- 22 Aug 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Sustainability and Green Business in Latin America During Globalization Waves
Capitalism has created much wealth, but at the cost of massive ecological destruction. This has been particularly severe in Latin America over the past century. Yet the last three decades have also seen a wave of businesses across sectors ranging from beauty to eco-tourism aimed at greater sustainability.
- 19 Jun 2018
- Research Event
Has Environmental Sustainability Lost its Relevance?
Companies have thought for decades about business-focused solutions to fix the deteriorating environment. But judging by continually rising waters and temperatures, we may need a rethink about what sustainability means, suggest participants at a recent conference at Harvard Business School. A report by co-organizer Geoffrey Jones. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 21 May 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Business, Governments, and Political Risk in South Asia and Latin America Since 1970
This study shows how perceptions of political risk by business leaders in emerging markets have differed between regions. For Latin Americans, macroeconomic and policy turbulence were the biggest sources of risk. For South Asians, excessive bureaucracy was the biggest source of risk. The study is based on a unique Harvard Business School oral history database.
- 04 Jan 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Creating the Market for Organic Wine: Sulfites, Certification, and Green Values
Certified organic wine remains a tiny percentage of the global wine market. This paper provides a case study of failed new category creation, analyzing the challenges for the organic wine market over time, including overcoming an initial reputation for quality, wines being labeled with multiple names (“organic,” “biodynamic,” “natural”), and competing certification schemes.
- 05 Dec 2017
- Research & Ideas
What We've Learned from 101 Entrepreneurs in Emerging Markets
Harvard Business School’s project exploring the evolution of business leadership in emerging economies has reached an important milestone. Project leaders Geoffrey Jones and Tarun Khanna discuss what's been learned from the Creating Emerging Markets study so far. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 29 Sep 2017
- Working Paper Summaries
International Business and Emerging Markets: A Long-Run Perspective
This paper examines how strategies by Western multinational enterprises in emerging markets over the last century have been shaped by context. These strategies evolved from resolving logistical challenges to managing assertive governments. More recently the focus has been to locate activities in the lower end of global value chains, whilst responding to local competitors.
- 18 Aug 2017
- Working Paper Summaries
Emerging Markets and the Future of Business History
This paper argues that there are important commonalities about the business history of countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America despite differences between countries and within regions of each country. It is possible to discern a distinctive body of scholarship different from that on the West.
- 15 Aug 2017
- First Look
First Look at New Research and Ideas, August 15, 2017
You’ll come around ... Is a deeply religious business culture ready for an acquisition? ... How historians should look at emerging markets
- 01 Aug 2017
- Working Paper Summaries
Business History, the Great Divergence and the Great Convergence
Among economic historians, the Great Divergence means the rise of the income gap between the West and the Rest since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The more recent Great Convergence is a narrowing of that gap. This paper integrates a business history perspective into debates surrounding these macro transformations. It calls for greater attention to micro processes that generate productive firms and entrepreneurs.
- 21 Jun 2017
- Book
Meet the Oddball Entrepreneurs Who Invented Green Businesses
Historians have hardly noticed the fringe-of-society entrepreneurs who gave birth to the green business movement starting in the 19th century. In a new book, Profits and Sustainability: A History of Green Entrepreneurship, Geoffrey Jones chronicles the pioneers of healthy food, alternative energy, and alternative living. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 27 Feb 2017
- Research & Ideas
Reputation is Vital to Survival in Turbulent Markets
Reputation and resilience are key ingredients that determine whether companies will survive tumultuous markets, according to a new paper by Geoffrey Jones, Tarun Khanna, Cheng Gao, and Tiona Zuzul. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 30 Jan 2017
- Working Paper Summaries
The Environmental Legacies of The North Face's Doug Tompkins and Patagonia's Yvon Chouinard
The contrasting strategies taken by founders of Patagonia and The North Face provide a new lens on current debates about the ability of business to contribute to environmentalism. This paper suggests that the strategies of both founders bring positive environmental benefits but with trade-offs and limitations. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 23 Jan 2017
- Working Paper Summaries
Overcoming Institutional Voids: A Reputation-Based View of Long Run Survival
Why are some firms able to persistently survive challenging, uncertain, and underdeveloped business environments? To address this question, the authors utilize the HBS Creating Emerging Markets project―a novel collection of in-depth, publicly available video interviews conducted by HBS researchers with leaders of emerging market firms that have survived over decades and even centuries. Analyzing these interviews for the first time, the authors theorize that firm reputation is a key strategic driver, and outline how a favorable reputation allows a firm to more fully utilize its existing resources by decreasing uncertainty. They also show that reputation has offensive and defensive properties that make it valuable during both positive and negative economic cycles. Finally, the authors propose new ideas about how reputation facilitates survival and discuss why a reputation-based source of competitive advantage is hard to imitate.
- 17 Jan 2017
- First Look
First Look at New Research: January 17
Should sales people be rewarded daily? ... How do firms survive long term in emerging markets? ... Entrepreneurs try to improve the mattress-buying experience.
- 04 Jan 2017
- Working Paper Summaries
Historical Change and the Competitive Advantage of Firms: Explicating the 'Dynamics' in the Dynamic Capabilities Framework
This study contributes to the re-emerging dialogue between business history and strategy by examining how historical reasoning can contribute to the dynamic capabilities framework currently employed by strategy scholars. It explores how three distinct models of historical change—evolutionary, dialectical, and constitutive—were incorporated into the theoretical tenets of the origins, context, and micro-foundations of the dynamic capabilities framework. In each case, recognizing these historical models of change provides opportunities for sharpening the conceptualization of strategy-making processes and designing research to examine them more deeply. The paper argues that given the need for more extensive empirical research on dynamic capabilities, the methodological value of history for dynamic capabilities scholarship is significant.
- 21 Sep 2016
- Research & Ideas
Shabana Azmi: Leveraging Bollywood Fame into Social Good
Indian screen star Shabana Azmi talks to Rohit Deshpandé about how she leverages movie fame into social activism. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 06 Sep 2016
- First Look
September 6, 2016
How to make the other side play fair...Why organic agriculture thrives in some countries but not others...When humor works
- 30 Aug 2016
- First Look
August 30, 2016
Using time and money to maximize happiness ... Documenting progress vs. process in cancer care ... Tackling the global water crisis.
- 01 Jul 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
Entrepreneurs and the Co-Creation of Ecotourism in Costa Rica
Costa Rica has grown as a mecca for ecotourism from the late twentieth century. Although biologists and other students of ecosystems and biodiversity were vital at the start of the process, as were conservation NGOs and the national government, this paper argues that entrepreneurs were also pivotal. While showing the benefits of ecotourism, it is also shown that as the industry scaled, there were increasing challenges of greenwashing.
Did Entrepreneur Ernesto Tornquist Help or Hurt Argentina?
Geoffrey Jones examines the career of Ernesto Tornquist, a cosmopolitan financier considered to be the most significant entrepreneur in Argentina at the end of the 19th century. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.