Globalization

Globalization is a featured research topic and an initiative at Harvard Business School.
 
The globalization of business has long encouraged Harvard Business School (HBS) faculty to research international business practices and the effects of globalization. Seminal contributions - Christopher Bartlett on managing across borders, Michael Porter on competition in global industries, and Louis Wells on foreign investment in emerging markets - helped pave today’s global research path. Supported by eight Global Research Centers that facilitate our contact with global companies and the collection of international data, key investigations concentrate on the effectiveness of management practices in global organizations; cross-cultural learning and adaptation processes; the challenges of taking companies global; emerging-market companies with global potential; and international political economy and its impact on economic development.

Featured Works

 

  1. Article | Review of Economic Studies | January 2020

    Gifts of the Immigrants, Woes of the Natives: Lessons from the Age of Mass Migration

    Marco Tabellini

    In this paper, I jointly investigate the political and the economic effects of immigration and study the causes of anti-immigrant sentiments. I exploit exogenous variation in European immigration to U.S. cities between 1910 and 1930 induced by World War I and the Immigration Acts of the 1920s as well as instrument immigrants’ location decision relying on pre-existing settlement patterns. I find that immigration triggered hostile political reactions, such as the election of more conservative legislators, higher support for anti-immigration legislation, and lower redistribution. Exploring the causes of natives’ backlash, I document that immigration increased natives’ employment, spurred industrial production, and did not generate losses even among natives working in highly exposed sectors. These findings suggest that opposition to immigration was unlikely to have economic roots. Instead, I provide evidence that natives’ political discontent was increasing in the cultural differences between immigrants and natives. Results in this paper indicate that, even when diversity is economically beneficial, it may nonetheless be socially hard to manage.

    Keywords: Political backlash; Age of Mass Migration; cultural diversity; Immigration; History; Economy; Attitudes; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Diversity;

    Citation:

    Tabellini, Marco. "Gifts of the Immigrants, Woes of the Natives: Lessons from the Age of Mass Migration." Review of Economic Studies 87, no. 1 (January 2020): 454–486. (Also Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-005, July 2018. Available also from Cato Institute and VOX.)  View Details
    CiteView DetailsFind at Harvard Read Now Related

  2. Case | HBS Case Collection | December 2019

    The Dutch East India Company in 1612 (A)

    Lynn S. Paine and Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci

    The Dutch East India Company’s board of directors must decide what to do about an impending legal requirement to liquidate the company’s assets and return to shareholders their capital and any profits earned during a ten-year lock up period. The charter granted to the company in 1602 by the Dutch Estates General (legislature) required the liquidation and accounting to shareholders after the initial ten-year period and again at the end of a second ten-year period. However, the company’s directors believe that more time is needed to reap the benefits of shareholders’ initial investments and that liquidating the company’s assets after the initial ten-year lock-up would make it impossible to raise capital for the second ten-year term. The case describes the origins of the Dutch East India Company, the world’s first publicly-traded multinational company, and traces key aspects of the company’s governance and development during its first ten years, including the emergence of disagreement among shareholders about corporate strategy and dividend policy.

    Keywords: Corporate Governance; Globalized Firms and Management; Organizational Structure; Laws and Statutes; Financial Markets; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Government Relations; Business History; Shipping Industry; Netherlands;

    Citation:

    Paine, Lynn S., and Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci. "The Dutch East India Company in 1612 (A)." Harvard Business School Case 320-047, December 2019.  View Details
    CiteView DetailsEducatorsRelated

  3. Article | Organization Science | November–December 2019

    Head, Heart or Hands: How Do Employees Respond to a Radical Global Language Change Over Time?

