Publications

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1997
Book

Generation to Generation: Life Cycles of the Family Business

By: K. Gersick, J. A. Davis, M. M. Hampton and I. Lansberg

Keywords: Family Business; Business Cycles

01 Dec 2022
News

The Potential of Business to Improve Lives

“Business Solutions for Inclusive Prosperity.” The intersection of business and society is a topic Chu has been immersed in, as a practitioner and a researcher, for almost 30 years. He is a partner emeritus of the IGNIA Fund, a View Details

Keywords: April White

16 Jun 2016
Blog Post

Why Entrepreneurs Should Consider Business School

Before I came to HBS, I bootstrapped a software company, Proximate, for three years.* We make social-media marketing software for alumni and trade associations. In many ways, HBS made starting my own business possible. I was a 2+2 admit,... View Details

April 10, 2014
Article

Generation to Generation: How to Save the Family Business

By: Boris Groysberg and Deborah Bell

Most family-owned businesses—approximately 70%—last just one generation. Because an estimated 80% of businesses across the globe are family-owned, the low survival rate has alarming consequences. Consider this: In the United States alone, family-owned businesses (FOBs)... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Governing and Advisory Boards; Strategy; Management Succession; Competency and Skills; Diversity

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30 Jun 2021
In Practice

The Harvard Business School Faculty Summer Reader 2021

What’s on HBS faculty members’ reading list for summer 2021? Which books are most meaningful to them and why? Below, faculty share their top picks, ranging from biographies and memoirs to their colleagues’ latest works. Julia Austin: Social justice and the Obamas I... View Details

Keywords: by Kathryn Haviland

July 2007 (Revised September 2007)
Background Note

Compensating Family Employees in a Family Business

By: John A. Davis

Explores the core issues involved in compensating family employees in a family business. Explains family interests and other factors that shape family employee compensation practices. Distinguishes between achieving effective compensation practices, which help to... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Employees; Compensation and Benefits

Educators

2024
Working Paper

Case Studies of the Emulation of Chinese Entrepreneurial Business Models

By: Josh Lerner, Junxi Liu, Jacob Moscona and David Yang

This working paper presents four short case studies of emerging market businesses whose founders emulated Chinese firms. These examples are part of a more systematic pattern, documented extensively in Lerner et al. (2024), in which businesses developed in China were... View Details

Keywords: Emerging Markets; Business Ventures

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June 2016
Teaching Note

HubSpot: Lower Churn through Greater CHI

By: Jill Avery, Asis Martinez Jerez and Thomas Steenburgh

HubSpot, a web marketing startup selling inbound marketing software to small- and medium-sized businesses, is under pressure from its venture capital partners to rapidly acquire new customers and to maintain a low level of customer churn. The B2B SaaS company is in the... View Details

Keywords: CRM; Customer Acquisition; Customer Retention; Churn Management; SaaS Business Models; Customer Lifetime Value; Venture Capital; Startup; Software; Monitoring And Control; Marketing; Customer Relationship Management; Marketing Strategy; Accounting; Technology Industry; United States

06 Dec 2017
Blog Post

The 23rd Annual Harvard Business School Tech Conference

The 23rd annual Tech Conference took place on September 16th, 2017 at Harvard Business School (HBS) and we had over 1,200 students, professionals, and professors. The goal of this year’s conference was to continue our tradition of... View Details

Keywords: Technology

31 Jul 2017
HBS Case

It’s Hard to Fix the Family Business Without Offending the Family

Transitioning to next-generation leadership in a family-run restaurant business is a tricky recipe. Credit: ansonmiao Harvard Business School case studies are often set in large corporations, where the wide... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Food & Beverage

2016
Report

The New Role of Business in Global Education

By: Mark R. Kramer, Greg Hills, Kate Tallant, Matt Wilka and Anjali Bhatt

Shared value defines a new role for business in helping to overcome the global education and unemployment crisis. By aligning profit with purpose, companies can become essential partners for schools, nonprofits, and governments while simultaneously discovering new ways... View Details

Keywords: Shared Value; Education; Employment; Global Range; Business Ventures

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July 9, 2013
Article

Why Fights Erupt in Family Businesses

By: Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer

Lack of boundaries and formal structure create potential for nasty (and lasting) disagreements. View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Conflict and Resolution; Organizational Structure

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2009
Book

Commentaries and Cases on the Law of Business Organization

By: William T. Allen, Reinier H. Kraakman and Guhan Subramanian

Updated throughout, the Third Edition of Commentaries and Cases on the Law of Business Organization continues to provide a refreshingly accessible economic analysis perspective. The distinguished team of authors introduces and explains economic concepts in a way... View Details

Keywords: Business Organization; Economics; Law

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21 Oct 2015
Research & Ideas

How to Predict if a New Business Idea is Any Good

nightly fee. Of course, now we know the idea as Airbnb, a $10 billion business with 1.5 million listings around the world. But back then it must have seemed crazy. The liability issues alone seemed insurmountable—to say nothing of the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Accommodations; Financial Services

Article

Business Groups, Entrepreneurship and the Growth of the Koç Group in Turkey

By: Geoffrey Jones and Asli M. Colpan

This article examines the emergence and development of what became the largest business group in Turkey, the Koç Group. This venture was an important factor in the emergence of modern business enterprise in the new state of the Republic of Turkey from the 1920s. After... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Governance; History; Strategy; Auto Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Service Industry; Turkey

November 2000
Case

beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business

Beenz.com, an incentive-based Web currency and customer management tool, is reassessing its business in August 2000, one year after launch. The original vision was to make the currency globally available and recognized. However, the company's rapid internationalization... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Growth Management; Internet and the Web; Marketing; Business Startups

Educators