Publications

Find at Harvard

29 Apr 2020
Book

The Key to Powerful Social Change: Small Villages

Who will solve the great problems facing humanity, a list of critical issues that only begins with the current pandemic? In the interview below, Rosabeth Moss Kanter discusses her recent book, Think Outside the Building, and her view that solutions are most likely to... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

September 2012
Case

Castronics, LLC

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Patrick Dickinson (HBS '09) and Michael Weiner (MIT's Sloan '07) acquired Castronics, a firm that specialized in threading pipe used in the oil and natural gas industry, at the end of 2009. The partners overcame significant hurdles during the first two years of... View Details

Keywords: Small Business; Search Funds; Corporate Finance; Entrepreneurship; Financial Management; Energy Industry; Western United States

Educators

30 Nov 2016
Op-Ed

Where Could More Regulation Help Small Businesses? Online Lending.

Karen Mills is a Senior Fellow with the Harvard Business School. She served in President Barack Obama’s Cabinet as Administrator of the US Small View Details

Keywords: by Karen Mills and Brayden McCarthy; Financial Services

2017
Working Paper

The Decline of Big-Bank Lending to Small Business: Dynamic Impacts on Local Credit and Labor Markets

By: Brian S. Chen, Samuel G. Hanson and Jeremy C. Stein

Small business lending by the four largest banks fell sharply relative to others in 2008 and remained depressed through 2014. We explore the dynamic adjustment process following this credit supply shock. In counties where the largest banks had a high market share, the... View Details

Keywords: Small Business; Financing and Loans; Banks and Banking; System Shocks; Credit; Labor; United States

Find at Harvard

02 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

Digital Initiative Summit: Big Messages, Small Screens, Many Choices

Business Administration and Chair of the General Management Program at HBS. Gupta, whose current academic interests lie in mobile advertising, mobile payments, and mobile commerce, described the difficult... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Advertising

2013
Working Paper

Work Design Drivers of Organizational Learning about Operational Failures: A Laboratory Experiment on Medication Administration

By: Anita L. Tucker

Operational failures persist in hospitals, in part because employees work around them rather than attempt to prevent recurrence. Drawing on a process improvement tool—the Andon cord—we examine three work design components that may foster improvement-oriented behaviors:... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Process Improvement; Organizational Learning; Behavioral Operations; Prosocial Behavior; Experiments; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Behavior; Performance Improvement; Health Care and Treatment; Business Processes; Health Industry

June 2018 (Revised February 2019)
Teaching Note

Home Nursing of North Carolina

By: Richard S. Ruback, Royce Yudkoff and Ahron Rosenfeld

In 2011, immediately after graduating HBS, Ari Medoff began a self-funded search for a small firm to buy and run as its CEO. After just three month of searching, he identified Home Nursing of North Carolina (HNNC), a home care agency based in Greensboro, NC, as a... View Details

Keywords: Small Firms Management; Acquisition; Negotiation Process; Investment; Small Business; Management; Personal Development and Career

November 1989
Teaching Note

H.J. Heinz Co.: The Administration of Policy (A), (B), (C), and (D), Teaching Note

By: Kenneth E. Goodpaster and Thomas R. Piper

Teaching Note for (9-382-034, 035, 036, and 037). View Details

Keywords: Business Earnings; Management Practices and Processes; Motivation and Incentives; System; Ethics; Policy; Business Divisions; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Food and Beverage Industry

April 2015
Case

Dutch Bros. Coffee: A Compelling Future

By: Joshua Margolis and Christine Snively

Travis Boersma, co-founder and President of the Dutch Bros. coffee chain, faces three operational decisions that will shape the company's growth trajectory and distinctive culture. First, should they offer a specialty coffee at a subset of their stores in one region... View Details

Keywords: Culture And Community; Service Management; Retail; Food; Managing Growth; Family Business; Small Business; Leadership; Culture; Food and Beverage Industry; Oregon

Educators

01 Dec 2014
Research & Ideas

The Big Influence of Small Countries in the United Nations Secretariat

Economics Paul Novosad. “Just the conversations that are happening in the UN are important in determining international priorities” Among their findings: Powerful countries including the United States, China, and India have less View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

April 2017
Supplement

Imprimis (B)

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Karen Elterman and Marc Appel

This case is a supplement to Imprimis (A). It describes the company’s decision to enter into the pharmaceutical compounding business in 2013–2014. Imprimis purchased a compounded ophthalmological medication called Dropless Therapy, which was injected into patients’... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare; Drug Compounding; Drug Development; Pharmaceuticals; Small Business; Decision-making, Business Model; Mark Baum; Imprimis; Decision Making; Strategy; Health Care and Treatment; Policy; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

12 Dec 2012
Research & Ideas

Power to the People: The Unexpected Influence of Small Coalitions

Harvard Business School Professor J. Gunnar Trumbull balks at the ubiquitous idea that the concentrated power of a few billionaires controls public policy and government regulation. Exaggeration of the impact of big View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

12 Oct 2017
Working Paper Summaries

The Decline of Big-Bank Lending to Small Business: Dynamic Impacts on Local Credit and Labor Markets

Keywords: by Brian S. Chen, Samuel G. Hanson, and Jeremy C. Stein; Banking

Teaching Interest

Scaling Minority Businesses

By: Archie L. Jones

Scaling Minority Businesses (SMB) is a field course designed to leverage the intellectual power and community of Harvard Business School to address the vital needs of Black-owned enterprises as they face the twin tasks of surviving and growing. The course... View Details

2000
Chapter

Small Businesses, Innovation, and Public Policy in the Information Technology Industry

By: Josh Lerner

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Policy; Government and Politics; Business and Government Relations; Information Technology; Information Technology Industry

2016
Working Paper

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Modern Administrative State, 1912–1925: Trade Associations, Codes of Fair Competition, and State Building

By: Laura Phillips Sawyer

From its founding in 1912 through the interwar years, the Chamber's history shows a persistent preoccupation with progressive economics and policy-making. Rather than flouting the new ideas of institutional economics, which favored federal regulators overseeing data... View Details

Keywords: Organizations; Trade; Business and Government Relations; Competition; United States

May 6, 2010
Other Article

How Big Business Can Regain Legitimacy

By: Michael E. Porter

Harvard Business School competitiveness guru Michael E. Porter urges large organizations to invest in small businesses in inner cities. View Details

Keywords: Society; United States

2015
Chapter

Innovation and Business Growth

By: William R. Kerr

Innovation and the pursuit of new business opportunities are essential for growth at the firm level; moreover, they provide the foundation for an economy to achieve new levels of technological prowess, productivity, and ultimately prosperity. This chapter describes... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Economic Growth; Innovation and Invention