    Sebastian Reiche and Tsedal Neeley

    To understand how recipients respond to radical change over time across cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions, we conducted a longitudinal study of a mandated language change at a Chilean subsidiary of a large U.S. multinational organization. The engineering-focused subsidiary aiming to facilitate cross-border interactions embedded language acquisition experts to transition all employees from Spanish to English full time. We gathered survey data and objective fluency scores from the language change recipients at five points over a period of two years. Using variable and person-centered exploratory analyses, our results suggest that recipients’ negative affective responses to the language change precede their cognitive responses or self-efficacy, predicting their current language learning. Further, we find that recipients’ cognitive and affective responses over time differentially influence two future behavioral outcomes: intention to leave the organization and willingness to adopt the change. While cognitive rather than affective responses over time drive recipients’ intentions to leave, affective responses influence recipients’ willingness to adopt English. Finally, we show that change recipients followed three trajectories of cognitive responses and two trajectories of affective responses over time. We discuss theoretical and practical implications to the literature on organizational change, emotions, and language in global organizations.

    Keywords: language; Communication; Change; Employees; Attitudes; Emotions; Globalized Firms and Management;

    Citation:

    Reiche, Sebastian, and Tsedal Neeley. "Head, Heart or Hands: How Do Employees Respond to a Radical Global Language Change Over Time?" Organization Science 30, no. 6 (November–December 2019): 1252–1269.  View Details
    CiteView DetailsFind at HarvardRelated

  4. Case | HBS Case Collection | October 2019 (Revised December 2019)

    La Roche-Posay: Growing L'Oreal's Active Cosmetics Brand

    Jill Avery, Vincent Dessain and Mette Fuglsang Hjortshoej

    As 2018 neared its end, Laetitia Toupet, international general manager of L’Oréal’s La Roche-Posay brand reflected on the brand’s achievements over the past year. At €1 billion in revenue, La Roche-Posay had recently become the number one dermocosmetics brand in the world. While Toupet was pleased with this feat, she believed that the brand was at a critical juncture. It was time to make some significant marketing decisions related to brand positioning to try to accelerate La Roche-Posay’s future growth trajectory as dermocosmetics moved from serving a niche market to the mainstream.

    Keywords: branding; brand management; consumer products; brand positioning; target market; global brands; global marketing; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Globalized Firms and Management; Consumer Products Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Health Industry; France; Europe; Brazil; China; Asia; South America; United States; North America;

    Citation:

    Avery, Jill, Vincent Dessain, and Mette Fuglsang Hjortshoej. "La Roche-Posay: Growing L'Oreal's Active Cosmetics Brand." Harvard Business School Case 520-035, October 2019. (Revised December 2019.)  View Details
    CiteView DetailsEducatorsPurchaseRelated

  5. Case | HBS Case Collection | October 2019

    Relevent and LaLiga: Bringing Spanish Soccer to America

    Anita Elberse and David Moreno Vicente

    “Barcelona backs out of proposed LaLiga match in Miami.” It is December 2018, and Daniel Sillman, chief executive officer of sports and entertainment company Relevent, is tasked with finding a way forward after a significant setback. Relevent had found success by convincing some of Europe’s highest-profile soccer clubs to play pre-season matches in North America as part of its annual International Champions Cup (ICC), held during the summer months. Building on that success, Relevent is now seeking to bring at least one official LaLiga match to the U.S, each season—an effort that is a key pillar of Relevent’s new, 15-year partnership with the Spanish soccer league, aimed at promoting the LaLiga brand in North America. However, the match that Relevent had selected to take place in Miami in January 2019, between FC Barcelona and Girona FC, had become a source of tension, drawing protests from the Spanish football federation, the Spanish players’ association, and the president of worldwide governing body FIFA. Today, FC Barcelona’s leadership team had announced the club would withdraw. Would Relevent find success in bringing a LaLiga match to the United States? And, more generally, did Relevent have the right approach to growing the LaLiga brand in North America?

    Keywords: soccer; football; superstars; Talent; talent development; general management; Marketing; Entertainment; Sports; Media; Talent and Talent Management; Globalization; Strategy; Sports Industry;

    Citation:

    Elberse, Anita, and David Moreno Vicente. "Relevent and LaLiga: Bringing Spanish Soccer to America." Harvard Business School Case 520-021, October 2019.  View Details
    CiteView DetailsEducatorsPurchaseRelated

  6. Article | Journal of International Business Studies

    Organizational Innovation in the Multinational Enterprise: Internalization Theory and Business History

    Teresa da Silva Lopes, Mark Casson and G. Jones

    This article engages in a methodological experiment by using historical evidence to challenge a common misperception about internalization theory. The theory has often been criticized for maintaining that it assumes a hierarchically organized MNE based on knowledge flowing from the home country. This is not an accurate description of how global firms operate in recent decades, but this article shows it has never been true historically. Using longitudinal data on individual firms from the nineteenth century onwards, it reveals evidence of how entrepreneurs and firms with multinational activity faced by market imperfections changed the design of their headquarters and their organizational structures.

    Keywords: Internalization; multinational strategy; business history; entrepreneurship; organization and management theory; Globalization; Entrepreneurship; Governance; History; Organizations; Theory; Africa; Asia; Europe; Latin America; North and Central America;

    Citation:

    da Silva Lopes, Teresa, Mark Casson, and G. Jones. "Organizational Innovation in the Multinational Enterprise: Internalization Theory and Business History." Journal of International Business Studies 50, no. 8 (October 2019): 1338–1358.  View Details
    CiteView DetailsFind at Harvard Read Now Related

  7. Case | HBS Case Collection | September 2019 (Revised September 2019)

    Port Competition in the Pearl River Delta

    Willy Shih

    This case examines the competition between ports and port operators in the Pearl River Delta over the last four decades. The cities surrounding the Pearl River estuary are the "workshop of the world," and the development of manufacturing in the region was heavily dependent on efficient container shipping. As China has opened up and drawn more direct trade traffic to Shenzhen and Guangzhou ports, the operators in Hong Kong have had to adapt. More change is afoot, and Hong Kong may have to reinvent itself again.

    Keywords: trade links; global business; Globalization; Trade; Supply Chain; Logistics; Transportation Industry; Asia; Hong Kong; China;

    Citation:

    Shih, Willy. "Port Competition in the Pearl River Delta." Harvard Business School Case 620-038, September 2019. (Revised September 2019.)  View Details
    CiteView DetailsEducatorsRelated

  8. Case | HBS Case Collection | August 2019

    Huawei and the U.S.-China Trade War

    Elie Ofek and John Masko

    In 2019, Chinese smartphone maker and telecommunications empire Huawei was preparing to launch its new flagship smartphone series, the Mate 30. After years of explosive growth, the previous 18 months had been a challenge for the company. In early 2018, Huawei’s planned smartphone launch in the U.S. had failed due to pressure from regulators who cited concerns about the company facilitating Chinese spying. Over the following months, a trade war between the U.S. and China had broken out, with Huawei at its epicenter. By mid-2019, after months of U.S. pressure and restrictions, Huawei found its supply chain for computer parts and software under siege and several governments around the world threatened to ban its 5G network equipment from their countries. In this unpredictable climate, Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei and his management team had to figure out not only how to successfully launch Mate 30 phones in the upcoming fall, but also how to ensure the company’s long-term viability.

    Keywords: Trade; Global Strategy; International Relations; National Security; Mobile Technology; Hardware; Volatility; Adaptation; Telecommunications Industry; China; United States; European Union;

    Citation:

    Ofek, Elie, and John Masko. "Huawei and the U.S.-China Trade War." Harvard Business School Case 520-017, August 2019.  View Details
    CiteView DetailsEducatorsPurchaseRelated

  9. Case | HBS Case Collection | August 2019

    Lemonade: Disrupting Insurance with Instant Everything, Killer Prices, and a Big Heart

