Publications

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2022
Working Paper

Institutional Emplacement and the Novel Resurgence of Independent Bookstores

By: Ryan Raffaelli and Ryann Noe

This study reveals how actors leverage physical place as an asset to facilitate organizational adaptation and industry evolution. Through a longitudinal, qualitative analysis of the U.S. independent bookselling industry from 1995 to 2019, we outline how dispersed... View Details

Keywords: Industry Growth; Small Business; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business Processes; Retail Industry; Publishing Industry; United States

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September 2002 (Revised July 2012)
Case

Athleta

By: William A. Sahlman and Taslim Pirmohamed

The management team at Athleta is attempting to raise equity capital for the company in March 2002. Athleta is a catalog and online retailer of women's athletic clothing. The company has made substantial progress, with anticipated 2002 sales over $20 million, but has... View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Financing and Loans; Business Model; Business Strategy; Equity; Capital; Retail Industry

22 Aug 2018
Blog Post

MBA Students Reflect on Their Summer Internships

As a student at Harvard Business School, you’ll have the opportunity to realize your personal career vision with the help of resources available to you through the Career & Professional Development Office. The summer internship is... View Details

November 1992 (Revised January 2002)
Case

Process Control at Polaroid (A)

By: H. Kent Bowen and Steven C. Wheelwright

Describes the initial efforts at a film production plant to shift from a traditional QC inspection mentality to a worker-based process control mentality. Students can prepare SPC charts, propose actions needed, and combine steps into an overall action plan. View Details

Keywords: Management Systems; Operations; Quality; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Business Processes; Change Management; Consumer Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry

December 1997
Case

Intercontinental Breweries (Abridged)

By: Thomas R. Piper

A senior executive of a U.S. multinational is attempting to develop a set of financial, operating, and ownership arrangements that will be acceptable to the management and employees of a major Polish company and to the Ministry of Privatization. The arrangements must... View Details

Keywords: Agreements and Arrangements; Multinational Firms and Management; Joint Ventures; Food and Beverage Industry; Poland; United States

February 2006 (Revised June 2007)
Case

Brazos Partners and Cheddar's Inc.

By: G. Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

Randall Fojtasek, a partner at Brazos Private Equity Partners, must decide whether to invest more money in Cheddar's restaurant chain, which the firm invested in 10 months earlier. The incremental investment would fund a real estate subsidiary that would own the... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Deal; Price; Partners and Partnerships; Management; Investment; Leadership; Business Subsidiaries; Stocks

01 Jun 2005
News

Mookerjee Picked as First Director of New HBS India Research Center

After nearly two decades in senior marketing and new venture positions, Ajay Mookerjee (DBA ’88) has returned to HBS as executive director of the new India Research Center. “I’ve had a pent-up desire to get involved in academic work, and... View Details

Keywords: HBS; India Research Center; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

01 Dec 2017
News

Alumni and Faculty Books for December 2017

become the greatest gossip, flirt, or matchmaker in history. Or she could cure cancer and then start a nuclear war. A motley band of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and engineers might be able to influence her. The... View Details

06 Jan 2010
What Do You Think?

Is a Stringent Climate Change Agreement a Pot of Gold?

Summing Up Do we even need a stringent climate change agreement? Judging from this month's comments, a question can be raised about the necessity of a climate change agreement, stringent or not, as a catalyst to foster innovation and the View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Energy; Utilities

15 Dec 2015
News

Jacek Makowski (MBA 1960)

for Shell Oil until enrolling at HBS to broaden his skills and career options. “For me,” he says, “HBS was a step toward rebuilding the respect our family had enjoyed in Poland before the devastation of the war.” Makowski’s business View Details

01 Sep 2018
News

In My Humble Opinion: In the Deal

Listening to entrepreneur pitches is one of the best parts of working in venture capital, says Anna Khan (MBA 2016), a vice president in the San Francisco office of Bessemer Venture Partners. “It’s a sacred... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna

31 Aug 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 View Details

Keywords: Technology

Profile

Alex Slusky

started the program.” The best simulation of business experience Alex pursued the MBA because he had an interest in venture capital and wanted “to find a way to combine technology and strategy – how do we go... View Details

Christina Melas-Kyriazi

Christina joined Bain Capital Ventures in 2021, where she focuses on early-stage investments in fintech and commerce. Christina was previously Head of Product for Consumer Foundations at Affirm, where she led a team of product managers... View Details

06 Mar 2019

Information Session at Texas A&M University

Do you know where an MBA can take you? Open your mind to the breadth of career opportunities available in business and feel the flexibility of the MBA degree. It's not about one position or one industry. It's about the evolution of your... View Details

06 Mar 2019

Information Session at Brown University

Do you know where an MBA can take you? Open your mind to the breadth of career opportunities available in business and feel the flexibility of the MBA degree. It's not about one position or one industry. It's about the evolution of your... View Details

2021
Working Paper

Public Disclosure of Private Meetings: Does Observing Peers' Information Acquisition Affect Analysts' Attention Allocation?

By: Yi Ru, Ronghuo Zheng and Yuan Zou

We investigate the impact of observing peers’ information acquisition on financial analysts’ attention allocation. Using the timely disclosure mandate by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange as a setting, we find that, when analysts can observe that a firm is visited by other... View Details

Keywords: Attention Allocation; Informational Efficiency; Corporate Site Visits; Externalities; Information; Acquisition; Corporate Disclosure; Outcome or Result

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June 2012 (Revised October 2018)
Case

Home Nursing of North Carolina

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Ari Medoff's (HBS '11) goal was to control his own professional destiny by owning his own company. His search identified a suitable acquisition in Home Nursing of North Carolina, and he had negotiated a purchase price of $3.5 million, or 4.2x trailing EBITDA. Medoff... View Details

Keywords: Search Funds; Small Companies; Acquisitions; Negotiation; Medical Services; Negotiation Process; Valuation; Investment; Acquisition; Health Industry