Faculty & Research
Harvard Business School faculty members have made notable contributions to the history of business. Faculty research is diverse, based in several of the School’s units, and reflects disciplinary backgrounds in economics, history, sociology, strategy, and political science.
- 13 Jul 2021
- News
Strategies for Underdogs: How Alibaba’s Taobao Beat eBay in China
Re: Felix Oberholzer
| How did underdog Taobao displace eBay in China, and how will it monetize its marketplace for future success?
|
- 2021
- Working Paper
The Origins of CE Marking: Standards, Business, and the European Market in the 1980s–1990s
By: Grace Ballor
| Many products—from consumer electronics to machinery to children’s toys—bear the CE Mark, the symbol of conformity to the ‘essential requirements’ of European standards governed by the process of CE Marking. This working paper traces the development of the system of...
|
- 03 Jun 2021
- News
Walker Webcast: Harvard Business School’s Fritz Foley on the Changing Landscape of Business Education
Re: C. Fritz Foley
| “We can begin to think of HBS as a platform business,” Foley told Walker & Dunlop CEO Willy Walker. In so doing, he added, the school can address the question “how can we best serve learners?”
|
- 07 May 2021
- News
From Dutch Tulips to Internet Stocks, How to Spot a Financial Bubble
Re: Robin Greenwood
| “Periods of great innovation are interesting from an investor’s perspective because you can justify a wide range of valuations,” says Robin Greenwood, a Harvard Business School professor who has studied bubbles. He says another classic example was a 1920s boom in...
|
- 26 Feb 2021
- News
Baker Library Announces New Collection: John Hawkins Research Interviews about Henri Termeer, Longtime Chairman, CEO, and President of Genzyme Corporation
| HBS and Odgers Berndtson jointly announced a new collection for the school’s Baker Library, made up of interviews with the colleagues and family of former Genzyme Corporation Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President Henri A. Termeer, one of biotech’s early...
|
- 23 Feb 2021
- News
Managing Diversity, A Conversation about John Lewis and the Civil Rights Movement
Re: Nancy Koehn
| Historian and Professor Nancy Koehn shared her latest thinking on a case study she and Research Associate Eugene B. Kogan are creating on Congressman John Lewis and the Civil Rights Movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Lewis' death in July 2020 brought to a...
|
- February 2021 (Revised June 2021)
- Case
Barbarians at the Gate or Turnaround Gurus? Private Equity and the Rise of the LBO
By: Tom Nicholas and John Masko
| During the 1980s, leveraged buyouts (LBOs) and the private equity (PE) firms responsible for carrying them out revolutionized both investment and management in the U.S. Between 1980 and 1989, buyout activity in the U.S. surged from $1 billion per year to $60 billion....
|
- 16 Feb 2021
- Working Paper Summaries
Bollywood, Skin Color, and Sexism: The Role of the Film Industry in Emboldening and Contesting Stereotypes in India after Independence
by Sudev Sheth, Geoffrey Jones, and Morgan Spencer
| Analysis of interviews with Bollywood producers and actors shows the extent of biases in the film industry during the decades after India’s independence in 1947. Gender stereotyping has remained a noteworthy feature of films, and bias towards light skin has only...
|
- 2021
- Book Chapter
Sostenibilidad y negocios verdes en América Latina
By: Geoffrey Jones
| This chapter in the first-ever business history textbook on Latin America examines the impact of modern business enterprise on the natural environment of the region between the 19th century and the present day. It argues that although global capitalism created much...
|
- 25 Jan 2021
- Book
In a Nutshell, Why American Capitalism Succeeded
by Sean Silverthorne
| Walter Friedman encapsulates four centuries of economic progress—from European merchants to Steve Jobs—in his efficient book, American Business History: A Very Short Introduction.
|
- 2021
- Working Paper
Bollywood, Skin Color and Sexism: The Role of the Film Industry in Emboldening and Contesting Stereotypes in India after Independence
By: Sudev Sheth, Geoffrey Jones and Morgan Spencer
| This working paper examines the social impact of the film industry in India during the first four decades after Indian Independence in 1947. It shows that Bollywood, the mainstream cinema in India and the counterpart in scale to Hollywood in the United States, shared...
|
- 2021
- Book Chapter
International Business History and the Strategy of Multinational Enterprises: How History Matters
By: Geoffrey Jones and Teresa da Silva Lopes
| This chapter provides an overview of the evolution of international business over the long-run as well as the strategies of MNEs. It highlights how strategies became more complex over time with MNEs moving from being coordinators of resources and managers of...
|
Initiative Leadership
Related Faculty