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. Case | HBS Case Collection | September 2020

    An Introduction to Money Laundering: 'The Hunter'

    Eugene Soltes, Guilhem Ros and Grace Liu

    Money laundering schemes disguise the criminal origins of an estimated 2% to 5% of the world’s gross domestic product. Money laundering not only enables criminals to escape detection, but may also be used to finance further criminal operations including terrorism. This case introduces readers to money laundering and anti-money laundering (AML) techniques.

    Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Accounting Audits; Financial Reporting; Financial Institutions; Banks and Banking; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Governance Controls; International Relations; National Security; Ethics; Accounting Industry; Banking Industry; United States; Europe;

    Citation:

    Soltes, Eugene, Guilhem Ros, and Grace Liu. "An Introduction to Money Laundering: 'The Hunter'." Harvard Business School Case 121-011, September 2020.  View Details
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  2. Case | HBS Case Collection | August 2020

    Migros Turkey: Scaling Online Operations (A)

    Antonio Moreno and Gamze Yucaoglu

    The case opens in November 2019 as Ozgur Tort and Mustafa Bartin, CEO and chief large-format and online retail officer of Migros Ticaret A.S. (Migros), Turkey’s oldest and one of its largest supermarket chains, are contemplating what the best fulfillment format and delivery model for the company’s growing online arm, Sanal Market, and its under-30-minutes gorcery service arm, Hemen, are. Migros’s online operations had grown over 50% year-on-year in the previous three years, and the target for 2020 was to grow 100%. With all of these considerations in mind, Bartin and Tort needed to decide which levers to pull for the last mile and fulfillment to best serve the future of Migros. The case chronicles the founding and growth of Migros as well as Sanal Market and lays the ground for food and grocery retail in Turkey complete with the competitive outlook. The case then provides a detailed overview of how Migros built online channels, Sanal Market and its recently introduced Hemen, and how Tort and Bartin have thought about fulfillment and delivery as well as omnichannel mentality. The case goes into detail about the three different fulfillment models, store pick micro-fulfillment center, and dark store, that Migros is piloting in 2019 as well as providing an understanding of what the company is thinking about logistics and last mile delivery as its online sales grow. While globally, online shopping and consumer preferences were changing fast, particularly in terms of how and with what frequency customers shopped online and how fast they wanted their groceries delivered, Migros was trying to find the optimum model for fulfillment and last mile delivery. What was the best way to optimize last mile with regards to pooling store catchment areas and pooling stores, and which of the fulfillment models would yield the best results in terms of picking speed and accuracy and customer expectations? Additionally, the company needed to figure out how to position Hemen; facing fierce competition from fast-delivery grocery startups, for whom burning cash to achieve growth was not a concern, should Hemen remain as a stand-alone offering or should it be integrated within the Sanal Market app?

    Keywords: business model; emerging markets; retail; for-profit firms; Turkey; strategy; Technology Platform; information technology; technology adoption; value creation; Business Model; Strategy; Technology Platform; Information Technology; Technology Adoption; Value Creation; Globalization; Competition; Expansion; Logistics; Profit; Resource Allocation; Corporate Strategy; Turkey;

    Citation:

    Moreno, Antonio, and Gamze Yucaoglu. "Migros Turkey: Scaling Online Operations (A)." Harvard Business School Case 621-026, August 2020.  View Details
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  3. Case | HBS Case Collection | August 2020

    Beyond Beer: Brewing Innovation at Molson Coors

    Derek C. M. van Bever, Stephen P. Kaufman, James Barnett and Shaye Roseman

    In March 2019, Molson Coors CEO Mark Hunter considered a request to pull forward $65 million CAD in anticipated future funding for Truss Beverages, a Toronto-based cannabis beverage company that Molson Coors created in a joint venture with a Canadian cannabis production company. The request was for the construction of a new production facility for cannabis beverages, a new product in an as-yet-nascent market.

    Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Joint Ventures; Ethics; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Food and Beverage Industry; United States; Canada; Colorado;

    Citation:

    van Bever, Derek C. M., Stephen P. Kaufman, James Barnett, and Shaye Roseman. "Beyond Beer: Brewing Innovation at Molson Coors." Harvard Business School Case 321-008, August 2020.  View Details
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  4. Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2020

    Of Learning and Forgetting: Centrism, Populism, and the Legitimacy Crisis of Globalization

