Publications

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

06 Mar 2018
First Look

First Look at Research and Ideas, March 6, 2018

the heterogeneous payment requirements across the multiple payers and health plans contracting with the academic health center. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=54127 March–April 2018 Harvard Business... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

19 Jul 2016
First Look

July 19, 2016

complicated—and instructive. Kodak suffered from a technology transition in which it lost the benefits of a learning curve to a general-purpose technology platform where there were no entry barriers. It also suffered from difficulty in scaling down its traditional... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

12 Mar 2014
Lessons from the Classroom

Managing the Family Business: Firing the CEO

CEO. I once advised the chairman of a third-generation family business who was having difficulty with his son, whom he had recently named CEO. The new CEO was a decisive leader, smart and capable, with an MBA and a strong academic record.... View Details

03 May 2022
Research & Ideas

Desperate for Talent? Consider Advancing Your Own Employees First

Job openings in the United States continue to hover at record high levels, exacerbated by the Great Resignation and a sputtering emergence from the pandemic. Competition remains fierce among companies struggling to find qualified workers. Yet many employers,... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

February 2024
Case

ReSpo.Vision: The Kickstart of an AI Sports Revolution

By: Paul A. Gompers, Elena Corsi and Nikolina Jonsson

This case study explores the growth journey of Polish computer vision sports start-up ReSpo.Vision in an emerging entrepreneurial ecosystem. By providing 3D data and analysis to soccer clubs, ReSpo.Vision achieved significant milestones with a €1 million seed round, an... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Business Plan; Experience and Expertise; Talent and Talent Management; Decisions; Decision Choices and Conditions; Forecasting and Prediction; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; AI and Machine Learning; Analytics and Data Science; Applications and Software; Business Strategy; Sports Industry; Technology Industry; Poland; Europe

September 2023 (Revised December 2023)
Case

TetraScience: Noise and Signal

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Tom Quinn

In 2019, TetraScience CEO “Spin” Wang needed advice. Five years earlier, he had cofounded a startup that saw early success with a hardware product designed to help laboratory scientists in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical spaces more easily collect data from... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Organization; Restructuring; Forecasting and Prediction; Digital Platforms; Analytics and Data Science; AI and Machine Learning; Organizational Structure; Network Effects; Competitive Strategy; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States; Boston

February 2021 (Revised May 2021)
Case

SafeGraph: Selling Data as a Service

By: Ramana Nanda, Abhishek Nagaraj and Allison Ciechanover

Set in January 2021, the CEO of SafeGraph, a four-year-old startup that sold Data as a Service, looked to the future. His aim was to become the most trusted source for data about a physical place. The company provided points of interest (POI) and foot traffic data on... View Details

Keywords: Data As A Service; Monetization; Pricing; Business Startups; Analytics and Data Science; Consumer Behavior; Analysis; Business Model; Health Pandemics; Information Industry; United States

08 Jan 2008
First Look

First Look: January 8, 2008

Financing Constraints, and Entrepreneurship Authors:William R. Kerr and Ramana Nanda Abstract We study how US branch-banking deregulations affected the entry and exit of firms in the non-financial sector using establishment-level data from the US Census Bureau's... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

2021
Working Paper

Time Dependency, Data Flow, and Competitive Advantage

By: Ehsan Valavi, Joel Hestness, Marco Iansiti, Newsha Ardalani, Feng Zhu and Karim R. Lakhani

Data is fundamental to machine learning-based products and services and is considered strategic due to its externalities for businesses, governments, non-profits, and more generally for society. It is renowned that the value of organizations (businesses, government... View Details

Keywords: Economics Of AI; Value Of Data; Perishability; Time Dependency; Flow Of Data; Data Strategy; Analytics and Data Science; Value; Strategy; Competitive Advantage

SSRN

Read Now

14 Mar 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, March 14

March–April 2017 Harvard Business Review Hiring an Entrepreneurial Leader: What to Look For By: Butler, Timothy Abstract—Aspiring to be innovative and agile, companies of all shapes and sizes want to recruit entrepreneurial managers. But... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

16 Jan 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, January 16, 2018

January–February 2018 Harvard Business Review More Than a Paycheck: How to Create Good Blue-Collar Jobs in the Knowledge Economy By: Campbell, Dennis, John Case, and Bill Fotsch Abstract—Fifty years ago a good blue-collar job was with a... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

06 Oct 2010
Research & Ideas

John Kotter: Four Ways to Kill a Good Idea

analog, but it can be effective in bringing up unpleasant memories. Pushing anxiety buttons is manipulative in the worse sense of the word. But it can be an effective tactic. Once aroused, anxieties do not necessarily disappear when a person is confronted with an View Details

Keywords: by John Kotter & Lorne A. Whitehead

2017
Working Paper

Nowcasting the Local Economy: Using Yelp Data to Measure Economic Activity

By: Edward L. Glaeser, Hyunjin Kim and Michael Luca

Can new data sources from online platforms help to measure local economic activity? Government datasets from agencies such as the U.S. Census Bureau provide the standard measures of economic activity at the local level. However, these statistics typically appear only... View Details

Keywords: Economy; Analytics and Data Science; Local Range; Social and Collaborative Networks

SSRN

Read Now

March 1980 (Revised February 1987)
Case

Sweco, Inc. (A)

By: Michael E. Porter and George S. Yip

Describes Sweco's decision about whether to enter the mud-processing equipment industry (used in oil well drilling). This is an internal entry decision, and the case describes Sweco's existing businesses as well as the mud-processing industry and competitors. The case... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Decisions; Forecasting and Prediction; Cost; Analytics and Data Science; Market Entry and Exit; Competition

January 1998 (Revised February 1998)
Case

Timberjack Parts: Packaged Software Selection Project

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Mark Keil and Darryl S. Romanow

This case provides a realistic, current, and detailed view of software procurement in an international business environment where the competition in enterprise-wide software solutions is growing. Focuses on the selection of packaged software to serve multiple sites... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Information Technology; Analytics and Data Science; Multinational Firms and Management; Operations; Management Practices and Processes; Computer Industry; Information Technology Industry

January 2024 (Revised February 2024)
Course Overview Note

Managing Customers for Growth: Course Overview for Students

By: Eva Ascarza

Managing Customers for Growth (MCG) is a 14-session elective course for second-year MBA students at Harvard Business School. It is designed for business professionals engaged in roles centered on customer-driven growth activities. The course explores the dynamics of... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Decision Making; Analytics and Data Science; Growth Management; Telecommunications Industry; Technology Industry; Financial Services Industry; Education Industry; Travel Industry