by Nancy Koehn - Publications - Faculty & Research

29 Oct 2000
Research & Ideas

Building a Powerful Prestige Brand

Lauder, founded Estée Lauder Cosmetics. By the time she retired from public life in the mid-1990s, this company had become one of the largest cosmetics manufacturers in the world and was recognized as one of the leading players in the... View Details

Keywords: by Nancy F. Koehn; Beauty & Cosmetics; Consumer Products; Retail

07 Dec 1999
Research & Ideas

Henry Heinz and Brand Creation in the Late Nineteenth Century

demand for pure, savory condiments and sauces was enormous. In thinking through the possible appeal of his offerings, Heinz had no quantitative information on contemporary purchasing power. He did not know in the 1870s that real per capita incomes would grow View Details

Keywords: by Nancy F. Koehn

20 Aug 2008
Op-Ed

The Time is Right for Creative Capitalism

capitalism is "an approach where governments, businesses, and nonprofits work together to stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make a profit, or gain recognition, doing work that eases the world's inequities." Harvard Business School... View Details

Keywords: by Nancy Koehn

October 2021
Article

Nancy Koehn on Leadership Lessons from Rep. John Lewis and the Civil Rights Movement

By: Nancy F. Koehn and Devjani Roy

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May 2020
Article

How History's Great Leaders Managed Anxiety: Historian Nancy Koehn on What Lincoln, Shackleton, and Others Knew About Handling Collective Anxiety—and Their Own—During a Crisis

By: Nancy F. Koehn

Keywords: Leadership; Crisis Management

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16 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Making the Most of Government Upheaval

transformational process hypothesized in their study may also be applicable to companies in newly emerging economies outside Latin America, such as Eastern Europe, northern Africa, China, and India. Setting out on their research, Oliva and Suarez were both intrigued... View Details

Keywords: by Nancy O. Perry

25 Jan 2000
Research & Ideas

Strategic Alliances

Timberland's sponsorship of City Year events and City Year–organized projects for Timberland employees—that made clear their mutual interest in making a positive impact on society. By the third, or integrative, stage of a relationship... View Details

Keywords: by Nancy O. Perry

February 2019
Case

Volvo Cars: Acquisition by Geely

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Willy Shih and Nancy Dai

Zheijiang Geely Holding Company's acquisition of Volvo Cars was widely viewed with skepticism because of the poor track record of cross-border auto industry acquisitions. This case looks at the acquisition and post-acquisition integration from the point of view of... View Details

Keywords: Merger Integration; Organization Culture; Organization Behavior; Organizational Alignment; Mergers and Acquisitions; Integration; Alignment; Organizational Culture; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Auto Industry; China; Sweden

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Research Summary

Wage Policies and Incentives to Invest in Firm-Specific Human Capital (joint with George Baker and Nancy Dean Beaulieu)

The accumulation of firm-specific knowledge improves firm productivity and employee reten-tion, by creating a wedge between what the employee is worth inside and outside the firm. How does the firm create incentives for investment in firm-specific human capital when... View Details

June 2010 (Revised July 2011)
Case

China Environment Fund: Doing Well by Doing Good

By: Christopher Marquis and Nancy Dai

In early 2010, cleantech investment pioneer Tsing Capital was planning for the China Environment Fund IV and considering how to maintain its commitment to social and environmental practices. Tsing Capital embraced its philosophy of "Doing Well by Doing Good" and... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business Strategy; Balance and Stability; Environmental Sustainability; Climate Change; Energy Conservation; Business Organization; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Venture Capital; Financial Services Industry; China

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04 Aug 2003
Research & Ideas

Shackleton: An Entrepreneur of Survival

In recent years, polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton has been celebrated through books, memoirs, several films, and a major museum exhibit. His achievements on the ice have much to teach business students and executives, says Harvard Business School professor View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

02 Aug 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Discrimination, Disenfranchisement and African American WWII Military Enlistment

Keywords: by Nancy Qian and Marco Tabellini

June 2001
Book Review

Review of Shelf Space, by Kurtzman and Rifkin

By: Nancy F. Koehn

Citation

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March 25, 2001
Article

An Information Age Led by Business, So Far

By: Nancy F. Koehn

Keywords: Information; Business Ventures

Citation

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04 Oct 2017
Book

Five Leaders Forged in Crisis, and What We Can Learn From Them

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

25 Jun 2007
Research & Ideas

HBS Cases: Beauty Entrepreneur Madam Walker

Katherine Miller. When Koehn recently taught "Madam C.J. Walker" in her MBA course Entrepreneurial Leadership: Past, Present, and Future, her students in turn discussed Walker's rise against a historical backdrop dominated View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Beauty & Cosmetics

09 Jan 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Economic Transition and Private-Sector Labor Demand: Evidence from Urban China

Keywords: by Lakshmi Iyer, Xin Meng, Nancy Qian & Xiaoxue Zhao

20 Feb 2006
HBS Case

Oprah: A Case Study Comes Alive

The best and brightest executives in the world are common visitors to the MBA classrooms at Harvard Business School, giving students a personal opportunity to talk to the likes of Ann Fudge, Lou Gerstner, Meg Whitman, and Jack Welch. Still, when Professor View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Media & Broadcasting; Consumer Products; Entertainment & Recreation

23 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Brand Power from Wedgwood to Dell: Part Two

entrepreneurs, says HBS professor Nancy F. Koehn. In Part One of a discussion about her recent book—in the April 16 issue of HBS Working Knowledge—Koehn described the brand-building savvy of three entrepreneurs in the past, as well as... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace