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Shifting Centers of Gravity: Host Country versus Headquarters Influences on MNC Subsidiary Knowledge Inheritance

by Prithwiraj Choudhury, Mike Horia Teodorescu, and Tarun Khanna

This study compares how multinational corporation subsidiaries inherit knowledge from both the headquarters and the local context. To do so the authors analyzed seven years of data (2005–2011) of US patents filed by all subsidiaries of the top 25 US headquartered multinationals.

Why Entrepreneurs Must Focus on Building Trust

by Dina Gerdeman

Legal and social institutions that support entrepreneurs often aren't well established in developing countries. Tarun Khanna's new book explains how businesses can make up for that by building trust. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

What We've Learned from 101 Entrepreneurs in Emerging Markets

by Sean Silverthorne

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.

First Look at New Research, March 28

Sean Silverthorne

Countering misperceptions about negotiation 'BATNAs' ... A dairy cooperative’s battle with big brands ... 'Hub-and-spoke' flying versus 'out-and-back.'

Reputation is Vital to Survival in Turbulent Markets

by Sean Silverthorne

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.

Overcoming Institutional Voids: A Reputation-Based View of Long Run Survival

by Cheng Gao, Tiona Zuzul, Geoffrey Jones, and Tarun Khanna

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.

First Look at New Research: January 17

Sean Silverthorne

Should sales people be rewarded daily? ... How do firms survive long term in emerging markets? ... Entrepreneurs try to improve the mattress-buying experience.

Building Affordable Health Care in Paradise

Re: Tarun Khanna

By some accounts, only about 5 percent of people worldwide receive cardiac treatment they need to survive. Professor Tarun Khanna highlights the need for affordable health care at scale, and a possible model based on factory-like repetition and learning in the Cayman Islands. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Research Trends Discussed at India and South Asia Conference

by Dina Gerdeman

Harvard Business School recently brought together scholars to discuss the business history and current research trends in India and South Asia. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Bio-Piracy: When Western Firms Usurp Eastern Medicine

by Carmen Nobel

Raj Choudhury and Tarun Khanna examine the history of herbal patent applications, challenging a stereotype that characterizes Western firms as innovators and emerging markets as imitators. Open for comment; 3 Comment(s) posted.

Just How Independent are ‘Independent’ Directors?

by Michael Blanding

A rule in China, which mandates publicly-traded company directors to explain their dissenting votes, provides Tarun Khanna and Juan Ma with rich data looking into the inner workings of how board members interact. Closed for comment; 1 Comment(s) posted.

Behind India’s Economic and Political Woes

by Zeenat Potia

Declining value of the rupee and soaring prices for onions are just two of the problems plaguing India. Professor Tarun Khanna explains the political and economic causes. Open for comment; 7 Comment(s) posted.

Sharpening Your Skills: Meeting Management Challenges in India

Re: Multiple Faculty

We revisit four articles where India and its managers confronted problems and seized opportunities on the topics of big data, branding, intellectual property protection, and creating a new-product category. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.

A Roadmap for Afghanistan’s Economic Future

by Tarun Khanna

Most discussions about the immediate future of Afghanistan center on security. A consideration just as important, says Professor Tarun Khanna, is rebuilding the embattled country's economy. Closed for comment; 3 Comment(s) posted.

Board Games: Timing of Independent Directors’ Dissent in China

by Juan Ma & Tarun Khanna

Independent directors are an integral part of corporate governance. Despite the copious scholarly debates surrounding board independence, however, little progress has been made in studying the inner workings of public boards. Fortunately, the regulatory environment in China offers a rare window to observe the inner workings of independent directors. This paper is one of the first statistical investigations of the circumstances under which so-called "independent" directors voice their independent views. The authors explore the following questions: 1) Why do independent directors dissent? 2) Under which circumstances is an independent director more likely to issue an open dissent? and 3) Does dissent matter sufficiently to affect independent directors' careers and firm performance? Unlike most of the previous models that view boards as a monolithic entity that "shares a common agenda on all matters," this study allows the authors to see boards as consisting of individuals with different utility functions and to examine board behaviors at the individual director level. Key concepts include: Independent directors dissent more when social connections that might hold back a dissent is less constraining on one hand, and when firms have poor performance that might impose threats to independent directors' personal reputations on the other hand. Boards can be reconceptualized: not as monolithic checks on managerial actions, but as social institutions with emergent norms, and sanctions and rewards to (non-)compliance on occasion. The labor market not only rewards independent directors for their superior decision making expertise, but also punishes those who openly challenged listed companies' management teams. For Chinese independent directors, this work suggests an inescapable dilemma whereby the Confucian doctrine of Golden Mean is the only survival guide. That is, independent directors must ensure that their relationships with listed companies are conducted on an open and mutually advantageous basis. On one hand, independent directors need to build a good public reputation for being an active monitor, and on the other hand, they need to establish a good "private" reputation for being friendly with the controlling shareholders and top management. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.

India’s Ambitious National Identification Program

by Dina Gerdeman

The Unique Identification Authority of India has been charged with implementing a nationwide program to register and assign a unique 12-digit ID to every Indian resident—some 1.2 billion people—by 2020. In a new case, Professor Tarun Khanna and HBS India Research Center Executive Director Anjali Raina discuss the complexities of this massive data management project. Closed for comment; 30 Comment(s) posted.