    Rawi Abdelal

    Every order is a bargain with disappointments and trade-offs. Thus is every order an unstable equilibrium. The first era of globalization, circa 1870–1914, created both international prosperity and domestic instability. That instability was fully realized during the interwar years, which were characterized by financial chaos, virulent populist movements, and war. European and American political leaders learned hard lessons from those decades: that the international order must tolerate a diversity of national capitalisms; and that capitalisms within nations must be tamed in order to be made compatible with democracy. A generation later, both scholars and policy makers seemed to have forgotten how important the post-war bargains were for maintaining economic and social stability. Instead, preoccupied by the disappointments of the 1970s, a new pro-market, pro-capital consensus emerged between the center-Left and center-Right. A second post-war international order emerged as a result: a new era of globalization made possible by this “neoliberal” political consensus. The new order was more trans-Atlantic than American, for European political transformations made it possible. This era of globalization created both prosperity and instability, just as the first era had done. Instability took the form again of virulent populism, driven by economic inequality, financial volatility, and a crisis of dignity among those who felt left behind by it. Although we are learning that neither national societies nor the international system can manage the trade-offs of globalization and neoliberalism well enough to avoid a backlash, in fact those lessons were learned once before. The cycle continues: learning, forgetting, and re-learning why these equilibria are unstable.

    Keywords: centrism; populism; Globalization; History; Balance and Stability; Economic Systems; Government and Politics; Learning;

    Citation:

    Abdelal, Rawi. "Of Learning and Forgetting: Centrism, Populism, and the Legitimacy Crisis of Globalization." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 21-008, July 2020.  View Details
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  5. Case | HBS Case Collection | July 2020 (Revised July 2020)

    Gera Developments: Leadership at a Crossroads

    Christina R. Wing and John Masko

    For decades, Gera Developments (Gera) was a boutique family-owned real estate development firm in Pune, India. But since 2000, managing director Rohit Gera had turned the company into a dynamic innovator in housing solutions for urban Indian families. Over the 2010s, Gera had multiplied its area under development threefold; it had introduced its new ChildCentric vision of family housing villages (which incorporated children’s academies in skills from swimming to singing into the real estate complex); and it had expanded its operations from Pune to the nearby state of Goa. Meanwhile, Rohit’s brother Nikhil—a California resident—had invested company funds in several construction projects overseas in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2020, the company stood at a crossroads. With Rohit beginning to envision the end of his managerial career, Gera had several key decisions to make: Should it double down on ChildCentric, introduce new age-differentiated offerings to serve its customers throughout their lives, or return to a more commoditized style of real estate development? To what extent should Gera cast in its lot with Nikhil’s U.S. projects? Should the company consider other avenues for international expansion? And to whom would Rohit pass the torch of Gera’s leadership—his daughter Diya, or an outside professional manager?

    Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Business Growth and Maturation; Construction; Geographic Location; Global Strategy; Globalized Firms and Management; Housing; Leadership Style; Management Succession; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Family Ownership; Family and Family Relationships; Urban Development; Customization and Personalization; Real Estate Industry; Maharashtra; India; United States;

    Citation:

    Wing, Christina R., and John Masko. "Gera Developments: Leadership at a Crossroads." Harvard Business School Case 621-018, July 2020. (Revised July 2020.)  View Details
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  6. Case | HBS Case Collection | July 2020

    Rosalind Fox at John Deere

    Anthony Mayo and Olivia Hull

    Rosalind Fox, the factory manager at John Deere’s Des Moines, Iowa plant, has improved the financial standing of the factory in the three years she’s been at its helm. But employee engagement scores—which measured employees’ satisfaction with working conditions and enthusiasm about their work— have remained lackluster. As the first Black female factory manager to lead the plant, Fox considers how to build stronger bonds with her staff, who are mostly white men. The case describes how Fox took charge and established her credibility while building and nurturing a diverse leadership team. In addition to discussing Fox’s current role, this leadership case chronicles Fox’s career trajectory from her college years in Missouri through her time at Ford Motor Company and later, rising up the ranks at Deere & Company. The case discusses the pressure Fox has felt to assimilate into the dominant white male cultures and figure out how much of her authentic self to bring to work.

    Keywords: Agribusiness; Change Management; Experience and Expertise; Talent and Talent Management; Diversity; Gender; Race; Engineering; Geographic Location; Globalized Markets and Industries; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Management Style; Management Teams; Organizational Culture; Personal Development and Career; Prejudice and Bias; Power and Influence; Status and Position; Trust; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; United States;

    Citation:

    Mayo, Anthony, and Olivia Hull. "Rosalind Fox at John Deere." Harvard Business School Case 421-011, July 2020.  View Details
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  7. Case | HBS Case Collection | July 2020

    Paris Saint-Germain: Building One of the World's Top Sports Brands

    Anita Elberse and David Moreno Vicente

    In March 2020, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the president of French soccer club Paris Saint-Germain (‘PSG’) sees his team clinch a spot among the last eight clubs to compete in the UEFA Champions League. Established in 1970 and initially a club with only moderate success, PSG’s fortunes changed when Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) acquired the club in 2011. QSI overhauled the roster of players—by, among other measures, buying Kylian Mbappé and, in a record €222-million transfer that shook the soccer world, Neymar—and professionalized the club’s management, renovated the stadium, developed a new training ground, redefined the PSG brand, and pursued a series of high-profile collaborations. The investment seems to have paid off, on and off the field: since the acquisition, PSG has amassed six French league titles and has risen to fifth place in the ranking of Europe’s highest-grossing soccer clubs. But the biggest prize the club’s owners are eyeing, the Champions League, has so far eluded PSG. Does the club have the right strategy to break the hegemony of Europe’s long-standing soccer powerhouses? And are Al-Khelaifi and his team of executives on the right path toward their goal of establishing PSG as one of the world’s top three sports brands?

