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Strategy

Strategy

  • Faculty
  • Curriculum
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    • 2023
    • Working Paper

    Leadership and the Value of Persistence

    By: James J. Anton, Alan Jaske and Dennis Yao

    Consider a leader’s decision whether to persist with an unsuccessful R&D project or to terminate the project in favor of a new project with an uncertain value. How does that decision affect the effort exerted by the manager assigned to the project? To study this question we build and analyze an equilibrium, infinite-horizon model which embeds a search problem with an agency problem. We assess the policy value of a leader’s persistence instrument under conditions of complete and incomplete information. Among other things, we find that persistence takes advantage of a manager’s incentive to gain access to future, potentially higher-payoff projects to induce effort on the current project. Furthermore, when the leader has superior information about the value of the current project, the manager may choose to delay effort to better take advantage of the information signal provided by the leader’s persistence choice.

    • 2023
    • Working Paper

    Leadership and the Value of Persistence

    By: James J. Anton, Alan Jaske and Dennis Yao

    Consider a leader’s decision whether to persist with an unsuccessful R&D project or to terminate the project in favor of a new project with an uncertain value. How does that decision affect the effort exerted by the manager assigned to the project? To study this question we build and analyze an equilibrium, infinite-horizon model which embeds a...

    • January 2023
    • Case

    Zaoui & Co. (A): Consigliere for High Stakes M&A Transactions

    By: Ashish Nanda, Alex Kitsberg and Zack Kurtovich

    In September 2019, Zaoui & Co.’s close-knit team of professionals convened for their annual off-site. In its nine years of operation, the boutique investment bank founded by the brothers Michael (HBS ’83) and Yoel Zaoui (Stanford GSB ’88), had garnered a track record for advising on several significant transactions across Europe. At the retreat, the firm’s leaders were debating whether to (a) continue as a small boutique focused on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) advisory services, (b) grow aggressively in M&A advisory, or (c) diversify into principal investing. Each alternative presented strategic and organizational challenges and opportunities. Whichever path they elected to pursue would significantly influence what kind of firm Zaoui & Co. would become.

    • January 2023
    • Case

    Zaoui & Co. (A): Consigliere for High Stakes M&A Transactions

    By: Ashish Nanda, Alex Kitsberg and Zack Kurtovich

    In September 2019, Zaoui & Co.’s close-knit team of professionals convened for their annual off-site. In its nine years of operation, the boutique investment bank founded by the brothers Michael (HBS ’83) and Yoel Zaoui (Stanford GSB ’88), had garnered a track record for advising on several significant transactions across Europe. At the retreat,...

    • January 2023
    • Article

    Firm-Induced Migration Paths and Strategic Human-Capital Outcomes

    By: Prithwiraj (Raj) Choudhury, Tarun Khanna and Victoria Sevcenko

    Firm-induced migration typically entails firms relocating workers to fill value-creating positions at destination locations. But such relocated workers are often exposed to external employment opportunities at their destinations, possibly triggering turnover. We conceptualize the firm-induced migration path, consisting of the relocated workers’ place of origin and destination, as relevant in determining worker performance and post-relocation turnover. Using a unique dataset from a large Indian technology firm that hires talent from both large cities and smaller towns, we document robust econometric patterns by exploiting the firm’s randomized assignment of workers to production centers across the country. These production centers are located in the largest technology cluster in India (Bangalore), smaller technology clusters, and non-cluster locations. We find that the firm-induced migration path shapes both worker performance and turnover. Compared to workers from large cities, workers from smaller towns achieve higher performance when relocated to Bangalore than to other production centers, but are also more likely to join competing firms. Fine-grained data on employment and human-capital-augmentation opportunities at workers’ destination locations, and on socioeconomic conditions in workers’ places of origin, help us rule in an abductive explanation: across firm-induced migration paths, differences in external labor-market opportunities between workers’ places of origin and their destinations, as well as intrafirm skill-development opportunities at the destination, are related to heterogeneous human-capital outcomes.

    • January 2023
    • Article

    Firm-Induced Migration Paths and Strategic Human-Capital Outcomes

    By: Prithwiraj (Raj) Choudhury, Tarun Khanna and Victoria Sevcenko

    Firm-induced migration typically entails firms relocating workers to fill value-creating positions at destination locations. But such relocated workers are often exposed to external employment opportunities at their destinations, possibly triggering turnover. We conceptualize the firm-induced migration path, consisting of the relocated workers’...

