Publications

30 Mar 2003
Research & Ideas

The Future of IT Consulting

not economical to maintain in a particular company. For example, computer security consulting requires a high level of expertise, which few firms can economically maintain in-house. By providing these kinds... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Johnston; Consulting

April 2022 (Revised August 2022)
Case

Antler

By: Dennis Campbell and Iuliana Mogosanu

The case describes the founding, development, and scaling of Antler, an early-stage investment platform that invests in entrepreneurs pre-team and, in many cases, even pre-idea. The case explores the economics of venture capital investing at such an early stage and the... View Details

Keywords: Platform; Technology; Analytics; Venture Capital; Entrepreneurship; Information Technology; Expansion; Financial Services Industry

May 2024 (Revised February 2025)
Case

Choosing the Course of Passion: Brooke Boyarsky Pratt at knownwell

By: Jon M. Jachimowicz and Alexis Lefort

Brooke Boyarsky Pratt (HBS ’13) enjoyed considerable success in her early career, quickly climbing the ranks to associate partner at McKinsey, and later becoming an executive vice president at Berkadia, a Berkshire Hathaway portfolio company. Throughout these years,... View Details

Keywords: Passion; Career; Career Planning; Purpose; Personal Development and Career; Mission and Purpose; Identity; Business Startups; Health Care and Treatment; Health Disorders; Growth and Development Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Health Industry; United States

10 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

Technology and COVID Upended Tipping Norms. Will Consumers Keep Paying?

Avery says. “Some of these are point-of-sale situations where we didn’t traditionally think about tipping 15 percent, such as counter service or delivery of our order after we ordered it on an app.” She... View Details

Keywords: by Anna Lamb, Harvard Gazette

17 Aug 2020
Research & Ideas

What the Stockdale Paradox Tells Us About Crisis Leadership

now is that our intrinsic survival mechanisms—such basic behaviors as how to enter a building, or bring in the mail, or greet a friend—require conscious thought in View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

April 2002
Case

Pallotta TeamWorks

By: Allen S. Grossman and Elizabeth Kind

Pallotta Team Works is a for-profit, privately owned company that produces multiday fundraising events for nonprofit organizations. Dan Pallotta, the 40-year-old CEO, founded the enterprise in 1992. The company has grown rapidly, having raised over $200 million for... View Details

Keywords: For-Profit Firms; Business Model; Nonprofit Organizations; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Social Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Service Industry; Service Industry; United States

March 2025
Case

The Changing Climate on Wall Street

By: Clayton S. Rose, Maxim Pike Harrell and Michael Norris

Increasing and conflicting regulatory requirements and political pressures regarding climate change tested the leaders of U.S. financial institutions, as they struggled to determine how best to comply while managing their business and its risks. In October 2024,... View Details

Web

Marketing - Faculty & Research

for the 2022 John D. C. Little Award. They study the effect of Airbnb’s smart-pricing algorithm on the racial disparity in the daily revenue earned by Airbnb hosts. Their empirical strategy exploits Airbnb’s introduction of the algorithm and its voluntary adoption by... View Details

05 Jun 2020
Research & Ideas

How Anchor Investors Help Impact Funds Succeed

investments. "Funds with anchors are, on average, $9 million larger than those without anchors at last close." The initial anchor investment can serve as a quality indicator to other investors,... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services

18 Nov 2008
First Look

First Look: November 18, 2008

impact on subjective well-being because of people's tendency to adapt quickly; worse, those events that do have a lasting impact tend to be negative. We suggest that while major events may not provide lasting increases in well-being,... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

11 Jun 2001
Research & Ideas

E-Commerce Unplugged

The Soda X wireless window would allow consumers to access an individually tailored list of products and services anywhere, anytime. It would be a natural community-building device and would define users... View Details

Keywords: by Nitin Nohria & Marty Leestma

07 Aug 2017
Research & Ideas

'Be Yourself (Within Reason)' and Other Job Search Survival Tips

kept getting longer, and I finally realized I might be able to do a service by putting all this information into one package. Silverthorne: Is the academic job market for accounting PhDs View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Accounting; Education

Program

Competing in the Age of Digital Platforms

platform by businesses, governments, and/or consumers Understand the influence of data privacy laws, antitrust policy, and regulations Manage platforms as a successful business Maximize value for your... View Details

09 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

It’s Time to Reset Decision-Making in Your Organization

insights and practices as pandemic recovery plans are developed. Consider these five elements of organizational decision-making: information gathering; strategy; combining long-term thinking with short-term actions; clear communication... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Sarah Abbott

30 Nov 2021
In Practice

What's the Role of Business in Confronting Climate Change?

The 26th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, also known as COP26, ended with a hard-fought pact that called on businesses and governments to meet their climate change goals faster. The event followed an August report by the Intergovernmental... View Details

Keywords: by Lynn Schenk and Dina Gerdeman

November 1999 (Revised October 2009)
Case

Virtualis Systems (A)

By: Jay O. Light and Michael J. Roberts

Describes a second-year MBA's attempts to make money for a fledgling Web-hosting business. As the case ends, he must both sort out the company's business model and financing needs, as well as select from an array of financing and acquisition alternatives. View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Model; Business Startups; Financial Strategy; Financing and Loans; Web Services Industry

16 Feb 2023
HBS Case

ESG Activists Met the Moment at ExxonMobil, But Did They Succeed?

The impact-investment hedge fund Engine No. 1 made a big splash in May 2021 when it managed to get three nominees elected to the ExxonMobil board of directors. It was an open effort to prod the oil giant toward renewable energy and test whether activist investing could... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Financial Services

2016
Working Paper

The Skills Gap and the Near-Far Problem in Executive Education and Leadership Development

By: Mihnea Moldoveanu and Das Narayandas

Executive development programs have entered a period of rapid transformation, driven on one side by the proliferation of a new technological, cultural, and economic landscape commonly referred to as “digital disruption” and on the other by a widening gap between the... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Executive Education; Disruption; Management Skills