Publications

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February 2023 (Revised February 2025)
Case

Doing Business in Boston, Massachusetts

By: Laura Alfaro, Leonard A. Schlesinger and Zeke Gillman

This case examines the challenges and opportunities of doing business in Boston, Massachusetts while giving a broad history of the city and surrounding area. View Details

Keywords: Business History; Business and Government Relations; Technological Innovation; Economic Growth; Technology Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Financial Services Industry; Boston; Massachusetts

09 Jan 2014
Research & Ideas

The Entrepreneurs Who Invented Economic Forecasting

chronicles a host of academics, businessmen and, yes, charlatans who ultimately failed to foresee the biggest economic event of the twentieth century: The Great Depression. In an e-mail interview, Friedman,... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

January 2011 (Revised October 2014)
Case

Dropbox: 'It Just Works'

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Michael Pao and Lauren Barley

Dropbox is a venture-backed Silicon Valley startup, founded in 2006, that provides online storage and backup services to millions of customers using a "freemium" (free + premium offers) business model. The case recounts Dropbox's history from conception through... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Practices and Processes; Distribution; Product Design; Product Development; Internet; Service Industry; California

September 2017 (Revised January 2019)
Case

Public Entrepreneurs? Picking a Path

By: Mitchell Weiss and Matthew Segneri

Direct entry into government remained an uncommon post-HBS path, with only 1%–2% of recent classes going directly into the public sector. But, for public-minded MBAs, government wasn’t the sole province for public problem-solving. MBAs could join or launch companies... View Details

26 Feb 2021
News

Baker Library Announces New Collection: John Hawkins Research Interviews about Henri Termeer, Longtime Chairman, CEO, and President of Genzyme Corporation

Fall 2017
Article

The Alternative Business History: Business in Emerging Markets

By: Gareth Austin, Carlos Davila and Geoffrey Jones

This article suggests that the business history of emerging markets should be seen as an alternative business history rather than merely adding new settings to explore established core debates. The discipline of business history evolved around the corporate strategies... View Details

Keywords: Globalization; History; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Developing Countries and Economies; Business History; Asia; Latin America; Africa

Find at Harvard

24 Nov 2015
Blog Post

What is an HBS MyTake?

While it’s true that students come to HBS to develop their leadership skills and learn the fundamentals of general management, what they take away tends to be so much more. When we interview students and... View Details

October 2002 (Revised May 2021)
Case

Group Process in the Challenger Launch Decision (A)

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Laura Feldman

The night before the launch of the Challenger shuttle, officials from Morton Thiokol (Solid Rocket Booster manufacturer) and NASA participated in a teleconference to discuss whether to postpone the shuttle launch due to predicted low temperatures at Kennedy Space... View Details

Keywords: Process Analysis; Problems and Challenges; Groups and Teams; Engineering; Risk Management; Analysis; Decision Making; Aerospace Industry; United States

19 Jul 2021
News

“ ‘The Power of Trust’ by Sandra J. Sucher and Shalene Gupta: Why Do We Trust Organizations and Leaders?”

22 Jul 2009
News

Harvard Business School Historian Thomas McCraw Wins Lifetime Achievement Award

21 Nov 2023
News

The Happiest Workers Ignore This Common Piece of Career Advice, Says Harvard Expert: ‘It’s Very Self-Limiting’

March 2024
Teaching Note

Madrigal: Conducting a Customer-Base Audit

By: Eva Ascarza, Peter S. Fader, Bruce Hardie and Michael Ross

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 524-046. This case presents a scenario where Madrigal, a U.S. retailer with a rich 20-year history and a solid loyalty program, faces a turning point with the arrival of a new CEO. This leadership change reveals a critical gap in... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Analytics and Data Science; Growth and Development Strategy; Customer Value and Value Chain; Retail Industry; United States

November 2005 (Revised August 2007)
Case

ConAgra Foods: The Next Chapter

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Mary L. Shelman

In 2005, CEO Bruce Rohde has almost completed the integration of ConAgra Foods' collection of 90 independent operating companies into a focused, value-added firm and was beginning to think about his successor. ConAgra had become the second largest food company and No.... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Corporate Strategy; Leading Change; Management Succession; Strategic Planning; Brands and Branding; Food; Agribusiness; Product Marketing; Management Teams; Transformation; Customer Focus and Relationships; Food and Beverage Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; United States

13 Jun 2016
Lessons from the Classroom

That's Classic: Modern-Day Business Lessons from Ancient Rome

contemporary readings to surface insights into the age-old issue of leadership. Q: Why is ancient Rome a good lens for exploring modern leadership themes? Dench: It’s a remote, dead society, yet larger than... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

2003 - 2003
Lecture

Achieving Business Excellence: Foundations of Ethical Leadership." Lecturer. "Ethics as an Imperative in a Successful Economy

By: Lynn S. Paine

Keywords: Leadership; Ethics

April 2000
Background Note

e-Consulting

By: Ashish Nanda, Thomas J. DeLong, Thomas E. Agan and Scot H. Landry

Provides an overview of the history and development of the e-consulting industry, as well as the issues facing it. View Details

Keywords: History; Internet and the Web; Growth and Development; Consulting Industry

01 Jan 2002
News

23 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Men Want Powerful Jobs More Than Women Do

believe they are equally able to attain high-level leadership positions, men want that power more than women do. Published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

February 2019 (Revised May 2021)
Case

Electric Car Wars, 2018

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

Electric cars had long been championed by environmentalists as a superior solution to the internal combustion engine (ICE), but, despite large government incentives and strong pioneering efforts by a few automakers over the years, electric and hybrid cars and light... View Details