Publications

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January 2025 (Revised April 2025)
Case

Blue Frontier: Disrupting Air Conditioning

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jacob A. Small

Serial entrepreneur Daniel Betts founded Blue Frontier in South Florida to offer a climate-friendly solution to increase air conditioning efficiency and dehumidify using new technology he developed. Backed by significant venture capital, Blue Frontier had to choose... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Technological Innovation; Market Entry and Exit; Performance Efficiency; Business Strategy; Florida

June 1983 (Revised November 2001)
Case

EMI and the CT Scanner (A)

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Describes the development of the first CT Scanner by EMI, a company new to the medical industry, and EMI's entry into the U.S. market. The company's early success is threatened by the entry of a dozen competitors (some very large and experienced), by government... View Details

Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Technological Innovation; Market Entry and Exit; Industry Structures; Product Development; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

October 2009
Article

Democratizing Entry: Banking Deregulations, Financing Constraints, and Entrepreneurship

By: William R. Kerr and Ramana Nanda

We examine entrepreneurship and creative destruction following US banking deregulations using Census Bureau data. US banking reforms brought about exceptional growth in both entrepreneurship and business closures. Most of the closures, however, were the new ventures... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Market Entry and Exit; Capital Markets; Banks and Banking; Growth and Development; Disruptive Innovation

Read Now

01 Jun 2017
News

Supercharged

promise of better charging infrastructure, and evolving trends in foreign markets all indicate that EVs are approaching a global tipping point. But with political winds imperiling government incentives in the United States and China... View Details

Keywords: Alexander Gelfand; illustrations by Tavis Coburn

01 Mar 2011
News

Making Their Way

could well be a case study about an American manufacturer’s adaptation to the forces of globalization. Back in the 1990s, when the U.S. economy was in a high-tech, dot-com frenzy and China’s experiment with export-driven market economics... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Electrical Equipment, Appliance, and Component Manufacturing; Manufacturing; Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing; Manufacturing; Rail Transportation; Transportation

December 2010
Case

Oral Rehydration Therapy

By: Nava Ashraf and Claire Qureshi

This case highlights the puzzlingly high rate of diarrhea-related child mortality in developing countries despite the existence of a simple, effective treatment: oral rehydration therapy (ORT). ORT treated extreme dehydration caused by diarrhea, which was a leading... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Innovation Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Developing Countries and Economies; Technological Innovation; Distribution Channels; Emerging Markets; Consumer Behavior; Performance Consistency; Performance Evaluation; Health Industry; Africa; Asia

07 Dec 2016
HBS Case

Why Millennials Flock to Fintech for Personal Investing

into an underserved market by allowing clients to invest as little as $5,000. Wealthfront doesn’t even charge a fee for assets of less than $10,000—and even after that charges a 0.25 percent fee, as opposed to fees of 2 to 3 percent by... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

01 Mar 2014
News

Cutting Edge

than when he took over, those outlets are mostly regional players. He looks for the company to penetrate major, nationwide retailers this year on the strength of a national marketing effort, a broader View Details

Keywords: Manufacturing; Food and Beverage Stores; Retail Trade

19 Aug 2024
News

Quantum Leap

only is he trying to make this breakthrough technology accessible, but he’s also competing against the likes of IBM and Google for market share. The story, “Quantum Leap” appears in our June issue and is written by contributor Alexander... View Details

06 Jun 2005
Research & Ideas

Microsoft vs. Open Source: Who Will Win?

market leadership position? "We believe that there is still a great deal of confusion and puzzlement on how this competitive battle will develop," say the authors of the academic paper Dynamic Mixed Duopoly: A Model Motivated by... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

08 Dec 2009
First Look

First Look: Dec. 8

an emerging market. The prescription of this chapter is to think about a more ambitious role for such markets: establish a strategic business unit, designated as a "disruptive innovation hub," that is charged with first... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

26 Feb 2018
News

Teaching Farmers New Tricks of the Trade

Erik Malmstrom (MBA 2012) is general manager of crop marketing for the Farmers Business Network in California. In this video, he describes how the organization is helping transform the agriculture space using data analytics and sharing... View Details

01 Jun 2014
News

FIELD 2 in Accra

important information." Learning by Doing Introduced in 2011, FIELD 2 is a transformative experience in learning that sends all 900-plus first-year MBA students across the globe to emerging markets each January where they work with... View Details

Keywords: FIELD program; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Information

March 2011
Supplement

Cree, Inc.: An Update

By: David J. Collis and Mary Furey

An update to "Cree Inc.: Which Bright Future?" View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation; Consumer Behavior; Strategy; Technology Adoption; Electronics Industry

October 2005 (Revised September 2006)
Case

Museum of Fine Arts Boston

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Marie Bell

One of Boston's main cultural attractions, the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), has experienced a steady decline of its core audience over the last decade. The museum's executive director attempted to bridge the shortfall by staging new, innovative, special exhibitions,... View Details

Keywords: Product Marketing; Growth Management; Innovation Leadership; Capital; Financing and Loans; Service Operations; Consumer Behavior