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Presents the basic principles of pricing, including value pricing, price sensitivity, and price customization/discrimination.

What are the characteristics, habits, and behaviors of the species entrepreneur? Is there such a thing as "entrepreneurial thinking"? Is there a learnable and teachable "core" to entrepreneurship? The author studied the problem-solving process of 30 entrepreneurs from a variety of industries whose companies ranged in value from $200 million to $6.5 billion. Careful analysis revealed a distinct thought process: "effectual reasoning." Using U-Haul as an example, she delineates the way in which entrepreneurs factor in affordable loss, strategic partnerships, and leveraging contingencies. Thinking entrepreneurially, as opposed to managerially or strategically, means believing in a yet-to-be-made future that can be shaped by human action, and realizing that to the extent that such action can control the future, they need not expend energies trying to predict it. It is much more useful to understand and work with the people who are engaged in the decisions and actions that bring it into existence.

Discusses the importance of living room groups (eight participants who share a living room) in Harvard Business School's Advanced Management Program developing into effective learning groups. The diversity of the groups is a strength, but only a conscious and concerted effort of group development can harness that strength. Outlines five steps in group development each team must take. Suggests that action learning, the skill the learning group must master to become effective, is also essential in their back-home organizations, given global competition and efficient markets.

Elaborates on the prerequisites for designing a successful marketing strategy: market segmentation, target market selection, and product positioning.

Provides an introduction to key product policy issues.

Emerging markets have attracted considerable attention and are likely to become an increasingly important political and economic force. They represent an enormous opportunity for entrepreneurs, multinationals, and investors but also pose a threat for products, jobs, and resources. They have the potential to redefine the way business is done in many industries but remain shrouded by myths. Provides an overview of the importance of emerging markets. Discusses the opportunities in and threats posed by emerging markets. Shows how studying emerging markets can provide new insights into business conglomerates, industry profitability, and corporate governance and discusses common perceptions and misconceptions of emerging markets.

Provides background on the history and status of financial integration in the European Union. Describes the pertinent treaty-based "fundamental freedoms," emphasizes challenges to further cross-border consolidation in the banking sector, and examines the regulatory role of the European Commission in fostering conditions conducive to further financial integration.

With the demise of communism, many countries in the world are striving to build their economic activity around markets and to participate in free trade arrangements, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), European Union (EU), and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Addresses several issues critical to understanding the unique nature of emerging markets relative to their more mature counterparts. What is the fundamental challenge in building well-functioning markets? On which sets of institutions do advanced markets rely to resolve these challenges? What makes building these institutions complex? What happens when some of these institutions are either absent or underdeveloped in an economy? How does one spot these institutional voids?

Provides a framework for understanding different types of international tax regimes. Examines how alternative tax regimes tax the foreign income of their citizens (including corporate citizens); how tax regimes define foreign and domestic income; and how foreign tax credits and deductions are used in worldwide tax regimes to mitigate double taxation. Discusses in detail the current U.S. system of worldwide taxation and the managerial incentives created by the U.S. tax system.

This note focuses on the fundamentals of managing process flows. A process viewpoint is useful when the goal is to manage operational metrics such as capacity, cost, inventory, or responsiveness. The note examines Little's Law, the fundamental relationship among three important metrics: average inventory, average throughput time, and average throughput rate in any system that is in equilibrium.

A derivative is a financial instrument whose value, as its name suggests, is derived from the value of an underlying asset or security. There are many different derivative securities available, including: forwards, futures, options, rights, warrants, convertibles and swaps. This note introduces some of the key concepts, terminology and strategies associated with these derivatives.

When valuing the premium to be paid for put or call options, the underlying security is only one of several factors that can determine the option's value. By calculating the impact and value of all the determinants, an option's price more accurately reflects its value. This note examines the effects of various determinants on the price of an option and introduces two models that use options equivalents: the Black-Scholes Option Pricing Model and the Binomial Option Pricing Model.

The real options approach to capital budgeting uses an options-based analysis to evaluate the real (as opposed to the financial) potential of projects. By charting the options as a series of decision points and events, managers can understand the risks and rewards of the projects, and more fully assess their opportunities. This note introduces the real options approach and describes the four main categories: expansion and follow-on options, timing and delay options, abandonment options and options that introduce flexibility into production. The expansion option is discussed in detail, including sample calculations and decision trees.

This note describes the more common methods of calculating Price Premiums (also known as Relative Prices). Students will explore Reservations Prices and % Good Value, the concepts that form the foundation of price-quantity schedules, as well as Price Elasticity, a frequently used index of how responsive the market is to changes in price. The note stresses that understanding demand functions and Price Elasticity is key to the calculation of optimal prices and uses the familiar concept of Prisoner's Dilemma and addresses price tailoring.

Provides a brief historical overview of dual class share companies in the United States, focusing on the New York Stock Exchange's evolving position on dual class structures since the 1920s, the impact of hostile takeovers on their use since the 1980s, and recent perspectives on their utility and appropriateness. Concludes with a brief discussion of the role of dual class structures in recent debates over Europe's takeover laws.

Provides a brief overview of the employment-at-will doctrine, an important concept unique to the U.S. legal system and business landscape. Briefly surveys the history and development of this doctrine and certain limitations and exceptions to it, as well as some of the distinguishing features of the employment termination process in the United States relative to other countries.

Intended to help teach students how to construct a financial model that can be used to prepare a business plan.

This note introduces simulation as a tool to analyze uncertainty in business decisions. It first observes the limitations of single point or simple range estimates of key uncertainties, thereby motivating the need to create a risk profile for any alternative that characterizes the full range of possible outcomes and their relative likelihoods. A simple example involving both a discrete and a continuous (triangle) distribution is used. The note is simulation software independent, although output from Crystal Ball is displayed.

This note describes the process a student might go through in writing a report, describes the main sections in a report and, in a supplement, reviews some points of usages, style, grammar, etc. It should be used after the Note on Case Analysis, product 9A81L002.

Discusses several of the most important prohibitions on deception found in U.S. law, starting with the basic elements of liability for fraud and moving to important antifraud provisions in federal statutes, restrictions on "misrepresentation" in consumer and contract law, deceptive nondisclosure, and forms of sales "puffery" that are not legally actionable.