Publications

Read Now

June 2021
Case

Linda Oubré at Whittier College

By: Debora L. Spar and Haley P. Brown

The case follows President Linda Oubré (HBS MBA Class of 1984) as she seeks to move Whittier College towards a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive campus.
In 2020, the student body of Whittier, a private liberal arts college in Los Angeles County,... View Details

Keywords: Race And Ethnicity; Women And Leadership; Education; Higher Education; Diversity; Race; Leadership; Change Management; United States; California; Los Angeles

09 Nov 2022
News

Part Ownership of a Dream

Terry Finley (OPM 45, 2014) has been in the winner’s circle of more than a few race tracks. Founder and CEO of West Point Thoroughbreds, Finley even won the 2017 Kentucky Derby with his partial ownership of Always Dreaming (an experience... View Details

Keywords: horse racing; entpreneurship; leadership; finance; investing; Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries; Arts, Entertainment

January–February 2019
Article

Who Loses When a Team Wins? Better Performance Increases Racial Bias

By: Letian Zhang

Although it is well known that organizational and team performance influences strategic decision-making, little is known about its impact on ascriptive inequality. This study proposes a performance effect on racial bias: higher team performance reduces managers’... View Details

Keywords: Discrimination; Race And Ethnicity; Performance Feedback; NBA; Prejudice and Bias; Race; Ethnicity; Performance; Sports

Find at Harvard

Read Now

December 2016 (Revised May 2018)
Case

Ebony Magazine

By: Steven Rogers and Derrick Jackson

For nearly 75 years, the Johnson Publishing Company has been the most successful African American magazine publisher. Its flagship Ebony magazine was an iconic coffee table fixture for decades in black households of all classes, making founder John H. Johnson... View Details

September 2020
Teaching Plan

Harlem Capital: Changing the Face of Entrepreneurship

By: George Serafeim

Jarrid Tingle and Henri Pierre-Jacques had spent the summer between their first and second years of their MBA program fund raising for their start-up venture capital (VC) firm, Harlem Capital Partners. Harlem Capital was founded upon the principle that addressing the... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital Firm Compensation; Entrepreneurial Finance; Entrepreneurial Financing; Black Entrepreneurs; Black Leadership; Black Inventors; Inclusion; Minority-owned Businesses; Race And Ethnicity; Race Characteristics; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Diversity; Race; Gender; Mission and Purpose; Social Enterprise; Financial Services Industry; United States

May 2024
Case

Naked Wines: The Profit vs. Growth Decision

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Edward A. Meyer

Nick Devlin faced a difficult strategic decision in October 2022. As the CEO of a UK-based subscription business connecting wine drinkers in the US, UK, and Australia with winemakers from around the world (which one journalist called the “Netflix of Wine”), he had to... View Details

17 May 2017
Research & Ideas

Minorities Who 'Whiten' Job Resumes Get More Interviews

Minority job applicants are “whitening” their resumes by deleting references to their race with the hope of boosting their shot at jobs, and research shows the strategy is paying off. In fact, companies are more than twice as likely to... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

March 2019 (Revised July 2020)
Case

MoviePass: The 'Get Big Fast' Strategy

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel W. Fisher

In August 2017, MoviePass dramatically lowered its subscription price from $50 per month to just $10 for up to one movie per day. The idea was to rapidly scale the business to the point where they could generate incremental revenue streams from related businesses... View Details

Keywords: Market Entry; Growth Strategy; Profit Vs. Growth; Subscription Business; Cash Burn; Data Analytics; Get-big-fast; Buyer Power; Strategy Implementation; Movie Industry; Racing; Entrepreneurship; Market Entry and Exit; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Value Creation; Disruption; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; United States

31 Oct 2022
Research & Ideas

Why the Largest Minority Group Faces the Most Hate—and How to Push Back

the relationship between the majority group and all other groups in the society,” says Tabellini. “And the direction of these changes depends on the characteristics of the growing minority.” The future of demographic change The findings could inform the future of View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

January 2020 (Revised July 2020)
Supplement

MoviePass: The 'Get Big Fast' Strategy

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

In August 2017, MoviePass dramatically lowered its subscription price from $50 per month to just $10 for up to one movie per day. The idea was to rapidly scale the business to the point where they could generate incremental revenue streams form related businesses... View Details

13 Feb 2012
Research & Ideas

The Case Against Racial Colorblindness

"It's so appealing on the surface to think that the best way to approach race is to pretend that it doesn't exist," says behavioral psychologist Michael I. Norton, an associate professor at Harvard Business School. "But research shows... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

03 Jan 2023
Book

Confront Workplace Inequity in 2023: Dig Deep, Build Bridges, Take Collective Action

inequities, Opie says companies need to dig deep, build bridges, and take collective action. Step 1: Digging deep Opie says leaders need to confront the entrenched beliefs that reinforce the pay and promotion gaps playing out around them. Power dynamics tied up with... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

October 2019
Case

Harlem Capital: Changing the Face of Entrepreneurship (A)

By: George Serafeim

Jarrid Tingle and Henri Pierre-Jacques had spent the summer between their first and second years of their Harvard Business School MBA program fund raising for their start-up venture capital (VC) firm, Harlem Capital Partners. Harlem Capital was founded upon the... View Details

September 2020 (Revised July 2022)
Technical Note

Algorithmic Bias in Marketing

By: Ayelet Israeli and Eva Ascarza

This note focuses on algorithmic bias in marketing. First, it presents a variety of marketing examples in which algorithmic bias may occur. The examples are organized around the 4 P’s of marketing – promotion, price, place and product—characterizing the marketing... View Details