Publications

SSRN

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07 Apr 2011
Working Paper Summaries

The Consequences of Financial Innovation: A Counterfactual Research Agenda

Keywords: by Josh Lerner & Peter Tufano

Web

MS/MBA Biotechnology: Life Sciences | MBA

new drug discoveries and therapeutics. The program is completed over two academic years, utilizing January terms and time in August at the start of the program. The curriculum emphasizes developing effective... View Details

April 2009 (Revised August 2010)
Case

Buro Happold

By: Robert G. Eccles and Kerry Herman

Padraic Kelly became Managing Director (MD) of the engineering services firm Buro Happold in 1996. One of his first initiatives was "Aim for Growth," which was intended to help the firm grow beyond its current size where it was constrained by a structure of having each... View Details

Keywords: Training; Entrepreneurship; Leadership Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Skills; Organizational Culture; Programs

11 Feb 2010
Working Paper Summaries

The Architecture of Complex Systems: Do Core-periphery Structures Dominate?

Keywords: by Alan MacCormack, Carliss Y. Baldwin & John Rusnak; Video Game; Web Services

2025
Working Paper

Mammography - Early Detection, Precise Diagnoses: Case Histories of Transformational Advances

By: Amar Bhidé, Srikant M. Datar and Katherine Stebbins

This case history describes how the development of x-ray-based techniques and equipment (“mammography”) led to widespread screening for breast cancer and enabled “minimally invasive” biopsies of breast tumors. Specifically, we chronicle how: 1) new protocols and... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Technological Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Technology Adoption; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Invention; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms

SSRN

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December 2010
Compilation

VCPE Strategy Vignettes I

By: Josh Lerner, G. Felda Hardymon, Matthew Rhodes-Kropf, Ann Leamon and Lisa Strope

These three vignettes present various issues around the strategy and management of venture capital and private equity firms. In one, the general partners must decide whether to invest in an intriguing opportunity that lies outside the firm's carefully developed... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Private Equity; Financial Strategy; Projects; Decision Choices and Conditions; Partners and Partnerships; Opportunities; Investment Portfolio; Business or Company Management; China

August 2019 (Revised March 2022)
Case

Lemonade: Disrupting Insurance with Instant Everything, Killer Prices, and a Big Heart

By: Elie Ofek and Danielle Golan

Launching its first products in the fall of 2016 in New York, insurtech startup Lemonade was on a mission to disrupt the insurance market by using AI and behavioral economics principles. The company offered renters, homeowners, and condo insurance and mainly targeted... View Details

Keywords: AI; Business Startups; Insurance; Technological Innovation; Business Model; Disruption; Brands and Branding; Growth and Development Strategy; Global Strategy; Decision Making; Insurance Industry; Technology Industry

09 Jan 2023
Blog Post

How I Spent My HBS 2+2 Deferral: Sam Perez Diarte

shared his experience at HBS and in the 2+2 program, and it was a perfect option for me. I wanted time to grow as a STEM leader and still have the opportunity to develop my business knowledge with this deferred enrollment program. How... View Details

24 Oct 2018
Blog Post

The Energy & Environment Club

Comprised of over 200 students, the HBS Energy & Environment Club promotes the energy, clean tech, and environment-related industries at Harvard Business School. The mission of the club is to develop the next generation of leaders in... View Details

September 2014
Case

FormPrint Ortho500

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Alisa Zalosh

The Senior Vice President of FormPrint's Medical Products business unit is considering issues raised by the upcoming introduction of a new 3D printing system, the Ortho500, which could print custom exoskeletal orthopedic splints, braces, and casts that conformed to a... View Details

Keywords: B2B Marketing; Technological Innovation; Market Entry and Exit; Marketing Strategy; Distribution Channels; Product Development; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

January 2021 (Revised May 2023)
Case

Pearson: Efficacy 2.0

By: Elie Ofek, Marco Bertini, Oded Koenigsberg and James Weber

Pearson, which billed itself as the "world's learning company," faced a host of critical decisions in mid-2020. Several years prior, it had embarked on a new path that put the learner at the heart of the business and committed to a new strategic orientation. The new... View Details

Keywords: Efficacy; Learning; Outcome or Result; Measurement and Metrics; Brands and Branding; Marketing Communications; Strategic Planning; Education Industry

September 2018 (Revised May 2021)
Teaching Plan

Eastern Bank: Innovating Through Eastern Labs

By: Karen Mills, Dennis Campbell and Aaron Mukerjee

Eastern Bank is a 200-year-old New England mutual bank with a community focus. Eastern specializes in small business lending, having made strategic investments to become the top SBA lender in New England in the midst of the Great Recession, when other banks were... View Details

Keywords: Banks; Fintech; Innovation; Innovation ＆ Entrepreneurship; Innovation And Strategy; Technological Change; Technology And Innovation Management; Entrepreneurial Management; Intrapreneurship; Banks and Banking; Innovation and Invention; Entrepreneurship; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Management

September 2010 (Revised November 2010)
Case

Ze-gen: Commercializing Clean Tech

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Kaitlyn Lyons and Scott Prozeller

The Ze-gen case covers the first five years in the life of a clean-tech start-up. Ze-gen had developed an innovative technology that converted solid waste into synthesis gas (called syngas). This technology was in testing at the company's pilot plant, built next to the... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Renewable Energy; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Environmental Sustainability; Commercialization; Green Technology Industry; New Bedford

17 Jun 2015
Lessons from the Classroom

Excellence Comes From Saying No

through a new course for MBA students, Why You Should Care: Creating the Conditions for Excellence, co-taught with Senior Lecturer and venture capital guru Amy Schulman. Together, they created a course unlike any other at the school, both... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

December 2022 (Revised September 2024)
Teaching Note

Leonard Bernstein: Changing the World

By: Robert Simons and Shirley Sun

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 122-056. The case traces the rise of Leonard Bernstein from a middle-class family in Boston to the conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. The case describes how he studied music intensely as a young man and developed mentors to... View Details

Keywords: Entertainment; Personal Characteristics; Work-Life Balance; Entrepreneurship; Success; Values and Beliefs; Mission and Purpose; Personal Development and Career; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

September 2013 (Revised August 2015)
Background Note

Leadership and Teaming

By: Ethan Bernstein

Small differences in the leadership of teams can have large consequences for the success of their efforts. Many initiatives fail not because of a fatal error in judgment or insufficient ideas, knowledge, motivation, or capabilities to deliver a solution. They fail... View Details

29 Jan 2019
Blog Post

Interning in the Agribusiness Sector

Katie Hsia-Kiung, MBA 2019, describes her summer internship in the agribusiness sector. Having worked in solar energy before HBS, Katie was excited by the opportunity to create the business plan for a brand new team at Indigo Ag, a... View Details

Keywords: Manufacturing

January 2018
Supplement

BeiGene Supplemental PowerPoint

By: Willy C. Shih and Jimmy Zhang

BeiGene was a biopharmaceutical company founded on exploiting a temporal regulatory policy discontinuity. Because of regulatory challenges in China, most innovative new drugs launched there four to six years after their initial U.S. launches. This gave BeiGene a window... View Details

Keywords: Biotechnology; Pharmaceutical Company; Pharmaceuticals; China; Regulatory Environment; Business Strategy; Innovation Strategy; Situation or Environment; Pharmaceutical Industry; Biotechnology Industry; China

March 2014
Teaching Note

E-Cigarettes: Marketing Versus Public Health

By: John A. Quelch

Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) were heralded by some as a healthcare game changer, enabling smokers to switch to a new product which carried lower risk of cancer. However, there were concerns about the public health risk of e-cigarettes, particularly the chance... View Details