723-431. Metaverse Wars recaps the development of the metaverse concept and the attendant hype, bringing the narrative up to the summer of 2023 when Meta’s big pivot looked more like a costly misstep than a stroke of strategic genius. In... View Details

Keywords: Metaverse; Strategy; Social Media; Internet and the Web; Technology Adoption; Technological Innovation; Technology Industry

May 2006 (Revised November 2006)
Case

DVD War

By: David B. Yoffie and Michael Slind

In 2006, the DVD was the most popular storage medium in the entertainment and computer industries. The development of high-definition (HD) technology created a need for a format with greater storage capacity. Instead of agreeing on a single standard for a new HD disc,... View Details

Keywords: Disruption; Entertainment; Business History; Intellectual Property; Product; Competition; Technology Adoption; Electronics Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry