Publications

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April 2010
Case

Manchester Bidwell Corporation: the Replication Question

By: Toby E. Stuart, G. Felda Hardymon, James L. Heskett and Ann Leamon

Bill Strickland, CEO of Manchester Bidwell Corporation, must decide the best way to replicate his innovative, award-winning approach to curing poverty. Manchester Bidwell's approach, which provides both adult job-training tuned to fill the needs of local industries and... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Nonprofit Organizations; Growth and Development; Social Enterprise; Poverty; Training; Competency and Skills; Jobs and Positions; Human Resources

13 Sep 2011
First Look

First Look: September 13

should AppDirect find channel partners or create a self-branded platform? The case describes the evolving business app market by analyzing the strategies and business models of competitors for both the marketplace and portal products. The... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

19 May 2015
First Look

First Look: May 19

according to different local strategies for economic prosperity and political stability. In particular, the author links fiscal relations and economic bases to property rights regimes, finding that more "open" cities are subject... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

07 Jan 2008
Research & Ideas

Pursuing a Deadly Opportunity

market for human eggs, sperm, and various infertility treatments, is another example, he adds. Anatomy Of A Study Anteby and Hyman compared 80 voluntary donations and 120 specimen shipping invoices from a pair of Maryland-based organizations: one academic-housed... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Health

September 1985 (Revised July 2007)
Case

Population Services International: The Social Marketing Project in Bangladesh

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

Population Services International (PSI) was a not-for-profit agency founded to disseminate family planning information and to market birth control products, primarily in less developed countries seeking to curb their population explosions. In 1976, PSI concluded an... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Health; Marketing Strategy; Social Marketing; Business and Government Relations; Nonprofit Organizations; Bangladesh

07 Jun 2021
Book

9 Tips from an Expert Fundraiser: Help Donors 'Invest in Their Passion'

His 2011 book Joining a Nonprofit Board explored high-level governance strategy issues. His new book offers pragmatic advice about the critical endeavor of fundraising. This book “is devoted to helping... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

20 Nov 2017
Research & Ideas

How Independent Bookstores Have Thrived in Spite of Amazon.com

bookstores—which already faced competition from superstores like Barnes & Noble and Borders. Indeed, between 1995 and 2000, the number of independent bookstores in the United States plummeted 43 percent, according to the American Booksellers Association (ABA), a... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel (with video by Amelia Kunhardt); Retail

30 Nov 2021
In Practice

What's the Role of Business in Confronting Climate Change?

The 26th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, also known as COP26, ended with a hard-fought pact that called on businesses and governments to meet their climate change goals faster. The event followed an August report by the Intergovernmental... View Details

Keywords: by Lynn Schenk and Dina Gerdeman

03 Jan 2011
Research & Ideas

Most Popular Articles of 2010

innovations that connect it to a larger management literature. The Limits of Nonprofit Impact: A Contingency Framework for Measuring Social Performance Over the past 20 years, there has been an explosion in methodologies and tools for... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

24 Jul 2017
Research & Ideas

People Have an Irrational Need to Complete 'Sets' of Things

things incomplete” Do you want customers to refer more of their friends to your company’s website? Ask them to refer friends in arbitrary “batches” of five at a time. Looking to increase charitable giving to your nonprofit organization?... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

27 Sep 2011
First Look

First Look: September 27

an honest, collective, and public conversation about their organization's alignment with espoused strategy and values. The research has identified a syndrome of six silent barriers to effectiveness and a dynamic theory of organizational... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

08 Jul 2008
First Look

First Look: July 8, 2008

and practice are discussed. Download the revised paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/08-080.pdf PublicationsShould You Invest in the Long Tail? Author:Anita Elberse Periodical:HBS Centennial Issue. Harvard Business Review 86, nos. 7/8 (July-August 2008): 88-96... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

17 Oct 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, October 17, 2017

Open/User Innovation, and Ecosystems: A Strategic Leadership Perspective By: Altman, Elizabeth J., and Michael Tushman Abstract—Platform, open/user innovation, and ecosystem strategies embrace and enable interactions with external... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2021 (Revised May 2023)
Case

Project Maji: Pricing Water in Sub-Saharan Africa

By: Elie Ofek, Marco Bertini, Dilyana Karadzhova Botha and Esel Çekin

In July 2021, Sunil Lalvani, founder and CEO of Project Maji, a non-profit social enterprise headquartered in Dubai that had already provided sustainable, clean water solutions to 80,000 people living in rural communities across Ghana and Kenya, was facing an important... View Details

Keywords: Water; Pricing; Nonprofit Organizations; Projects; Price; Decision Making; Social Enterprise; Growth and Development Strategy; Equity; Green Technology; Social and Collaborative Networks; Africa; Dubai

September 2006 (Revised December 2007)
Case

Go Red For Women: Raising Heart Health Awareness

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Marie Bell

In 2003, the $654 million American Heart Association (AHA) approached Cone, Inc. (a brand and communications agency) to develop a corporate sponsorship strategy that would raise $75 million over three years. Within 12 months, the AHA launched the highly successful Go... View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Marketing Communications; Social Marketing; Nonprofit Organizations; Social and Collaborative Networks

March 2021 (Revised November 2022)
Case

Blue Meridian Partners (A): Scaling for Impact

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

In 2018, Edna McConnell Clark Foundation in a bold move transferred all its assets to a fund pooled with other General Partners and Limited Partners, called Blue Meridian Partners, to focus substantial long range investments in a few carefully chosen nonprofits.The... View Details

Keywords: Venture Philanthropy; Scaling; COVID-19 Pandemic; Social Justice; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Venture Capital; Business Model; Social Issues; Poverty; Values and Beliefs; Decisions; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Nonprofit Organizations; Investment Portfolio

16 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Restaurant Revolution: How the Industry Is Fighting to Stay Alive

providing inexpensive, three-course meals for those on unemployment, and uses its facility to host a small food bank. In conjunction with the nonprofit Rethink Food, New York City’s Eleven Madison Park, a three-Michelin-starred restaurant... View Details

Keywords: by Michael S. Kaufman, Lena G. Goldberg, and Jill Avery; Food & Beverage

July 2010 (Revised September 2012)
Case

Public Architecture

By: Lakshmi Ramarajan, Christopher Marquis and Bobbi Thomason

Public Architecture is a non-profit architecture company dedicated to creating social and professional change through design for the public good. Public has focused on three strategies to create change: 1) promoting the design community's commitment to pro bono work,... View Details

Keywords: Design; Innovation and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Nonprofit Organizations; Business Strategy; Integration

December 2016
Article

Selective Regulator Decoupling and Organizations' Strategic Responses

By: Jonas Heese, Ranjani Krishnan and Frank Moers

Organizations often respond to institutional pressures by symbolically adopting policies and procedures but decoupling them from actual practice. Literature has examined why organizations decouple from regulatory pressures. In this study, we argue that decoupling... View Details

Keywords: Regulator Leniency; Beneficence; Mispricing; Upcoding; Nonprofit Organizations; Health Care and Treatment; Revenue; Health Industry