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

    Citation:

    Elberse, Anita, and David Moreno Vicente. "Paris Saint-Germain: Building One of the World's Top Sports Brands." Harvard Business School Case 521-006, July 2020.  View Details
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  8. Article | Advances in Strategic Management | July 2020

    Intra-firm Geographic Mobility: Value Creation Mechanisms and Future Research Directions

    Prithwiraj Choudhury

    This paper argues that intra-firm geographic mobility is an understudied mechanism that can help mitigate coordination failures in a geographically distributed organization. The paper presents an organizing framework on how intra-firm geographic mobility creates value for firms and discusses how intra-firm geographic mobility can create value for individual workers. The paper concludes by presenting a future research agenda for intra-firm geographic mobility in light of emerging phenomena such as global collaborative patenting by multinationals, temporary colocation of knowledge workers, and nonstandard work.

    Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Employees; Geographic Location; Value Creation;

    Citation:

    Choudhury, Prithwiraj. "Intra-firm Geographic Mobility: Value Creation Mechanisms and Future Research Directions." Special Issue on Employee Inter- and Intra-Firm Mobility. Advances in Strategic Management 41 (July 2020).  View Details
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  9. Case | HBS Case Collection | June 2020

    AFC Ajax

    Anita Elberse

    In July 2019, AFC Ajax’s chief executive officer Edwin van der Sar finalized one of the biggest transfers in soccer—that of Matthijs de Ligt, only 19 years old but already one of the sports world’s brightest stars—from AFC Ajax to Italian powerhouse Juventus FC for a €75 million fee. A few months earlier, Ajax had sold another young star, Frenkie de Jong, to Spanish champions FC Barcelona for a record €86 million. Once Europe’s most feared team, Ajax had lost its prominence to teams from Europe’s bigger leagues since the mid-1990s but gained a stellar reputation as a feeder of young talent to clubs in those leagues. Now, just as Ajax seemingly was making its way back to the highest echelons of European soccer—in the 2018–2019 season, Ajax managed to advance to the semifinal of the Champions League, Europe’s most elite club competition—the club would lose two players who played a crucial role in its comeback. Did van der Sar have the right strategy to find long-term success? Could Ajax continue to develop soccer’s next superstars—all while challenging Europe’s elite clubs?

    Keywords: soccer; Talent and Talent Management; Sports; Globalization; Competitive Advantage; Strategy; Sports Industry; Europe;

    Citation:

    Elberse, Anita. "AFC Ajax." Harvard Business School Case 520-131, June 2020.  View Details
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  10. Case | HBS Case Collection | June 2020 (Revised March 2020)

    Social Salary Setting at Spiber

    Ashley Whillans and John Beshears

    Can a “set your own salary” system boost employee happiness and motivation? Spiber made synthetic silk built from proteins mimicking the proteins found in spider silk, the world’s toughest known material by weight. Kazuhide Sekiyama and Junichi Sugahara established Spiber to create protein materials that would eventually compete effectively with petrochemical-based materials widely used in apparel, auto parts, and airplane components, among many other applications. From the beginning, they envisioned a team built on mutual respect and a common purpose. The executive team wanted the company’s compensation system to match the organization’s values. Thus, the company had implemented a unique salary-setting process designed to inspire autonomy and responsibility among employees: each employee retained the ultimate authority to choose his or her own salary. The members of the executive team were excited about the “set your own salary” system, but was it having the intended effect?

    Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Motivation and Incentives; Happiness; Negotiation Tactics; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Biotechnology Industry; Japan; United States;

    Citation:

    Whillans, Ashley, and John Beshears. "Social Salary Setting at Spiber." Harvard Business School Case 920-050, June 2020. (Revised March 2020.)  View Details
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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

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HBS Working Knowledge

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re E. Rawi Abdelal
Cycles of liberation and regulation of global finance follow a pattern of learning and forgetting. This essay argues that liberalization and globalization created the instability and inequality that
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re E. Rawi Abdelal
COVID-19 has enhanced already existing fissures undermining some societies’ commitments to globalization. Governments and firms need to act decisively to make the models of capitalism in the United S
Pic
re Laura Alfaro
4Questions Companies and consumers depend on the global value chain to create and distribute products around the world. What happens when the chain breaks? Insights from Laura Alfaro and Ester Faia.

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Harvard Business Publishing

Article
by Paul M. Healy and Karthik Ramanna
Case
by Eugene Soltes, Guilhem Ros and Grace Liu

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