Publications

September 2023 (Revised July 2024)
Case

Honest Jobs: A Path to Redemption

By: Paul A. Gompers and Jeffrey Barkas

Founded by a formerly incarcerated job seeker, Honest Jobs' mission is to be the hub where people with criminal records come to build careers and employers come to find great talent. Honest Jobs faced early challenges as a two-sided platform for justice-involved job... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Venture Capital; Recruitment; Entrepreneurial Finance; Selection and Staffing; Digital Platforms; Job Search; Mission and Purpose; Expansion; Employment Industry; United States; Colorado; Ohio; Texas

01 Jun 2023
HBS Case

A Nike Executive Hid His Criminal Past to Turn His Life Around. What If He Didn't Have To?

imprisoned come from predominantly minority communities. In 2018, Black Americans were incarcerated in state prisons at nearly six times the rate of White Americans, research shows. Many prison reform advocates say long-standing... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Apparel & Accessories

May 1994
Article

The Work Preference Inventory: Assessing Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivational Orientations

By: T. M. Amabile, K. G. Hill, B. A. Hennessey and E. M. Tighe

The Work Preference Inventory (WPI) is designed to assess individual differences in intrinsic and extrinsic motivational orientations. Both the college student and the working adult versions aim to capture the major elements of intrinsic motivation (self-determination,... View Details

Keywords: Creativity; Motivation and Incentives; Measurement and Metrics; Higher Education; Employees; Personal Characteristics

Find at Harvard

January 2023 (Revised December 2023)
Case

OhmConnect: Energizing the Future

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Jennifer Fonstad and Nicole Tempest Keller

Founded in 2013, OhmConnect was a free consumer web app that alerted customers about peak hours of electricity demand, and paid them to lower their energy use at home during these periods. The company sold the aggregated reductions generated by thousands of households... View Details

Keywords: App Development; Renewable Energy; Electricity Usage; Regulations; VC; Technology; Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC); Scalability; Applications and Software; Growth and Development Strategy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business Model; Venture Capital; Energy Industry; United States; California; Texas; Europe

12 Mar 2024
Research & Ideas

Publish or Perish: What the Research Says About Productivity in Academia

publication outputs also works against tenured professors, who typically spend more time on longer lead-time projects, such as writing books or advising policymakers. The Harvard team looked instead at... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Education

December 2014 (Revised July 2021)
Case

Discovery Limited

By: Michael E. Porter, Mark R. Kramer and Aldo Sesia

Discovery Ltd. is a South Africa-based insurance company. Started in the early 1990s, Discovery used behavioral economics and data collection to innovate in the health care insurance industry. Its founder Adrian Gore believed that the company's products needed to not... View Details

Keywords: Shared Value; Health Care; Financial Services; Strategy; Value Creation; Health Care and Treatment; Insurance; Growth and Development Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Health Industry; Insurance Industry; South Africa

05 May 2014
Research & Ideas

Reflecting on Work Improves Job Performance

Many of us are familiar with the gentle punishment known as "time-out," in which misbehaving children must sit quietly for a few minutes, calm down, and reflect on their actions. New research suggests that grown-ups ought to take routine... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

November 2021
Case

Kermit PPI

By: Kyle Myers, Matt Grennan and Sarah Mehta

Launched in 2011, Kermit PPI helped hospitals save money on expensive orthopedic implants and devices by enabling them to renegotiate their contracts with device manufacturers and better monitor compliance. In 2021, as they look to grow, they are entertaining two... View Details

Keywords: Health; Health Care and Treatment; Strategy; Expansion; Information Technology; Applications and Software; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Contracts; Health Industry; Technology Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; United States; Maryland

2020
Book

Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire

By: Rebecca Henderson

Free market capitalism is one of humanity’s greatest inventions and the greatest source of prosperity the world has ever seen. But this success has been costly. Capitalism is on the verge of destroying the planet and destabilizing society as wealth rushes to the top.... View Details

Keywords: Capitalism; Economic Systems; Ethics; Society; Environmental Sustainability

Find at Harvard

September 2008 (Revised July 2012)
Case

Khosla Ventures: Biofuels Strategy

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III, William A. Sahlman and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

By 2008, a number of the firm's early cleantech investments were showing promise, and the companies were starting to need significantly more money to create the massive scale required in the energy sector. As Khosla thought about the hundreds of millions of dollars... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Marketing; Entrepreneurial Finance; New Product Development; Partnerships; Entrepreneurial Management; Venture Capital; Strategy; Partners and Partnerships; Renewable Energy; Entrepreneurship; Investment Funds; Environmental Sustainability; Product Development; Biotechnology Industry; Financial Services Industry

March 2007 (Revised August 2009)
Case

Grupo Bimbo

By: Jordan I. Siegel

In 2007 Grupo Bimbo, a leading global player in the baking industry, expands into China while at the same time undertaking initiatives to make its U.S. and South American operations more profitable. Allows students to analyze the company's entire global strategy.... View Details

Keywords: Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Global Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business and Government Relations; Food and Beverage Industry; China; Mexico; United States; South America

August 2021
Supplement

Dirk Nowitzki: Changing the Game

By: Boris Groysberg

NBA Superstar Dirk Nowitzki was unsure whether the 2018–2019 season would be his last as an NBA player. He had not faced such uncertainty since 1998, when he had navigated a difficult decision regarding the timing of his move to the NBA. He also did not know what he... View Details

Keywords: Career Decisions; Career Journey; ＂Sports Organizations,; Mentoring; Retirement; Sports; Performance; Training; Personal Development and Career; Decision Making; Talent and Talent Management; Sports Industry; United States

February 15, 2022
Article

How Managers Can Build a Culture of Experimentation

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Neil Hoyne

Testing in business presents qualitatively different challenges than those in clinical trials and most scientific research. There are very few opportunities for randomized control experiments in a changing, competitive market. Yet, change and competition make testing a... View Details

Keywords: Experimentation; Management; Decision Making

Find at Harvard

Read Now

12 Dec 2005
Research & Ideas

Using the Law to Strategic Advantage

contrast, Citigroup CEO and lawyer Chuck Prince paid $2.5 billion to settle claims related to Citigroup's work for WorldCom rather than take what Prince characterized as "a $50 billion roll of the dice." Q: Which companies get... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Legal Services

01 Jul 2019
Research & Ideas

The Airbnb Lesson for Startups? Success Takes More Than Technology

money by becoming the supermarket for all your travel needs. That has not been the case in the travel industry. Kost: Why is that? Teixeira: Hotels focus on customers from the time they enter their doors to... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Travel; Tourism

September 2023
Technical Note

Note on Difficult Conversations in the Family Enterprise

By: Christina R. Wing

The best time to have a difficult conversation is, ideally, as soon as possible. Engaging in challenging conversations early can produce beneficial results for several reasons, such as resolving issues, improving communication, preserving relationships, and increasing... View Details

Keywords: Conversation; Family Business; Interpersonal Communication; Conflict and Resolution

July 2007
Case

Kristen's Cookie Company (A) (Abridged)

By: Roger E. Bohn and Janice H. Hammond

The student is starting his or her own business, baking make-to-order cookies. Basic times of each operation are laid out and the student is asked to determine the consequences for the operating system. Serves as an exercise and review of concepts such as capacity,... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Growth Management; SWOT Analysis; Operations; Outcome or Result; Performance Capacity