Publications

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04 Dec 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Local Industrial Conditions and Entrepreneurship: How Much of the Spatial Distribution Can We Explain?

Keywords: by Edward L. Glaeser & William R. Kerr; Manufacturing

18 Oct 2010
News

Venture Capital's Disconnect with Clean Tech

26 Apr 2011
News

Harvard Business School Holds Second Alumni New Venture Contest

12 Nov 2020
News

The ‘Problematic,’ VC-Threatening Study That Has Split Harvard Professors

July 1998 (Revised August 1998)
Case

Community Wealth Ventures, Inc.

By: James E. Austin and Meredith D. Pearson

Share Our Strength, a successful anti-hunger nonprofit organization, created a for-profit subsidiary--Community Wealth Ventures (CWV)--to provide advisory services to companies and nonprofits on collaboration. Management is reviewing CWV's start-up experience. View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; For-Profit Firms; Governing and Advisory Boards; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Partners and Partnerships; Nonprofit Organizations; Consulting Industry

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January 1996
Background Note

Creativity and Innovation in Organizations

By: Teresa M. Amabile

Creativity, the production of new and useful ideas by individuals or teams, can appear in many forms and many functions within firms of all kinds--from entrepreneurial start-ups to well-established enterprises. This note describes the varieties of creativity in... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Entrepreneurship; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Organizational Design; Situation or Environment; Creativity

October 2004 (Revised December 2005)
Case

Rakuten

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Andrew P. McAfee, Thomas R. Eisenmann and Masako Egawa

Rakuten, a native Japanese, e-commerce start-up and highly successful company, is expanding into new categories and new countries. It must figure out how to continue its trajectory of growth and profitability. A rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Global Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Technology Industry; Retail Industry; Japan

April 2004 (Revised May 2006)
Background Note

Achieving Profitable Growth and Market Value

By: James L. Heskett and Richard G. Hamermesh

Provides an overview of how a new venture needs to change as it passes from the initial start-up to the growth phase. Explores how a venture's leadership, strategy, and execution need to evolve to deal with rapid growth. View Details

Keywords: Growth Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Change Management

12 PM – 1 PM EST, 05 Dec 2017
Webinars: Career

The Startup Rules of Three

Do you have a brilliant idea for a startup? Becoming a successful entrepreneur requires more than just an inspiring concept and a plan for development. There is a reason as many as 75 percent of venture capital-backed startups fail, and nearly 95 percent of all... View Details

July 2010 (Revised October 2012)
Case

Employment Vignettes

By: Lena G. Goldberg and Chad M. Carr

Six vignettes drawn from decided cases explore legal and business issues in hiring, firing, promoting, and demoting employees, with an emphasis on protected classes, pretext, and anti-discrimination laws in the setting of start-ups and privately held companies. View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; For-Profit Firms; Employees; Resignation and Termination; Selection and Staffing; Laws and Statutes; Lawsuits and Litigation

July 1990
Background Note

Note on Acquiring Bank Credit

By: Amar Bhide and Howard H. Stevenson

Outlines the issues and alternatives faced by start-up businesses in attracting bank credit. The topics covered are how to lay the groundwork for establishing a banking relationship, selecting a bank, preparing an application, and negotiating a loan. View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Credit; Financing and Loans; Management; Negotiation; Relationships

October 2001 (Revised June 2002)
Case

Centagenetix (A): Building a Business Model for Genetic Longevity

Describes a start-up company seeking to exploit population genetic data from long-lived, healthy people. The company must address legal, financial, ethical, and personal issues among its team to launch the company. View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Genetics; Business Startups; Biotechnology Industry

Career Coach

Michele Chambliss

hiring/interviewing/performance management process in the West Coast office of a global management consultancy. She attributes a mid-career stint in strategic software sales for significantly honing her listening skills. Her current work in preparing View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Technology

09 Nov 2009
Research & Ideas

Come Fly with Me: A History of Airline Leadership

are certain concentrated times that favor each one. Entrepreneurs are the dominant leadership archetype in the early start-up phase of an industry, especially as different players try to establish a viable business model. This was the... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Air Transportation

9 AM – 9 AM EDT, 18 Apr 2018
HBS Online

HBX Entrepreneurship Essentials

Master a proven framework for building and financing new ventures, make your entrepreneurial dreams a reality, and speak the language of the start-up world. Entrepreneurship Essentials introduces you to the entrepreneurial journey, from finding an idea, to gaining... View Details

April 1998 (Revised May 2000)
Case

Guidant Corporation: Shaping Culture Through Systems

By: Robert L. Simons and Antonio Davila

Guidant is a successful IPO start-up selling pacemakers and defibrillators. The case describes how managers install systems to balance innovation and control. Three parts of a shareholder value strategy are described. Controls include incentive systems, beliefs... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Motivation and Incentives; Planning; Risk Management; Management Systems; Business Strategy; Value Creation; System; Service Industry; Financial Services Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

April 2000 (Revised June 2000)
Case

Everdream

Silicon Valley start-up Everdream wants to turn the provision of PCs to small business into a turnkey service including excellent 24/7 support. This case explores what this will take by focusing on the question of what, if anything, Everdream can guarantee. View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Information Infrastructure; Business Startups; Computer Industry; Service Industry; California

June 2018
Case

Candor at Clever

By: Ethan Bernstein and Om Lala

Clever, a high-growth EdTech company based in San Francisco, had grown quickly in market share and headcount. As with many high-growth companies, however, early employees (many of whom had never managed people before) had been given the opportunity to manage teams, and... View Details

October 2011 (Revised October 2013)
Case

Ensighten

By: Lena G. Goldberg and Michael J. Roberts

Focuses on a small start-up software company engaged in a negotiation over its software licensing agreement with a very large potential client. The entrepreneur must weight legal and business issues vs. his desire to land the key customer. View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Business Plan; Business Startups; Agreements and Arrangements; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Contracts; Information Technology Industry