Publications

March 2014 (Revised June 2015)
Case

Can Mexico Make Democracy Work?

By: Gunnar Trumbull and Jonathan Schlefer

Enrique Peña Nieto, the presidential candidate of the old Mexican ruling party elected in 2012, passed the most fundamental reforms in at least two decades. They included allowing private competition in the energy sector, including with the state-owned oil company,... View Details

Keywords: Democratization; Economic Development; Competition Policy; Exchange Rates; Comparative Advantage; Growth and Development; Government Legislation; Political Elections; Economic Growth; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Energy Industry; Communications Industry; Banking Industry; Latin America; Mexico

01 Jun 2002
News

Up to the Challenge: Ipsita Dasgupta - Global Perspective, Local Results

and lawyer, has worked with underserved populations around the world. “At our house, every dinner table discussion was like a BGIE class,” Dasgupta laughs. “I grew up influenced by both my parents — I'm very interested in the private... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; development; leadership; social issues; management; technology; Finance; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

November 2014 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Micromax: Scaling the Largest Indian Mobile Handset Company

By: Ranjay Gulati, Rachna Tahilyani and Alicia DeSantola

It is January 2014 and Rahul Sharma, cofounder of Micromax Informatics (Micromax), the largest Indian mobile handset company, is preparing for an emergency conference call with his private equity investors. In the last six years, Micromax had grown its annual product... View Details

Keywords: Mobile; Scaling; Indian Software Development; Consumer Behavior; Management Turnover; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Management; E-commerce; Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; India

March 2011 (Revised November 2011)
Case

Harmonic Hearing Co.

By: Howard H. Stevenson and Craig H. Stephenson

Harmonic is a small, privately held manufacturer of hearing aids. Harriet Burns and Marc Davis, two employees at Harmonic, have an opportunity to purchase the company from the founder. As well-informed insiders who understand the industry, Burns and Davis believe the... View Details

Keywords: Debts; Quantitative Analysis; Financing; Entrepreneurial Finance; Development Stage Enterprises; Small ＆ Medium-sized Enterprises; Small Business; Business Growth and Maturation; Cash Flow; Mathematical Methods; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Borrowing and Debt; Equity; Manufacturing Industry

Video

Adib AlZamil

Adib AlZamil, CEO of Zamil Group Holding Company, outlines the ways Saudi Arabia used its oil reserves towards the country's development and addresses the involvement of the private sector in the government's "Saudi Vision 2030" program. View Details

01 Jun 2024
News

Action Plan: Role-Play

When you encounter the phrase private investigator, chances are good the character you conjure up in your mind doesn’t resemble Sarah Carson (MBA 1971). So much the better for Carson, whose work has often required convincing people she... View Details

Keywords: Christine Speer Lejeune; photo by Christina Gandolfo; detective; private investigator; undercover; acting

12 Nov 2019
Research & Ideas

Corporate Innovation Increasingly Benefits from Government Research

Business Administration and co-head of the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School. Consider that between the 1950s and 1980s, Uncle Sam’s spending on research and development (R&D) rose fivefold from less than $20 billion to more... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

February 2016 (Revised September 2017)
Case

Mohamed Azab and Seha Capital

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Sarah McAra

In January 2011, Mohamed Azab, founder and CEO of health care investment firm Seha Capital, made his first health care investment in Hassab Labs, a diagnostic lab in Alexandria, Egypt. Weeks later, a revolution erupted across the country as the Arab Spring swept... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Health; Pan-Africa; Health Care Investment; Financing; Developing World; Entrepreneurship; Health Care and Treatment; Investment; Financing and Loans; Developing Countries and Economies; Egypt; Africa

Research Summary

Overview

By: Dutch Leonard

Professor Leonard's research focuses on understanding the role of leadership in the development of strategy and processes for execution in private sector and socially-oriented organizations, including an emphasis on innovation, uncertainty, building successful adaptive... View Details

30 Jan 2014
HBS Seminar

Rebecca Henderson, Harvard Business School

2016
Working Paper

Economic Transition and Private-Sector Labor Demand: Evidence from Urban China

By: Lakshmi Iyer, Xin Meng, Nancy Qian and Xiaoxue Zhao

This paper studies the policy determinants of economic transition and estimates the elasticity demand for labor in the infant private sector in urban China. We show that a reform that untied access to housing in urban areas from working for the state sector accounts... View Details

Keywords: Economic Transition; Structural Change; Labor Mobility; Transition; Human Capital; Private Sector; China

SSRN

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04 Apr 2018
Research & Ideas

Smart Cities are Complicated and Costly: Here's How to Build Them

Chombosan Much promotion of smart cities assumes that municipalities will take a proactive, top-down, technology-first approach to urban progress. Thus far, these initiatives look for some forward-thinking city official (or immensely deep-pocketed private investor) to... View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber; Construction; Green Technology

Column

Defensa y estrategia frente a la economía China (Parte II)

By: Roberto Charvel

Keywords: Emergent Countries; Developing Countries; China; Asia; Latin America; Growth and Development; Economic Growth; Economic Sectors; Production; China; Asia; Mexico; Latin America; North America

Read Now

July 1990 (Revised September 1995)
Case

Singapore TradeNet: A Tale of One City

Describes the development of a new information technology-based trade document administration environment for the city-state of Singapore. A considerable effort, involving many governmental and private sector organizations, results in a new set of practices and... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Information Technology; Emerging Markets; Policy; Public Administration Industry; Singapore

September 1998 (Revised July 2009)
Case

Power Across Latin America: Endesa de Chile

Endesa, a privatized Chilean electricity generator, has made significant investments in the privatization of Argentina's electricity sector and is now contemplating an even larger privatization opportunity in Peru. In deciding how much to bid in Peru, Endesa must... View Details

Keywords: Expansion; Energy Generation; Privatization; Government and Politics; Utilities Industry; Peru; Chile

Find at Harvard

February 2011 (Revised September 2013)
Case

Sound Group China: Urban Waste Entrepreneurs

By: John D. Macomber, Chad M. Carr and Fan Zhao

Private sector entrepreneur in China with advanced solid waste management capability competes with state owned enterprises and also government policies supporting a rival technology. Wen Yibo has used engineering expertise and political savvy to build a major privately... View Details

Keywords: Private Sector; Public Sector; Service Delivery; Business and Government Relations; Environmental Sustainability; Wastes and Waste Processing; Urban Development; Utilities Industry; China

January 2016
Case

Haiti Hope: Innovating the Mango Value Chain

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Jean-François Harvey

This case study examines a market-based approach to economic development through the eyes of NGO TechnoServe's project manager, implementing a US$9.5 million five-year public-private partnership between Coca-Cola, IDB, and USAID. The case ends at the beginning of the... View Details