Publications

17 Aug 2006
Working Paper Summaries

Corporate Governance and Networks: Bankers in the Corporate Networks of Brazil, Mexico, and the United States circa 1910

Keywords: by Aldo Musacchio

Enabling Mission Impact: Funding Strategies for High-Risk High-Reward Innovation

Governments and foundations around the world are urgently seeking strategies to optimize their investments across a range of distinctive missions targeted towards societal challenges. How should such investments be made, from early R&D spending to later-stage... View Details

05 Dec 2018
Research & Ideas

Why Managers Should Reveal Their Failures

If you’re a business leader who oozes achievement, sprints up the corporate ladder, and earns big bucks, your co-workers probably resent you to some extent. New research says high-achievers can win over their colleagues with a simple approach: by sharing the failures... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

November 2004 (Revised September 2019)
Background Note

The U.S. Health Club Industry in 2004

By: John R. Wells, Gabriel Ellsworth and Benjamin Weinstock

In 2004, the $16.8 billion U.S. health club industry continued its strong record of growth. There were almost 27,000 health clubs in the United States, up from 6,700 two decades earlier, and these clubs claimed 41 million members, over 14% of the U.S. population.... View Details

Keywords: Health Clubs; Fitness; Gyms; Chain; Weight Loss; Obesity; Exercise; Personal Training; Bally Total Fitness; 24 Hour Fitness; YMCA; Gold's Gym; Curves; Franchise; Franchising; Subscription; Promotional Sales; Promotions; Fixed Costs; Body; Accrual Accounting; Revenue Recognition; Buildings and Facilities; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Trends; Customers; Demographics; Age; Income; Private Equity; Financing and Loans; Profit; Revenue; Geographic Scope; Multinational Firms and Management; Health; Nutrition; Business History; Employees; Retention; Human Capital; Working Conditions; Contracts; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Markets; Demand and Consumers; Supply and Industry; Industry Growth; Industry Structures; Operations; Service Operations; Franchise Ownership; Private Ownership; Public Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Sales; Salesforce Management; Situation or Environment; Opportunities; Nonprofit Organizations; Welfare; Sports; Strategy; Business Strategy; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Consolidation; Corporate Strategy; Customization and Personalization; Expansion; Segmentation; Hardware; Health Industry; United States

10 May 2021
Research & Ideas

Who Has Potential? For Many White Men, It’s Often Other White Men

the mindset that all employees have the potential to grow their talents while making sure that opportunities for that growth are distributed fairly, Ely says. In these cultures, white women and people of color would get an equal shot at... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

18 Aug 2022
Op-Ed

Your Best Employees Are Burning Out: A Framework for Retaining Talent

consultant, specializing in growth strategy and operational efficiency. Gibson and Wilson both served as officers in the US Army culminating at the ranks of colonel and captain, respectively. You Might Also Like: Let’s Move Forward from... View Details

Keywords: by Hise Gibson and MaShon Wilson

July 2023
Case

Crocs: Using Community-Centric Marketing to Make Ugly Iconic

By: Ayelet Israeli and Anne V. Wilson

In 2022, the Crocs Classic Clog was the best-selling item of clothing on Amazon, the brand was one of the fastest growing brands in the U.S., and global net revenue had increased to approximately $3.6 billion. By most accounts, Crocs had become the “it” shoe. Crocs... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Product Development; Growth and Development; Customer Value and Value Chain; Digital Marketing; Digital Strategy; Segmentation; Advertising; Consumer Products Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United States

February 2010 (Revised June 2011)
Case

SEWA Trade Facilitation Center: Changing the Spool

By: Mukti Khaire and Kathleen L. McGinn

The case is about the decision to convert a not-for-profit organization into a for-profit company. SEWA Trade Facilitation Center (STFC), which is part of a larger non-profit organization—the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA)—works to improve the livelihoods of... View Details

Keywords: Cooperative Ownership; For-Profit Firms; Gender; Business Model; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Nonprofit Organizations; Arts; Entrepreneurship; Economic Growth; Growth and Development Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; India

