Global Strategy →

New research on global strategy from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including strategies for doing business in emerging markets, effective cross-border strategies, and innovation through global collaboration as a new source of competitive advantage.

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Has COVID-19 Broken the Global Value Chain?

by Sean Silverthorne

4Questions Companies and consumers depend on the global value chain to create and distribute products around the world. What happens when the chain breaks? Insights from Laura Alfaro and Ester Faia. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Is There a Winner in Huawei’s Digital Cold War with the US?

Re: William C. Kirby

Bill Kirby discusses his case study of China-based Huawei’s growth and ultimate confrontation with the United States government, and China's response to the coronavirus. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

China-based Fuyao Glass Considers Manufacturing in the US

Re: Willy C. Shih

Not many Chinese companies open manufacturing facilities in the US, but automotive glass maker Fuyao is considering just that. In a recent case study, Willy Shih examines factors that go into deciding where companies should locate production centers. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Free Trade Needs Nurturing—and Other Lessons from History

Global free trade is not the natural order of things, so it needs to be carefully tended to and maintained. Sophus Reinert and Dante Roscini discuss trade over time and what history teaches. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Political Dysfunction Makes America Less Competitive

by Dina Gerdeman

The American economy is “failing the test of competitiveness," according to a new Harvard Business School study written by Michael E. Porter, Jan W. Rivkin, and Mihir A. Desai. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Sharpening Your Skills: Doing Business in Emerging Markets

Going global is one thing, targeting emerging economies quite another. In this collection from our archives, HBS faculty discuss strategy development, government relations, exploiting local opportunities, and risk management when dealing in emerging economies. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

Businesses Beware: The World Is Not Flat

by Martha Lagace

With apologies to Thomas Friedman, managers who believe the hype of a flat world do so at their own risk, says HBS professor Pankaj Ghemawat. National borders still matter a lot for business strategists. While identifying similarities from one place to the next is essential, effective cross-border strategies will take careful stock of differences as well. A Q&A and book excerpt follow. Key concepts include: Some indicators of globalization aren't increasing as many experts have claimed. Toyota and Wal-Mart are examples of companies that understand how to deal with distance in a strategic way. Take a broad view of differences, figure out the ones that matter the most in your industry, and look at them not just as difficulties to be overcome but also as potential sources of value creation. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

Innovation through Global Collaboration: A New Source of Competitive Advantage

by Alan MacCormack, Theodore Forbath, Peter Brooks & Patrick Kalaher

Collaboration is becoming a new and important source of competitive advantage. No longer is the creation and pursuit of new ideas the bastion of large, central R&D departments within vertically integrated organizations. Instead, innovations are increasingly brought to the market by networks of firms, selected according to their comparative advantages, and operating in a coordinated manner. This paper reports on a study of the strategies and practices used by firms that achieve greater success in terms of business value in their collaborative innovation efforts. Key concepts include: Consider the strategic role of collaboration, organize effectively for collaboration, and make long-term investments to develop collaborative capabilities. Successful firms found that attention to these 3 critical areas generated new options to create value that competitors could not replicate. Successful firms went beyond simple wage arbitrage, asking global partners to contribute knowledge and skills to projects, with a focus on improving their top line. They redesigned their organizations to increase the effectiveness of these efforts. Managing collaboration the same way a firm handles the outsourcing of production is a flawed approach. Production and innovation are fundamentally different activities and have different objectives. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

The Regional Slice of Your Global Strategy

by Pankaj Ghemawat

A regional understanding should be part of your overall global strategy, says Professor Pankaj Ghemawat. One key: Recognize that regions don’t stop at national borders. An excerpt from Harvard Business Review. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.