    Elie Ofek and Danielle Golan

    Launching its first products in the fall of 2016 in New York, insurtech startup Lemonade was on a mission to disrupt the insurance market by using AI and behavioral economics principles. The company offered renters, homeowners, and condo insurance and mainly targeted millennial, tech-savvy individuals with relatively few assets—customers who were less attractive to traditional insurers who had costly, labor-intensive operations. By offering a delightful, bot-driven consumer experience, embracing a model that removed any incentive to deny claims and that let customers pick causes to donate leftover money, building a loveable brand, and employing creative digital advertising—the company was able to grow at an impressive pace. By the end of 2018, Lemonade was active in 24 U.S. states, had insured 425,000 customers, and was expecting sales (gross premiums) of over $57 million.
    In an effort to sustain the spectacular growth momentum, the co-founders sought to pursue ambitious plans in 2019, including the launch of new insurance product lines as well as international expansion. But limited resources and scarce management bandwidth suggested that taking on both moves simultaneously could be highly risky. In deciding which path to take, the leadership team had to consider whether it was more important at this stage to scale globally with the current product lineup or to cover a breadth of insurance categories and stay in the U.S. for now. Assessing the relevance of the business model and the role of AI for each of these moves, understanding the nature of consumers in different markets, and foreseeing competitive pressures from both incumbents and startups were key in making the right call.

    Keywords: Business Startups; Insurance; Technological Innovation; Business Model; Disruption; Brands and Branding; Growth and Development Strategy; Global Strategy; Decision Making; Insurance Industry; Technology Industry;

    Citation:

    Ofek, Elie, and Danielle Golan. "Lemonade: Disrupting Insurance with Instant Everything, Killer Prices, and a Big Heart." Harvard Business School Case 520-020, August 2019.  View Details
    CiteView DetailsEducatorsPurchaseRelated

  10. Chapter | The Routledge Companion to the Makers of Global Business | 2019

    Origins and Development of Global Business

    G. Jones

    This chapter explores how business enterprises have been powerful actors in the spread of global capitalism between 1840 and the present day. Emerging out of the industrialized Western economies, global firms created and co-created markets and ecosystems through their ability to transfer a package of financial, organizational, and cultural assets, skills, and ideologies across national borders. They have been major drivers of trade growth, which they often organized within their own boundaries. They have been shapers of, as well as responders to, globalization waves. They were also actors in periodic de-globalization waves, mainly because they functioned as reinforcers of gaps in wealth and income rather than disrupters of them. They were disappointing institutions for knowledge and technology transfer. In recent decades, the domination of global markets by Western and Japanese firms have shifted to a situation in which they competed as equals with firms based in China, India, the Arab Gulf, and elsewhere in the non-Western world. This trend is likely to accelerate as the growing fragility of institutional structures in the United States and the European Union further weakens the competitiveness of firms based in those regions.

    Keywords: global business; multinational; Globalization; Business History; Strategy; Africa; Asia; Europe; Latin America; Middle East; North and Central America; Oceania;

    Citation:

    Jones, G. "Origins and Development of Global Business." Chap. 2 in The Routledge Companion to the Makers of Global Business, edited by Teresa da Silva Lopes, Christina Lubinski, and Heidi J.S. Tworek, 17–34. New York: Routledge, 2019.  View Details
    CiteView DetailsRelated
    11.  
See all faculty publications on Globalization »

Initiatives & Projects

  • Global

    The Global Initiative builds on a legacy of global engagement by supporting the HBS community of faculty, students, and alumni in their work, encouraging a global outlook in research, study, and practice.

Faculty

Seminars & Conferences

MORE »

 

HBS Working Knowledge

Pic
re Willy C. Shih
Not many Chinese companies open manufacturing facilities in the US, but automotive glass maker Fuyao is considering just that. In a recent case study, Willy Shih examines factors that go into decidin
Pic
re Geoffrey G. Jones
Geoffrey Jones discusses the overthrow of President Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala in 1954 in a US-backed coup supporting United Fruit Company and a key landmark in the history of globalization.
Pic
re William R. Kerr
High-skilled workers in today’s knowledge-based economy are arguably the most important resource to the success of businesses, regions, and industries. This chapter pulls from Kerr’s book The Gift of

More »

Harvard Business Publishing

Article
by Paul M. Healy and Karthik Ramanna
Case
by Jill Avery, Vincent Dessain and Mette Fuglsang Hjortshoej

More »

Campus Map
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→ Map & Directions
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College