Publications
Publications
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(15,333)
- Faculty Publications (5,102)
- August 2024 (Revised October 2024)
- Case
Discerene Group: Long-Term Public-Markets Investing
By: Luis M. Viceira and Brent Schwarz
This case discusses active investing based on fundamental valuations and price distortions created by market events, and whether contractual terms between investment managers and their investors can help align incentives between long-term investors and active managers.... View Details
- August 2024 (Revised November 2024)
- Case
Mercado Bitcoin: M&A, IPO, or Series B?
By: Raymond Kluender, Emanuele Colonnelli, Sabrina T. Howell and Karina Souza
In April 2021, Brazilian cryptocurrency platform Mercado Bitcoin had to decide how to scale: go public, M&A with a bank, or take a VC big check. In a highly volatile market, Roberto Dagnoni, chairman of the board, viewed the unprecedent crypto momentum as a window of... View Details
Keywords: Cryptocurrency; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Decision Making; Going Public; Ownership Stake; Strategic Planning; Venture Capital; Problems and Challenges; Business Cycles; Digital Platforms; Emerging Markets; Market Timing; Expansion; Diversification; Valuation; Value Creation; Investment Funds; Initial Public Offering; Price; Price Bubble; Negotiation Offer; Financial Liquidity; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; Latin America; South America; Brazil; Sao Paulo; United States
- July–August 2024
- Article
Navigating the Future of Online Advertising with WEB3
By: Frank V. Cespedes and Ben Plomion
or years, digital ad spend was a steadily growing portion of marketing budgets. But online advertising faces challenges that mean a transformative shift in digital marketing. Meanwhile, so-called “Web3” has emerged as a medium that can change ad spend and how personal... View Details
- August 2024 (Revised November 2024)
- Case
Commonwealth Fusion Systems: Born at Scale
This case study chronicles the journey of Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) on its ambitious mission to commercialize fusion energy and become the world’s leading provider of fusion power plants. Emerging from a “special arrangement” with MIT's Plasma Science and... View Details
- 2025
- Working Paper
Narrative AI and the Human-AI Oversight Paradox in Evaluating Early-Stage Innovations
By: Jacqueline N. Lane, Léonard Boussioux, Charles Ayoubi, Ying Hao Chen, Camila Lin, Rebecca Spens, Pooja Wagh and Pei-Hsin Wang
Do AI-generated narrative explanations enhance human oversight or diminish it? We investigate this question through a field experiment with 228 evaluators screening 48 early-stage innovations under three conditions: human-only, black-box AI recommendations without... View Details
- 2024
- Book
Fintech, Small Business & the American Dream: How Technology Is Transforming Lending and Shaping a New Era of Small Business Opportunity
By: Karen G. Mills
The second edition of Fintech, Small Business & the American Dream, builds on the groundbreaking 2019 book with new insights on how technology and artificial intelligence are transforming small business lending. This ambitious view covers the significance of... View Details
- August 2024
- Article
Heuristics on Call: The Impact of Mobile-Phone-Based Business-Management Advice
By: Shawn Cole, Mukta Joshi and Antoinette Schoar
There is growing evidence that business training for micro-entrepreneurs can be effective. However, in-person training can be expensive and imposes costs on the target beneficiaries. This paper presents the results of a two-site randomized evaluation of a light-touch,... View Details
- 2024
- Article
Neyman Meets Causal Machine Learning: Experimental Evaluation of Individualized Treatment Rules
By: Michael Lingzhi Li and Kosuke Imai
A century ago, Neyman showed how to evaluate the efficacy of treatment using a randomized experiment under a minimal set of assumptions. This classical repeated sampling framework serves as a basis of routine experimental analyses conducted by today’s scientists across... View Details
- July 2024
- Technical Note
Introduction to SQL in Python
By: Michael Parzen and Jo Ellery
This note walks through the basics of SQL and how to use this language in Python via the SQLite package. View Details
Keywords: Analytics and Data Science
- July 2024
- Technical Note
Version Control and Web Deployment
By: Michael Parzen and Jo Ellery
This note introduces version control using Git and GitHub, with an example covering how to make simple web applications. View Details
Keywords: Applications and Software
- July 2024 (Revised January 2025)
- Case
Dynamic Pricing at Wendy's: Where's the Beef?
By: Elie Ofek, Alicia Dadlani and Martha Hostetter
In early 2024, Wendy’s new CEO announced on an earnings call that the company would install digital menus in its US locations so it could begin testing dynamic pricing—changing prices up or down in response to shifts in supply and demand – as well as allow engaging in... View Details
- July 2024
- Case
Google Stadia: Game On or Game Over?
