Publications

September 2019 (Revised September 2020)
Case

SOFWERX: Innovation at U.S. Special Operations Command (Abridged)

By: Herman Leonard, Mitch Weiss, Jin Hyun Paik and Kerry Herman

James "Hondo" Geurts, the Acquisition Executive for U.S. Special Operations Command was in the middle of his Senate confirmation hearing in 2017 to become Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition. Overseeing acquisitions in one of the... View Details

Keywords: Open Innovation; Crowdsourcing; Prototyping; Navy; Entrepreneurship; Public Equity; Innovation and Invention; Innovation Leadership; Acquisition; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Public Administration Industry; United States

14 Nov 2005
Research & Ideas

How Can Start Ups Grow?

interested in studying this relatively unexplored area. Q: Why did you decide to focus on entrepreneurship in the advertising industry in your research? A: Advertising more than most businesses responds to the talents and personalities of... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Advertising

18 Mar 2001
Research & Ideas

Want to Be an Entrepreneur? [Part I]

role (himself MBA '75, PhD '82, he is D'Arbeloff MBA Class of 1955 professor of business administration and cochair of the school's entrepreneurship and service management unit), he pointed out that none of these ideas was a business.... View Details

Keywords: by John S. Rosenberg

26 Jan 2004
Research & Ideas

How Women Can Get More Venture Capital

Women-owned businesses are just as financially strong and creditworthy as the average U.S. firm, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Women's Business Research. Yet women struggle more than men to acquire equity capital. Why? According to a 1999 survey,... View Details

Keywords: by Mallory Stark & Martha Lagace

March 2024 (Revised July 2024)
Case

The CHIPS Program Office

By: Mitchell B. Weiss and Sebastian Negron-Reichard

In February 2023, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo weighed signing off on a Notice of Funding Opportunity (“NOFO”) with at least one unconventional provision: a pre-application (“pre-app”) to the actual application for parts of $39 billion in direct semiconductor... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Public Sector; Government Administration; Government Legislation; Motivation and Incentives; Public Administration Industry; Public Administration Industry; United States

26 Nov 2001
Research & Ideas

Women Entrepreneurs Use Springboard for Funding

and law firms dealing with data overload. Seeking $3 million. In an opening welcome, HBS Dean Kim B. Clark said entrepreneurship has become not only a tremendous engine of growth in the United States but also a critically important style... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

17 Dec 2001
Research & Ideas

Venture Capital: Hot Markets and Current Industry Trends

Although plenty has changed for venture capitalists with the slowing of the economy and market upheavals, there are still plenty of opportunities for entrepreneurs and those who fund them, said panelists at the 2001 Harvard Business School View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

May 1998
Case

Diamond in the Rough (B)

By: Thomas J. DeLong and Catherine M. Conneely

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Entrepreneurship; Going Public; Crisis Management; Finance; Consulting Industry; Chicago

12 May 2015
Research & Ideas

How Crowds and Experts Kickstart the Arts

artistic merit therein. The crowd identified breakout theater hits the experts sometimes ignored, but also backed a box office bomb. ©iStock.com/jganser "Crowdfunding has enabled a democratization of access [to funding]," Nanda says in his office at the Rock Center for... View Details

Keywords: Entertainment & Recreation

17 Dec 2001
Research & Ideas

Enterprising Women

business leaders, moderated by HBS professor Myra Hart, at the Harvard Business School Entrepreneurship Conference. Robin Chase said that being a woman did not hinder her ability to start Zipcar, a service allowing customers to rent cars... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

December 2018 (Revised June 2020)
Case

Creating the French Behavioral Insights Team

By: Michael Luca, Ariella Kristal and Emilie Billaud

This case explores how neuroscientist Mariam Chammat helped set up the first behavioral insights team at the center of the French government, and encouraged French administrations to innovate and create policy initiatives based on psychological theories of influence... View Details

Keywords: Choice Architecture; Behavioral Economics; Experiments; Negotiation; Decision Making; Economics; Taxation; Entrepreneurship; Consumer Behavior; Public Administration Industry; Europe; France; Paris

November 1994
Case

VideoGuide, Inc. (A)

By: William A. Sahlman and Jason Green

VideoGuide is emerging from a development stage start-up and requires a significant capital infusion to commercialize its product. Various financing options are considered including going public, venture capital, private placement, or a strategic partner. Given the... View Details

Keywords: Capital Budgeting; Capital; Venture Capital; Financing and Loans; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Initial Public Offering; Markets; Partners and Partnerships; Growth and Development Strategy; Going Public

24 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

How To Be an Angel Investor

seminars, learning an industry by working in it; these are all ways to develop expertise that will promote your success in investing. But in both entrepreneurship and angel investing, there is nothing like doing it. Nothing. The... View Details

Keywords: by David Amis & Howard Stevenson

February 2000 (Revised April 2005)
Case

Gray Security: Building a South African Services Firm

Describes Gray Security Services, an entrepreneurial South African firm that has recently gone through a financial restructuring with the help of Brait Capital Partners, a private equity firm. Gray provides complete security services to companies in South Africa, other... View Details

Keywords: Initial Public Offering; Entrepreneurship; Equity; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Industry; South Africa

17 Oct 2016
HBS Case

Business Solutions That Help Cut Food Waste

As much as 40 percent of food grown in the United States for human consumption is wasted. Source: Eivaisla After decades of wasteful food practices, where perfectly good food is discarded even as poverty keeps many families hungry, solutions are starting to come... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Food & Beverage

18 Aug 2011
Lessons from the Classroom

Business Plan Contest: 15 Years of Building Better Entrepreneurs

nonprofit that recruits and prepares promising candidates to become school principals, NLNS helps place its trainees in urban public schools and provides them with ongoing support once they become principals. “ I've seen more and more... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Education

March 2024
Teaching Note

'Storrowed': A Generative AI Exercise

By: Mitchell Weiss

Teaching Note for HBS Exercise No. 824-188. “Storrowed” is an exercise to help participants raise their proficiency with generative AI. It begins by highlighting a problem: trucks getting wedged underneath bridges in Boston, Massachusetts on the city’s Storrow Drive.... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention; Government Administration; Public Administration Industry; Public Administration Industry