Publications

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21 Jan 2013
Research & Ideas

Altruistic Capital: Harnessing Your Employees’ Intrinsic Goodwill

"Work done in the spirit of service is the highest form of worship." —Abdu'l-Bahá The field of economics is rife with the concept of "capital."... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

01 Sep 2017
News

Turning Point: Getting to Giving

constantly have to ask ourselves is, “What if we’ve reached the point where we have enough, and everything can be given away—everything?” For those of us who are upwardly mobile, that’s where the rubber... View Details

Keywords: Amalya “Ami” Campbell (MBA 1997); Social Assistance; Health, Social Assistance

May 2016 (Revised January 2018)
Case

Improving Repurchase Rates at zulily

By: Thales Teixeira and Sarah McAra

In February 2015, zulily cofounder and CEO Darrell Cavens faced a major challenge in his business, a Seattle-based daily deals site that catered to moms. The more he spent to acquire new customers, the less he retained them in the form of repeat purchases. This was an... View Details

Keywords: Zulily; Repurchase; E-commerce; Online Shopping; Fashion; Customer Relationship Management; Internet and the Web; Digital Marketing; Customer Satisfaction; Fashion Industry; Retail Industry; Seattle

09 May 2018
Research & Ideas

A Simple Way for Restaurant Inspectors to Improve Food Safety

factories in the US,” Toffel says. Timing is everything Previous research showed that the accuracy of third-party audits is affected by factors such as the inspector’s gender and work experience. Ibáñez and... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Food & Beverage; Service

30 May 2000
Lessons from the Classroom

Entrepreneurship’s Wild Ride

During the last 15 years, entrepreneurship has developed from a marginal, struggling field of inquiry to a dynamic centerpiece of many business schools. As the Sarofim-Rock Professor View Details

Keywords: by William Mahoney

January 2006 (Revised November 2007)
Compilation

Podcasting

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Kerry Herman

Profiles the nascent podcasting industry, based on a compilation of published articles. Describes factors driving industry growth, barriers to adoption, ecosystem roles, and potential business models. View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Communication Technology; Entrepreneurship; Industry Growth; Media; Internet and the Web; Technology Adoption; Media and Broadcasting Industry

Find at Harvard

October 2022
Case

EducationSuperHighway 2.0

By: William A. Sahlman, Allison M. Ciechanover and Emily Grandjean

In 2012, Evan Marwell launched EducationSuperHighway (ESH) to address a major problem: though most public K-12 schools in the US had access to the Internet, only roughly 30% had true broadband access that would enable every student to have high speed connectivity. ... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Social Entrepreneurship; Social Issues; Leading Change; Early Childhood Education; Infrastructure; Internet and the Web; Telecommunications Industry; Education Industry; Technology Industry; United States; San Francisco

01 Feb 2001
News

Ready for Take-Off

(MBA '77) of Communispace, a software environment for virtual collaboration within companies. Tracy A. Lawrence (MBA '99) of GetConnected.com, Inc., an Internet channel where... View Details

Keywords: Spingboard

13 Mar 2025
Blog Post

Advancing Health Care Innovation and Impact with Anita Gupta (GMP 29, 2020)

experience. I needed a broader perspective, new strategic tools, and a stronger network to drive systemic change. What I gained at HBS went beyond business strategy or policy frameworks—it was a fundamental shift in how I saw leadership. I had spent much View Details

18 Jul 2014
News

Team Players

the game and everything associated with it was a shared experience. With game day far in the future, however, what they were selling was the region and the excitement of the Super Bowl in general. "The Host... View Details

Keywords: Robert S. Benchley; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management of Companies and Enterprises

25 Jan 2013
Research & Ideas

Why a Harvard Finance Instructor Went to the Kumbh Mela

up here. Prof. Greg Greenough of the Harvard School of Public Health is directing researchers interested in everything from the pH of the Ganga... View Details

Keywords: by John D. Macomber; Construction; Real Estate

April 2012 (Revised April 2013)
Case

Mekanism: Engineering Viral Marketing

By: Thales S. Teixeira and Alison Caverly

Mekanism introduces students to a digital media production company specializing in creating viral marketing campaigns for advertising agencies and clients (e.g., Microsoft, AXE, eBay, Toyota, etc.) Mekanism has grown tremendously from 2007 to 2010 in part due to the... View Details

Keywords: Viral Marketing; Viral Advertising; Core Competencies; Growth Strategy; Online Media; Videos; Advertising Media; Internet and the Web; Expansion; Media; Marketing; Advertising; Advertising Industry; North and Central America

May 2021 (Revised August 2021)
Supplement

Migros Turkey: Scaling Online Operations

By: Antonio Moreno and Anibha Singh

As Migros, one of Turkey’s largest grocery chains, forays into online groceries, the company faces operational challenges related to inventory management, fulfillment and last mile delivery and strategics questions related to growing in an ecosystem with rapidly... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Internet and the Web; Growth and Development Strategy; Operations; Management; Competitive Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; Turkey

26 Aug 2024
Research & Ideas

Can AI Match Human Ingenuity in Creative Problem-Solving?

When ChatGPT and other large language models began entering the mainstream two years ago, it quickly became apparent the technology could excel at certain business functions, yet it was less clear how well artificial intelligence could handle more creative tasks. Sure,... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Information Technology; Information; Technology

February 2001 (Revised November 2009)
Case

Amazon.com (C)

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport

At the end of 1998, Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos ponders the next moves for his company. Having secured the leadership position as the leading online book seller in the United States, Amazon.com has now moved into the product categories of CDs and videos by... View Details

Keywords: Expansion; Internet and the Web; Business Growth and Maturation; Books; Growth and Development Strategy; Retail Industry; Germany; United Kingdom; United States

June 1981 (Revised May 1988)
Case

L.L. Bean, Inc.: Corporate Strategy

By: Hirotaka Takeuchi

L.L. Bean, Inc., a Maine-based manufacturer and mail-order retailer of sporting goods and apparel, has grown from $3 million in sales (1967) to over $120 million (1980). Current projections predict an annual compounded growth of 25% through 1985. Management must decide... View Details

Keywords: Globalization; Growth and Development; Growth Management; Production; Quality; Sales; Situation or Environment; Corporate Strategy; Internet and the Web; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail Industry

22 Sep 2015
News

Getting New Ideas off the Ground

A serial entrepreneur and innovator, Nicholas Grouf (MBA 1995) helped create the technology for online personalization, cowrote the first policies around Internet privacy, developed bundled low-cost computers and online access, launched... View Details

08 Mar 2011
First Look

First Look: March 8

the company's revenues, high gaming revenue still raised some questions. Between now and when Ben-Gacem had first submitted a bid of 60 million for Moneybookers back in November 2006, the U.S. Congress had enacted the Unlawful View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 2021
Case

HelloSelf: Launch

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In April 2021, Charles Wells, founder and CEO of HelloSelf was reflecting on the company’s progress since it launched two years earlier. HelloSelf’s goal was to help the mentally ill recover and those who were mentally fit to stay well and feel even better. To do this,... View Details

Keywords: Mental Health; Health Care and Treatment; Internet and the Web; Growth and Development Strategy; Great Britain