By: Derek C. M. van Bever and Akshat Agrawal
This case explores Google leadership's decision to pursue its cloud gaming innovation, Google Stadia, following disappointing early uptake by premium videogamers, the segment of the market that Google had targeted. Google had invested substantial resources and time... View Details
- July 2024
- Case
The Voice Wars Continues 2024: Hey Google vs. Alexa vs. Siri vs. ChatGPT
By: David B. Yoffie and Sarah von Bargen
In 2024, the Voice War was transforming from a relatively simple index-based technology system, which relied on a list of commands and answers, to a generative AI system, which offered the promise to enable free flowing conversations between people and machines. The... View Details
- July 2024
- Case
ZEISS: Commercializing Science
By: Maria P. Roche, Carlota Moniz and Daniela Beyersdorfer
Karl Lamprecht, President and CEO of the ZEISS AG Group, mused on how far ZEISS had come in 175 years of being a pioneer in optics, and how the course he had charted since taking the helm of the company could keep it on track. In his role, he oversaw the four core... View Details
Keywords: Business Model; Business Organization; Decisions; Business Strategy; Competition; Business History; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Independent Innovation and Invention; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Knowledge Sharing; Industry Growth; Monopoly; Organizational Culture; Supply Chain Management; Partners and Partnerships; Risk and Uncertainty; Adaptation; Commercialization; Resource Allocation; Corporate Strategy; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Germany; Europe
- July 2024
- Technical Note
What Is AI?
By: Michael Parzen and Jo Ellery
This note discusses definitions of artificial intelligence and covers the broad types of learning used in training AI, as well as explaining in detail how neural networks are built, trained, and used. View Details
Keywords: AI and Machine Learning
- July 2024
- Case
Jacqueline Cook at Vendasta: Debating an IPO
By: Reza Satchu, Tom Quinn and Andrew Kosc
In May 2021, after a surge in demand for digital services that prompted high valuations for startups across the Canadian tech sector, Saskatchewan-based Vendasta entered the final stages of the initial public offering (IPO) process. COO Jacqueline Cook had invested her... View Details
Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Interpersonal Communication; Cost vs Benefits; Forecasting and Prediction; Business Cycles; Entrepreneurship; Fairness; Capital Markets; Private Equity; Investment Banking; Stock Options; Financial Markets; Initial Public Offering; Institutional Investing; Price Bubble; Digital Platforms; Digital Transformation; Internet and the Web; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Managerial Roles; Agreements and Arrangements; Going Public; Ownership Stake; Performance Expectations; Work-Life Balance; Strategic Planning; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Rank and Position; Risk and Uncertainty; Opportunities; Happiness; Reputation; Status and Position; Well-being; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; Canada
- July 2024
- Case
Living up to Purpose and Performance at Parker Hannifin
By: Hubert Joly, Alicia Dadlani and Martha Hostetter
In 2019, Parker Hannifin, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of motion and control technologies, did something unusual for an industrial company: it created a purpose statement. Even though it already had a clear business strategy and longstanding culture of... View Details
- July 2024
- Case
Freelancer, Ltd.
By: Christopher Stanton, Karim R. Lakhani, Jin Hyun Paik and Nina Cohodes
Over the course of the 2010s, the rapid advancement of mobile technologies and the rise of online freelancing platforms seemed to portend a radical transformation of labor markets into on-demand, flexible talent pools. Even though several Fortune 500... View Details
- July 2024 (Revised December 2024)
- Case
Compass Ethics: Governing Through Ethical Principles at WeCorp Industries
By: Elisabeth Kempf and Jesse M. Shapiro
Andrew Hill is Chief Information Officer at WeCorp, a UK-based defense technology startup specializing in drone technology. WeCorp faces decisions about international licensing and AI integration in its drones. In partnership with Compass Ethics, Hill aims to establish... View Details
- July 2024
- Case
Knowledge-Enabled Financial Advice: Digital Transformation at Edward Jones
By: Lauren Cohen, Richard Ryffel, Grace Headinger and Sophia Pan
Edward Jones, a wealth management advisory firm that prided itself on its interpersonal connections and face-to-face interactions, was eager to augment their services with AI capabilities. Built on 1-to-1 close-knit relationships, the firm had more than 15,000 offices... View Details
Keywords: Fintech; Innovation And Strategy; Financial Advisors; Big Data; Artificial Intelligence; Digitization; Financial Institutions; Business Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Technology Adoption; Business Plan; Technological Innovation; Interpersonal Communication; Communication Intention and Meaning; Communication Strategy; Transformation; Employee Stock Ownership Plan; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Innovation and Management; Innovation Leadership; Knowledge Acquisition; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Customer Relationship Management; AI and Machine Learning; Digital Strategy; Financial Services Industry; St. Louis; Missouri; United States; Canada