Publications

31 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

From SpinPop to SpinBrush: Entrepreneurial Lessons from John Osher

told the audience of HBS alumni and Executive Education participants. "He hated having to manage employees, so he built a big company with very few employees." Dr. John's was the third major venture that Osher built from the ground up and brought to a... View Details

Keywords: by Dennis Fisher; Consumer Products

21 Feb 2023
Research & Ideas

Are Your Employees Passing Up Incentives? Try Promoting the Programs More

helping people quit smoking, to eating healthier, to conserving energy, John says. Companies can take three steps to rethink incentives. Try incentives through a pilot program first. Start with a smaller group of participants and, once... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis

08 May 2023
Research & Ideas

How Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric Crushed Crowdfunding for Minority Entrepreneurs

nationwide retraction of support among backers of Kickstarter projects. Most backers are white, the study contends. The decline in support for minority creators during increases in the Migration Fear Index are most pronounced in View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis

06 Oct 2003
Research & Ideas

The Problem with Hedge Funds

until another collapse, funds of funds will be considered suitable investments. The bank is an intermediary between the investor and the hedge fund. The bank pretends to place a cordon of safety, of conservative investing, around its... View Details

Keywords: by D. Quinn Mills

02 Jul 2018
Research & Ideas

Corporate Tax Cuts Don't Increase Middle Class Incomes

Halfpoint In the worlds of economic theory and conservative political orthodoxy, corporate tax cuts, such as the 2017 tax reform in the United States, should create benefits beyond businesses. As the thinking goes, middle class workers... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland

September 2014 (Revised April 2016)
Case

Cree Inc.: Introducing the LED Light Bulb

By: John Gourville and Michael Norris

Cree, a North Carolina-based maker of light emitting diodes (LEDs), has just introduced its first consumer product—an LED light bulb. It is designed as an energy efficient replacement for the ubiquitous incandescent light bulb. But given that it is an unfamiliar... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Innovation; Product Adoption; Technological Innovation; Technology Adoption; Energy Conservation; Product Launch; Consumer Products Industry; North Carolina

17 Nov 2016
Op-Ed

What's Behind the Unexpected Trump Support from Women

threats. The second largest contingent of women supporting Trump was white women with college degrees. Forty-five percent of them voted for him. While some were likely attracted to Trump’s fiscally conservative policies, research suggests... View Details

Keywords: by Laura Morgan Roberts and Robin Ely

08 Sep 2008
HBS Case

The Value of Environmental Activists

There are many methods, most financial, to measure the success of companies in meeting goals. But the question becomes a lot harder at Harvard Business School when MBAs are challenged to measure the efforts of environmental organizations like Greenpeace and the World... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Energy; Utilities

17 Aug 2009
Research & Ideas

Quantifying the Economic Impact of the Internet

hours a month on the Internet. A conservative valuation of this time is an estimated $680 billion. The advertising-supported Internet also helps the economy by fostering innovation, entrepreneurship, and productivity, particularly among... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Advertising; Publishing

September 2010 (Revised January 2012)
Case

OPOWER: Increasing Energy Efficiency through Normative Influence (A)

By: Amy J.C. Cuddy, Kyle Todd Doherty and Maarten W. Bos

The case profiles OPOWER, an energy efficiency software company that applies Cialdini's principles of social influence to successfully encourage consumers to reduce their energy usage. OPOWER was co-founded in 2008 by two young Harvard graduates, Dan Yates and Alex... View Details

Keywords: Mathematical Methods; Applications and Software; Attitudes; Entrepreneurship; Energy Conservation; Power and Influence; Growth and Development Strategy; Energy Industry; United States

20 Dec 2010
Research & Ideas

Panama Canal: Troubled History, Astounding Turnaround

or install lights. In this, canal employees were greatly aided by the peculiar place the canal held in America's national mythology. Conservatives who would have been horrified at employee capture of other public enterprises such as, say,... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Transportation

06 Oct 2020
Sharpening Your Skills

18 Tips Managers Can Use to Lead Through COVID's Rising Waters

Cash. The most obvious commercial C of the 7 Cs is Cash. Whatever you can do to conserve cash is going to be critical, because that’s what’s going to determine whether your employees are going to be paid next week. To learn more, read 7... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

16 Dec 2019
Research & Ideas

Taking on the Taboos That Keep Women Out of India's Workforce

women’s wages should be deposited into their individual bank accounts. Even so, the more conservative state of Madhya Pradesh and the villages of Rigol’s study were slow to adopt this policy. Status quo dictated that wages would be... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

26 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

7 Leadership Principles for Managing in the Time of Coronavirus

emotionally but also prudently with respect to the long-term finances of the organization. Whatever you can do to conserve cash is going to be critical, because that’s what’s going to determine whether your employees are going to be paid... View Details

Keywords: by John A. Quelch; Health

18 Oct 2017
Research & Ideas

How Economic Clusters Drive Globalization

movement built a reputation for Costa Rica as a natural paradise and conservation hub,” Giacomin observes. “At the same time, local actors took advantage of this brand identity to build mainstream tourist facilities that weren’t in line... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Agriculture & Agribusiness

20 Sep 2022
Research & Ideas

How Partisan Politics Play Out in American Boardrooms

percent in 2020. “We were quite surprised by that,” says Kempf. “There's been this perception that corporate America has become more ‘woke’ or more liberal. We don't see that showing up in the C-suite at least.” Geography matters Certain states have come to be viewed... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

12 Oct 2022
Research & Ideas

When Design Enables Discrimination: Learning from Anti-Asian Bias on Airbnb

Flu” that were parroted by conservative pundits and in social memes. According to a Pew Research Center survey, almost half of Asian-American adults reported experiencing at least one racist incident in the first year of the pandemic. The... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds; Technology; Travel

January 2020
Background Note

Climate Change in 2020: Implications for Business

By: Rebecca M. Henderson, Sophus A. Reinert and Mariana Oseguera

This note provides general information about climate change and its implications for business. Included is an overview of climate change science and a number of its impacts, including rising sea levels, changing weather patterns and extreme weather, pressure on water... View Details