Publications

30 Sep 2014
First Look

First Look: September 30

Harvard Business School Case 515-702 Marquee: Reinventing the Business of Nightlife In January 2013, nightlife impresarios Jason Strauss and Noah Tepperberg are celebrating the re-opening of their famed New View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2014
Case

MIT Mystery Hunt: The Answer is Secondary

By: Willy Shih and Karen Robinson

The MIT Mystery Hunt is an annual puzzle-based scavenger hunt at MIT. It is run every year by a different team, and every year is slightly different as teams try new ideas and decide whether to keep or ignore new ideas from previous years. As the Mystery Hunt has... View Details

Keywords: Puzzle-solving; Puzzle Hunt; MIT Mystery Hunt; Innovation and Invention; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation Leadership; Education Industry; Massachusetts; Cambridge; United States

June 2020
Teaching Note

Brand Storytelling at Shinola

By: Jill Avery, Giana M. Eckhardt and Michael Beverland

Detroit, Michigan, aka “The Motor City,” is known as the birthplace of most of the American classic automotive brands. It is a city filled with the rich history of the industrial age, the pride of American manufacturing, and of the soulful sounds of Motown music. It is... View Details

Keywords: Brand Storytelling; Brand Management; Brand Management Of Places; Luxury Brand; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Communications; Advertising; Luxury; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; United States

09 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

Could Clean Hydrogen Become Affordable at Scale by 2030?

Hydrogen is poised to move from the sidelines of global clean energy as the industry learns to produce it more efficiently and at lower cost, according to newly published research led by Gunther Glenk, a climate fellow with Harvard Business School's Institute for the... View Details

Keywords: by Desmond Dodd; Energy; Green Technology

05 Dec 2023
Research & Ideas

Are Virtual Tours Still Worth It in Real Estate? Evidence from 75,000 Home Sales

Virtual tours helped propel homebuying through the height of COVID-19. But now that life is back to normal, new research finds these 3D tours don’t significantly boost sale prices and may even prolong a property’s time on the market. When... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Real Estate

September 2008 (Revised August 2010)
Case

Boston Teacher Residency: Developing a Strategy for Long-term Impact

By: Stacey M. Childress, Geoff Eckman Marietta and Sara Suchman

In June 2008, Jesse Solomon, the founding director of the Boston Teacher Residency (BTR), faced an important decision about the organization's strategic direction. Since its founding in 2003, 125 of its graduates had joined the Boston Public Schools (BPS) and BTR had... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Teaching; Entrepreneurship; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Improvement; Business Strategy; Education Industry; Boston

Find at Harvard

01 Sep 2023
News

Returning to the Roots

telex and the big closets full of accounting books. I also grew up in the family home in the middle of the vineyards, so I have many memories of seeing all the care and cultivation that’s done before the winemaking even begins.” Like any View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; wine; entrepreneurship; family business; innovation; climate change; Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing; Manufacturing

23 Jan 2023
Research & Ideas

After High-Profile Failures, Can Investors Still Trust Credit Ratings?

During the financial crisis of 2008, major credit rating agencies faced sharp criticism for failing to recognize and warn of the risks of emerging instruments like mortgage-backed securities. Since that time, the results of a new study... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

May 2018 (Revised January 2019)
Case

AirFox (A): Embracing the Blockchain and an ICO

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Edward B. Berk and Nate Schwalb

In summer 2017, Victor Santos, CEO of AirFox, considered whether to pivot his startup towards a new product built with blockchain—a quickly growing technology at the time. AirFox was an early stage startup that sold Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) to small telecom... View Details

Keywords: Blockchain; Cryptocurrency; Initial Coin Offering; ICO; Business Startups; Finance; Currency; Strategy; Decision Making; United States

April 1995 (Revised January 2003)
Case

Anasazi Exclusive Salon Products, Inc.

By: William A. Sahlman and Jason Green

Anasazi, a hair-care products start-up based in the Midwest, is having growing pains as it tries to develop a new distribution model for the professional hair salon industry. The company has completed several rounds of venture financing but, to continue, needs to raise... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Financial Condition; Venture Capital; Financial Strategy; Financing and Loans; Expansion; Planning; Fashion Industry; Iowa

Web

Mid-US - Global

United States Mid-US Harvard Business School (HBS) established the Mid-US Research Center (MRC) in 2021 to build a deeper understanding of business practice and innovation in the South, Midwest, and Mountain regions. The MRC plays a vital... View Details

March 2018 (Revised September 2019)
Case

Chewy.com (A)

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Matthew G. Preble

In late 2013, Ryan Cohen, cofounder and CEO of online pet products retailer Chewy.com, faces a “bet the company decision”—whether to stay with a third-party logistics provider (3PL) for all of its e-commerce fulfillment or to take the function in house. Cohen worries... View Details

Keywords: Pet Food; Pet Products; Retail; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Operations; Decision Choices and Conditions; E-commerce; Retail Industry; Service Industry; Florida; United States

17 Feb 2014
Research & Ideas

Companies Detangle from Legacy Pensions

"Goodbye tension, hello pension!" That used to be the triumphant cry of millions of new retirees. For decades, Americans assumed a good job came with a good pension, guaranteeing them regular monthly payments from their parent... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Aerospace; Financial Services

12 Feb 2013
First Look

First Look: Feb. 12

PublicationsOne-Switch Conditions for Multiattribute Utility Functions Authors:Abbas, Ali E., and David E. Bell Publication:Operations Research Abstract We introduce a variety of new independence conditions for multiattribute utility... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 2018 (Revised October 2020)
Case

Global Brand Management of Anheuser Busch InBev's Budweiser

By: Jill Avery

Brian Perkins, chief architect of the $6 billion Budweiser brand, was excited about 2018, in which the company would launch Budweiser into several new markets in Africa and Latin America. He was feeling the pressure to finalize a global brand strategy that would define... View Details