Publications

February 2019 (Revised June 2019)
Case

Where to Grow Next at Online Marketplace OLX

By: Thales Teixeira, Leandro A. Guissoni and Samy Dana

The CEO of OLX Brazil, an online classifieds platform business, is debating among multiple paths to grow sustainably (i.e., profitably) without the need for investor money. The options under consideration are (1) penetration growth by focusing on the core, (2) new... View Details

Keywords: Online Marketplace; Growth; Customer Acquisition; Facebook; Two-sided Network; E-commerce; Classifieds; Naspers; Schibsted; Innovation; Startup; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Model; Innovation and Invention; Business Startups; Decision Choices and Conditions; Brazil

June 2016 (Revised November 2021)
Case

chotuKool: 'Little Cool,' Big Opportunity

By: Rory McDonald, Derek van Bever and Efosa Ojomo

In 2013, a team led by Gopalan Sunderraman, vice president of corporate development at Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd.—one of the companies owned by Godrej Group, a large Indian conglomerate—was preparing to launch an innovative low-cost refrigerator. Developed expressly... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation; Emerging Markets; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; India

24 Jan 2024
News

Centaurs and Cyborgs: Navigating the Jagged Edge of Generative AI Productivity

01 Mar 2016
News

HBS Fund Helps Fuel Faculty Research and New Learning Experiences

sees her research as helping firms build actionable solutions to their business challenges. Sadun’s research is developed from management practice data that she and her colleagues compiled by interviewing... View Details

07 Oct 2013
Research & Ideas

The Case for Combating Climate Change with Nuclear Power and Fracking

If you ask any given environmentalist to identify the biggest threat to the planet, you may expect to hear about man-made climate change, consumerism, or overpopulation. But if you ask Harvard Business School's Joseph B. Lassiter, he'll toss in another: single-issue... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Energy; Utilities

December 2006
Article

Internet Companies' Growth Strategies: Determinants of Investment Intensity and Long-Term Performance

By: T. R. Eisenmann

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Performance; Investment; Growth and Development Strategy; Technology Industry

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February 1995 (Revised October 1995)
Case

Doing Business in a Distributed World: Clients, Servers, and the Stuff in Between

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Geoffrey Bock

Examines business computing as it is evolving in the 1990s. Compares the highly centralized and tightly controlled systems of the past with today's flexible, networked, client/server technology. Serves as an introduction to client/server terminology and technology. View Details

Keywords: Information Infrastructure; Information Technology; Performance Improvement; Transformation; Technological Innovation; Business Strategy; Adoption; Information Technology Industry

February 1984 (Revised March 1991)
Case

Sof-Optics, Inc. (B)

Involves the introduction of a technology which almost completely eliminates direct labor for a major segment of the product line. The technology is unproven though, and requires managing the learning process. The teaching objective is to review the differences in... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Change Management; Production; Performance Capacity

Article

What to Know About Locating in a Cluster

By: Willy C. Shih and Sen Chai

As a study of two industry clusters in Denmark shows, factors that can make clusters attractive—easy people movement and knowledge spillovers—can also make it harder for individual companies to retain proprietary knowledge. View Details

Keywords: Clusters; Clustering; Competitiveness; Life Sciences; Telecommunications; Science-based; Research And Development; Industry Clusters; Research; Innovation Strategy; Innovation and Management; Geographic Location; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Denmark

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Web

Challenges and Opportunities in the Restaurant Industry - Course Catalog

crisis management implications when a foodborne illness strikes. Disruption/Technology. We will examine how restaurants are assessing, adopting, affording and maximizing the utility of View Details

2008
Working Paper

Modern Management: Good for the Environment or Just Hot Air?

By: Nicholas Bloom, Christos Genakos, Ralf Martin and Raffaella Sadun

We use an innovative methodology to measure management practices in over 300 manufacturing firms in the UK. We then match this management data to production and energy usage information for establishments owned by these firms. We find that establishments in better... View Details

Keywords: Energy Conservation; Management Practices and Processes; Performance Productivity; Environmental Sustainability; Pollutants; Manufacturing Industry; United Kingdom

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06 Nov 2017
Research Event

Who is Responsible for the Future of Cities?

fellow at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, where he studies how technological innovation can fuel growth in developing cities and nations. “You... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

Web

Women, Work, and the “M” Word - Blog: Health Supplement

Care Entrepreneurship Health Care Innovation Health Care Investment Health Care at HBS Insurance/payor Medical devices/diagnostics Precision Medicine Public Health 25 Jan 2023 Women, Work, and the “M” Word... View Details

February 2014 (Revised August 2016)
Case

Strava

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III, William A. Sahlman and Sid Misra

Strava is a new fast-growing social network for the avid cyclist and runner. The Strava case traces the entrepreneurial journey of two serial entrepreneurs who have been co-founders in a prior venture, and who have co-founded Strava 3 years ago. The protagonists must... View Details

09 Feb 2022
News

Why Do Startups Fail And Can We Create An AI Formula To Prevent Failure? An Interview With Harvard Business School Professor Tom Eisenmann

February 2008
Article

Where Do Transactions Come From? Modularity, Transactions, and the Boundaries of Firms

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

This article constructs a theory of the location of transactions and the boundaries of firms in a productive system. It proposes that systems of production can be viewed as networks, in which tasks-cum-agents are the nodes and transfers—of material, energy and... View Details

Keywords: Boundaries; Production; Market Transactions; Supply Chain; Management; Cost; Theory; Performance Productivity; Information Management; Complexity

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September 2010 (Revised November 2010)
Case

Ze-gen: Commercializing Clean Tech

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Kaitlyn Lyons and Scott Prozeller

The Ze-gen case covers the first five years in the life of a clean-tech start-up. Ze-gen had developed an innovative technology that converted solid waste into synthesis gas (called syngas). This technology was in testing at the company's pilot plant, built next to the... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Renewable Energy; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Environmental Sustainability; Commercialization; Green Technology Industry; New Bedford