Publications

October 2004 (Revised May 2006)
Case

Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries (Abridged)

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Roger H. Hallowell

The Singapore Public Library system was transformed from being mediocre at best to world class using information technology, progressive human-resources management, and marketing approaches unusual for government agencies. View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Service Delivery; Marketing Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Human Resources; Information Technology; Nonprofit Organizations; Public Administration Industry; Singapore

September 2022
Case

HPP: Tapping the Netherlands’ Potential

By: Brian Trelstad and Idelès Kaandorp

Stichting Het Potentieel Pakken (HPP) was launched to solve a systemic problem in the Dutch Labor Market: gender inequity that was leading to a large number of women to work part-time in fields that were in desperately short supply of labor, like health care, child... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Grants; Scaling And Growth; Nonprofit Organizations; Opportunities; Gender; Income; Employment; Health Care and Treatment; Human Capital; Mission and Purpose; Motivation and Incentives; Growth and Development Strategy; Employment Industry; Employment Industry; Employment Industry; Employment Industry; Europe; Netherlands

10 Aug 2015
Research & Ideas

Why a Federal Rule on CEO Pay Disclosure May Get You In Trouble With Customers

Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), which conducts an annual analysis of available labor data. Presumably, the Dodd-Frank rule, once it's mandated, will make more data available for such analyses. The Security and Exchange... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail

01 Jul 2013
Research & Ideas

Crowdfunding a Poor Investment?

from large groups of people is exactly what nonprofits and political campaigns have been doing for more than a century. In today's world, though, the Internet has dramatically altered the ability for companies and independent... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

26 Feb 2008
First Look

First Look: February 26, 2008

pioneered shipbuilding techniques that not only allowed him to build ships at unprecedented rates, but he also spurred the whole shipbuilding industry to do the same. His fame made him the object of envy and scorn for shipbuilders all... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

April 2009
Case

Brummer and the bracNet Investment

By: Alnoor Ebrahim, Michael Pirson and Patricia Mangas

bracNet, a for-profit/nonprofit partnership, aims to establish Internet connectivity throughout Bangladesh. Venture capitalist Patrik Brummer invested in a first round of funding to connect major cities. Should he invest again, this time in a rural roll-out, which may... View Details

Keywords: For-Profit Firms; Venture Capital; Investment; Investment Return; Rural Scope; Partners and Partnerships; Nonprofit Organizations; Internet; Telecommunications Industry; Bangladesh

26 Feb 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, February 26, 2019

with a similarly large effect upon reversal of the U.S. monetary policy stance. This result is robust across different geographic regions and industries and holds for U.S. and non-U.S. lenders, including those with little direct exposure... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

04 Apr 2007
Research & Ideas

The Business of Global Poverty

Every night on the outskirts of Manila, thousands of people lie down to sleep amid acres of rotting food and industrial detritus in a vast urban dumping ground called Payatas. At dawn, they rise and swarm across a featureless landscape of... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons

October 2011 (Revised May 2015)
Case

The American Repertory Theater

By: Rohit Deshpande, Allen S. Grossman and Ryan Johnson

When Diane Paulus, artistic director and CEO of the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) first started in 2008, she attracted media coverage around an aesthetic that aimed to give the audience more ownership over the theater experience, excited theatergoers by... View Details

Keywords: Advertising Campaigns; Arts; Business Model; Leading Change; Media; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Nonprofit Organizations; Competitive Strategy; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; North and Central America

24 Jun 2014
First Look

First Look: June 24

Pfizer, as well as nonprofits and international government agencies, the authors show how successful leaders of innovation don't create a vision and try to make innovation happen themselves. Rather, they create and sustain a culture where... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

18 Sep 2007
First Look

First Look: September 18, 2007

modularized. Instead these areas should be located in transaction-free zones so that the costs of transacting do not overburden the system. The boundaries of transaction-free zones constitute breakpoints where firms and industries may... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

November 2005 (Revised January 2006)
Case

Commercialization at the Garvan Institute for Medical Research (A)

A large and successful not-for-profit medical research institute must decide strategy to commercialize its discoveries. In the process, it must balance multiple conflicting demands from its stakeholders. View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Public Sector; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Nonprofit Organizations; Conflict and Resolution; Commercialization; Balance and Stability; Health Industry

Find at Harvard

03 Oct 2006
First Look

First Look: October 3, 2006

the footwear industry. So when a well-respected industry leader asked to talk about a merger, Cabot had to admit that with her "crisis of confidence," it might just be time. Purchase this case:... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 2009 (Revised May 2010)
Case

Partners In Health: HIV Care in Rwanda

By: Michael E. Porter, Scott S. Lee, Joseph Rhatigan and Jim Yong Kim

In 2005, Partners in Health (PIH) was invited by the Rwandan Ministry of Health to assume responsibility for the management of public health care in two rural districts in Eastern Rwanda and create an HIV treatment program at these sites. PIH successfully implemented a... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Health Care and Treatment; Health Testing and Trials; Medical Specialties; Service Delivery; Nonprofit Organizations; Expansion; Health Industry; Rwanda

17 Oct 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, October 17, 2017

Digital Agility: The Impact of Software Portfolio Architecture on IT System Evolution By: MacCormack, Alan, Robert Lagerström, Martin Mocker, and Carliss Y. Baldwin Abstract—The modern industrial firm increasingly relies on software to... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

15 Nov 2016
First Look

November 15, 2016

India By examining Ekal Vidyalaya (Ekal), a nonprofit network of schools in India, this case focuses on the classic challenge faced by organizations that grow through replication (e.g., McDonald's, Starbucks, Walmart, Whole Foods): How... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

July 2024 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors: Bringing Systematic Investment to Philanthropy

By: Lauren Cohen, Hao Gao, Alexander Bischoff and Sophia Pan

Melissa Berman, CEO of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA), evaluated her client’s philanthropy project and its mediocre performance. RPA was a segment of the Rockefeller Family Office’s Philanthropy Department, becoming an independent charity in 2002. Consistently... View Details

21 Aug 2000
Research & Ideas

Faculty Research Looks to Latin America

and nonprofit organizations. Barrett discussed her new HBS working paper, published with Professor James Austin and Sheila McCarthy, on "Cross-Sector Collaboration: Lessons from the International Trachoma Initiative." Diana... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

July 2015 (Revised October 2015)
Case

Building Strong Partnerships at the Inter-American Development Bank

By: Amy C. Edmondson, Erin L. Henry, Andreas Georgoulias and Natalie Bartlett

Building Strong Partnerships at the Inter-American Development Bank details the development of the bank's new Office of Outreach Partnerships to sustain a culture of innovation through maintaining and generating partnerships in order to fulfill the bank's greater... View Details