Publications

January 2014
Technical Note

Learning From Extreme Consumers

By: Jill Avery and Michael Norton

Traditional market research methods focus on understanding the average experiences of average consumers. This focus leads to gaps in our knowledge of consumer behavior and often fails to uncover insights that can drive revolutionary, rather than evolutionary... View Details

Keywords: Market Research; Ethnography; Design Thinking; Innovation; New Product Development; Research; Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Innovation and Invention

2018
Working Paper

Sustainability and Green Business in Latin America During Globalization Waves

By: Geoffrey Jones

This working paper examines the impact of modern business enterprise on the natural environment of Latin America during the globalization waves between the 19th century and the present day. It argues that although global capitalism created much wealth for the region,... View Details

Keywords: Globalization; Natural Environment; Outcome or Result; Business History; Pollutants; Environmental Sustainability; Green Technology Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Tourism Industry; Latin America

SSRN

09 Jul 2007
Research & Ideas

Five Steps to Better Family Negotiations

These characteristics lead to stronger loyalty and sensitivity to one another but also greater reactivity in their interactions. Family relationships also have deeply ingrained patterns that have developed... View Details

Keywords: by John A. Davis and Deepak Malhotra

08 Mar 2019
News

A Passionate Patron and Collector

The New York Times recently profiled art collector Reginald Van Lee (MBA 1984), discussing some of his collection with him in his Manhattan apartment. Van Lee, who retired from Booz Allen Hamilton in 2016, has a number of pieces adorning the walls of his Manhattan... View Details

26 Sep 2013
Research & Ideas

Behind India’s Economic and Political Woes

Institute at Harvard University and Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at Harvard Business School, offers some insights into the causes and conditions at play. Zeenat Potia: Can you give some context around the... View Details

Keywords: by Zeenat Potia

2010
Chapter

The Financing of R&D and Innovation

By: Bronwyn H. Hall and Josh Lerner

Evidence on the “funding gap” for investment innovation is surveyed. The focus is on financial market reasons for underinvestment that exist even when externality-induced underinvestment is absent. We conclude that while small and new innovative firms experience high... View Details

Keywords: Research and Development; Innovation and Invention; Venture Capital; Corporate Finance

Find at Harvard

December 1998 (Revised July 2000)
Case

Implementing Strategies for Mobile Telephony: The Cases of BellSouth and U S WEST

By: Clayton M. Christensen

Recounts how BellSouth and US WEST developed and implemented their strategies for becoming major players in the mobile telephony business. Shows how initial success at BellSouth attracted more resources and aggressive investment, while initial failures at US WEST... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Growth and Development Strategy; Resource Allocation; Outcome or Result; Opportunities; Expansion; Mobile Technology; Communications Industry

2024
Working Paper

Displacement or Complementarity? The Labor Market Impact of Generative AI

By: Wilbur Xinyuan Chen, Suraj Srinivasan and Saleh Zakerinia

Generative AI is poised to reshape the labor market, affecting cognitive and white-collar occupations in ways distinct from past technological revolutions. This study examines whether generative AI displaces workers or augments their jobs by analyzing labor demand and... View Details

Keywords: Generative Ai; Labor Market; Automation And Augmentation; Labor; AI and Machine Learning; Competency and Skills

2008
Working Paper

Can the Virtuous Mouse and the Wealthy Elephant Live Happily Ever After?

By: James E. Austin and Herman B. Leonard

What happens when small iconic socially-oriented businesses are acquired by large corporations? Such mergers create significant opportunities for creating both business value and substantially expanded social value, but also pose unusually difficult challenges because... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Management Style; Agreements and Arrangements; Social Enterprise; Social Issues

January 2023 (Revised December 2023)
Case

OhmConnect: Energizing the Future

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Jennifer Fonstad and Nicole Tempest Keller

Founded in 2013, OhmConnect was a free consumer web app that alerted customers about peak hours of electricity demand, and paid them to lower their energy use at home during these periods. The company sold the aggregated reductions generated by thousands of households... View Details

Keywords: App Development; Renewable Energy; Electricity Usage; Regulations; VC; Technology; Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC); Scalability; Applications and Software; Growth and Development Strategy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business Model; Venture Capital; Energy Industry; United States; California; Texas; Europe

02 Oct 2017
What Do You Think?

Do Bitcoin and Digital Currency Have a Future?

case a financial services company, to bail us out. The experience could have soured me on the entire notion of hedge funds. But of course hedge funds later came into vogue, prompting the growth and View Details

Keywords: by James L. Heskett; Financial Services

Article

Beyond Individualized Recourse: Interpretable and Interactive Summaries of Actionable Recourses

By: Kaivalya Rawal and Himabindu Lakkaraju

As predictive models are increasingly being deployed in high-stakes decision-making, there has been a lot of interest in developing algorithms which can provide recourses to affected individuals. While developing such tools is important, it is even more critical to... View Details

Keywords: Predictive Models; Decision Making; Framework; Mathematical Methods

Article

Leadership in Routine Emergencies and Crises: The Deepwater Horizon Incident

By: Arnold M. Howitt, Dutch Leonard and David W. Giles

Leadership in emergencies is a crucial element of becoming a high-performing Coast Guard officer. In this article, we argue that emergency leadership is not a single skill or uniform set of organizational competences. Instead, we identify a spectrum of emergency... View Details

Keywords: Emergency Preparedness; Crisis Management; Leadership; Safety; Performance Effectiveness

18 Oct 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Historical Trajectories and Corporate Competences in Wind Energy

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones & Loubna Bouamane; Energy; Utilities

19 May 2023
Blog Post

Creating and Nurturing a Sense of Belonging at HBS

Throughout my life I have always looked for a sense of community. A group of people I could depend on, who may or may not have shared similar interests but always supported me in personal growth and View Details

March 2004 (Revised April 2005)
Case

International Rivers Network and the Bujagali Dam Project (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Aldo Sesia

In the summer of 2002, the International Rivers Network (IRN), an environmental NGO located in Berkeley, California, was engaged in what appeared to be the last hours of a three year campaign to stop a $582 million dam and hydropower project at Bujagali Falls in... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Corporate Disclosure; Project Finance; Investment; Environmental Sustainability; Projects; Developing Countries and Economies; Energy Industry; Uganda

01 Jul 2020
News

How to Build an ESG Portfolio – And Why You Should

Article

Product Quality and Entering Through Tying: Experimental Evidence

By: Hyunjin Kim and Michael Luca

Dominant platform businesses often develop products in adjacent markets to complement their core business. One common approach used to gain traction in these adjacent markets has been to pursue a tying strategy. For example, Microsoft pre-installed Internet Explorer... View Details

Keywords: Tying; Platform Strategy; Google; Product; Quality; Digital Platforms; Strategy; Market Entry and Exit

Find at Harvard

March 2022
Case

In Data We Trust: Be Mobile Africa and Furthering Financial Inclusion Across the African Continent

By: Lauren Cohen, Grace Headinger and Pierre Marchesseault

To Cédric Jeannot, leveraging technology to promote financial inclusion was personal. After no established financial institution would accept his technology platform to lower transaction costs for free, Jeannot launched FinTech company Be Mobile Africa in May 2020.... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Fintech; Emerging Market; Fundraising; Financial Inclusion; Strategy; Expansion; Management; Entrepreneurship; Personal Finance; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Growth and Development Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Banking Industry; Africa; Togo; Nigeria; Ghana