Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(1,803)
- Faculty Publications (519)
- October 2016 (Revised October 2023)
- Case
Bootstrapping at Lightricks
By: Robert White, Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Christine Snively
By August 2015, two-year-old mobile imaging software startup Lightricks had developed and released two best-selling paid mobile apps, grown to a team of 30, earned a revenue run rate of nearly $10 million, and achieved modest profitability. The bootstrapped company had... View Details
- October 2016
- Article
Technical Debt and System Architecture: The Impact of Coupling on Defect-related Activity
By: Alan MacCormack and Daniel J. Sturtevant
Technical debt is created when design decisions that are expedient in the short-term increase the costs of maintaining and adapting this system in future. An important component of technical debt relates to decisions about system architecture. As systems grow and... View Details
- September 2016 (Revised March 2018)
- Case
Qalaa Holdings and the Egyptian Refining Company
By: Victoria Ivashina and Marc Homsy
This case follows Qalaa Holdings, a successful Egypt-based private equity firm, and gives insight into the types of investments it pursued, its growth over time, and the limited partner base it had at hand. It also allows students to consider and debate whether the... View Details
- August 2016
- Teaching Note
Mahindra Lifespace Developers' Venture into Affordable Housing
By: Joseph B. Fuller and Monica Baraldi
Mahindra Lifespace Developers Limited (MLDL) was the infrastructure and real estate arm of the Mahindra Group, an Indian conglomerate with revenues of $16.5 billion in 2014. Employing 400 experts in land acquisition, design, project management, sales and marketing, and... View Details
Keywords: Business Conglomerates; Business Startups; Development Economics; Developing Countries and Economies; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Social Entrepreneurship; Housing; Emerging Markets; Business and Government Relations; Human Needs; Social Issues; Urban Development; Real Estate Industry; India
- July 2016 (Revised November 2018)
- Case
Code.org
By: John J-H Kim, Lauren Barley and Allison M. Ciechanover
The case explores Hadi Partovi’s mission to provide every K-12 student in the United States the opportunity to learn computer science. Students can assess how Partovi transformed his passion into an organization that reached millions around the globe through the launch... View Details
- July 2016
- Technical Note
Net Neutrality: A Managerial Perspective
By: Shane Greenstein and Christine Snively
The net neutrality debate had implications for Internet service providers, content providers, and end users. This note aims to inform the reader of the various sides of the debate where open issues remain, as well as what aspects an entrepreneur, investor, or content... View Details
- May 2016 (Revised April 2018)
- Case
Building the Digital Manufacturing Enterprise of the Future at Siemens
By: Willy Shih
This case describes the motivation for and the development of Siemens' digital manufacturing enterprise vision, which became the foundation for its implementation of Industrie 4.0. While the effort started with a purely defensive move by Anton Huber, head of the... View Details
Keywords: Big Data; Internet Of Things; Internet Of Everything; Industrie 4.0; Digital Factory; Digital Enterprise; Digital Manufacturing; Manufacturing; Production Management; Production Planning; Computer Software; Germany; German Manufacturing; Machinery and Machining; Information Technology; Digital Platforms; Technological Innovation; Production; Supply Chain; Applications and Software; Information Infrastructure; Internet and the Web; Analytics and Data Science; Manufacturing Industry; Germany
- Article
Crowdsourcing City Government: Using Tournaments to Improve Inspection Accuracy
By: Edward Glaeser, Andrew Hillis, Scott Duke Kominers and Michael Luca
The proliferation of big data makes it possible to better target city services like hygiene inspections, but city governments rarely have the in-house talent needed for developing prediction algorithms. Cities could hire consultants, but a cheaper alternative is to... View Details
- April 2016
- Case
Detroit: On the Right Track?
By: Jan W. Rivkin and Manjari Raman
As this case opens in 2012, a cross-sector alliance to bring new rail transport to the Motor City seems about to collapse, and civic leaders have one last chance to save it. The case covers the rise of Detroit, the city’s devastating fall, and the ongoing potential... View Details
- April 2016
- Supplement
Preparing a Concession Bid at TAV Airports Holding
By: C. Fritz Foley and Çiğdem Çelik
In 2013, TAV Airports Holding prepared a bid for the concession to build and operate the third Istanbul airport. This process involved input from various parts of the firm with operating and financial expertise. Burcu Geriş, the CFO of TAV Airports Holding, and her... View Details
- 2016
- Case
Advanced Leadership Pathways: Mahendra Bapna and Technology Education in India
By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Pamela Yatsko
Keywords: India; Education; Higher Education; Leadership; Leadership Skills; Technology Education; Tata Motors; Outcome-based Technology Education; OBTE; Indian Institute Of Technology; IIT; Engineering College; Global Management Consulting; University-21; Federation Of Indian Chambers Of Commerce And Industry; FICCI; Indian Economy; Information Technology; Tertiary Education System; University; University Level; Colleges; Institutes Of Technology; Academia; Academia-industry; Technical Institutes; Indian Institute Of Technology Jodhpur; IITJ; IIT Rajasthan; Infrastructure Development; Senior Student Syndrome; Industry Immersion Program; Technology; India
- March 2016 (Revised September 2021)
- Case
South Africa: A Fractured Rainbow?