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

Leadership and the Value of Persistence

By: James J. Anton, Alan Jaske and Dennis Yao
  • 2023 |
  • Working Paper |
  • Faculty Research
Consider a leader’s decision whether to persist with an unsuccessful R&D project or to terminate the project in favor of a new project with an uncertain value. How does that decision affect the effort exerted by the manager assigned to the project? To study this question we build and analyze an equilibrium, infinite-horizon model which embeds a search problem with an agency problem. We assess the policy value of a leader’s persistence instrument under conditions of complete and incomplete information. Among other things, we find that persistence takes advantage of a manager’s incentive to gain access to future, potentially higher-payoff projects to induce effort on the current project. Furthermore, when the leader has superior information about the value of the current project, the manager may choose to delay effort to better take advantage of the information signal provided by the leader’s persistence choice.
Keywords: Persistence; Leadership; Project Evaluation; R&D Project Management
Citation
Related
Anton, James J., Alan Jaske, and Dennis Yao. "Leadership and the Value of Persistence." Working Paper, January 2023.

Zaoui & Co. (B): Executing the Odyssey SPAC Transaction

By: Ashish Nanda, Alex Kitsberg and Zack Kurtovich
  • January 2023 |
  • Supplement |
  • Faculty Research
In September 2019, founding partners Michael and Yoel Zaoui decided to add principal investing to Zaoui & Co.’s offerings. The case outlines how, over the next two years, Zaoui & Co. pursued the formation of a SPAC, Odyssey Acquisitions, followed by the identification of a target company, BenevolentAI, and the subsequent de-SPACing process that led to the execution of the transaction in April 2022. Although their initial foray into principal investment was a success, the process proved more arduous and time-consuming than anticipated, diverting considerable attention and resources from Zaoui & Co.’s core M&A advisory business. The brothers were wondering whether Zaoui & Co should (a) continue to aggressively seek principal investing opportunities, or (b) scale back its principal investing efforts, or (c) focus solely on M&A advisory. The choice would have important strategic and organizational implications for the firm.
Keywords: Strategy; Finance; Investment Banking; SPACs; M&A; Europe
Citation
Related
Nanda, Ashish, Alex Kitsberg, and Zack Kurtovich. "Zaoui & Co. (B): Executing the Odyssey SPAC Transaction." Harvard Business School Supplement 723-400, January 2023.

Zaoui & Co. (A): Consigliere for High Stakes M&A Transactions

By: Ashish Nanda, Alex Kitsberg and Zack Kurtovich
  • January 2023 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
In September 2019, Zaoui & Co.’s close-knit team of professionals convened for their annual off-site. In its nine years of operation, the boutique investment bank founded by the brothers Michael (HBS ’83) and Yoel Zaoui (Stanford GSB ’88), had garnered a track record for advising on several significant transactions across Europe. At the retreat, the firm’s leaders were debating whether to (a) continue as a small boutique focused on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) advisory services, (b) grow aggressively in M&A advisory, or (c) diversify into principal investing. Each alternative presented strategic and organizational challenges and opportunities. Whichever path they elected to pursue would significantly influence what kind of firm Zaoui & Co. would become.
Keywords: Investment Banking; Professional Service Firm; Entrepreneurial Finance; Finance; M&A; Europe; United States
Citation
Educators
Related
Nanda, Ashish, Alex Kitsberg, and Zack Kurtovich. "Zaoui & Co. (A): Consigliere for High Stakes M&A Transactions ." Harvard Business School Case 723-399, January 2023.

What Do You Bring to the Game? Understanding Competitive Advantage

By: Rebecca Karp
  • January 2023 (Revised January 2023) |
  • Module Note |
  • Faculty Research
Citation
Related
Karp, Rebecca. "What Do You Bring to the Game? Understanding Competitive Advantage." Harvard Business School Module Note 723-412, January 2023. (Revised January 2023.)

India’s Quest for Sustainable Growth in a New Global Reality:: The Need for a Region- and Sector-Driven Approach

By: Christian H.M. Ketels and Michael E. Porter
  • 13 Jan 2023 - 14 Jan 2023 |
  • Conference Presentation |
  • Faculty Research
Keywords: Sustainable Growth; Economic Development; Economic Growth; Developing Countries and Economies; Employment; India
Citation
Read Now
Related
Ketels, Christian H.M., and Michael E. Porter. "India’s Quest for Sustainable Growth in a New Global Reality: The Need for a Region- and Sector-Driven Approach." Paper presented at the 2nd Global Conference on Regional Development, Talent Institute and Tsinghua University, School of Public Policy and Management, Shenzen, China, January 13–14, 2023.

