Publications

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January 2004 (Revised July 2006)
Case

Mondavi Winery

Examines Mondavi Winery's struggle to communicate its value proposition to the market following an apparently successful IPO. The Mondavi Winery had a strong reputation for innovation in the wine industry and had undertaken an IPO to secure the funding needed to... View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Initial Public Offering; Innovation and Management; Communication Strategy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

July 2017 (Revised November 2017)
Case

Propel

By: Mitchell Weiss and Sarah McAra

In 2014, Jimmy Chen, a former product manager at Facebook, founded the start-up Propel to build software for low-income Americans. After conducting in-depth behavioral research, Chen and his small team in New York City began to develop technology to address the... View Details

25 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

To Pay or Not to Pay: Argentina and the International Debt Market

Costa Rica, recommends a course of action sure to anger banks and fund managers: absolute sovereign immunity, which is the way things were done before 1976. Argentina's escalating financial crisis is taking on the look and feel of 2002,... View Details

Keywords: by Laura Alfaro

August 2024
Case

Ashesi University: The Journey from Vision to Reality

By: Ranjay Gulati and Caroline de Lacvivier

In 1997, Patrick Awuah had a dream: to bring liberal arts education to Ghana. Amid the country’s declining economy and pervasive corruption problems, Awuah saw education as an opportunity to reverse its fortunes by investing in the next generation of African leaders.... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Higher Education; Entrepreneurship; Leadership Development; Growth Management; Mission and Purpose; Private Ownership; Education Industry; Ghana

12 Oct 2017
Blog Post

Why I Spent this Summer Coding

The summer between RC and EC year represents a great opportunity for risk-free exploration. Encouraged by our outcome at the New Venture Competition and the funding I would receive as a Rock Summer Fellow, I forwent a business internship... View Details

May 2021
Teaching Plan

Gera Developments: Leadership at a Crossroads

By: Christina R. Wing and John Masko

Teaching Plan for HBS Case No. 621-018. For decades, Gera Developments (Gera) was a boutique family-owned real estate development firm in Pune, India. But since 2000, managing director Rohit Gera had turned the company into a dynamic innovator in housing solutions for... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Business Growth and Maturation; Construction; Geographic Location; Global Strategy; Globalized Firms and Management; Housing; Leadership Style; Management Succession; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Family Ownership; Family and Family Relationships; Urban Development; Customization and Personalization; Real Estate Industry; Maharashtra; India; San Francisco

July 2020 (Revised November 2020)
Case

Gera Developments: Leadership at a Crossroads

By: Christina R. Wing and John Masko

For decades, Gera Developments (Gera) was a boutique family-owned real estate development firm in Pune, India. But since 2000, managing director Rohit Gera had turned the company into a dynamic innovator in housing solutions for urban Indian families. Over the 2010s,... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Business Growth and Maturation; Construction; Geographic Location; Global Strategy; Globalized Firms and Management; Housing; Leadership Style; Management Succession; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Family Ownership; Family and Family Relationships; Urban Development; Customization and Personalization; Real Estate Industry; Maharashtra; India; United States

September 2020
Case

Merck: COVID-19 Vaccines

By: Willy C. Shih

COVID-19 infections were still climbing across the U.S. and many other parts of the world in September 2020, and it seemed that every time Ken Frazier, the CEO of Merck & Co. consented to an interview in recent months he always seemed to hear the same question,... View Details

Keywords: Vaccines; COVID-19 Pandemic; Health Pandemics; Health Testing and Trials; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Business Strategy; Product Launch; Pharmaceutical Industry

May 1999 (Revised November 2000)
Case

AES Global Values

By: Lynn S. Paine

Members of the development team for the AES Corp.'s power plant project in India must decide what plant technology to specify in their application for techno-economic clearance from the government of India's Central Electric Authority. Their choice is between more... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Energy Generation; Technology Adoption; Energy Industry; India; United States

10 May 2010
Research & Ideas

What Top Scholars Say About Leadership

central part of their mission, asserting that they educate and develop leaders for society. And yet, if we look at the leading research universities and at the business schools within them, the topic of leadership is actually given fairly... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Education

October 2002 (Revised December 2003)
Case

Collabrys, Inc. (A)-The Evolution of a Startup

By: Dorothy A. Leonard and Brian DeLacey

The CEO of a two-year-old start-up must now decide whether to become a technology provider or a service agency. In a time of enormous uncertainty about the viability of various business models for Internet-delivered services and products, Collabrys has survived the... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Internet and the Web; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Corporate Strategy; Technological Innovation; Cost vs Benefits; Partners and Partnerships; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Corporate Finance; United States

September 2020
Case

Minerva 2004: Discovery

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

After nearly five years in operation, Doctor Cynthia Bamdad, founder and CEO of Minerva Biotechnologies Corporation (Minerva), was reflecting on the company’s next steps. In a few short years, she and her small team had managed to develop a nanoparticle process for... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Biotechnology Industry

03 May 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Big BRICs, Weak Foundations: The Beginning of Public Elementary Education in Brazil, Russia, India, and China, 1880-1930

Keywords: by Latika Chaudhary, Aldo Musacchio, Steven Nafziger & Se Yan

31 Oct 2017
First Look

New Research and Ideas, October 31, 2017

nineteenth century, showed it gained momentum from the 1960s, and resulted in a mainstreaming of sustainability rhetoric, and sometimes practice, in large corporations from the 1980s, primarily in Western developed countries. A more... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

2015
Working Paper

Expertise vs. Bias in Evaluation: Evidence from the NIH

By: Danielle Li

Evaluators with expertise in a particular field may have an informational advantage in separating good projects from bad. At the same time, they may also have personal preferences that impact their objectivity. This paper develops a framework for separately identifying... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Performance Evaluation; Experience and Expertise

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Teaching Interest

Managing Service Operations - MBA Elective Curriculum

By: Ryan W. Buell

World-class service organizations deeply understand the needs and behaviors of their customers, and design, manage, and improve their operating models accordingly. This course investigates the distinct challenges inherent in leading service operations, which make up... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Customer Satisfaction; Customer Loyalty; Quality; Employees; Service Models; Service Industry

December 2016 (Revised April 2017)
Case

BASF: Co-Creating Innovation (A)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Emilie Billaud and Vincent Dessain

In 2016, BASF's chief executive officer and chief technology officer reflected on the co-creation innovation program started almost 18 months ago as part of BASF's 150th anniversary celebration. Five hundred project ideas had been created, of which 100 had already... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Knowledge Sharing; Innovation Strategy; Innovation and Management; Chemicals; Environmental Sustainability; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Consumer Products Industry; Europe

July 2023 (Revised July 2024)
Case

Miracle Therapeutics: Negotiating an IP License (A)

By: Satish Tadikonda, Michael Singer, William Marks and Wendi Yajnik

(General Experience Case) Beth Sharp and Jennifer Brilliant founded Miracle Therapeutics based on intellectual property developed by Brilliant and her post-doctoral student, John Supreme, in Brilliant’s lab at Elite University (EU). Miracle will have to obtain a... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Patents; Negotiation Process