Publications

January 2001 (Revised June 2001)
Case

Local Initiatives Support Corporation

By: James E. Austin and Kim Slack

Local Initiatives Support Corp. (LISC) is a $74 million nonprofit social enterprise that combats poverty by helping community development organizations build affordable housing and create economic development opportunities through public-private partnerships. Poses a... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Development Economics; Education; Capital; Investment Funds; Taxation; Growth and Development; Partners and Partnerships; Nonprofit Organizations; Segmentation; Service Industry

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2023
Working Paper

Achieving Universal Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: Addressing Market Failures or Providing a Social Floor?

By: Katherine Baicker, Amitabh Chandra and Mark Shepard

The United States spends substantially more on health care than most developed countries, yet leaves a greater share of the population uninsured. We suggest that incremental insurance expansions focused on addressing market failures will propagate inefficiencies and... View Details

Keywords: Public Sector; Insurance; Health Care and Treatment; Policy; Innovation and Invention

August 2010 (Revised January 2013)
Supplement

Urban Water Partners (B)

By: Karthik Ramanna, George Serafeim and Aldo Sesia

The case explores a new business venture to bring clean water to residents of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, who otherwise cannot afford it. Management has enough money to get their company through August 2010, but needs more capital thereafter. An HBS alumnus is interested... View Details

Keywords: Human Needs; Accrual Accounting; Financial Statements; Health Industry; Utilities Industry; Dar es Salaam

26 Nov 2019
News

Who Killed Healthcare? Dr Regina Herzlinger Knows Who’s Guilty

March 1982 (Revised September 1985)
Case

Sealed Air Corporation

By: Robert J. Dolan

Market leadership and technological innovation have marked Sealed Air's participation in the U.S. protective packaging market. Several small regional producers have introduced products which are less effective than Sealed Air's but similar in appearance and cheaper.... View Details

Keywords: Product Marketing; Product; Technological Innovation; Supply and Industry; Competitive Advantage; Consumer Products Industry; United States

2019
Working Paper

U.S. Antitrust Law and Policy in Historical Perspective

By: Laura Phillips Sawyer

The key pieces of antitrust legislation in the United States—the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 and the Clayton Act of 1914—contain broad language that has afforded the courts wide latitude in interpreting and enforcing the law. This article chronicles the judiciary’s... View Details

Keywords: Antitrust; Trusts; Restraint Of Trade; Merger; Cartel; New Deal; Harvard School; Chicago School Of Law And Economics; Post-Chicago; Law; Competition; Policy; Vertical Integration; Horizontal Integration; Acquisition

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October 2011 (Revised December 2012)
Case

eHealthpoint: Healthcare for Rural India

By: Richard G. Hamermesh, Mona Sinha and Elizabeth Vrolyk

Healthpoint Services sought to address rural India's shortage of quality and affordable healthcare with a multi-service platform that comprised telemedical health clinics called eHealthpoints, clean drinking water, a diagnostic lab, and a pharmacy. Could they convince... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; India

29 Jun 2020
News

Como Audio launches crowdfunding effort for a Braintree manufacturing plant

29 Oct 2015
News

Options to Promote Competitive Generics Markets in the United States

Getting the Most Out of Financial Incentives for Weight Loss

The use of employer-sponsored, incentive-based programs for weight loss is growing. This growth is likely to accelerate in the coming years due to a provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which allows employers to use a greater proportion of... View Details

2022
Working Paper

Values as Luxury Goods and Political Polarization

By: Benjamin Enke, Mattias Polborn and Alex A Wu

Motivated by novel survey evidence, this paper develops a theory of political behavior in which values are a luxury good: the relative weight voters place on values rather than material considerations increases in income. The model predicts (i) voters who are... View Details

Keywords: Political Polarization; Government and Politics; Moral Sensibility; Luxury; Values and Beliefs; Voting

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April 2007 (Revised March 2008)
Case

Dr. Iqbal Survé at Sekunjalo Investment Group (A)

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Stecker

Dr. Iqbal Surve, a self-described "medical doctor, philanthropist, and social entrepreneur," was born in 1963 and grew up in poverty, like virtually all non-white South Africans during apartheid. During the 1970s and 1980s, he served in leadership positions in the ANC,... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Social Entrepreneurship; Investment; Leadership; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Partners and Partnerships; South Africa

January 2024 (Revised May 2024)
Case

Runa

By: Paul Gompers and Carla Larangeira

In early 2022, Courtney McColgan, founder and CEO of Runa, a human resources and payroll Software-as-a-Service platform, faced an unexpected tech market downturn. Founded in 2018, Runa catered to small and medium-sized businesses in Mexico, offering an affordable and... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Volatility; Entrepreneurship; Decision Making; Leadership; Management; Venture Capital; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business Growth and Maturation; Latin America

8 AM – 8 PM EDT, 26 Apr 2025
Industry Events

Real Estate Symposium at Harvard 2025

The Real Estate Club, a student club at Harvard Business School, and the Harvard GSD Real Estate Club are excited to announce the Real Estate Symposium at Harvard 2025. Join our diverse audience of over 500 attendees, including industry professionals, alumni,... View Details

April 1990 (Revised November 1991)
Case

Frost, Inc. (A)

In many ways Frost is an archetypal, small, dying manufacturing firm. With profits gone in a no-growth business and unable to diversify, Charles Frost bets the company on computer numerically controlled (CNC) equipment to replace the existing 1940s era screw machines.... View Details

Keywords: Small Business; Diversification; Business Exit or Shutdown; Manufacturing Industry

19 Aug 2011
Working Paper Summaries

The Globalization of Corporate Environmental Disclosure: Accountability or Greenwashing?

Keywords: by Christopher Marquis & Michael W. Toffel

23 Mar 2017
News

No Deal, Grading President Trump, Tito Jackson

February 1991
Case

Burlington Northern: The ARES Decision (B)

By: Julie H. Hertenstein and Robert S. Kaplan

The ARES team formally proposes that Burlington Northern implement the ARES system. The project meets resistance. In light of financial restructuring and high level of debt, executives wonder whether the company can afford ARES. Weak links during the ARES development... View Details

Keywords: Accounting Audits; Restructuring; Cost vs Benefits; Decision Choices and Conditions; Borrowing and Debt; Capital Budgeting; Projects; Technology Adoption; Service Industry