Research - Global Initiative - Harvard Business School

2021
Working Paper

Auditor Independence and Outsourcing: Aligning Incentives to Mitigate Shilling and Shirking

By: Ashley Palmarozzo, Jodi L. Short and Michael W. Toffel

Multinational corporations (MNCs) hire auditors to assess their business partners’ compliance with quality, working conditions, and environmental standards. Independent third-party auditors are widely assumed to outperform second-party auditors employed and thus...

December 2020
Case

Tencent: Combining Technology and Culture

By: Elie Ofek, Billy Chan and Dawn H. Lau

Tencent, one of the largest Internet conglomerates in China, had a vision to become a "Tech+Culture" firm. With dominant market shares in online games and social networking, it had built a vast Internet-based entertainment ecosystem, and was now focused on cultural...

December 2020
Case

Komatsu and Smart Construction

By: Rajiv Lal, David J. Collis and Akiko Saito

Komatsu, Japan's leading construction equipment manufacturer, is considering investing in a digital platform "Smart Construction" that will digitise the entire work process on a construction site, allowing for substantial reductions in cost and time while improving...

December 2020
Teaching Material

Komatsu Smart Construction: Launch Video

By: Rajiv Lal, David J. Collis and Akiko Saito

short video of the concept of "Smart Construction" that was shown at the launch of the business by Komatsu. Illustrates what the automated construction site might look like in the future.

December 2020
Teaching Material

Komatsu: Video of Future Building Site

By: Rajiv Lal, David J. Collis and Akiko Saito

Short video that illustrates how an automated construction site would operate

December 2020
Case

Tokio Marine Group (A)

By: David J. Collis and Akiko Kanno

Tokio Marine, Japan's leading insurance company, has spent nearly two decades building a global footprint in different insurance businesses around the world. As the company becomes majority non-domestic it has to make a choice of what organisation structure to adopt to...

December 2020
Teaching Material

Tokio Marine Group (B)

By: David J. Collis and Akiko Kanno

Updates the Tokio Marine A case by providing information on the organisation structure adopted by the Japanese insurance firm as it moved to integrate its global operations, along with changes in HR policies that sought to balance traditional Japanese practices with...

2020
Working Paper

Party-State Capitalism in China

By: Margaret Pearson, Meg Rithmire and Kellee Tsai

The “state capitalism” model, in which the state retains a dominant role as owner or investor-shareholder amidst the presence of markets and private firms, has received increasing attention, with China cited as the main exemplar. Yet as models evolve, so has China’s...

November 2020
Teaching Material

Social Salary Setting at Spiber

By: Ashley Whillans and John Beshears

This case tells the story of Spiber, a Japanese technology start-up company. To reflect the company’s values, the leadership team implemented a new and unique salary-setting process: each employee had the authority to choose their own salary. In the course of...

November 2020
Case

Integrating Beam Suntory (A)

By: David G. Fubini, Rawi Abdelal and David Lane

The spring 2014 acquisition of U.S. alcoholic spirits maker Beam Inc. by Japan’s Suntory Holdings vaulted Suntory from 15th to third-largest international spirits company in the world. Yet Suntory had borrowed nearly the entire $16 billion purchase price, and relied on...

November 2020
Teaching Material

Integrating Beam Suntory (B)

By: David G. Fubini, Rawi Abdelal and David Lane

Supplements (A) case: The spring 2014 acquisition of U.S. alcoholic spirits maker Beam Inc. by Japan’s Suntory Holdings vaulted Suntory from 15th to third-largest international spirits company in the world. Yet Suntory had borrowed nearly the entire $16 billion...

November 2020
Case

Sercomm: Operating in China Amid COVID-19 and Beyond

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury, Gary P. Pisano and Bonnie Yining Cao

The COVID-19 pandemic had forced a production cut in the factory of Sercomm, one of the world’s major telecom equipment producers, in China. The case explores and highlights the challenges that Chief Executive Officer James Wang faced: How could Sercomm recover and...

October 2020
Case

Michael Phelps: 'It's Okay to Not Be Okay'

By: Boris Groysberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Michael Norris

In 2020, Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, with 28 medals in various swimming events, was now retired. As he looked back on his 20+ year athletic career, he considered what had gone into making him the greatest of all time—the highs and lows,...

2020
Working Paper

The Resurgent Role of the State in China's Economy: Experimentation, Domestic Politics, and U.S. Policy

By: Meg Rithmire

September 2020
Case

Jan Swartz: Steering Princess Cruises Through the COVID-19 Crisis

By: Boris Groysberg and Michael Norris

In the summer of 2020, Jan Swartz, President of Princess Cruises, was persevering to lead her company back from the depths of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Diamond Princess, one of Princess Cruises’ 18 ships was the site of one of the earliest large outbreaks of COVID-19...

September 2020
Case

Hitachi Rail Limited (A)

By: David J. Collis, Akiko Kanno and Nobuo Sato

Hitachi must decide whether to make a British executive, who has successfully built its European rail business from scratch, head of its global rail division even though the bulk of revenues for the unit still come from Japan. The case describes, the history of Hitachi...

September 2020 (Revised December 2020)
Teaching Material

Hitachi Rail Limited (B)

By: David J. Collis, Akiko Kanno and Nobuo Sato

Describes the strategy and organisation changes made by British executive, Alistair Domer, after he is made head of Hitachi Rail's global business. The company acquires an Italian company, continues to win contracts in the UK, but struggles to bring its greenfield...

September 2020
Case

China's Management of COVID-19 (B): Victory?

By: Meg Rithmire and Courtney Han

September 2020 (Revised September 2020)
Case

Catalys Pacific

By: Joshua Lev Krieger

In 2019, BT Slingsby founds Catalys Pacific, the first biotech “venture creation” fund in Tokyo. After convincing some of the biggest Japanese pharmaceutical firms to invest, BT hopes the fund can make a big splash and transform biotechnology innovation in Japan. After...

September 8, 2020
Article
Washington Post

The State Department Says the Chinese Communist Party Controls Chinese Companies. It's Not That Simple.

By: Meg Rithmire