Publications

19 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

Designing Cities for a Sustainable Future

On a June day in Manhattan with temperatures heading into the 90s, a straphanger named Mike is taking his customary subway ride to work. People are grumbling about the heat, but hey, it's summer, it's supposed to be hot, and besides, "Whaddya gonna do?" New Yorkers... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons; Construction; Real Estate

08 May 2006
Lessons from the Classroom

Writing the Case for Public School Reform

working with leadership teams from nine urban school districts over the course of three annual sessions to coordinate research and create coherent, scalable systems for education reform. Two cases written for PELP and taught by HBS... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Education

January 2012 (Revised January 2014)
Case

Mexico City Water Shortage

By: John D. Macomber, Regina Garcia-Cuellar, Griffin H. James and Frederik Nellemann

In this case, a property company, a water privatizer, and municipal engineers explore the causes of and solutions to a severe water shortage in Mexico City, a great global capital. The protagonist is a real estate investor doing due diligence on the magnitude of the... View Details

Keywords: Infrastructure; Environmental Sustainability; Urban Development; Mexico City

April 2006 (Revised February 2007)
Case

Rebuilding the New Orleans Public Schools: Turning the Tide?

After Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans Public School System is faced with rebuilding from the ground up. The challenge is enormous, as is the opportunity to remake the lowest performing public school system in Louisiana and one of the lowest performing in the nation.... View Details

Keywords: Programs; Natural Disasters; Urban Development; Education; Infrastructure; Public Administration Industry; Education Industry; New Orleans

December 2012 (Revised January 2013)
Supplement

Jefferson County (E): Postscript

By: Daniel Bergstresser and Randolph B. Cohen

Jefferson County, Alabama, faces an EPA mandate requiring sewer system upgrades. How will they finance the upgrades? What consequences will follow? View Details

Keywords: Local Government; Political Process; Bankruptcy; Debt Management; Financial Planning; Urban Development; Infrastructure; Borrowing and Debt; Government and Politics; Public Administration Industry; Alabama

July 2019
Case

Bjarke Ingels Group

By: Boris Groysberg and Aldo Sesia

Danish-born Bjarke Ingels is regarded as a giant in the field of architecture. He started his firm—the Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG)—in 2005 in Copenhagen. Fourteen years later, the firm has additional offices in New York City, London, and Barcelona and employs over 500... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Design; Growth Management; Leadership; Organizational Culture; Talent and Talent Management; Urban Development; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Construction Industry; Service Industry; Real Estate Industry; Denmark; Spain; United Kingdom; United States; New York (city, NY)

24 Sep 2014
Op-Ed

The ABCs of Addressing Climate Change (From a Business Perspective)

It's Climate Week in New York City. The schedule features a UN Climate Summit, a People's Climate March, the Clinton Global Initiative, substantial criticism of the whole endeavor, and plenty of agitated interaction. There is a lot of noise here. How can businesses cut... View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber; Energy; Utilities

08 Feb 2016
Research & Ideas

The Civic Benefits of Google Street View and Yelp

new working paper, Big Data and Big Cities: The Promises and Limitations of Improved Measures of Urban Life, Luca and three collaborators argue that cities have never been better positioned to take advantage of the vast amounts of data... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Consumer Products

18 Oct 2016
First Look

October 18, 2016

innovation from a game of chance to one in which they develop products and services that customers want to buy and are willing to purchase at a premium price. How do companies know how to grow? How can they create products that they are... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

20 Nov 2012
First Look

First Look: November 20

another victory and bring the next chapter in United's illustrious history to a successful end? Purchase this case:http://hbr.org/search/513051-PDF-ENG Urbanizing China Lakshmi Iyer and G.A. DonovanHarvard Business School Case 713-037 In... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

16 Apr 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, April 16, 2019

Europe, a private equity investment company, had worked in the family business for a few years but had developed a career mainly outside of the family business. The transfer of the shares’ ownership had tightened the three brothers’ bonds... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

29 Nov 2004
Research & Ideas

Caves, Clusters, and Weak Ties: The Six Degrees World of Inventors

letter actually getting to his friend—there were six referrals. This idea has passed into popular culture and urban folklore as the six degrees of separation. That's where it lay until a decade ago when a few researchers out of the Santa... View Details

Keywords: by Sara Grant; Publishing

10 May 2016
First Look

May 10, 2016

developing world. We then discuss how survey techniques can be improved to better measure willingness to pay for urban amenities. Finally, we explain how Internet data is being used to improve the quality of... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

14 Nov 2019
Book

Lifting the Lid on Turkey's Hidden Business History

Turkey’s economic development story has always been something of a black box for scholars to understand, perhaps in part because many of the most successful business enterprises there have been in family hands and largely closed to public... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

February 2008 (Revised May 2012)
Case

The Big Easy, Not So Easy

By: Nicolas P. Retsinas, Arthur I Segel and Ben Creo

Enterprise Community Partners must determine whether to rebuild the Lafitte housing projects in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans and, if so, how to mitigate the risks. Set in January 2007, more than a year after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, the case examines how... View Details

Keywords: Natural Disasters; Housing; Projects; Risk Management; Urban Development; Reputation; New Orleans

February 2024
Supplement

Can Cities Beat the Heat? (B13): Seattle Climate Action Snapshot

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Hailey Chen and Jacob A. Small

Climate snapshots provide a summary of climate actions that occurred between 2018 and 2024, highlighting major green initiatives, innovations, carbon mitigation strategy, and action across multiple levels of government and the private sector. Snapshots also provide an... View Details

Keywords: Mitigation Policies; Carbon Footprint; Climate Finance; Mobility; Adaptation; Renewable Energy; Climate Change; Problems and Challenges; Sustainable Cities; City; Innovation Strategy; Investment; United States; Seattle

February 2024
Supplement

Can Cities Beat the Heat? (B12): San Antonio Climate Action Snapshot

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Natania Elias and Jacob A. Small

Climate snapshots provide a summary of climate actions that occurred between 2018 and 2024, highlighting major green initiatives, innovations, carbon mitigation strategy, and action across multiple levels of government and the private sector. Snapshots also provide an... View Details

Keywords: Mitigation Policies; Carbon Footprint; Climate Finance; Mobility; Adaptation; Renewable Energy; Climate Change; Problems and Challenges; Sustainable Cities; City; Innovation Strategy; Investment; United States; Texas

February 2024 (Revised April 2024)
Supplement

Can Cities Beat the Heat? (B8): Minneaoplis-St. Paul Climate Action Snapshot

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Praveen Kumar and Jacob A. Small

Climate snapshots provide a summary of climate actions that occurred between 2018 and 2024, highlighting major green initiatives, innovations, carbon mitigation strategy, and action across multiple levels of government and the private sector. Snapshots also provide an... View Details

Keywords: Mitigation Policies; Carbon Footprint; Climate Finance; Mobility; Adaptation; Renewable Energy; Climate Change; Problems and Challenges; Sustainable Cities; City; Innovation Strategy; Investment; United States; Minneapolis; St. Paul