27 Jul 2020
Book

Reflection: The Pause That Brings Peace and Productivity

meant a good deal to them, based on earlier experiences in their lives. Some asked themselves what kind of legacy, however modest, they wanted to leave behind before deciding what to do. Reflection promotes growth Reflection, Badaracco... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

August 2019
Teaching Note

Back to the Roots

By: Elizabeth A. Keenan and Leslie K. John

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

This Teaching Note explains the theory of the case and teaching plan for the case: Back to the Roots HBS case No. 518-073. Back to the Roots (BTTR) is a start-up with a... View Details

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

Dafna Bearson is a doctoral candidate in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School. Her research interests lie at the intersection of strategy and innovation. Specifically, her research focuses on intellectual property commercialization strategy in startups... View Details

Keywords: biotechnology; pharmaceuticals; high technology

Research Summary

Overview

When information is digitized, it can be aggregated and shared nearly instantly. I am interested in how this acceleration in the aggregation and availability of information, via digitization, affects firms and firm strategy. Platforms have emerged as marketplaces for... View Details

2025
Working Paper

Impact Investing and Worker Outcomes

By: Josh Lerner, Markus Lithell and Gordon M. Phillips

Impact investors claim to distinguish themselves from traditional venture capital and growth equity investors by also pursuing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) objectives. Whether they successfully do so in practice is unclear. We use confidential Census... View Details

Keywords: ESG; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Private Equity; Venture Capital; Wages

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2021
Working Paper

Going by the Book: Valuation Ratios and Stock Returns

By: Ki-Soon Choi, Eric So and Charles C.Y. Wang

We study the use of firms’ book-to-market ratios (B/M) in value investing and its implications for comovements in firms’ stock returns and trading volumes. We show B/M has become increasingly detached from common alternative valuation ratios over time while also... View Details

Keywords: Valuation Ratios; Book-to-market Ratios; Investment Return; Investment; Decision Making

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May 2020
Teaching Note

Talismark

By: Richard S. Ruback, Royce Yudkoff and Ahron Rosenfeld

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 211-097. Talismark negotiated waste hauling contracts for small and medium size companies. Its owners, Charles Muszynski and Marshall Staiman, were able to grow the business by more than 30% per year since it was founded, but believed... View Details

Keywords: Small Business; Small Business Administration; Infrastructure; Restructuring; Business Processes; Information Management; Sales; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Wastes and Waste Processing

2011
Teaching Note

UFIDA (D) (TN)

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Ping He, Xiohua Wu and Lijuan Liu

This case describes the financing decisions of a software company at difference stages of its development. Started from 1988 as an individual business, along with the "Reform and Open" policy of China, the firm has experienced tremendous growth, and has become a... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Computer Software; Emerging Markets; Financial Strategy; IPO; Investments; China; Applications and Software; China

May 2013
Supplement

Kinyuseisaku: Monetary Policy in Japan (C)

By: Laura Alfaro and Hilary White

Assuming office in December 2012, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was determined to revive Japan's stagnating economy through an ambitious plan known as 'Abenomics.' Under the guidance of the newly appointed governor of the central bank, Haruhiko Kuroda, the Bank of Japan... View Details

Keywords: Japan; Inflation Targeting; Inflation; Abenomics; Monetary Policy; Stimulus; Quantitative Easing; Government Bonds; Macroeconomics; Inflation and Deflation; Money; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Japan

December 2013
Article

Land Politics and Local State Capacities: The Political Economy of Urban Change in China

By: Meg Rithmire

Despite common national institutions and incentives to remake urban landscapes to anchor growth, generate land-lease revenues, and display a capacious administration, Chinese urban governments exhibit varying levels of control over land. This article uses a paired... View Details

Keywords: China; Land Politics; Urban Planning; Local Government; Northeast China; Property Rights; Urban Development; Property; Government and Politics; China

2010
Simulation

Finance Simulation: Capital Budgeting: Product No. 3357.

By: Timothy A. Luehrman

In this single-player simulation, students act as members of the Capital Committee of New Heritage Doll Company, tasked with selecting and allocating capital across the company's three divisions. Students evaluate a diverse set of competing investment proposals and... View Details

Keywords: Resource Allocation; Investment; Projects; Capital Budgeting; Corporate Finance