Publications

July 2022
Case

boAt Lifestyle

By: Rajiv Lal and Kairavi Dey

boAt began as a lifestyle brand in the consumer electronics category in 2016 with the aim of bringing affordable, durable, and fashionable audio products and accessories to millennials and Gen-Z customers in India. Born in 2016 with Amazon India as its only sales... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Brands and Branding; Initial Public Offering; Digital Marketing; Product Development; Product Marketing; Business or Company Management; Electronics Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Web Services Industry; Asia; India

27 Dec 2018
Working Paper Summaries

Team Learning Capabilities: A Meso Model of Sustained Innovation and Superior Firm Performance

Keywords: by Jean-François Harvey, Henrik Bresman, and Amy C. Edmondson

January 2000 (Revised May 2007)
Case

Dressen

By: Thomas R. Piper and Jeremy Cott

Divisional management must decide whether to support a leveraged buyout by a private equity group and, if so, what percent of ownership should go to the various partners involved. The appropriateness of the financing structure and the value of the equity depend on the... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Capital Structure; Valuation; Ownership Stake; Forecasting and Prediction

Royce Yudkoff is the MBA Class of 1975 Professor of Management Practice of Entrepreneurial Management at the Harvard Business School and a General Partner and co-founder of ABRY Partners, LLC in Boston, MA. Alongside Professor Richard Ruback, Royce currently... View Details

March 1999 (Revised July 1999)
Case

Crunch

By: Paul W. Marshall and Jeremy Dann

Entrepreneur Doug Levine runs a fitness company with an incredibly powerful brand. His company leverages the brand to expand, both in terms of facilities and lines of business. But he may need to make significant organizational changes in order to continue the growth. View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Expansion; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Brands and Branding; Service Industry; Health Industry

February 1997
Case

Transportation Displays, Incorporated (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring

By: Stuart C. Gilson, Vincent Hemmer, Eric Rahe, David Shorrock and Stephen Voorhis

Following a successful corporate turnaround and, more recently, a leveraged recapitalization, management of a highly profitable, fast--growing outdoor advertising company must consider alternative ways to harvest cash flow from the company without jeopardizing the... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Capital; Cash Flow; Profit; Taxation; Private Ownership

June 2000 (Revised March 2003)
Case

IBM Technology Group

By: Andrew P. McAfee and Kerry Herman

Explores two main issues: how the IBM Technology Group was able to build a robust, scalable, and functional IT platform using packaged enterprise resource planning (ERP) software from SAP, and how the division should best leverage this capability going forward. View Details

Keywords: Management; Digital Platforms; Information Technology; Competitive Advantage; Projects; Information Technology Industry

Video

Vimal Shah

Vimal Shah, Co-Founder and Chairman of Kenya-based Bidco Africa, outlines his focus on fast-moving consumer goods, emphasizing the importance of adapting to consumer demands and a growing population, while leveraging technologies such as fintech to support sustainable... View Details

26 Mar 2019
Working Paper Summaries

Managed Ecosystems and Translucent Institutional Logics: Engaging Communities

Keywords: by Elizabeth J. Altman, Frank Nagle, and Michael Tushman

December 1994
Case

CNW Corporation

The Blackstone Group, an LBO firm, is considering a $1.7 billion leveraged acquisition of CNW Corp., a railroad holding company. Information is provided concerning historic and protected results and the proposed financial structure of the entity. Data is presented... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Capital Structure; Leveraged Buyouts

Find at Harvard

March 2023 (Revised March 2025)
Case

Accelerating AI Adoption in the U.S. Air Force

By: Maria P. Roche and Alexander Farrow

In August 2022, the Pentagon tasked U.S. Air Force Captain Victor Lopez to launch a new office for AFWERX, an Air Force innovation unit that leveraged commercial developers and military talent to acquire advanced technologies. This task was particularly arduous because... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Organizational Design; AI and Machine Learning; Adoption; Technology Adoption; United States

2022
Article

Probing GNN Explainers: A Rigorous Theoretical and Empirical Analysis of GNN Explanation Methods.

By: Chirag Agarwal, Marinka Zitnik and Himabindu Lakkaraju

As Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) are increasingly employed in real-world applications, it becomes critical to ensure that the stakeholders understand the rationale behind their predictions. While several GNN explanation methods have been proposed recently, there has... View Details

Keywords: Graph Neural Networks; Explanation Methods; Mathematical Methods; Framework; Theory; Analysis

Read Now

29 Jan 2018
Working Paper Summaries

Do Banks Have an Edge?

Keywords: by Juliane Begenau and Erik Stafford; Banking

September 2003 (Revised March 2004)
Case

Yale University Investments Office: June 2003

By: Josh Lerner

The Yale Investments Office must decide whether to continue to allocate the bulk of the university's endowment to illiquid investments--hedge funds, private equity, real estate, and so forth. Considers the risks and benefits of a different asset allocation strategy.... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Assets; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Investment Funds; Resource Allocation; Partners and Partnerships; Risk and Uncertainty; Strategy; Education Industry

06 Jan 2020
Working Paper Summaries

From Know-It-Alls to Learn-It-Alls: Executive Development in the Era of Self-Refining Algorithms, Collaborative Filtering and Wearable Computing

Keywords: by Mihnea Moldoveanu and Das Narayandas; Education

28 Apr 2021
News

How to Recognize the Most Influential People in Your Office

December 2020
Case

Urban Company

By: Krishna G. Palepu

Urban Company is an India-based market platform that helps customers book home services and at home beauty services. The company differentiated itself by investing heavily in building customer trust. Rather than merely positioning itself as a lead generating... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Entrepreneurship; Digital Platforms; Emerging Markets; Strategy; Service Delivery; Trust; Technology Industry; Service Industry; India

August 1996 (Revised December 1999)
Case

J Boats, Inc.

By: Robert L. Simons

During the 20-year evolution of a family-owned, entrepreneurial sailboat company, two founders leverage their design and marketing skills to build one of the most recognized brands in the recreational boating industry. The founder then considers management succession... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Family Business; Risk Management; Financial Management; Leveraged Buyouts; Brands and Branding; Competitive Strategy; Capital Markets; Valuation; Shipping Industry; Transportation Industry

2025
Book

The Experimentation Machine: Finding Product–Market Fit in the Age of AI

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang

Leverage AI to be a 10x Founder

Today’s most successful founders know that the startups that learn the fastest will win. In The Experimentation Machine, I reveal how AI is transforming the way startups find product-market fit and scale.... View Details

Keywords: AI; Founder; Startup; AI and Machine Learning; Technology Adoption; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Market Entry and Exit