Faculty & Research

Strategy

Strategy

Overview Faculty Curriculum Seminars & Conferences Awards & Honors Doctoral Students
    • April 2021
    • Case

    Social Media War 2021: Snap vs. Facebook vs. TikTok

    By: David B. Yoffie and Daniel Fisher

    This case explores the competitive war between Snap, Facebook, and TikTok in 2021. The strategic focus is on Snapchat: how should it respond to the emergence of TikTok, and how should it compete with the dominant competitor in its space - Facebook. The case examines the history of Snap, its emerging threat from TikTok, and its on-going struggles to become profitable in the shadow of intense competition from Facebook, and especially Instagram. Looking at strategy from the perspective of Snap CEO, Evan Spiegel, the case asks whether Snap should seek new demographics to grow the user base, explore alternative business models such as WeChat, differentiate itself with augmented reality, or focus on privacy to distinguish itself from the competition. The context of these strategic choices is how do you win in a world with strong network effects and much larger competitors.

    • April 2021
    • Case

    Social Media War 2021: Snap vs. Facebook vs. TikTok

    By: David B. Yoffie and Daniel Fisher

    This case explores the competitive war between Snap, Facebook, and TikTok in 2021. The strategic focus is on Snapchat: how should it respond to the emergence of TikTok, and how should it compete with the dominant competitor in its space - Facebook. The case examines the history of Snap, its emerging threat from TikTok, and its on-going struggles...

    • 2021
    • Working Paper

    Absenteeism, Productivity, and Relational Contracts Inside the Firm

    By: Jorge Tamayo, Achyuta Adhvaryu, Jean-Francois Gauthier and Anant Nyshadham

    We study relational contracts among managers using a unique dataset that tracks transfers of workers across teams in Indian ready-made garment factories. We focus on how relational contracts help managers cope with worker absenteeism shocks, which are frequent, often large, weakly correlated across teams, and have substantial negative impacts on team productivity. Together these facts imply gains from sharing workers. We show that managers respond to shocks by lending and borrowing workers in a manner consistent with relational contracting, but many potentially beneficial transfers are unrealized. This is because managers’ primary relationships are with a very small subset of potential partners. Counterfactual simulations reveal large gains to forming additional relationships among managers.

    • 2021
    • Working Paper

    Absenteeism, Productivity, and Relational Contracts Inside the Firm

    By: Jorge Tamayo, Achyuta Adhvaryu, Jean-Francois Gauthier and Anant Nyshadham

    We study relational contracts among managers using a unique dataset that tracks transfers of workers across teams in Indian ready-made garment factories. We focus on how relational contracts help managers cope with worker absenteeism shocks, which are frequent, often large, weakly correlated across teams, and have substantial negative impacts on...

    • Spring 2021
    • Article

    Building Cities' Collaborative Muscle

    By: Jorrit De Jong, Amy C. Edmondson, Mark Moore, Hannah Riley-Bowles, Jan Rivkin, Eva Flavia Martínez Orbegozo and Santiago Pulido-Gomez

    The most pressing social problems facing cities today require multiagency and cross-sector solutions. We offer tools and techniques to facilitate the process of diagnosing and solving problems by breaking down silos to build up cities.

    • Spring 2021
    • Article

    Building Cities' Collaborative Muscle

    By: Jorrit De Jong, Amy C. Edmondson, Mark Moore, Hannah Riley-Bowles, Jan Rivkin, Eva Flavia Martínez Orbegozo and Santiago Pulido-Gomez

    The most pressing social problems facing cities today require multiagency and cross-sector solutions. We offer tools and techniques to facilitate the process of diagnosing and solving problems by breaking down silos to build up cities.

About the Unit

The Strategy unit studies firms as competitors in an economic landscape. Key issues include: the development and effectiveness of firm strategy at both a business and corporate level; the analysis of the competitive environment; and the sustainability of strategy over time.

Our research, course development, and teaching draws on multiple disciplines, including economics, sociology, and political science, and focuses on both domestic and global competition. The objective of the work is to generate findings and develop concepts that will help managers improve their strategic decisions while advancing the state of knowledge in the academic study of strategy and related disciplines.

Recent Publications

Social Media War 2021: Snap vs. Facebook vs. TikTok

By: David B. Yoffie and Daniel Fisher
  • April 2021 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
This case explores the competitive war between Snap, Facebook, and TikTok in 2021. The strategic focus is on Snapchat: how should it respond to the emergence of TikTok, and how should it compete with the dominant competitor in its space - Facebook. The case examines the history of Snap, its emerging threat from TikTok, and its on-going struggles to become profitable in the shadow of intense competition from Facebook, and especially Instagram. Looking at strategy from the perspective of Snap CEO, Evan Spiegel, the case asks whether Snap should seek new demographics to grow the user base, explore alternative business models such as WeChat, differentiate itself with augmented reality, or focus on privacy to distinguish itself from the competition. The context of these strategic choices is how do you win in a world with strong network effects and much larger competitors.
Keywords: Social Media; Strategy Development; Competitor Analysis; Network Effects; Strategy
Related

