Publications

October 2011
Case

CSN Stores

By: William A. Sahlman and Neil Tolaney

In March 2011, CSN Stores is a collection of nearly 200 Internet retail websites, including Cookware.com, Strollers.com, and Luggage.com. Co-founders Niraj Shah and Steve Conine were considering making a major investment to build brand equity at the corporate level. View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Distribution Channels; Investment; Brands and Branding; Equity; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Information Technology Industry; Retail Industry

29 Apr 2020
Book

The Key to Powerful Social Change: Small Villages

Kenny for Books@Baker. Q&A: Thinking Beyond the Building At a Books@Baker event at Harvard Business School on Feb. 26, Rosabeth Moss Kanter was interviewed by HBS Chief Marketing and Communication Officer Brian Kenny about her new... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

January 2021 (Revised March 2022)
Case

Brigad: The Future of Work

By: Nien-he Hsieh, Elena Corsi and Daniela Beyersdorfer

In 2019 Florent Malbranche, CEO and co-founder of the French tech startup Brigad, pondered the next growth steps. Founded in 2015, Brigad’s objective was two-fold: to help restaurants and bars find qualified staff for punctual shifts, and to make it easier for... View Details

Keywords: Platform Business; Gig Economy; Regulation; Entrepreneurship; Marketplace Matching; Growth and Development Strategy

Research Summary

Overview

Dr. Lurtz researches the history of agricultural economies in Latin America. She has a particular interest in export agriculture and attendant state- and locally-driven modernization projects. Her current work looks to the coffee economy of southern Mexico in the 19th... View Details

07 Aug 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, August 8, 2018

agents for social change in the emerging markets grappling with institutional voids. How should they work with the government in this endeavor? How do they ensure an alignment of these efforts to the group... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

15 Dec 2008
Research & Ideas

The Surprisingly Successful Marriages of Multinationals and Social Brands

Nonetheless, the emerging evidence suggests that both the virtuous mice and the wealthy elephants are well on their way to attaining their respective goals. Scaling is occurring, thereby enabling the social entrepreneurs to achieve... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Consumer Products; Food & Beverage

26 Mar 2008
First Look

First Look: March 26, 2008

Sugar Limited Harvard Business School Case 508-038 Until industry deregulation in 2006, Queensland Sugar ran Australia's single-desk marketing system for raw sugar exports. Since deregulation, eight of the ten Queensland sugar millers... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

28 Dec 2019
Working Paper Summaries

Tech Clusters

Keywords: by William R. Kerr and Frederic Robert-Nicoud

March 2004
Teaching Note

ApproTEC Kenya: Technologies to Fight Poverty and Create Wealth (TN)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

Teaching Note to (9-503-007). View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Entrepreneurship; Operations; Globalized Markets and Industries; Nonprofit Organizations; Africa

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

08 Jun 2011
Lessons from the Classroom

Twenty-first Century Skill: Trading Carbon Credits

Cap and trade has become an increasingly popular mechanism used by governments to induce green behavior among corporate polluters, with news emerging almost daily. Just recently New Jersey Governor Chris Christie withdrew his state from the Regional Greenhouse Gas... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Energy; Utilities

March 2022
Case

The Future of Start-Up Chile

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury, Ruth Costas and Pedro Levindo

In 2021, public accelerator program Start-Up Chile, which ten years earlier had created a global buzz, might be losing its competitive edge to similar programs or one-year visas for digital nomads offered by other countries. The case follows SUP’s CEO, Angeles Romo, as... View Details

April 1998
Case

X-IT Products, LLC

By: Marco Iansiti, Myra M. Hart and Barbara Feinberg

Two entrepreneurs, Andrew Ive and Aldo DiBerlardino, are poised to launch their first product. The decisions they make will have a crucial impact on the future of their company. View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Entrepreneurship; Product Launch; Outcome or Result

June 2001 (Revised May 2002)
Case

Spir-It, Inc. (A): Building the Business

Early in February 1934, two and a half months after the end of prohibition, Jack Sindler sat with a friend in Boston's Ritz Hotel bar enjoying a drink. Sindler worked for the Converse Rubber Co., and he was always inventing something. He held several patents for rubber... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Production; Market Entry and Exit; Management Succession; Entrepreneurship; Product Launch; Acquisition; Growth and Development; Product Development; Manufacturing Industry; Boston

Find at Harvard

23 Jun 2009
First Look

First Look: June 23

technology, three core principles have emerged that work together to ensure that complementary, interconnected products coexist and compete. These core principles are particularly important when applied to platforms, which have played a... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

October 2022
Case

Single.Earth

By: Rembrand Koning and Emer Moloney

Estonian greentech company Single.Earth is launching a nature-backed token that is linked to and funds the protection of a specific plot fo land. The first landowners had been onboarded to the company's Digital Twin, a virtual representation of the planet's natural... View Details

Keywords: Alternative Assets; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Green Technology; Natural Resources; Pollution; Analytics and Data Science; Marketing; Product Marketing; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Markets; Market Timing; Strategy; Green Technology Industry; Estonia

24 Feb 2003
Research & Ideas

In Troubled Africa, Botswana Flowers

Spar wants to find out why Botswana is emerging as a "land of potential" on a continent largely left behind in the economic boom of the 1990s.Churchwell: How much is Botswana growing, and how does it compare to other... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia Churchwell

June 2018 (Revised October 2019)
Case

Back to the Roots

By: Elizabeth A. Keenan and Leslie K. John

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

Back to the Roots (BTTR) is a start-up with a social mission to “undo food”—to reconnect people to where their food comes from. In late 2017, Back to the Roots cofounders... View Details

Keywords: Organic Food; Startup; Crowdfunding; Sustainability; Transparency; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Product Development; Product Marketing; Growth and Development Strategy; Decision Making; Food; Food and Beverage Industry