Publications

March 2021
Teaching Plan

The Black New Venture Competition

By: Karen G. Mills, Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Martin A. Sinozich and Gabriella Elanbeck

Black entrepreneurs encounter many unique obstacles when raising capital to start and grow a business, some stemming from deep systemic discrimination. During their second year at Harvard Business School (HBS), MBA students Kimberly Foster and Tyler Simpson decided to... View Details

September 2022
Teaching Note

Can Goodr Fight Food Insecurity at Scale?

By: William R. Kerr, Daniel Isenberg and Ria Mazumdar

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 822-143. View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise; Social Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneur; African-american Entrepreneurs; Food Waste; Food Insecurity

March 2007 (Revised April 2011)
Case

Madam C.J. Walker: Entrepreneur, Leader, and Philanthropist

By: Nancy F. Koehn, Anne Dwojeski, William Grundy, Erica Helms and Katherine Miller

Madam C. J. Walker, who has been credited as the first self-made African-American woman millionaire, created a hair-care empire after years spent as a laundress in St. Louis, Missouri. Decades before the Civil Rights movement, her company gave employment to thousands... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Business History; Race; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Entrepreneurship; Personal Development and Career; Gender; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Saint Louis

13 Jul 2011
News

Toyota Pitches Its RAV4 to a New Demographic

December 2004 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Managing Diversity at Cityside Financial Services

By: Robin J. Ely and Ingrid Vargas

Cityside Financial Services, a disguised consumer bank, serves both a largely African-American urban community and a more affluent, predominantly white clientele. To match the gender and racial makeup of its staff to that of its customers, Cityside's sales division... View Details

Keywords: Selection and Staffing; Situation or Environment; Race; Employees; Gender; Customer Satisfaction; Diversity; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry

December 2004 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Managing a Public Image: Kevin Knight

By: Robin J. Ely and Ingrid Vargas

Kevin Knight recounts an uncomfortable situation he faced as an African-American student at Harvard Business School. Concerned with maintaining an image as a calm and rational person, he is appalled when he finds himself in a heated classroom exchange in defense of an... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Ethnicity; Identity; Competency and Skills; Business Education

28 Feb 2018
News

Harvard Business School Celebrates Black Alumni

16 Nov 2015
Video

Diversity Perspectives

April 2017
Article

Racial Discrimination in the Sharing Economy: Evidence from a Field Experiment

By: Benjamin Edelman, Michael Luca and Daniel Svirsky

In an experiment on Airbnb, we find that applications from guests with distinctively African-American names are 16% less likely to be accepted relative to identical guests with distinctively White names. Discrimination occurs among landlords of all sizes, including... View Details

Keywords: Discrimination; Field Experiment; Bias; Airbnb; Prejudice and Bias; Race; Accommodations Industry

Find at Harvard

Read Now

09 Aug 2024
Video

HBS on the Vineyard

10 Dec 2015
News

Harvard study finds people with black-sounding names have a harder time booking on Airbnb

June 1994 (Revised March 1995)
Case

Kurt Landgraf and Du Pont Merck Pharmaceutical Co. (A)

Kurt Landgraf, newly named CEO of Du Pont Merck Pharmaceutical Co., addresses complaints of discrimination from African-American scientists in R&D during significant downsizing and dramatic changes within the pharmaceutical industry. View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Race Characteristics; Gender Characteristics; Diversity Characteristics; Conflict and Resolution; Pharmaceutical Industry