Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(820)
- Faculty Publications (139)
- March 2021 (Revised June 2021)
- Case
Scale and Scope at Drake Real Estate Partners
By: Christina R. Wing and David Lane
Realizing in early 2021 that their pending real estate investment fund would likely be oversubscribed, Drake Real Estate Partners co-founders Nicolás Ibáñez and David Cotterman were considering how best to continue to diversify their investor base and how to optimize... View Details
- March 2021
- Technical Note
Competitive Strategy in International Construction
By: John D. Macomber and Emrah Ergelen
Construction of buildings and infrastructure is one of the largest industries in the world in terms of volume. It is also one of the most physically risky, financially uncertain, and politically impacted. The industry is highly fragmented since there are few economies... View Details
- March 2021
- Case
Founders Factory
By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and James Barnett
In January 2020, Founders Factory (FF) Executive Chairman Brent Hoberman and CEO Henry Lane Fox were considering FF’s expansion strategy. FF operated as a venture capital (VC) fund built around an accelerator and incubator, and organized around sectors within... View Details
Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Markets; Planning; Expansion; Global Range; Business Model; Talent and Talent Management; Experience and Expertise; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Global Strategy; Innovation Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Teams; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Partners and Partnerships; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Technology Industry; Africa; South Africa; Johannesburg; Europe; France; Paris; United Kingdom; England; London; United States; New York (city, NY)
- March 2021 (Revised March 2024)
- Case
M-KOPA: Empowering Lives
By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Wale Lawal and Pippa Tubman Armerding
The Pay As You Go solar power company in East Africa had sales of $71 million in 2019. It wished to grow to $300 million by 2025. M-KOPA, founded by three entrepreneurs in 2011, had grown nicely in Kenya and Uganda to reach nearly 750,000 households with an innovative... View Details
- February 2021 (Revised March 2021)
- Case
AptDeco: Circular Economy Furniture Marketplace
By: Ayelet Israeli and Jamie Merkrebs
AptDeco, a used furniture marketplace, was growing rapidly in the tri-state area. The co-founders were confident that the business model, financial position, and unit economics positioned AptDeco for scaling in the massive $120 billion furniture market, despite its... View Details
Keywords: E-Commerce Strategy; Mobile; Word-of-Mouth; Word-of-mouth Marketing; Word Of Mouth; Internet Marketing; Growth Strategy; Platform; Platforms; Two Sided Markets; Two-sided Market; Two-sided Marketplace; Two-Sided Markets; Two-sided Network; Black Entrepreneurs; Black Leadership; African Americans; Circular; Peer-to-peer Markets; Furniture Industry; Furniture; Growth Hacking; Monetization Strategy; African-American Protagonist; Growth Management; Marketing Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Digital Platforms; Marketing Channels; Digital Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Acquisition; Growth and Development Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; E-commerce; Retail Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Technology Industry; Web Services Industry; United States; North America; New York (city, NY); New York (state, US)
- February 2021 (Revised March 2023)
- Supplement
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic and the Global Economy (B)
By: Alberto Cavallo and Christian Godwin
By December 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had swept across the globe, creating widespread disruption in all aspects of everyday life. Almost 90 million people had been infected and nearly two million had died from the disease. By this point in the pandemic—a year since... View Details
- January 2021 (Revised March 2022)
- Case
Brigad: The Future of Work
By: Nien-he Hsieh, Elena Corsi and Daniela Beyersdorfer
In 2019 Florent Malbranche, CEO and co-founder of the French tech startup Brigad, pondered the next growth steps. Founded in 2015, Brigad’s objective was two-fold: to help restaurants and bars find qualified staff for punctual shifts, and to make it easier for... View Details
- October 2020
- Case
HOPE and Transformational Lending: Netflix Invests in Black Led Banks
By: John D. Macomber and Janice Broome Brooks
Following the killing of George Floyd on Memorial Day in 2020, the large US corporation Netflix elected to make a "transformational deposit" of $10 million into Hope Credit Union (HCU), a small Black led community development finance institution (CDFI) based in... View Details
- Summer 2020
- Article
Is It Time to Rethink Globalized Supply Chains?: The COVID-19 Pandemic Should Be a Wake-up Call for Managers and Prompt Them to Consider Actions That Will Improve Their Resilience to Future Shocks
By: Willy C. Shih
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the complex interdependencies of globalized supply chains. While these global multistage production networks had spread during a relatively benign environment of falling trade barriers and increasing interdependencies among countries,... View Details
- June 2020
- Teaching Note
Armarium: Luxury Fashion Brands for Rent
By: Jill Avery and David Fubini
Armarium, a two-sided digital platform that offered consumers the opportunity to rent the most coveted, current season high fashion clothing and accessories from the top global luxury brands, had emerged from its first sales season with two distinct customer segments:... View Details
