Publications

March 2008
Supplement

Patel Food and Chemicals Private Limited (C)

By: Felda Hardymon and Ann Leamon

Alok Patel, the founder and chairman of a Gujarat-based, privately held edible oils processor, is considering long-term liquidity opportunities for the company and its investors. He could list the company on one of the Indian exchanges, opt for a trade sale, or acquire... View Details

Keywords: Financial Liquidity; Financial Management; Mergers and Acquisitions; Going Public; Opportunities; Chemical Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Gujarat

September 1992
Case

Star Cablevision Group (A): Harvesting in a Bull Market

By: William A. Sahlman

First case in a series of six cases that follow the experience of a cable television company as it adjusts to the rapid rise and precipitous decline of the stock market in the late 1980s. In this case Don Jones, the company's founder and owner, sees the rise in public... View Details

Keywords: Behavioral Finance; Financial Markets; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Restructuring; Corporate Strategy; SWOT Analysis; Wealth; Business Cycles; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

October 1998
Case

CRA Managed Care, Inc. (A)

By: Myra M. Hart and Jennifer Starr

Silverman and her co-founder, Don Larson, own the largest privately held injury-management and cost-containment services firm in the United States. When their $80+ million company attracts substantial interest of investment bankers and venture capitalists, the two must... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Leadership Development; Venture Capital; Business Exit or Shutdown; Investment; Business or Company Management; Nonprofit Organizations; Personal Development and Career; Entrepreneurship; Service Industry; United States

July 2018
Teaching Plan

Joan Bavaria and Multi-Dimensional Capitalism

By: Geoffrey Jones and Valeria Giacomin

This Teaching Plan accompanies the case HBS No. 317-028, “Joan Bavaria and Multi-Dimensional Capitalism.” It provides guidelines for class discussion, as well as a board plan. The case traces the origins of sustainable finance and investor activism through the career... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Investment; Social Entrepreneurship; Personal Development and Career

02 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

10 Trends to Watch in 2024

The lightning-fast ascent of generative AI isn’t the only sea change on the horizon for businesses in the new year. The global economy is in flux as war, climate change, trade issues, and infrastructure problems demand attention. Many companies continue to struggle to... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

Article

Businessmen and Land Ownership in the Late Nineteenth Century

By: Tom Nicholas

This article analyses the proportions of personal to real estate wealth for a group of 295 businessmen profiled in the Dictionary of business biography. It shows that businessmen who owned land on a large scale in the late nineteenth century were a comparatively small... View Details

Keywords: Ownership; Personal Finance; Property; Biography; History; Acquisition; Wealth; Power and Influence; Status and Position; Integration; Transformation; Market Transactions

August 2008 (Revised January 2014)
Case

Polanco: A Fashionable Opportunity

By: Arthur I Segel and Ben Creo

Roberto Charvel is a young MBA graduate making his first personal real estate investment in his native Mexico City. Charvel is planning to purchase and renovate a nine-unit apartment building. Is the market good? Should he sell or lease the units? How should he handle... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Housing; Leasing; Property; Real Estate Industry; Mexico City

January 2018 (Revised January 2019)
Case

ZappRx

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Olivia Hull

In October 2015, ZappRx founder Zoe Barry is deciding between two business models for her health technology start-up. Her product, a software application that aims to expedite the prescription fulfillment process for patients with rare diseases, has attracted interest... View Details

Keywords: Speciality Drugs; Hub Services; Pivot; Speciality Prescriptions; Health Care and Treatment; Customization and Personalization; Internet and the Web; Business Model; Decision Choices and Conditions; Pharmaceutical Industry; Massachusetts

January 2022
Article

Who Creates New Firms When Local Opportunities Arise?

By: Shai Benjamin Bernstein, Emanuele Colonnelli, Davide Malacrino and Timothy McQuade

We examine the characteristics of the individuals who become entrepreneurs when local opportunities arise. We identify local demand shocks by linking fluctuations in global commodity prices to municipality level agricultural endowments in Brazil. We find that the firm... View Details

Keywords: Firms; Entrepreneurs; Demand Shocks; Entrepreneurship; Personal Characteristics; Demographics; Opportunities; Brazil

March 2016
Article

The Cost of Friendship

By: Paul A. Gompers, Vladimir Mukharlyamov and Yuhai Xuan

We investigate how personal characteristics affect people's desire to collaborate and whether this attraction enhances or detracts from performance in venture capital. We find that venture capitalists who share the same ethnic, educational, or career background are... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Partners and Partnerships; Entrepreneurship; Personal Characteristics

25 Feb 2019
Research & Ideas

How Gender Stereotypes Kill a Woman’s Self-Confidence

Women make up more than half of the labor force in the United States and earn almost 60 percent of advanced degrees, yet they bring home less pay and fill fewer seats in the C-suite than men, particularly in male-dominated professions like View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

24 Apr 2015
News

How to Identify a Bad Investor

Web

Careers - Alumni

he's reshaped his definition of success by balancing a stable corporate career... Alumni Career Video | Nicole Ledoux (MBA 2008) 11 Jun 2025 Nicole Ledoux (MBA 2008) shares how a personal experience sparked an unexpected pivot from View Details

April 1999 (Revised November 1999)
Case

Columbia Capital Corporation: Summer 1998

By: G. Felda Hardymon and Justin D. Wasik

In August 1998, the partners of Columbia Capital in Arlington, Va. made a decision about whether or not to raise an outside fund for venture capital investing. Columbia had begun in 1988 as a boutique investment bank focused on the telecommunications industry, but had... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Partners and Partnerships; Investment Funds; Banks and Banking; Financial Services Industry; Telecommunications Industry; United States

April 2002 (Revised October 2003)
Case

Pension Plan of Bethlehem Steel, 2001, The

By: Peter Tufano

Bethlehem Steel's 2001 bankruptcy filing inspires an employee's daughter to evaluate her father's pension plan, weeks after September 11's tragedies exacerbated a weakening U.S. economy and just months before her father planned to retire. Battered equity markets and... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Financial Instruments; Retirement; Steel Industry; United States

26 Apr 2022
Blog Post

How I Spent My HBS 2+2 Deferral: Vasilis Mornto

many project teams that were hard-working but at the same time fun and engaging, which ultimately offered me a solid understanding of business and made me a better person and leader. It was then time for me to serve in the Greek Navy,... View Details

July 2014
Case

BMVSS: Changing Lives through Innovation One Jaipur Limb at a Time (Abridged)

By: Srikant Datar, Saloni Chaturvedi and Caitlin Bowler

Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti (BMVSS) is an Indian not-for-profit organization engaged in assisting differently-abled persons by providing them with the legendary low-cost prosthesis, the Jaipur Foot, and other mobility-assisting devices, free of cost. Known... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Financial Condition; Health Care and Treatment; Diversity; Growth and Development Strategy; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Health Industry; India

Web

Placement - Doctoral

Evidence from Field Data Advisors: Eugene F. Soltes (Chair), Krishna G. Palepu , and Aiyesha Dey Close Business Economics 2025 Maxim Alekseev Business Economics, 2025 Placement: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Finance... View Details

August 1998
Case

HIMSCORP, Inc.

By: William A. Sahlman, Michael J. Roberts and Laurence E. Katz

Himscorp is an industry consolidation of records storage companies providing management and retrieval services of active medical records to healthcare institutions. Kent Dauten, a former general partner at Madison Dearborn Partners with 15 years of venture capital and... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Initial Public Offering; Business Exit or Shutdown; Business Growth and Maturation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Consolidation; Information Industry