Publications

August 2011 (Revised August 2013)
Case

Career at a Crossroad: Roopa Rao

By: Noam Wasserman and Lisa Brem

Akhil Patel is passionate about his business idea: an innovative green technology fuel cell. He wants to dive in and commit to his startup, but Roopa Rao, his fiancée, is much more risk averse, his parents don't approve of the startup, and Akhil has an enticing... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Business Startups; Business Growth and Maturation; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Work-Life Balance; Family and Family Relationships

Within a matter of weeks this spring, we saw virtually every school building in the country abruptly close, sending students home with worksheets and/or laptops and leaving district staff scrambling to figure out how to provide not only instruction but meals and... View Details

06 Mar 2019
HBS Seminar

Adam Isen, U.S. Department of the Treasury

11 Apr 2022
News

Lessons from the Dustup at Disney: How CEOs Can Stand Up for Their Companies’ Values

02 Dec 2021
News

Our Eight Favorite Books in 2021 for Healthy Living

February 2009 (Revised September 2009)
Case

Investing in Early Learning as Economic Development at the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank

By: Stacey M. Childress and Geoff Eckman Marietta

In his role as Senior Vice President and Director of Research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis (Minneapolis Fed), Art Rolnick and his colleague, Rob Grunewald, had written "Early Childhood Development: Economic Development with a High Public Return." The... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Early Childhood Education; Investment Return; Demand and Consumers; Supply and Industry; Performance Effectiveness; Nonprofit Organizations; Minneapolis; Saint Paul

12 Jul 2016
First Look

July 12, 2016

in-state tuition among parents of near-college-age children, who may internalize the cost of their children’s education but are less likely to be attending college themselves. Using state budget surpluses and shortfalls as an instrument... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 2020 (Revised October 2020)
Teaching Note

The Marriott-Starwood Merger: Navigating Brand Portfolio Strategy and Brand Architecture

By: Jill Avery and Chekitan S. Dev

In September 2016, Marriott completed its $13.3 billion acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts, which added 11 brands to its already robust 19 hotel brand portfolio. Tina Edmundson, Marriott’s global brand officer, was charged with making sense of the brand portfolio... View Details

Keywords: Branding; Brand Portfolio Strategy; Brand Architecture; Hospitality Industry; Mergers ＆ Acquisitions; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Mergers and Acquisitions; Travel Industry; Accommodations Industry; United States

September–October 2016
Article

Growing New Corporate Businesses: From Initiation to Graduation

By: Sebastian Raisch and Michael Tushman

Large companies initiate many new businesses, but few of them reach scale. The ambidexterity literature describes how companies create exploratory businesses, but says little about how they subsequently scale these businesses. The strategy literature uses real option... View Details

Keywords: Ambidexterity; Comparative Case Study; Corporate Venturing; Exploration; Organization Design; Real Option Theory; Organizational Design; Corporate Strategy; Corporate Entrepreneurship

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March 2013
Case

An Entrepreneur's New Product Development Journey

By: Elie Ofek

This case tracks the new product development process undertaken by Gauri Nanda, the founder and CEO of Nanda Home, as she ventures to innovate beyond her initial product launches. Having achieved commercial success with her first product Clocky, a roll away alarm clock... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Decision Making; Product Development; Manufacturing Industry; Consumer Products Industry

November 2014
Case

Ardian—The Sale of Diana

By: Paul A. Gompers and Michael Roberts

The case focuses on a European private equity firm—Ardian—and the process it uses to sell one of its portfolio companies, and the decisions around that sale. Key issues include the choice of an auction or acceptance of a pre-emptive bid, and the role of the portfolio... View Details

Keywords: Spin-out; Exit; Sale; Private Equity; France

06 Aug 2020
News

Zoom took over the world. This is what will happen next

Article

Optimal Taxation When Children's Abilities Depend on Parents' Resources

By: Alexander Gelber and Matthew Weinzierl

Empirical research suggests that parents' economic resources affect their children's future earnings abilities. Optimal tax policy therefore treats future ability distributions as endogenous to current taxes. We model this endogeneity, calibrate the model to match... View Details

Keywords: Taxation; Family and Family Relationships; Welfare

November 2001 (Revised March 2002)
Case

Digital Angel

By: Youngme E. Moon and Kerry Herman

Digital Angel is considering the appropriate marketing plan for the launch of its new locator device. The device, a watch and pager worn in combination, provides GPS location information and monitors heart rate and body temperature via body sensors. Parents of young... View Details

Keywords: Information; Safety; Rights; Market Entry and Exit; Ethics; Product Launch; Brands and Branding; Product Development

November 2008
Journal Article

Financial Constraints and Growth: Multinational and Local Firm Responses to Currency Crises

By: Mihir A. Desai, C. Fritz Foley and Kristin Forbes

This paper examines how financial constraints and product market exposures determine the response of multinational and local firms to sharp depreciations. U.S. multinational affiliates increase sales, assets, and investment significantly more than local firms during,... View Details

Keywords: Economic Growth; Financial Crisis; Currency; Private Equity; Foreign Direct Investment; Multinational Firms and Management; Emerging Markets; United States

SSRN

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Research Summary

The Baby Business: How Markets are Changing the Future of Birth

By: Debora L. Spar

It is difficult to conceive of the child as commerce. For even at the start of the 21st century, we like to believe that some things remain beyond both markets and science; that there are some things that money can't buy. In economic terms, these things are defined as... View Details

December 1986 (Revised August 1988)
Case

LifeSpan Inc.: Abbott Northwestern Hospital

Raises the powerful issues of measuring marketing performance in a not-for-profit services setting. Also raises several interesting ethical issues. LifeSpan Inc., a Minneapolis based not-for-profit organization is the parent holding company of three hospitals and... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Ethics; Marketing Communications; Health Care and Treatment; Service Industry; Health Industry; Minneapolis

July 2020 (Revised January 2021)
Case

Pattern Brands

By: Sunil Gupta, Elie Ofek and Julia Kelley

In March 2020, direct-to-consumer (DTC) company Pattern Brands needed to decide how to allocate resources across its different brands. Pattern Co-Founders Nick Ling and Emmett Shine hoped to avoid the pitfalls faced by some DTC companies—such as inability to scale and... View Details