Diagnosing Quality: Learning, Amenities, and the Demand for Health Care

By: Jorge Tamayo, Achyuta Adhvaryu, Emilio Gutierrez and Anant Nyshadham
  • 2021 |
  • Working Paper |
  • Faculty Research
We study the role of amenities in increasing demand for underutilized healthcare services. We evaluate the offer of a high-amenity diagnostic consultation for cataracts with a randomized price and find that a lower price for the high-amenity consultation increases surgery take-up by more than 50%. Structural estimates from a model of patient demand show that patients’ update to surgery valuation from experienced amenities is large (three-quarters of the update effect of wait time), and that price effects (e.g., sunk cost accounting or gift exchange) are much smaller, suggesting that providing amenities in initial interactions can increase adoption of underutilized services.
Related

Absenteeism, Productivity, and Relational Contracts Inside the Firm

By: Jorge Tamayo, Achyuta Adhvaryu, Jean-Francois Gauthier and Anant Nyshadham
  • 2021 |
  • Working Paper |
  • Faculty Research
We study relational contracts among managers using a unique dataset that tracks transfers of workers across teams in Indian ready-made garment factories. We focus on how relational contracts help managers cope with worker absenteeism shocks, which are frequent, often large, weakly correlated across teams, and have substantial negative impacts on team productivity. Together these facts imply gains from sharing workers. We show that managers respond to shocks by lending and borrowing workers in a manner consistent with relational contracting, but many potentially beneficial transfers are unrealized. This is because managers’ primary relationships are with a very small subset of potential partners. Counterfactual simulations reveal large gains to forming additional relationships among managers.
Keywords: Implicit Contracts; Productivity; Misallocation; Absenteeism; Management; Supervisors; Readymade Garments; India
Related

Building Cities' Collaborative Muscle

By: Jorrit De Jong, Amy C. Edmondson, Mark Moore, Hannah Riley-Bowles, Jan Rivkin, Eva Flavia Martínez Orbegozo and Santiago Pulido-Gomez
  • Spring 2021 |
  • Article |
  • Stanford Social Innovation Review (website)
The most pressing social problems facing cities today require multiagency and cross-sector solutions. We offer tools and techniques to facilitate the process of diagnosing and solving problems by breaking down silos to build up cities.
Keywords: Collaboration; Cross-sector Collaboration; City; Governance; Problems and Challenges; Cooperation
Related

VIA Science (C)

By: Juan Alcacer, Rembrand Koning, Annelena Lobb and Kerry Herman
  • April 2021 |
  • Supplement |
  • Faculty Research
Related

Sky Deutschland Analysis: Results

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Sascha L. Schmidt, Renate Imoberdorf and Sebastian Koppers
  • March 2021 |
  • Supplement |
  • Faculty Research
Carsten Schmidt, CEO of Sky Deutschland, needs to prepare for the auction of German soccer rights. Much was at stake. Not only was soccer the most widely watched sport in Germany, the company had long advertised that only Sky showed “every game, every goal.” In evaluating his company’s bid, Schmidt had to consider not only the intrinsic value of the media rights but also how his bidding strategy would influence competition in the German media industry. Was it a good idea to keep OTT players out of the market? What was the right amount to bid?
Keywords: Sports; Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Intellectual Property; Auctions; Bids and Bidding; Sports Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Germany
Related

P.F. Chang's

By: Ashish Nanda, Nitin Nohria and Margaret Cross
  • March 2021 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
Excited yet apprehensive after being named CEO of P.F. Chang’s beginning July 1st, 2020, Damola Adamolekun was well aware of the extraordinary challenges facing the firm. The closure of businesses deemed “nonessential” owing to the Covid-19 pandemic had devastated the restaurant industry in the United States and abroad. The shock had been particularly unwelcome to P.F. Chang’s, an upscale-casual restaurant chain known for serving made-from-scratch, wok-cooked Asian cuisine in contemporary bistros. In recent years, P.F. Chang’s had shown weak results in restaurant sales and financial performance. Investment management firm Paulson & Co. had joined hands with TriArtisan Capital Advisors to acquire the firm in 2019, determined to turn it around. However, the new leadership team had not anticipated the havoc a pandemic would soon wreak on the economy and the industry. Adamolekun felt that the opportunity to lead the firm at age 31 was extraordinary, but the future was extremely uncertain in this turbulent environment. He was acutely aware that the future of the company, the returns investors hoped for, and perhaps the trajectory of his own career were all riding on the strategic plan he was developing for P.F. Chang’s.
Keywords: Restaurants; Covid-19; Strategy; Scenario Planning; Scenarios
Related

Wearable Technology

By: Andy Wu, Jacob Chouinard and Christie Klauberg
  • March 2021 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
Wearable electronics were endpoint devices designed to be worn, sense the human body and interact with the environment around the wearer, connecting humans to the Internet of Things. Wearable technology received a great deal of attention the past decade and reached a peak state of hype in 2015. After 2015, there was increased doubt in the future of the technology after early product releases were underwhelming. Wearables in 2020 provided an in-depth analysis of wearable development in recent years across eight different form factor
Related
More Publications

In the News

More Faculty News

HBS Working Knowledge

More Working Knowledge Articles

Harvard Business Publishing

→More Harvard Business Publishing

Seminars & Conferences

→More Seminars & Conferences

Faculty Positions

Harvard Business School seeks candidates in all fields for full time positions. Candidates with outstanding records in PhD or DBA programs are encouraged to apply.
Learn More

Contact Information

Strategy Unit
Harvard Business School
Morgan Hall
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
Strategy@hbs.edu