Research - Global Initiative - Harvard Business School

September 2021
Teaching Material

Hester Pharmaceuticals (B): Securing Supply

In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic and a rise in “reshoring” sentiment in the U.S., Hester Pharmaceuticals had to decide whether to build a new plant for its new oncology drug Akrozumab in Germany or in the U.S., or whether it should hire a contract manufacturing...

September 2021
Case

Telepass: From Tolling to Mobility Platform

By: Chiara Farronato, Stefano Denicolai and Sarah Mehta

Telepass, the sole processor of electronic toll payments on Italy’s highways, has ambitions beyond tolling. Since the mid-2010s, the company has been expanding into adjacent services. In 2017, Telepass launched TelepassPay—a mobile payment application (app) that allows...

September 2021
Teaching Material

Telepass: From Tolling to Mobility Platform

By: Chiara Farronato, Stefano Denicolai and Sarah Mehta

This supplementary dataset can be paired with the case entitled “Telepass: From Tolling to Mobility Platform” (case no. 622-011), to allow students the opportunity to analyze data before class.

2021
Working Paper

What Can Stockouts Tell Us About Inflation? Evidence from Online Micro Data

By: Alberto Cavallo and Oleksiy Kryvtsov

We use a detailed micro dataset on product availability to construct a direct high-frequency measure of consumer product shortages during the 2020-2021 pandemic. We document a widespread multi-fold rise in shortages in nearly all sectors early in the pandemic. Over...

August 2021
Case

Danone S.A.: Becoming a Mission-Driven Company (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Emilie Billaud

Emmanuel Faber became CEO of Danone SA, the French food and beverage company, in 2014. Right from the start, he ran the company with a dual commitment to both profit and purpose (i.e., ESG objectives). In fact, in 2018, he said, “It’s time to make sustainable business...

August 2021
Teaching Material

Danone S.A.: Becoming a Mission-Driven Company (B)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Emilie Billaud

Describes the events that took place in the first six months after Danone became France’s first “entreprise à mission” (mission-driven company).

August 2021
Teaching Material

Danone S.A.: Becoming a Mission-Driven Company (C)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Emilie Billaud

Describes the events that took place in the first year after Danone became France’s first “entreprise à mission” (mission-driven company).

August 2021
Case

Northvolt: Making the World's Greenest Battery

By: Jurgen Weiss and Emilie Billaud

In 2021, the demand for lithium-ion batteries increased rapidly, particularly for electric vehicles. Anxious not to be reliant on Asian players, Europe was keen on developing its own home-grown capacity to control the value chain, maintain employment in Europe, and get...

July 2021
Teaching Material

Eaton Corporation: Portfolio Transformation and the Cost of Capital

By: Benjamin C. Esty, E. Scott Mayfield and Daniel Fisher

Teaching Note for HBS Case Nos. 221-006 and 221-070.

July 2021
Teaching Material

The Carlyle Group: Carving Out Atotech

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 321-153. On January 31, 2017, The Carlyle Group ("Carlyle") closed its $3.2 billion acquisition of Atotech, an international Specialty Chemicals and Equipment company. In Carlyle's Washington, DC headquarters, the US-based deal...

July 2021
Teaching Material

CIAM: Home-Grown Shareholder Activism in France (B)

By: Charles C.Y. Wang, Tonia Labruyere and Vincent Dessain

This case is a complement to CIAM: Home-Grown Shareholder Activism in France (A) and describes the events after CIAM learned about a potential misuse of corporate assets at Altice/SFR.

July 2021 (Revised July 2021)
Case

Allianz Customer Centricity: Is Simplicity the Way Forward?

By: Eva Ascarza and Emilie Billaud

This case explores the tradeoffs between product personalization and simplicity as companies grow. The case presents an opportunity to understand whether and how each of these approaches enables and/or limits companies’ abilities to provide customer satisfaction while...

July 2021
Article
Economics & Politics

Do Interactions with Candidates Increase Voter Support and Participation? Experimental Evidence from Italy

By: Enrico Cantoni and Vincent Pons

We test whether politicians can use direct contact to reconnect with citizens, increase turnout, and win votes. During the 2014 Italian municipal elections, we randomly assigned 26,000 voters to receive visits from city council candidates, from canvassers supporting...

Article
Sensors

Regulatory, Legal, and Market Aspects of Smart Wearables for Cardiac Monitoring

By: Jan Benedikt Brönneke, Jennifer Müller, Konstantinos Mouratis, Julia Hagen and Ariel Dora Stern

In the area of cardiac monitoring, the use of digitally driven technologies is on the rise. While the development of medical products is advancing rapidly, allowing for new use-cases in cardiac monitoring and other areas, regulatory and legal requirements that govern...

June 2021
Teaching Material

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

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

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 421-044. 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...

April 2021
Case

The Carlyle Group: Carving Out Atotech

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter

On January 31, 2017, The Carlyle Group ("Carlyle") closed its $3.2 billion acquisition of Atotech, an international Specialty Chemicals and Equipment company. In Carlyle's Washington, DC headquarters, the US-based deal team—Martin Sumner, Greg Nikodem, Tanaka Maswoswe...

April 2021
Case

The Mahindra Group: Leading with Purpose

By: Ranjay Gulati and Rachna Tahilyani

India headquartered Mahindra Group is a multibillion-dollar federation of companies operating across the globe. It is ahead of its time in articulating its purpose and mapping its values, something it had first done at inception and then refreshed yet again as ‘Rise’...

March 2021
Teaching Material

Sky Deutschland Analysis: Results

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Sascha L. Schmidt, Renate Imoberdorf and Sebastian Koppers

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...

March 2021
Case

Sky Deutschland - Bidding for Sports Rights (A)

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Sascha L. Schmidt, Renate Imoberdorf and Sebastian Koppers

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...

March 2021
Teaching Material

Sky Deutschland - Bidding for Sports Rights (B)

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Sascha L. Schmidt and Sebastian Koppers

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...