Publications

07 Dec 2015
News

The One Thing You Should Be Doing At The Beginning of Every Meeting

11 Jul 2011
Research & Ideas

Non-competes Push Talent Away

start-up firm in Silicon Valley when one of his employees decided to quit and go work for a direct competitor down the street. "I told him, 'Hey, you can't do that. Didn't we make you sign a non-compete?' " Marx recalls. "He kind of... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Technology

November – December 1998
Article

Clusters and the New Economics of Competition

By: Michael E. Porter

This article explains how clusters foster high levels of productivity and innovation and lays out the implications for competitive strategy and economic policy. Economic geography in an era of global competition poses a paradox. In theory, location should no longer be... View Details

Keywords: Economics; United States

Find at Harvard

February 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

Honda Innovations: Leveraging External Insights to Accelerate Creation

By: Antonio Davila

Nick Sugimoto, CEO of Honda Innovations—the open innovation organization of Honda, has to decide how to extend his organization’s approach to innovation across the world. Honda Innovations dates back to 2000 when Honda created Honda Research Institute in Silicon... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Radical Innovation; Corporate Venturing; Corporate Innovation; Organization Structure; Management Control; Business Units; Disruption; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Global Strategy; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Organizational Structure; Strategy; Auto Industry; San Francisco; Japan

Dennis “DJ” DiDonna has dedicated his career to commercializing social science research to create organizations which positively impact the world.

He is a Senior Lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School where he teaches the... View Details

October 2014 (Revised May 2015)
Case

HandsOn Bay Area: Scaling Up Community Service

By: James Heskett

HandsOn Bay Area, an organization devoted to the performance of (and development of leaders for) community service, is undergoing a significant (and internally controversial) shift in its business model from "retail" projects involving individual volunteers to... View Details

January 2004 (Revised May 2005)
Case

Gold Hill Venture Lending

By: G. Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

David Fischer is trying to raise $200 million for a first-time venture debt fund that will be affiliated with Silicon Valley Bank, a major technology lender. Despite his lengthy experience in venture lending, the process is proving difficult. He and his partners are... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Value Creation; Venture Capital; Partners and Partnerships; Decision Choices and Conditions; Investment Funds; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry

16 Sep 2015
News

Faculty Q&A: The Working World

February 2011
Case

Chegg: Textbook Rental Takes Flight

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, William A. Sahlman and Evan W. Richardson

In late 2010, Silicon Valley-based Chegg, the leading online college textbook rental company, is scaling rapidly. The case recounts Chegg's history from its origins as a distant competitor to Craigslist in college classified listings through a pivot into textbook... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Higher Education; Entrepreneurship; Books; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Service Operations; Renting or Rental; Online Technology; Education Industry; Service Industry; California

21 Mar 2022
News

AI Chip Startups Pull In Funding as They Navigate Supply Constraints

19 Nov 2013
News

Q&A With Harvard’s Top Entrepreneurship Professor

17 Mar 2015
News

The Success of Monitoring the Economy With Big Data

October 2009
Case

Digital Chocolate

By: Linda A. Hill and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

Trip Hawkins founded Digital Chocolate in Silicon Valley in 2003 to develop outstanding games for mobile devices. By 2008, the company had expanded its operations into four countries, and Digital Chocolate was one of the top developers of soloplayer games for standard... View Details

Keywords: Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Innovation and Management; Leading Change; Product Development; Groups and Teams; Creativity; Telecommunications Industry; Video Game Industry

October 1994 (Revised April 1995)
Case

Visionary Design Systems: Are Incentives Enough?

By: George P. Baker III and Karin B Monsler

A compensation case about Visionary Design Systems (VDS), a small, high-tech full service systems integration firm based in Silicon Valley with eleven offices throughout the country. All employees, including engineers, administrators, and receptionists, received a... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Cost vs Benefits; Compensation and Benefits; Employee Stock Ownership Plan; San Francisco

05 Sep 2006
First Look

First Look: September 5, 2006

can increase creativity within a firm, they also aid in the diffusion of creative knowledge to other firms through personnel and knowledge transfer. Firms that operate within small worlds such as in Silicon Valley long ago learned to... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2020 (Revised August 2022)
Case

Anomalie

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Thomas O. Jones

In early 2019, the founders of Anomalie, an online direct-to-consumer provider of bridal gowns, have just agreed to a $13.6 million Series A investment from a Silicon Valley VC. They are considering three major initiatives as they move forward. (1) To scale their very... View Details

Keywords: Direct-to-consumer; Entrepreneurship; Internet and the Web; Growth and Development Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Technology Industry

January 2013
Case

Arthur Rock

By: Felda Hardymon, Tom Nicholas and Liz Kind

Arthur Rock was known as one of the country's first venture capitalists and was instrumental in launching major Silicon Valley firms, such as Fairchild Semiconductor, Intel Corporation, Apple Computer, Inc., Scientific Data Systems and Teledyne Incorporated. He was the... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Success; Financial Services Industry; Technology Industry; California

May 2021 (Revised August 2021)
Case

Airbnb During the Pandemic: Stakeholder Capitalism Faces a Critical Test

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Allison Ciechanover

As the COVID pandemic spread in early 2020, global travel ground to a halt. For Airbnb, the San Francisco-based platform for renting accommodations, the impact was both swift and severe as revenues plummeted more than 70% over the prior year. Responding to the sudden... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Corporate Governance; Crisis Management; Leadership; Digital Platforms; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Value Creation; Decision Making; Goals and Objectives; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Travel Industry; Tourism Industry; Service Industry; United States

December 2019 (Revised March 2020)
Case

Impossible Foods

By: Jose B. Alvarez and Natalie Kindred

Impossible Foods founder and CEO Pat Brown started the company out of concern over livestock production’s impact on climate change. Impossible’s mission is to end consumption of animals by 2035, and its strategy is to develop and market plant-based foods so similar to... View Details