Publications

March 1999 (Revised April 2004)
Case

Mandic BBS-an Entreprenuerial Harvesting Decision

Describes Mandic BBS, one of Brazil's first Internet service providers. In April 1998, with competition increasing, its venture capitalist financier is looking to exit their investment. Aleksandar Mandic must decide which potential investor offers the best fit with his... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Internet and the Web; Business Exit or Shutdown; Business Plan; Financing and Loans; Web Services Industry; Brazil

April 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

Wayfair

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Susie L. Ma and Matthew G. Preble

In 2016 Niraj Shah and Steve Conine, founders of online home goods retailer Wayfair, are faced with a decision about how to improve user experience on their e-commerce sites. A key driver of consumer interest and conversion to purchase in the home category is visual... View Details

Keywords: Visual Assets; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Decision Making; Business or Company Management; Growth Management; Innovation and Invention; Operations; Strategy; Technology; Retail Industry; Service Industry; United States; Massachusetts

09 Jun 2008
Lessons from the Classroom

Monetizing IP: The Executive’s Challenge

According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, intellectual property in this country is worth more than $5 trillion—about twice the amount of the current federal budget. The question: Are companies taking advantage of this value? Not as much as they could be, is... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Video Game; Web Services

20 Nov 2019
Research & Ideas

It's No Joke: AI Beats Humans at Making You Laugh

my god,” replied the lawyer, finally noticing the bloody left shoulder where his arm once was. “Where's my Rolex?!” Do you think your friends would find that joke amusing—well, maybe those who aren’t lawyers? A research team led by Harvard View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

March 2025 (Revised May 2025)
Case

Primetime Partners: Investing in Healthspan, Wealthspan, and Workspan

By: Rembrand Koning, Nicole Tempest Keller and Susan Wilner Golden

In the fall of 2024, Abby Miller Levy (HBS ’01), co-founder and managing partner of Primetime Partners, was preparing to raise a second fund. Founded in 2020 with veteran investor Alan Patricof, Primetime was a horizontal fund focused on early-stage companies serving... View Details

Keywords: Investment Funds; Age; Social Issues; Financing and Loans; Investment Return; Business Strategy; Financial Services Industry; United States

2017
Chapter

Platforms, Open/User Innovation, and Ecosystems: A Strategic Leadership Perspective

By: Elizabeth J. Altman and Michael Tushman

Platform, open/user innovation, and ecosystem strategies embrace and enable interactions with external entities. Firms pursuing these approaches conduct business and interact with environments differently than those pursuing traditional closed strategies. This chapter... View Details

Keywords: Platforms; Open/user Innovation; Ecosystems; Crowdsourcing; Strategic Leadership; Top Management Teams; CEO Role; Business Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership; Managerial Roles; Digital Platforms

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25 Feb 2019
Research & Ideas

How Gender Stereotypes Kill a Woman’s Self-Confidence

believe they won’t excel in, despite having the skills to succeed, says Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Katherine B. Coffman. “Our beliefs about ourselves are important in shaping all kinds of important decisions, such as what... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

Web

Technology & Operations Management - Doctoral

courses in the areas of business management theory, economic theory, quantitative research methods, academic field seminars, and two MBA elective curriculum courses. In addition to HBS courses, students may take courses at other Harvard... View Details

29 Jan 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, January 29, 2019

parameter is calibrated to local interest rates. A quantitative exercise finds welfare gains of the optimal fiscal policy to be economically substantial and the optimal rule to not entail a countercyclical fiscal policy. A simple debt... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

05 Mar 2007
Research & Ideas

Risky Business? Protecting Foreign Investments

Silverthorne: You write that Indonesia's 1980 nationalization of ITT's thirteen-year-old Indostat telecom business "marked the end of an era." What changed? Louis Wells: In the 1980s, a new attitude toward foreign investment swept the... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Energy; Utilities

11 Mar 2001
Research & Ideas

Merchants to Multinationals: British Trading Companies in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

telegraph in particular provided new opportunities for direct communication between suppliers and customers, without the need for middlemen. 2 However some markets were opened more quickly, or were of more interest to, say, European... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones

October 1995
Case

Singapore TradeNet: Beyond TradeNet to the Intelligent Island

By: Lynda M. Applegate, John L. King and Soon-Siong Neo

Describes the actions taken by the government of Singapore to enable the country to survive and prosper after it achieved independence in the late 1960s. Recognizing that its small size, limited natural resources, but excellent location placed it in a vulnerable... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Communication Technology; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Digital Platforms; Information Technology; Technology Adoption; Information Technology Industry; Singapore

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13 Apr 2021
News

Managing a Top Performer Who Alienates Their Colleagues

17 Jun 2010
Working Paper Summaries

When Do Analysts Add Value? Evidence from Corporate Spinoffs

Keywords: by Emilie Rose Feldman, Stuart C. Gilson & Belén Villalonga

23 Aug 2011
First Look

First Look: August 23

PublicationsChallenges to Business in the Twenty-First Century Authors:Gerald Rosenfeld, Jay W. Lorsch, and Rakesh Khurana, eds. Publication:Cambridge, Mass.: American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2011 An abstract is unavailable at... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

July 2018 (Revised July 2018)
Teaching Note

Argentina Power—Don’t Cry for Me Argentina

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Sayiddah Fatima McCree

Teaching Note for HBS No. 218-041. This case concerns a complex potential energy infrastructure investment in Argentina by a global conglomerate shortly after Mauricio Macri (“Macri”) became President of Argentina in 2015. The central issues are (i) why was a country... View Details

Keywords: Argentina; Argentine Exceptionalism; Infrastructure Finance; Investing; Finance; Inflation and Deflation; Government and Politics; Energy Generation; Infrastructure; Utilities Industry; Energy Industry; Financial Services Industry; Argentina; South America

June 16, 2014
Article

Working With Your In-Laws Isn't Always a Terrible Idea

By: Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer

This article delves into the complex dynamics involving in-laws within family-owned enterprises. In-laws often face a challenging dual role as they must conform to the same professional standards as non-family employees while concurrently grappling with perceptions of... View Details

Keywords: Family and Family Relationships; Family Ownership; Employees

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August 2011 (Revised December 2013)
Case

Albert 'Jack' Stanley in Nigeria (A)

By: Lena G. Goldberg and Chad M. Carr

The international joint venture that successfully bid for $6 billion in contracts to build LNG trains on Nigeria's Bonny Island became entangled in a widening bribery and corruption probe triggered by an unrelated accusation against an employee of one of the JV... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Globalization; Governance Compliance; Energy Industry; Nigeria; Europe; United States