Caste and Entrepreneurship in India

by Lakshmi Iyer, Tarun Khanna & Ashutosh Varshney

Has India's political revolution been accompanied by corresponding changes in the economic sphere? This paper argues that for the most vulnerable, whether in villages or cities, the social structure has not changed. While Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and traditionally "middle-level" castes have made significant progress at the level of political representation in independent India, their progress in entrepreneurship has been uneven. By looking at the ownership of enterprises across the country, this paper sheds light on two larger narratives about India's emerging political economy: first, that the rich have benefitted more than the poor, the towns and cities more than the villages, and the upper castes more than the lower castes has acquired salience in several quarters. And second, that "Dalit entrepreneurship," a category conspicuous by its absence in India's business history, has become a significant trend. Findings by Lakshmi Iyer, Tarun Khanna, and Ashutosh Varshney show that while the "middle-level" castes have made progress in entrepreneurship, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are considerably under-represented in the entrepreneurial sphere. That is, for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, political gains have not manifested themselves in greater entrepreneurial prowess. Key concepts include: By documenting some of the basic facts about caste and entrepreneurship, Iyer, Khanna, and Varshney provide evidence for the persistence of caste differences in important development outcomes. The Scheduled Castes are communities that have historically been at the bottom of the Hindu caste hierarchy, and subjected to considerable economic and social discrimination. Most such castes were considered "untouchables" by members of higher castes. Scheduled Tribes include communities that have traditionally been outside the Hindu caste system. The Indian constitution of 1950 explicitly prohibits discrimination on the basis of caste or tribe, and also provides affirmative action policies for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in political representation, education and jobs. Members of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are under-represented in the ownership of enterprises. These patterns are not specific to any one region or state of the country. By contrast, members of traditionally "middle level" castes appear to be making significant progress in playing an important entrepreneurial role. Differences across caste categories are more pronounced in urban areas compared to rural areas, suggesting that these results cannot be attributed purely to social discrimination that might be expected to be higher in rural areas. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.

Strategy and Execution for Emerging Markets

by Martha Lagace

How can multinationals, entrepreneurs, and investors identify and respond to new challenges and opportunities around the world? In this Q&A, HBS professors and strategy experts Tarun Khanna and Krishna G. Palepu offer a practical framework for succeeding in emerging markets. Plus: Book excerpt with action items. Key concepts include: The ambition level of large, fast-growing emerging markets around the world rivals that of companies in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Khanna and Palepu outline how to identify and respond to institutional voids in product, labor, and capital markets. Investors and entrepreneurs can respond to niches in institutional infrastructure in the private sector, such as the need for information analyzers and advisors, aggregators and distributors, transaction facilitators, and more. A useful starting point for managers is to construct an institutional map to identify institutional voids—which may themselves present business opportunities. Western multinational companies as well as local entrepreneurs are innovating products to attract the emerging middle class. Such innovations could potentially benefit consumers living in mature markets. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.

State Owned Entity Reform in Absence of Privatization: Reforming Indian National Laboratories and Role of Leadership

by Prithwiraj Choudhury & Tarun Khanna

Is privatization necessary? In India and across emerging markets, state-owned entities (SOEs) continue to make up a large proportion of industrial sales, yet they lag behind private counterparts on performance measures. But SOEs may be able to significantly improve performance even in the absence of property rights, according to HBS doctoral candidate Prithwiraj Choudhury and professor Tarun Khanna. As they document, 42 Indian state-owned laboratories started from a base of negligible U.S. patents, yet in the period 1993-2006 (during which the Indian government launched an ambitious privatization program), the labs were granted more patents than all domestic private firms combined. The labs then licensed several of these patents to multinationals, and licensing revenue increased from 3 percent to 15 percent as a fraction of government budgetary support. Findings are relevant to firms and R&D entities around the world that depend on varying degrees of government budgetary support and government control, especially in emerging markets like India, where SOEs control up to one-third of all industrial activity. Key concepts include: Despite the absence of property rights, 42 Indian state-owned laboratories significantly increased U.S. patents and licensing revenue from multinationals without negatively affecting publication quality and quantity. This development may be due to incentive policy change and leadership change at the labs. U.S. patents as well as revenue from multinationals increased sharply in response to director changes, an event whose timing was dictated by rigid government employment rules. Private firms including multinationals can play a catalytic role in driving up revenue at SOEs. The state-owned labs leveraged the U.S. institutional context in effecting their turnaround. The general point is that organizations in emerging markets can leverage institutions from outside their location of origin, once they have some established source of competitive advantage (in this case, their R&D-generated know-how). Although the labs were able to commercialize projects without sacrificing publication quality and quantity, a question remains as to whether and why national labs should concern themselves with commercialization. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.

Are the Olympics a Catalyst for China Reforms?

by Sean Silverthorne

By hosting the Summer Games, China is putting itself at the center of the world's stage, a position some reformers would like to leverage to spark human rights improvements in the country. Can outsiders influence Chinese policy? Not without help, says HBS professor Tarun Khanna. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.