Network Effects in Technology

By: Andy Wu and Matt Higgins
  • January 2023 |
  • Module Note |
  • Faculty Research
In business and strategy contexts, network effects are often accompanied by bandwagon (or herding) effects, positive feedback loops (or accumulated advantage effects), and market tipping (or winner-take-all dynamics). Though these phenomena are often grouped together under the general use of the term “network effects,” this note aims to distinguish the core notion of network effects from the related phenomena that interact and often co-occur.
Citation
Purchase
Related
Wu, Andy, and Matt Higgins. "Network Effects in Technology." Harvard Business School Module Note 723-417, January 2023.

Firm-Induced Migration Paths and Strategic Human-Capital Outcomes

By: Prithwiraj (Raj) Choudhury, Tarun Khanna and Victoria Sevcenko
  • January 2023 |
  • Article |
  • Management Science
Firm-induced migration typically entails firms relocating workers to fill value-creating positions at destination locations. But such relocated workers are often exposed to external employment opportunities at their destinations, possibly triggering turnover. We conceptualize the firm-induced migration path, consisting of the relocated workers’ place of origin and destination, as relevant in determining worker performance and post-relocation turnover. Using a unique dataset from a large Indian technology firm that hires talent from both large cities and smaller towns, we document robust econometric patterns by exploiting the firm’s randomized assignment of workers to production centers across the country. These production centers are located in the largest technology cluster in India (Bangalore), smaller technology clusters, and non-cluster locations. We find that the firm-induced migration path shapes both worker performance and turnover. Compared to workers from large cities, workers from smaller towns achieve higher performance when relocated to Bangalore than to other production centers, but are also more likely to join competing firms. Fine-grained data on employment and human-capital-augmentation opportunities at workers’ destination locations, and on socioeconomic conditions in workers’ places of origin, help us rule in an abductive explanation: across firm-induced migration paths, differences in external labor-market opportunities between workers’ places of origin and their destinations, as well as intrafirm skill-development opportunities at the destination, are related to heterogeneous human-capital outcomes.
Keywords: Worker Relocation; Turnover; Firm-induced Migration; Smaller Towns; Employee Mobility; Geographic Mobility; Migration; Clusters; Employees; Geographic Location; Performance; Opportunities; Retention; Human Capital; Talent and Talent Management
Citation
Find at Harvard
Read Now
Purchase
Related
Choudhury, Prithwiraj (Raj), Tarun Khanna, and Victoria Sevcenko. "Firm-Induced Migration Paths and Strategic Human-Capital Outcomes." Management Science 69, no. 1 (January 2023): 419–445.

How Do You Keep Winning? Strategy Across Technological and Industry Lifecycles

By: Tiona Zuzul
  • December 2022 |
  • Module Note |
  • Faculty Research
Citation
Related
Zuzul, Tiona. "How Do You Keep Winning? Strategy Across Technological and Industry Lifecycles." Harvard Business School Module Note 723-409, December 2022.
More Publications

In the News

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    Re: David Yoffie
    • 25 Jan 2023
    • Washington Post

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    Re: Leslie Perlow & Raffaella Sadun
    • 25 Jan 2023
    • Harvard Business School

    The Rituals of Case Method Teaching

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→More Faculty News

HBS Working Knowledge

    • 29 Nov 2022

    Is There a Method to Musk’s Madness on Twitter?

    Re: Andy Wu
    • 09 Nov 2022

    COP27: What Can Business Leaders Do to Fight Climate Change Now?

    by Lynn Schenk and Danielle Kost
    • 14 Jul 2022

    When the Rubber Meets the Road, Most Commuters Text and Email While Driving

    Re: Raffaella Sadunby Jay Fitzgerald
→More Working Knowledge Articles

Harvard Business Publishing

    • October 12, 2017
    • Article

    A Survey of How 1,000 CEOs Spend Their Day Reveals What Makes Leaders Successful

    By: Oriana Bandiera, Raffaella Sadun, Andrea Prat and Stephen Hansen
    • November 2022
    • Case

    Arcos Dorados’ Quest for the Digitalization of Last-Mile Delivery in Colombia

    By: Jorge Tamayo, Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago and Mariana Cal
    • 2008
    • Book

    On Competition

    By: M. E. Porter
→More Harvard Business Publishing

Seminars & Conferences

Feb 14
  • 14 Feb 2023

Luis Garicano, University of Chicago Booth School of Business & London School of Economics

STRAT Seminar
→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

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