Keywords: Luxury Brand; Fashion; Sharing Economy; Two-sided Marketplace; Target Market; Customer Selection; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Luxury; Two-Sided Platforms; Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; Customer Value and Value Chain; Fashion Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States; North America
- 2020
- Working Paper
HBS COVID-19 Global Policy Tracker
By: Alberto Cavallo and Tannya Cai
The HBS COVID-19 Global Policy Tracker is an initiative by the Business, Government and the International Economy (BGIE) unit at Harvard Business School (HBS) to collect and standardize economic policies implemented as a response to the coronavirus pandemic around the... View Details
- April 2020 (Revised October 2021)
- Case
SpaceX, Economies of Scale, and a Revolution in Space Access
By: Matthew C. Weinzierl, Kylie Lucas and Mehak Sarang
From the time he transformed the world of online banking, Elon Musk established himself as a bold innovator. After selling X.com to PayPal in 2002, he founded a series of revolutionary start-ups, starting with Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX). Hoping to "make... View Details
- March 2020
- Teaching Note
onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy
By: Jill Avery and Anat Keinan
onefinestay was a two-sided marketplace that offered high-end home rentals to travelers who sought a more authentic and local experience than a typical upscale hotel might provide. After five years of rapid growth, it was time to do a comprehensive analysis of the... View Details
Keywords: Two-sided Marketplace; Two-sided Market; Hospitality Industry; Hotels; Luxury Brand; Sharing Economy; Startup; Scaling; Growth; Customer Segmentation; Brand Positioning; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Luxury; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Business Model; Venture Capital; Customers; Segmentation; Growth and Development Strategy; Travel Industry; Tourism Industry; Accommodations Industry; United Kingdom; London; Europe
- 2021
- Working Paper
International Evidence on the Effects of a Local Presence by U.S. Credit Rating Agencies
By: Liran Eliner, Michael Machokoto and Anywhere Sikochi
Major U.S. credit rating agencies are criticized for failing to understand developments in other economies and thereby impeding capital access by assigning lower ratings. Consistent with this, we find that Moody's and S&P credit ratings are more favorable after the... View Details
- February 2020
- Case
Seso Global: Building a Blockchain-enabled Property Marketplace in Nigeria
By: Boris Vallee and Yang (Dolly) Yu
The mutual aspiration of addressing the housing shortage and improving real estate market efficiency led Daniel and Phillip to co-found Seso Global in 2017. Seso Global developed a unique integrated platform to streamline and rationalize the process of acquiring and... View Details
- January–February 2020
- Article
Competing in the Age of AI
By: Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani
Today’s markets are being reshaped by a new kind of firm—one in which artificial intelligence (AI) runs the show. This cohort includes giants like Google, Facebook, and Alibaba, and growing businesses such as Wayfair and Ocado. Every time we use their services, the... View Details
- 2020
- Chapter
The Gift of Global Talent: Innovation Policy and the Economy
By: William R. Kerr
Talent is the most precious resource for today’s knowledge-based economy, and a significant share of the U.S. skilled workforce in technology fields is foreign born. The United States has long held a leading position in attracting global talent, but the gap to other... View Details
- 2019
- Chapter
From Coast to Hinterland: Fiscal State Formation in British and French West Africa, c. 1880–1960
By: Ewout Frankema and Marlous van Waijenburg
This chapter contrasts and compares the ways different colonial states in West Africa developed local fiscal capacity. We show that per capita revenues were higher in the more commercialised coastal export economies than in remote parts of the interior. We argue that... View Details
Keywords: Fiscal Capacity; Public Debt; French West Africa; British West Africa; Geography; History; Africa
- August 2019 (Revised February 2020)
- Case
New Hope Liuhe: Building an Integrated Agri-Food Business
By: Forest L. Reinhardt, Shu Lin, Natalie Kindred and Nancy Hua Dai
In October 2018, LIU Chang (Angela), chairman of Beijing-based New Hope Liuhe (NHL), was considering the strategy of the firm. With $9 billion in sales and a presence in nearly 20 countries, NHL was China’s largest animal feed producer and a major pork and poultry... View Details
Keywords: Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Food; Agribusiness; Expansion; Diversification; Growth Management; Consumer Behavior; Change Management; Entrepreneurship; Organizational Structure; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Government and Politics; Animal-Based Agribusiness; Transformation; Volatility; Business Cycles; Goods and Commodities; Supply Chain; Product; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; China; Asia
- July 2019 (Revised May 2020)
- Supplement
Piramal e-Swasthya (C): A New Name, Bigger Scope, and Public-Private Partnerships
By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Joyce J. Kim
In 2010, Anand Piramal acquired the Health Management Research Institute (HMRI), a healthcare venture, and merged it with his original digital healthcare startup Piramal e-Swasthya (PeS), so that PeS became Piramal Swasthya. After acquiring HMRI, Piramal Swasthya... View Details