Publications

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July 2019
Teaching Note

Osaro: Picking the Best Path

By: William R. Kerr and James Palano

Teaching Note for HBS No. 820-012. View Details

May 2019
Teaching Note

Transformation at ING (A), (B), & (C)

By: William R. Kerr and Jordan Bach-Lombardo

Teaching Note for HBS Nos. 818-077, 818-078, 818-121. View Details

Keywords: ING; Agile; Innovation; Reorganization; Transformation; Innovation and Management; Strategy; Change Management; Banking Industry

August 2018
Case

MISHA: Modernizing the World of Shisha

By: William R. Kerr and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in 2017 with two of the five co-founders of MISHA telling the company’s CEO Michal Portz that they believe it is time for the global venture to shut down its operations and cease investments. Portz and another co-founder believe MISHA can still... View Details

Keywords: Innovation And Management; Entrepreneurship; Private Sector; For-profit Firms; Business Strategy; Decision; Business Startups; Emerging Markets; Business Model; Marketing Strategy; Distribution Channels; Market Entry and Exit; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Value Creation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Technology Industry; Qatar; United States

2020
Working Paper

Social Networks, Ethnicity, and Entrepreneurship

By: William R. Kerr and Martin Mandorff

We study the relationship between ethnicity, occupational choice, and entrepreneurship. Immigrant groups in the United States cluster in specific business sectors. For example, Koreans are 34 times more concentrated in self-employment for dry cleaning than other... View Details

Keywords: Self-employed; Occupation; Entrepreneurship; Social Entrepreneurship; Industry Clusters; Ethnicity; Immigration; Networks; United States

January 2013 (Revised February 2013)
Case

EverTrue: Mobile Technology Development (A)

By: William R. Kerr and Alexis Brownell

Brent Grinna is evaluating different options for the technology development of his start-up's iPhone app, including hiring local programmers, finding a CTO, or outsourcing. He only has a little over two months before he presents his alumni networking app to Brown... View Details

Keywords: Start-up; Mobile App; oDesk; Outsourcing; CTO; Minimum Viable Product; App Development; Business Startups; Decisions; Entrepreneurship; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Intellectual Property; Product Development; Globalization; Technology Industry; Massachusetts; Boston; India

January 2013
Teaching Note

INNOVA-MEX's Bid for ENKONTROL (TN)

By: William R. Kerr and Ramana Nanda

In their second year, two Mexican HBS MBAs joined forces to start a search fund based in Mexico City. They had raised money to acquire an existing private company in Mexico with an initial enterprise value between $5 million and $15 million. Just seven months after... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Finance; Finance; Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Mexico

May 2011 (Revised March 2013)
Background Note

Location Choice for New Ventures: Cities

By: William R. Kerr and Ramana Nanda

Location choice is a critical decision for entrepreneurs. This note explores how entrepreneurs should think about different city options through a systematic framework that encompasses professional and personal issues. We use the intellectual frameworks of the cluster... View Details

Keywords: City; Business Startups

March 2011
Background Note

Financing New Ventures

By: William R. Kerr and Ramana Nanda

Aid in understanding of financing entrepreneurship. View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans

09 Dec 2008
News

Last Look - December 2008

Williams writes: “The surprise celebration was held on an early spring afternoon in 1968 on the tarmac at Logan just as Zschau disembarked from his plane. It was organized by Chandler Daniels, a former... View Details

Keywords: Keith Larson; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

2015
Chapter

Firms and the Economics of Skilled Immigration

By: Sari Pekkala Kerr, William R. Kerr and William F. Lincoln

Firms play a central role in the selection, sponsorship, and employment of skilled immigrants entering the United States for work through programs like the H-1B visa. This role has not been widely recognized in the literature, and the data to better understand it have... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Human Capital; Immigration; Innovation and Invention; United States

01 Jun 2002
News

A Fine Collection

The Williamses: a place in the art world. Dave Williams (MBA '61) and his wife, Reba White Williams (MBA '70), were Wall Street executives when they married in 1975. To ensure that their friends would not... View Details

01 Mar 2014
News

Tata Open for Business

The architects employed open spaces and glass walls in an effort to give Tata Hall a visually light and airy feel. Ratan Tata (second from left) at his namesake building with Dean Nohria, William Rawn, and C.D. Spangler. Photos View Details

Keywords: Morrell, Daniel; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Construction of Buildings; Construction

01 Sep 2017
News

Opening Doors

Jeannie graduated) and a training program for humani tarian relief workers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where they serve as cochairs of the school’s capital campaign. To learn more about the fellowship challenge, visit... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

01 Jun 2017
News

Alumni Connections

Recent HBS Alumni Events on Campus and Beyond In April, the Boston Women’s Leadership Accelerator event was held on the HBS campus to connect HBS alumnae in a new way around important topics and issues. The event was organized by local... View Details

01 Jan 2010
News

Allan W.B. Gray, MBA 1965

fascinated by stocks since he was a boy, Allan Gray has built a successful career around finding and investing in companies which are priced well below his assessment of their intrinsic value. After earning his MBA and sharpening his... View Details

May 2014
Article

Political Reservations and Women's Entrepreneurship in India

By: Ejaz Ghani, William R. Kerr and Stephen D. O'Connell

We quantify the link between the timing of state-level implementations of political reservations for women in India with the role of women in India's manufacturing sector. While overall employment of women in manufacturing does not increase after the reforms, we find... View Details

Keywords: Women; Female; Political Reservations; Development; Informal Sector; Entrepreneurship; Gender; Manufacturing Industry; India; South Asia