Publications

31 Oct 2019
Video

Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala

Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, Chair of the Philippines-based Ayala Group, with interests in real estate, public infrastructure, insurance, and banking, discusses how the government’s liberalization program in... View Details

15 Sep 2008
Research & Ideas

The Coming Transformation of Social Enterprise

leaders have acknowledged that corporations exist within the larger fabric of society. The School's second dean, Wallace Donham, said that the focus of a business is to make a decent profit decently. Q: View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson

October 2018 (Revised August 2023)
Case

Safecast: Bootstrapping Human Capital to Big Data

By: Ethan Bernstein and Stephanie Marton

On March 11, 2011, at 2:46pm, a 9.1-on-the-Richter-scale, six-minute long earthquake unleashed a tsunami that ravaged the Tohoku region of Japan, damaging the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power facility and releasing sufficient radioactive material into the air and ocean... View Details

14 Jun 2004
Research & Ideas

The Big Money for Big Projects

There is nothing small about the research practiced by Harvard Business School professor Benjamin Esty. He studies the financing of some of the largest projects in the world: the Eurotunnel, Hong Kong Disneyland, and the Airbus A380, to... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen; Financial Services

Career Coach

Kaitlin Hearn

Kaitlin grew up in Canada and studied engineering, but has spent the bulk of her career in finance and consulting in New York. As a serial career switcher herself, Kaitlin is well positioned to help you think through the merits and challenges of several common post-MBA... View Details

August 2014
Case

Rent the Runway (Abridged)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Brent Goldfarb and David A. Kirsch

Two months after a successful launch In November 2009, the cofounders of Rent the Runway (RTR), a website that rented designer dresses, are debating whether to grow their startup at a measured pace and focus on improving operational effectiveness, or raise a new round... View Details

Keywords: Lean Startup; Electronic Commerce; Fashion; Expansion; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; E-commerce; Fashion Industry

January 2009 (Revised March 2010)
Case

LeBron James

By: Anita Elberse and Jeff McCall

In 2005, to the astonishment of many sports industry insiders, superstar basketball player LeBron James fired his agent and established his own firm, LRMR, to handle all aspects of his business ventures and marketing activities and named his childhood friend Maverick... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Compensation and Benefits; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Sports; Sports Industry

July 2003 (Revised September 2003)
Case

Refinancing of Shanghai General Motors (B), The

By: Mihir A. Desai and Mark Veblen

This case provides the outcome to "The Refinancing of Shanghai General Motors (A)" in which the CFO of General Motors' joint venture in Shanghai, Shanghai General Motors (SGM), wants to refinance almost $900 million of project finance it raised to begin operations. The... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Multinational Firms and Management; Joint Ventures; Financing and Loans; Auto Industry; Shanghai

January 2007 (Revised December 2008)
Case

The Challenges of Launching a Start-Up in China: Dorm99.com

By: William C. Kirby, F. Warren McFarlan and Tracy Manty

After graduating from Harvard Business School in June 2006, Ken Pao and Bill Li were ready to fully commit to the Internet start-up they had been working on since they first stepped foot on the business school campus. They moved to Beijing, rounded out their management... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Joint Ventures; Entrepreneurship; Product Launch; Business and Government Relations; Internet; China

29 Oct 2013
News

How Anxiety Can Lead Your Decisions Astray

09 Apr 2013
Video

Reset - Episode 2 - Moving Forward

July 1999 (Revised March 2002)
Case

Shanghai Volkswagen: Facing a New Era

Explores the development of the Chinese auto industry and of Shanghai Volkswagen (SVW), a successful joint venture in China. Established in 1984, SVW is a joint venture between Volkswagen of Germany and the Shanghai Automobile Industry Corp. (SAIC). One key element of... View Details

Keywords: Partners and Partnerships; Joint Ventures; Supply Chain; Auto Industry; Shanghai; Germany

September–October 2020
Article

The Past, Present, and (Near) Future of Gene Therapy and Gene Editing

By: Julia Pian, Amitabh Chandra and Ariel Dora Stern

Emerging gene therapy and gene-editing technologies will have a growing impact on patient lives and health-care delivery. We analyzed a decade of data on clinical trials and venture capital investments to understand the likely trajectory of genetically focused... View Details

Keywords: Gene Therapy; Gene Editing; Impact; Health Care and Treatment; Technological Innovation; Health Testing and Trials; Venture Capital; Change

Find at Harvard

Read Now

September 2016 (Revised November 2017)
Case

Casper Sleep Inc.: Marketing the 'One Perfect Mattress for Everyone'

By: Robert J. Dolan

“A Warby Parker of mattresses? Somebody is going to do it. Why not us?” This was the topic of a conversation begun in spring 2013 among Gabe Flateman, Philip Krim, Neil Parikh, and T. Luke Sherwin. The four met as members of a New York City venture accelerator... View Details

Keywords: Mattress; Sleep; Marketing; Business Model; Marketing Channels; Adoption; Sales; Consumer Products Industry

01 May 2015
News

Startup’s goal: Stop food safety violations before they happen

01 Sep 2012
News

Private equity in China: Hony ahoy

12 PM – 1 PM EST, 15 Jan 2015
Webinars: Trending@HBS

High Impact Women Entrepreneurs: Insights from Pioneers who are Changing the Game

During this webinar, Professor Lynda Applegate, faculty chair of the HBS Owner/President Management program, will discuss new research that is developing profiles and case studies on women entrepreneurs who founded new ventures that have become successful high-growth,... View Details

July 1998 (Revised August 1998)
Case

Community Wealth Ventures, Inc.

By: James E. Austin and Meredith D. Pearson

Share Our Strength, a successful anti-hunger nonprofit organization, created a for-profit subsidiary--Community Wealth Ventures (CWV)--to provide advisory services to companies and nonprofits on collaboration. Management is reviewing CWV's start-up experience. View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; For-Profit Firms; Governing and Advisory Boards; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Partners and Partnerships; Nonprofit Organizations; Consulting Industry