Publications

01 Apr 2001
News

The Small Business Difference: How Smaller Companies Manage with Less

A few years ago, H. Kent Bowen, the Bruce V. Rauner Professor of Business Administration, undertook a study of smaller companies (firms in the $5 million to $50 million range) in order to develop cases and teaching materials for the... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training

March 2011
Background Note

Financing New Ventures

By: William R. Kerr and Ramana Nanda

Aid in understanding of financing entrepreneurship. View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans

14 Apr 2020
News

Paypal, Square Start Lending to Small Businesses Hurt by Virus

14 Apr 2017
News

Humanizing Finance

Fast Answer

Buying a Small Business Pt2: Search funds (For HBS Alumni)

Filled with input from experienced searchers, operators, and investors, this document aims to be a potential blueprint for searchers during the search phase. (Suggested prior reading: “Search Fund Primer” available on the Stanford Graduate School of View Details

January 2020 (Revised May 2021)
Case

Salary Finance US

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In October 2019, Dan Macklin, the newly-appointed chief executive of Salary Finance Inc., was weighing his options for the future of the business. The company’s value proposition was quite simple: partner with employers to offer employees affordable loans that were... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Credit; Financing and Loans; Wages; Innovation and Invention; Expansion; Growth Management; Decision Making; Financial Services Industry; United States

02 Feb 2013
News

Finance as an Analytical Partner to the Business

September 2012
Case

Castronics, LLC

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Patrick Dickinson (HBS '09) and Michael Weiner (MIT's Sloan '07) acquired Castronics, a firm that specialized in threading pipe used in the oil and natural gas industry, at the end of 2009. The partners overcame significant hurdles during the first two years of... View Details

Keywords: Small Business; Search Funds; Corporate Finance; Entrepreneurship; Financial Management; Energy Industry; Western United States

2016
Working Paper

College Tuition, Public Finance and New Business Starts

By: Gareth Olds

A growing public discourse cites the rising cost of education and student debt overhang as a contributor to slow economic growth. A parallel discussion explores the causes of the secular decline in business dynamism and entrepreneurship rates in the United States over... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Higher Education; Entrepreneurship

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2024
Working Paper

Catalysts for Climate Solutions: Corporate Responses to Venture Capital Financing of Climate-tech Startups

By: Shirley Lu, George Serafeim and Simon Xu

We study whether incumbent firms increase their product focus on climate solutions in response to venture capital (VC) financing of climate-tech startups. Using large language models to measure a firm's focus on climate solutions, we find that incumbents in similar... View Details

Keywords: Climate Finance; Climate Change; Technological Innovation; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Environmental Sustainability; Business Startups

SSRN

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06 Mar 2014
News

MBA Students Expand Their 'Across America' Outreach

Keywords: Small business; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management

2012
Chapter

The Small Worlds of Business Groups: Liberalization and Network Dynamics

By: Jon Brookfield, Sea-Jin Chang, Israel Drori, Shmuel Ellis, Sergio G. Lazzarini, Jordan I. Siegel and Juan Pablo von Bernath Bardina

Using comparative data from six major emerging economies — Brazil, Chile, Israel, Mexico, South Korea, and Taiwan — we examine how ownership networks in those societies responded to a roughly similar “ structural break ” of economic liberalization during the 1990s... View Details

Keywords: Emerging Economies; Ownership; Corporate Governance; Emerging Markets

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07 Dec 2020
News

Big Wisdom on Small Business from Amazing Aussie, Bill Lang

December 1998
Background Note

Cash Management Practices in Small Companies

By: H. Kent Bowen, Andrew R. Jassy, Laurence E. Katz, Kevin E. Kelly and Baltej Kochar

Most small business managers claim that cash management is their leading concern. Often walking a tightrope between growth and illiquidity, small business managers face different cash management challenges than their counterparts in larger companies. Compared to larger... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Working Capital; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Design; Cash; Forecasting and Prediction; Policy; Business Strategy

Web

Corporate Finance Programs

May 2011
Article

The Power of Small Wins

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer

What is the best way to motivate employees to do creative work? Help them take a step forward every day. In an analysis of knowledge workers' diaries, the authors found that nothing contributed more to a positive inner work life (the mix of emotions, motivations, and... View Details

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