Publications

April 2004 (Revised August 2004)
Teaching Note

BuildingBlocks International

BuildingBlocks International (BBI) plans to accomplish its mission to help children in developing countries succeed in school by bringing management expertise to local organizations. Two years after founding BBI, however, the team hasn't figured out exactly how to make... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Social Marketing; Developing Countries and Economies; Sales

October 2014
Supplement

Quiet Logistics (B)

By: Robert Simons and Natalie Kindred

This two-part case focuses on how to identify and manage strategic uncertainties in an innovative, entrepreneurial start-up company. In the (A) case, students learn about Quiet Logistics, an e-commerce fulfillment company working with high-end apparel retailers such as... View Details

21 Mar 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, March 21

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=52423 Category Kings and Commoners: How Market-Creation Efforts Can Undermine Firms' Standing in a New Market By: McDonald, Rory, and Kathleen Eisenhardt Abstract—New-industry pioneers... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

23 Nov 2021
Research & Ideas

The Vinyl Renaissance: Take Those Old Records Off the Shelf

of our clients are upping their order sizes. They’ll say, “I only want 2,000 records.” They’ll put the order in and then say, “We sold through that too fast. We need 6,000.” So, all of our capacity planning has been thrown off by how much... View Details

Keywords: by Christine Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette; Music

06 Nov 2006
Research & Ideas

How South Africa Challenges Our Thinking on FDI

market share within their industry; and this, of course, wouldn't be a great environment for someone to go in and set up a new shop. If there are three or four firms sharing an industry, they're probably making money and if you were to... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

15 Mar 2017
Lessons from the Classroom

More Than 900 Examples of How Climate Change Affects Business

This word cloud is composed of blog posts by more than 900 students describing how individual organizations are likely to be affected by climate change. Image by Patrick Clapp Last fall, first-year MBA students at Harvard Business School received a new assignment in... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Green Technology

March 2024
Case

Nomad: A License to Bank

By: Paul A. Gompers and Pedro Levindo

In late 2023, Lucas Vargas, CEO and co-founder of Nomad, a fintech that offered financial services in the United States for Brazilian residents, had to decide what to do to ensure the company’s continued expansion. Nomad launched its first product, a U.S. digital bank... View Details

23 Jul 2012
Research & Ideas

The Power of Conversational Leadership

teams can share success stories from the field via public video blogs, which journalists and customers may consider more authentic and more useful than slick marketing material. Furthermore, besides meeting with sales teams, customers... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

15 May 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, May 15, 2018

markets and ecosystems through their ability to transfer a package of financial, organizational, and cultural assets, skills, and ideologies across national borders. It argues such firms have been shapers of, as well as responders to,... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

Research Summary

Research Thrust

By: Rakesh Khurana

I am trained in organizational sociology and my main areas of interest lie in macro-organizational theory and the dynamics of executive labor markets. To date, my research has focused on two themes. The first revolves around understanding the forces that govern the... View Details

25 May 2011
HBS Case

QuikTrip’s Investment in Retail Employees Pays Off

33 more are planned to launch this year. Like Mercadona, a Spanish supermarket chain that Ton profiled in a case last year, QuikTrip systematically makes operating decisions that are good for employees, customers, and profits, she says.... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

February 2022 (Revised September 2022)
Case

Lilium: Preparing for Takeoff

By: Navid Mojir, Vincent Dessain, Mette Fuglsang Hjortshoej and Emer Moloney

Lilium is a German company focused on developing electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles (eVTOLs) that can be used to offer air taxi services. The company went public in September 2021 through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) deal, raising more than... View Details

10 Apr 2007
First Look

First Look: April 10, 2007

School Case 207-084 Following a successful model in Europe, JP Morgan has introduced a set of five U.S. retail mutual funds with an investment philosophy and marketing strategy grounded in behavioral finance. The asset management group... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

11 Aug 2003
Research & Ideas

Why Budgeting Kills Your Company

performance indicators that shifts strategic decision making to customer-facing edges of the organization. Others advocate less sweeping but still significant changes: Housing the budgeting and strategic planning functions in one office,... View Details

Keywords: by Loren Gary

16 Oct 2017
Research & Ideas

The Most Successful Startups Have Hands-On Founders

the researchers, is intensive mentoring and monitoring of staff. “Because many young companies face both technological and market risks, founders may prioritize dealing with these challenges rather than the more mundane aspects of human... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

05 Feb 2007
Research & Ideas

Business and the Global Poor

Are the world's poor, who individually have less than $5 a day in disposable income, a viable market for new goods and services? Consider the fact that there are four billion people around the globe that fit this description and you have... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

22 Oct 2019
Research & Ideas

Use Artificial Intelligence to Set Sales Targets That Motivate

is no chance of meeting it,” says Doug J. Chung, MBA Class of 1962 Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Marketing unit at Harvard Business School. "The salesperson will be discouraged, and just as unlikely to work to... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

09 Jan 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Economic Transition and Private-Sector Labor Demand: Evidence from Urban China

Keywords: by Lakshmi Iyer, Xin Meng, Nancy Qian & Xiaoxue Zhao

July 2008 (Revised January 2010)
Case

Affinity Labs, Inc.

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and Elizabeth Kind

In November 2006, Chris Michel left Military.com, which he founded in 1999, to start Affinity Labs, a global network of online communities. That month, Michel raised a Series A round of venture funding and established a partnership with Monster, which he had sold... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Demand and Consumers; Partners and Partnerships; Social and Collaborative Networks; Online Technology