By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Haviland Sheldahl-Thomason
Twenty years after the end of Apartheid, South Africa's democracy persists, albeit with problems. A tripartite coalition — the African National Congress, the labor unions, and the Communist Party — still controls the political system but with diminishing economic... View Details
- March 2016
- Case
Preparing a Concession Bid at TAV Airports Holding
By: C. Fritz Foley and Çiğdem Çelik
In 2013, TAV Airports Holding prepared a bid for the concession to build and operate the third Istanbul airport. This process involved input from various parts of the firm with operating and financial expertise. Burcu Geriş, the CFO of TAV Airports Holding, and her... View Details
- March 2016 (Revised November 2021)
- Teaching Note
T-Mobile in 2013: The Un-Carrier
By: John Beshears and Francesca Gino
By 2013, the U.S. wireless industry was in the midst of a costly transition. As consumers began to embrace more sophisticated mobile devices, the industry's four main players spent heavily to improve their infrastructures for providing reliable high-speed data... View Details
- March 2016
- Teaching Note
Advanced Leadership Pathways: Richard Fahey and Robert Saudek – Lighting Liberia
By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Tessa Natanay Hamilton and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone
After successful careers as lawyers and Fellows in Harvard's Advanced Leadership Initiative, Richard Fahey and Robert Saudek set out to tackle a large-scale infrastructure challenge in a complex environment by ultimately using advanced leadership skills to increase... View Details
Keywords: Energy
- 2016
- Teaching Note
Advanced Leadership Pathways: Richard Fahey and Robert Saudek—Lighting Liberia
By: Rosabeth M. Kanter, Tessa Natanay Hamilton and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone
Teaching Note for Case 313-032. After successful careers as lawyers and Fellows in Harvard's Advanced Leadership Initiative, Richard Fahey and Robert Saudek set out to tackle a large-scale infrastructure challenge in a complex environment by ultimately using advanced... View Details
Keywords: Solar; Solar Power; Electricity; Clean Technology; Scaling-up; Economic Development; Partnerships; Sustainability; Innovation; Leadership Skills; Renewable Energy; Energy; Infrastructure; Information Technology; Economy; Partners and Partnerships; Distribution; Innovation Leadership; Leadership; Social Entrepreneurship; Change Management; Energy Industry; Africa; Liberia
- March 2016
- Article
Highway to Success: The Impact of the Golden Quadrilateral Project for the Location and Performance of Indian Manufacturing
By: Ejaz Ghani, Arti Grover Goswami and William R. Kerr
We investigate the impact of the Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) highway project on the Indian organized manufacturing sector using enterprise data. The GQ project upgraded the quality and width of 5,846 km of roads in India. We use a difference-in-difference estimation... View Details
Keywords: Highways; Roads; India; Development; Manufacturing; Density; Rent; Infrastructure; Manufacturing Industry; India
- February 2016 (Revised September 2020)
- Case
T-Mobile in 2013: The Un-Carrier
By: John Beshears, Francesca Gino, Jonathan Lee and Sean (Yixiang) Wang
By 2013, the U.S. wireless industry was in the midst of a costly transition. As consumers began to embrace more sophisticated mobile devices, the industry's four main players spent heavily to improve their infrastructures for providing reliable high-speed data... View Details
- December 2015 (Revised May 2016)
- Case
Jibo: A Social Robot for the Home
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Christine Snively
In January 2015, Jibo Inc. had completed a raise of $25.3 million in Series A financing after a successful 2014 crowdfunding campaign for preorders of Jibo, the first social robot for the home. Over 4,800 Jibo units were preordered, generating $2.6 million in sales. On... View Details
- November 2015
- Case
Upwork: Reimagining the Future of Work
By: Feng Zhu, Rory McDonald, Marco Iansiti and Aaron Smith
Upwork, the world's largest freelance talent platform, was the result of a merger between the two leading online freelancing companies in 2014, Elance and oDesk. After the merger, the company operated as Elance-oDesk and continued to manage two online... View Details