Publications

13 Mar 2023
Research & Ideas

What Would It Take to Unlock Microfinance's Full Potential?

for solutions to make the next generation of microfinance tools even more transformative. The HBS Alumni Bulletin recently talked to them about their research. “Around 2005 and 2010, some large-scale, randomized control studies started to View Details

Keywords: by Jen McFarland Flint; Financial Services

04 Nov 2008
First Look

First Look: November 4, 2008

The carbon market has emerged in response to concerns about global climate change. This note characterizes the market in 2008, describing each segment and how it operates. Purchase this note: http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

20 Jul 2009
Research & Ideas

Markets or Communities? The Best Ways to Manage Outside Innovation

open up for innovation, it transforms itself from a strictly product or service business into a platform business. Depending on the type of platform business model (integrated, product, or two-sided), the host firm has a choice about the... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

14 Feb 2023
HBS Case

Is Sweden Still 'Sweden'? A Liberal Utopia Grapples with an Identity Crisis

wouldn’t work here.” Sweden’s distinctive business-welfare model is rooted in the country’s long, stable history. First settled by Vikings and other migrants, a small southern kingdom emerged in the 11th century. The Riksdag, Sweden’s... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

January 2025 (Revised April 2025)
Case

Mercado Libre: The Best Is Yet to Come

By: Krishna G. Palepu, Fernando Fragueiro, Carla Larangeira and Mariana Cal

In 2024, Marcos Galperín, CEO and co-founder of Mercado Libre, reflected on its 25-year rise as Latin America’s largest marketplace, fintech leader, and most valuable public company. With operations spanning 18 countries and a robust ecosystem combining e-commerce,... View Details

September 2008 (Revised July 2012)
Case

Khosla Ventures: Biofuels Strategy

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III, William A. Sahlman and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

By 2008, a number of the firm's early cleantech investments were showing promise, and the companies were starting to need significantly more money to create the massive scale required in the energy sector. As Khosla thought about the hundreds of millions of dollars... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Marketing; Entrepreneurial Finance; New Product Development; Partnerships; Entrepreneurial Management; Venture Capital; Strategy; Partners and Partnerships; Renewable Energy; Entrepreneurship; Investment Funds; Environmental Sustainability; Product Development; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry

01 Jun 2023
HBS Case

A Nike Executive Hid His Criminal Past to Turn His Life Around. What If He Didn't Have To?

[juvenile detention] coming toward me. I thought my worlds were about to collide. But he walked right past me. Either he didn’t see me, or he didn’t recognize me.” In addition, when US President Barack Obama spoke at Nike’s headquarters, the Secret View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Apparel & Accessories

03 Mar 2023
Research & Ideas

When Showing Know-How Backfires for Women Managers

demonstrate their capabilities before an audience. But this can be dangerous: Feldberg found that when women put off private office tasks such as strategic planning or data analysis, their departments’ profits and customer service ratings... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin; Retail; Consumer Products

18 Apr 2007
HBS Case

How Magazine Luiza Courts the Poor

"Magazine Luiza: Building a Retail Model of 'Courting the Poor.'" "Magazine Luiza has made a business of targeting the bottom of the pyramid and is beloved as a company by employees and customers alike," Frei says. "I couldn't think of a View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

18 Nov 2008
First Look

First Look: November 18, 2008

publicly traded firms in the United States under scrutiny. This case examines perceived excessive pay and severance packages at several firms implicated in the credit crisis of 2008, the executive compensation provisions in the Emergency... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

14 Sep 2010
First Look

First Look: September 14, 2010

problem when they first emerged but was ultimately overcome by changes in the innovation ecosystem. However, incumbents in the oil and power sector are different in two respects. First, they are producing a commodity and hence face little... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

07 Mar 2023
HBS Case

ChatGPT: Did Big Tech Set Up the World for an AI Bias Disaster?

Her Gender Shades project with Joy Buolamwini found that facial recognition services offered by IBM, Microsoft, and other companies misidentified Black women as much as 35 percent of the time while performing nearly perfectly with white... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis; Technology

August 2024
Case

Circle: Reinventing the Future of Money

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai

In early 2024, Circle Internet Financial's leadership team gathered to discuss the company's strategic path as it prepared for an IPO. Founded in 2013 by Jeremy Allaire, Circle had emerged as a pioneer in digital finance through its USD Coin (USDC), a regulated... View Details

Keywords: Currency; Governance Compliance; Initial Public Offering; Competition; Financial Services Industry

28 Aug 2007
First Look

First Look: August 28, 2007

users or securing their exclusive affiliation--are costly and risky. Describes less costly staged strategies for building two-sided platforms. With the "vendor to two-sided platform" strategy, a firm starts as a vendor selling products or View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

08 Sep 2010
First Look

First Look: September 8, 2010

domestic and imported inputs. Value data for imports and exports of services are too aggregated and valuations are questionable, while price data for service exports and imports are almost non-existent.... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2009 (Revised July 2010)
Case

iZumi

By: Robert F. Higgins, Jacob Ian Broder-Fingert, Eliot Sherman and Sidhartha Palani

Presents the issues faced while building an innovative company in an emerging space with new intellectual property from the perspective of a venture capitalist. Beth Seidenberg, a partner at the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), had helped... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Globalized Markets and Industries; Innovation and Management; Intellectual Property; Rights; Genetics; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry