Publications

March 2010 (Revised April 2013)
Case

Equitas Microfinance: The Fastest-Growing MFI on the Planet

By: V.G. Narayanan and V. Kasturi Rangan

Founded as a for-profit microfinance company, Equitas had acquired nearly a million clients in the short two years since it was founded. The founder, Vasu, and his management team wished to accelerate the already impressive spurt to three million clients in the next... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Microfinance; Growth and Development Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Enterprise; Financial Services Industry; India

August 2011
Article

Coming Clean and Cleaning Up: Does Voluntary Self-Reporting Indicate Effective Self-Policing

By: Michael W. Toffel and Jodi L. Short

Regulatory agencies are increasingly establishing voluntary self-reporting programs both as an investigative tool and to encourage regulated firms to commit to policing themselves. We investigate whether voluntary self-reporting can reliably indicate effective... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Programs; Governance Compliance; Corporate Disclosure; Law Enforcement

Find at Harvard

Read Now

17 Aug 2015
Research & Ideas

Who is Boss in the Sharing Economy?

the Strategy unit at Harvard Business School, who wades into the controversy with a new working paper, Enabling Versus Controlling, co-written with National University of Singapore economics professor Julian Wright. Uber may have very... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Service; Technology

07 Aug 2012
Research & Ideas

Off and Running: Professors Comment on Olympics

of the American Marketing Association's 2010 Sports Marketing Lifetime Achievement Award. The power of "The Rings"—the brand power of the Olympics—derives from the global recognition of the five rings (representing the five continents), the wide array of... View Details

Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty; Sports

22 Nov 2011
First Look

First Look: November 22

close with an attempt to identify strategies to close the gap between the unethical people we are and the ethical people that we strive to be. Publisher's Link: http://www.taylorandfrancis.com/books/details/9780415873246/ Working... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 1986 (Revised March 1997)
Case

Horizon Group

By: William A. Sahlman

Contains a description of a situation confronting the co-founder of a company planning to produce software for microcomputers. The company has just completed raising money from some wealthy investors by forming an R&D Limited Partnership. Development of the program (an... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Venture Capital; Partners and Partnerships; Business Plan; Outcome or Result; Research and Development; Financial Strategy; Corporate Finance; Information Technology Industry

December 2022 (Revised February 2023)
Case

Daniel Defense: Responding to the Shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

At 11:33am on May 24, 2022, an 18-year-old man from Uvalde, Texas walked into the Robb Elementary School carrying a semi-automatic "AR-15-style” rifle manufactured by Daniel Defense and killed 19 children and two adults. Three days later, Representative Carolyn Maloney... View Details

Keywords: Gun Violence; Gun Policy; Second Amendment; Legal Liability; Government Legislation; Marketing Strategy; Business or Company Management; Product Marketing; Ethics; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Moral Sensibility; Crime and Corruption; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Manufacturing Industry; Advertising Industry; United States

March 2025
Teaching Note

Seattle's Climate Pledge Arena: Ticket to a Greener Future

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jacob A. Small

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 325-110. CEO Tim Leiweke reviewed the process by which his newly formed Oak View Group had managed a major rebuild of a landmark arena in Seattle which attracted a National Hockey League franchise and major entertainers concerned about... View Details

Keywords: Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Leadership; Bids and Bidding; Standards; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Green Buildings; Construction; Partners and Partnerships; Sports Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Seattle

04 Sep 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, September 4, 2018

they can relocate their headquarters to a hub, as GE recently did (but make them much smaller). A less expensive strategy is to create an innovation lab or corporate outpost in a talent cluster, as Walmart... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

14 Nov 2007
First Look

First Look: November 14, 2007

Exercises Harvard Business School Exercise 208-045 Introduces students to simple forms and solution techniques for real options found in corporate settings. Revised versions of problems appearing in an older problem set (293-095). The... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

31 Jan 2017
Research & Ideas

The Dow at 20,000: What's That All About?

that the markets expect strong deregulation, and that impacts every other sector that is highly regulated in the economy. So you saw the rising stock prices of financials, for example, as well as energy stocks. The second effect comes from promises to reduce tax rates... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner

30 Sep 2019
Book

Book Excerpt: Why a Volume on Race, Work, and Leadership

women grew 67 percent between 2007 and 2012, more growth than women-owned businesses as whole saw (Nielsen Report, 2017). In light of these advances, a recent study by Ernst and Young (2017) found that one-third of Americans surveyed said that the View Details

Keywords: Re: Andi Wang

10 Aug 2010
First Look

First Look: August 10

Frank V. Cespedes, and Kerry HermanHarvard Business School Case 709-441 In 2008, concert producer and promoter Live Nation faces a decision about its strategy in light of the tumultuous changes in the music industry and the increasing... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

02 Dec 2019
What Do You Think?

How Does a Company like Boeing Respond to Intense Competitive Pressure?

Hans-Peter Sebregondi, quoting from a Deloitte thought piece, wrote, “If your executive suite is like most discussion usually centers on the positive aspects of the company’s strategy and the need to rally around said strategy, with scant... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Air Transportation

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Porter’s Perspective: Competing in the Global Economy

Competitive advantage. Corporate strategy. The competitive advantage of nations. All over the world these terms quickly bring to mind the groundbreaking work of HBS professor Michael Porter, whose two decades of research on these and... View Details

Keywords: Re: Michael E. Porter

19 May 2014
Research & Ideas

Why Companies Should Compete for Your Privacy

information to provide." “Focusing on a single revenue source is the most profitable strategy when firms compete for consumer information” It's clear from their research that the marketplace has plenty of room for two types of Internet... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Consumer Products

10 Apr 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research, April 10, 2018

developing fresh capabilities for organizations. Based on a study of all the programs offered by the business schools, consultancies, corporate universities, and online education providers, we analyze the advantages, and the constraints,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Nov 2024
In Practice

Layoffs Surging in a Strong Economy? Advice for Navigating Uncertain Times

layoffs lead to mistakes that undermine companies’ corporate goals. Doing a layoff for the right reason is not just smart strategically, it’s smart organizationally, since employees are more likely to stay engaged and work through the... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Technology; Information Technology

June 2005 (Revised March 2007)
Case

ACHAP (African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnerships): the Merck/Gates Initiative in Botswana

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

By June 2004, ACHAP, a three-way partnership of The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Merck, and the Botswana government, had committed nearly $60 million of the $100 million toward various AIDS education, prevention, and treatment programs. It was time to evaluate... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Social Marketing; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance Evaluation; Business and Government Relations; Partners and Partnerships; Health Industry