Publications

April 2020 (Revised June 2020)
Case

Shorefast: A Strange and Familiar Way to Reimagine Capitalism

By: Brian Trelstad, Wendy Smith and Natalie Slawinski

In 2006, Zita Cobb and two of her brothers, Alan Cobb and Tony Cobb, native Newfoundlanders, launched Shorefast to help grow another leg of Fogo Island’s economy. Like so many rural communities, Fogo Island’s fate was tied directly to one primary resource—in this case... View Details

Keywords: Place Making; Non-profit; Hotel; Economic Development; Tourism; Social Entrepreneurship; Nonprofit Organizations; Development Economics; Economic Systems; Tourism Industry; Canada

January 2020
Teaching Note

How to Encourage Others to Give and When to Pass the Torch? Insights from The Philanthropy Connection

By: Christine Exley and Kathleen McGinn

This case follows the co-founder and president, Marla Felcher, of The Philanthropy Connection (TPC). TPC is a nonprofit organization that centers around collective giving: members of TPC make an annual contribution that is then distributed to select nonprofit... View Details

Keywords: Giving And Philanthropy; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Motivation and Incentives; Nonprofit Organizations

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

January 2023
Case

Baofeng's Philanthropic Efforts in China

By: Lauren Cohen, Hao Gao, Bo Li and Zhaoheng Gong

Yanbao Dang, President of Baofeng Group and founder of the Yanbao Foundation, Baofeng Group’s philanthropic arm, weighed how the family nonprofit could maximize its impact. On a mission to eliminating poverty through broadening access to educational opportunities in... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Entrepreneurship; Rural Scope; Social Enterprise; Nonprofit Organizations; Social Issues; Poverty; Resource Allocation; Green Technology Industry; Education Industry; China; Asia

09 Dec 2008
First Look

First Look: December 9, 2008

Enterprise Community Partners must determine whether to rebuild the Lafitte housing projects in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans and, if so, how to mitigate the risks. Set in January 2007, more than a year after Hurricane Katrina made... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

09 Feb 2009
Research & Ideas

Uncompromising Leadership in Tough Times

received a call from a small manufacturing plant in Medfield, Massachusetts. They had read Douglas McGregor's now classic book The Human Side of Enterprise and wanted to implement, in their relatively new plant, his ideas about how... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

March 2010 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Roll Back Malaria and BCG: The Change Initiative

By: Nava Ashraf, Rachel Gordon and Catherine Ross

Roll Back Malaria, a global partnership dedicated to fighting malaria has not met its founders' expectations of effectively combatting malaria. In 2005, after several internal evaluations, RBM leadership has decided to engage the Boston Consulting Group to work on a... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Management Practices and Processes; Performance Evaluation; Communication Strategy; Communication Intention and Meaning; Non-Governmental Organizations; Change Management; Multinational Firms and Management; Negotiation; Health Industry

January 1990 (Revised March 1991)
Case

American Red Cross Blood Services: Northeast Region

By: Robert L. Simons

Recounts the financial difficulties and management changes experienced by American Red Cross Blood Services: Northeast Region (NER) during the 1980s. After summarizing industry-wide changes in the collection, testing, and distribution of blood and blood products, the... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Budgets and Budgeting; Financial Management; Restructuring; Health; SWOT Analysis; Social Enterprise; Marketplace Matching; Management Style; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Health Industry; North and Central America

July 2022 (Revised February 2024)
Teaching Note

The DivaCup: Navigating Distribution and Growth

By: Ayelet Israeli

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 519-055. When the mother-daughter founders of DivaCup set out with a mission to disrupt the menstrual care industry with an innovative product form, they initially struggled to gain legitimacy and convince retailers to carry their unique... View Details

March 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

The DivaCup: Navigating Distribution and Growth

By: Ayelet Israeli

When the mother-daughter founders of DivaCup set out with a mission to disrupt the menstrual care industry with an innovative product form, they initially struggled to gain legitimacy and convince retailers to carry their unique product. Fifteen years later, the... View Details

January 2008 (Revised January 2008)
Case

Two Brattle Center: A Mental-Health Clinic in Search of a Viable Operating Model

By: Robert G. Eccles

Two Brattle Center (TBC) is a struggling for-profit private mental health clinic based in Harvard Square. Its founder, Dr. Joan Wheelis, is a nationally recognized practicing psychiatrist who has developed outpatient treatment programs based on Dialectical Behavior... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Strategy; Health Care and Treatment; Health Disorders; Medical Specialties; Nonprofit Organizations; Emotions; Health Industry; United States

04 Nov 2014
First Look

First Look: November 4

http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/science/article/pii/S0305750X1400254X November 2014 Special Issue on Governments as Owners: Globalizing State-Owned Enterprises Governments as Owners: State-Owned Multinational... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Article

Power to the People

By: Eric D. Werker

Every nongovernmental organization has a mission statement. For example, CARE, one of the world's largest and best-funded NGOs, explains its mission as serving "individuals and families in the poorest communities in the world. Drawing strength from our global... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Food; Service Operations; Inflation and Deflation; Experience and Expertise; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Knowledge; Poverty; Agribusiness; Diversity; Non-Governmental Organizations; Innovation and Invention; India

Find at Harvard

July 2015 (Revised October 2015)
Case

Building Strong Partnerships at the Inter-American Development Bank

By: Amy C. Edmondson, Erin L. Henry, Andreas Georgoulias and Natalie Bartlett

Building Strong Partnerships at the Inter-American Development Bank details the development of the bank's new Office of Outreach Partnerships to sustain a culture of innovation through maintaining and generating partnerships in order to fulfill the bank's greater... View Details

February 2019 (Revised May 2019)
Case

Hot Chicken Takeover

By: William R. Kerr, Manjari Raman and Olivia Hull

By December 2018, entrepreneur Joe DeLoss’s fried chicken company, Hot Chicken Takeover, has opened three restaurants in Columbus, Ohio, using an unconventional employment model that helps people with criminal records get back on their feet. DeLoss is proud of the... View Details