Faculty & Research

Facilitating faculty research and case development on an international scale

Our unprecedented network of research centers and regional offices in key areas of the world enable faculty to work with leaders, industry, government, and academia worldwide, and to learn from business challenges and innovations wherever they occur. Through sustained work in the field, faculty are provided the opportunity to immerse themselves in the culture and values – as well as intricacies and nuances – that lead to truly meaningful and insightful global research.

Research Centers & Offices

More than half the faculty are actively involved in international research, developing high-impact cases and course materials on relevant global issues and innovations.

New Research

2018
Working Paper

Team Learning Capabilities: A Meso Model of Sustained Innovation and Superior Firm Performance

By: Jean-François Harvey, Henrik Bresman and Amy C. Edmondson

This paper complements the manager-centered analysis of dynamic capabilities with a team-based approach focused on team learning. We argue that team learning capabilities intertwine with managerial cognitive capabilities to support the processes of sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring. We draw from the literature on team learning to develop four categories based on the orientation (exploration/exploitation) and locus (internal/external) of learning in teams: reflexive, experimental, contextual, and vicarious learning. We integrate these categories into the dynamic capabilities framework to show their particular relevance at different points along the sensing-seizing-reconfiguring pathway and assess their potential impact on innovation and strategic change. The framework contributes by adding a meso lens to research on dynamic capabilities to help scholars better understand how learning that occurs in teams may support entrepreneurial managers in enacting their cognitive capabilities in service of sustained innovation and superior firm performance.

December 2018
Case

Bata versus Relaxo--Analyzing Performance

By: Suraj Srinivasan, Iris Leung and Quinn Pitcher

Set in 2016, Bata India versus Relaxo—Analyzing Performance compares the strategies and financial performance of two Indian footwear companies. Bata India had long been the market leader in footwear in India, but its leading market position was being challenged by Relaxo, a relatively young, upstart company. The case is framed from the perspective of an emerging markets financial analyst presented with the financial statements and operational data for both companies. The analyst has to compare and contrast the performance of the two companies based on financial ratios. Students can apply the traditional DuPont decomposition framework to drill down into the business model of the two companies. The case then allows students to use the modified (also known as additive or alternate) DuPont approach with the goal of systematically understanding the differences that arise from operating performance, leverage, and the effect of large cash holdings (in Bata). In doing so, students learn the components of the traditional and modified DuPont frameworks and how to analyze financial statements to better understand how firm performance can arise from operating and financing decisions. The traditional DuPont framework provides for a methodical evaluation of performance for each business, but it has its limits: it does not separate operating assets and liabilities from financing assets and liabilities. When the financing components are separated and reclassified using the modified DuPont framework, students can clearly observe the crucial role that financing activities vis-à-vis operating activities can have in amplifying performance.

2018
Working Paper

Find and Replace: R&D Investment Following the Erosion of Existing Products

By: Joshua Krieger, Xuelin Li and Richard T. Thakor

How do R&D-intensive firms react to negative shocks to their existing products? We explore this question using detailed project-level data from drug development firms. Using FDA Public Health Advisories as an exogenous and idiosyncratic negative shock to approved drugs, we examine how firms and their competitors react in terms of their R&D investment and financing decisions. We document that these negative shocks lead affected firms to increase R&D expenditures, which they finance with debt. In terms of investment behavior, these shocks increase the likelihood of affected firms acquiring drug projects from other firms, rather than developing new projects internally. Examining the channels behind this increase in R&D in-licensing, we explore heterogeneity in treatment effects and competitor spillovers. We find that competitors move resources away from affected therapeutic areas and into more exploratory projects, after indirectly experiencing these shocks. Rather than turning to external acquisitions, these competing firms appear to reshuffle their own drug portfolios—moving resources away from the affected therapeutic area and into more exploratory projects.

See all research

Global Colloquium for participant-centered learning

For senior faculty at top business schools in emerging economies who want to be trained in interactive methods of teaching and learning. GloColl comprises a seven-day session held on the HBS campus, followed by a three-day session held in two cities in Asia, Europe, or Latin America each year.

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In the News

- 08 Nov 2018
- Toyokeizai
How did Rakuten change in 'English official language'

Re: Tsedal Neeley
- 07 Nov 2018
- Japan Times
Rakuten’s English drive a case study of success, but wider adoption by Japan Inc. much slower going

Re: Tsedal Neeley
- 25 Oct 2018
- Washington Post
This big factor is at the heart of political protests all over Middle East

By: Kristin Fabbe

08 Nov 2018
Toyokeizai

How did Rakuten change in 'English official language'

Re: Tsedal Neeley

07 Nov 2018
Japan Times

Rakuten’s English drive a case study of success, but wider adoption by Japan Inc. much slower going

Re: Tsedal Neeley

25 Oct 2018
Washington Post

This big factor is at the heart of political protests all over Middle East

By: Kristin Fabbe

→More News