Harvard Publications
The research that helped shape how business thinks about strategy.
During his years at Harvard, Ralph produced work that outlasted him in the field. He launched the PIMS project, wrote a two-volume study of pricing and antitrust, and co-authored one of the most cited papers in the history of marketing strategy. Much of it is still read and taught today.
The Work
Research that outlived its moment. Spanning marketing, antitrust, and economic strategy.
1968 - Problems in Marketing
Co-authored with fellow Harvard Business School professors, this widely adopted textbook trained a generation of business students through the 1960s and 70s.
1973-74 - Pricing in the Electrical Oligopoly, Volumes I and II
Ralph’s big Harvard project, stretching over five years (1968-1973), studied the American electrical equipment manufacturing oligopoly in the post-war period, which became the focus of large-scale antitrust charges which saw the would-be president of General Electric go to jail. Ralph simulated pricing and technological strategies using an econometric model which he developed based on 17 behavioral and 67 tautological for a total of 94 equations fitted to detailed operating data from 1948 to 1963, for three rivals: General Electric, Westinghouse and Allis Chalmers, all serving the American electrical utility industry. Ralph then used that model to simulate various price-fixing regimes which might operate currently (in the 1970s).
His two-volume study titled “Pricing in the Electrical Oligopoly” was distributed by Harvard University Press in 1973 and 1974. He concluded that competition in this industry could be compared to the military rivalries of the great powers. Maximum “progress” was achieved under conditions of maximum disparity of the market shares of the oligopolists. Manufacturing capacity was seen as analogous to weapons system capacity in an arms race.
Maintaining financial capacity to fund new technology was key to success – and survival. As his Harvard colleague (Prof. Jesse Markham, former Chief Economist of the US Federal Trade Commission) observed, Ralph’s research demonstrated that technological innovation unabashedly followed Joseph Schumpeter’s 1942 proposition that “creative destruction” was the driving force of capitalist progress. (We witness parallels in today’s international “arms race” in AI.) As a side issue, Ralph observed that -- based on evidence from the multiple collusions he studied -- price-fixing by oligopolists always fails since colluding rivals pretend to agree but invariably cheat.
1975 - Market Share: A Key to Profitability
Co-authored with Buzzell and Gale, this Harvard Business Review article reported the findings of the PIMS project measuring the relationship between market share and the return on investment in a business, regardless of nature, industry or size. Such analysis, combined with dissemination of the idea of the “learning curve” underpinned the launch of Bruce Henderson’s Boston Consulting Group, and other business consulting ventures. It remains one of the most cited papers in marketing strategy.
Later years - Selected Articles, Public Policy and Beyond
Further writing appeared in Canadian Public Policy, Industry and Higher Education, and the Canadian Parliamentary Review, spanning economics, higher education, and provincial politics.