Publications
Publications
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(4,846)
- Faculty Publications (1,162)
- January 2025
- Case
AI Meets VC: The Data-Driven Revolution at Quantum Light Capital
By: Lauren Cohen, Grace Headinger and Sophia Pan
Ilya Kondrashov, CEO of Quantum Light Capital, was driven to harness AI for identifying high-potential scale-ups. Collaborating with Nik Storonsky, founder of Revolut, the duo observed that most venture capital (VC) decisions were heavily influenced by emotion, with... View Details
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Business Finance; Data Analysis; Angel Investors; Cognitive Biases; Scale; Venture Capital; Investment; Business Model; Forecasting and Prediction; Technological Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Behavior; Cognition and Thinking; Public Opinion; Private Sector; Business Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Business Earnings; Behavioral Finance; AI and Machine Learning; Analytics and Data Science; Business Startups; Financial Services Industry; London; United Kingdom
- January 2025
- Case
PayJoy: Financing for the Next Billion
By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott
PayJoy, an impact-driven financial technology company founded in 2015, provides smartphone financing and other financial products to customers who lack access to traditional credit products. As of early 2025, PayJoy had issued $2.5 billion in loans to 13 million... View Details
Keywords: Social Impact; Fintech; Underbanked; Algorithm; Data Analysis; Technology; Business Startups; Business Model; Growth and Development; Information Technology; Social Enterprise; Developing Countries and Economies; Credit; Mission and Purpose; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Financial Services Industry; Technology Industry; South America; South Africa; Asia; Latin America; Africa; Southeast Asia
- 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
Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Multinational Firms and Management; Recruitment; Compensation and Benefits; Innovation Leadership; Innovation Strategy; Leadership Style; Business or Company Management; Management Practices and Processes; Management Succession; E-commerce; Emerging Markets; Distribution; Logistics; Organizational Culture; Organizational Design; Business Strategy; Competition; Growth and Development Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Technology Industry; Financial Services Industry; Retail Industry; Latin America; Mexico; Brazil; Argentina
- 2025
- Working Paper
CEO-Firm Matches and Productivity in 42 Countries
By: Amanda Dahlstrand, Dávid László, Helena Schweiger, Oriana Bandiera, Andrea Prat and Raffaella Sadun
Firms are key to economic development, and CEOs are key to firm productivity. Are firms in countries at varying stages of development led by the right CEOs, and if not, why? We develop a parsimonious measure of CEO time use that allows us to differentiate CEOs into... View Details
- November 2024 (Revised July 2025)
- Case
Polish Agro: Where Do We Grow from Here?
By: Willy C. Shih, Lena Duchene and Daniela Beyersdorfer
By July 2024, Polish Agro had grown into one of Poland’s fastest-growing agribusinesses, with €230 million in revenue, 82 employees, and operations across Northern Poland. The company supported farmers with essential agricultural inputs like fertilizers and seeds,... View Details
Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Distribution; Volatility; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain; Climate Change; Environmental Regulation; Profit; Trade; Digital Strategy; Innovation Strategy; Crisis Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Resource Allocation; Advertising; Brands and Branding; E-commerce; Business and Community Relations; Networks; Adaptation; Adoption; Competitive Advantage; Business Model; Health Pandemics; War; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Europe; Poland
- November 2024 (Revised May 2025)
- Case
Indonesia Education Reform: Merdeka Belajar ('Emancipated Learning')
By: John Jong-Hyun Kim, Adina Wong, Nancy Hua Dai and Mary C. Sauer
This case is set in 2024 in Indonesia, as Nadiem Makarim, Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology, reflects on his tenure as Minister shortly before stepping down. With the ambition to lift Indonesia out of the middle-income gap by raising K12 to... View Details
- November 2024 (Revised December 2024)
- Case
Moonfare and the Democratization of Private Equity
By: Victoria Ivashina and Srimayi Mylavarapu
Founded in 2016, Moonfare headquartered in Europe, was a pioneer in the “democratization” of private equity investments. Historically, private equity was accessible only to institutional investors like pension funds, endowments, sovereign wealth funds, and large family... View Details
- October 2024
- Teaching Plan
Teamworks: Tackling a Forecasting Fumble
By: Lou Shipley and Stacy Straaberg
In late March 2018, Teamworks CEO Zach Maurides learned Q1 2018 sales were at risk for a large forecasting miss. Founded in 2004, Teamworks’s software application assisted support staff in messaging, scheduling, and sharing documents with collegiate and professional... View Details
Keywords: Acquisition; Business Growth and Maturation; Communication Strategy; Decisions; Forecasting and Prediction; Business Cycles; Technological Innovation; Sports; Growth and Development Strategy; Resource Allocation; Marketing; Sales; Business Strategy; Expansion; Sports Industry; Technology Industry; United States; North Carolina
- October 2024
- Background Note
Outsourcing Primer
By: Willy C. Shih
This note provides some background on one of the key resource allocation decisions managers make as they develop and produce products and services: what should they do with the walls of their own firm, and what they should depend upon suppliers or contractors to... View Details
- 2024
- Other Unpublished Work
A Proposal for the IMF: A New Instrument of International Liquidity Provision for Emerging Markets and Developing Economies
By: Laura Alfaro, Guillermo Calvo, José de Gregorio, Augusto de la Torre, Pablo Guidotti, Enrique Mendoza, Ernesto Talvi, Liliana Rojas-Suarez and Andrés Velasco
This paper addresses a critical flaw in the international financial system: the failure to address the inherent asymmetry between countries that issue reserve currencies and those that do not, leaving the latter vulnerable during systemic liquidity crises. We propose... View Details
- September 2024
- Case
Faena: Magic in Mid-Miami Beach
By: Robin Greenwood, Denise Han, Dave Habeeb and Ruth Page
The link to this multimedia case should be provided to students in advance as preparation for classroom case discussion.
This multimedia case follows real estate developer Alan Faena as he expanded his luxury development business from Argentina to the... View Details
This multimedia case follows real estate developer Alan Faena as he expanded his luxury development business from Argentina to the... View Details
Keywords: Development; Real Estate; Hotels; Luxury; Urban Development; Sustainable Cities; Design; Markets; Transformation; Cost vs Benefits; Economic Growth; Private Sector; Public Sector; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Cultural Entrepreneurship; Financial Strategy; Investment Return; Geographic Location; Urban Scope; Corporate Accountability; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Opportunities; Culture; Value Creation; Real Estate Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Florida; Miami; Argentina; Buenos Aires
- September 2024 (Revised February 2025)
- Case
Aramco: Navigating the Energy Transition
By: Tarun Khanna and Gizem Cihan Dincsoy
In March 2024, Amin Nasser, president, and CEO of the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco), had just delivered a speech about the future of energy at a global energy conference. The world was behind schedule in meeting long-term climate change goals. The global shift... View Details
- September 2024
- Case
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor
By: Meg Rithmire, Hong Zhang and Salaar A. Shaikh
Since the launch of CPEC, two of Pakistan’s Prime Ministers had been removed from office, one by the Supreme Court and the other in a no confidence vote. Historic floods had underscored the country’s vulnerability to climate change, and the country had agreed to two... View Details
- August 2024
- Case
Ashesi University: The Journey from Vision to Reality
By: Ranjay Gulati and Caroline de Lacvivier
In 1997, Patrick Awuah had a dream: to bring liberal arts education to Ghana. Amid the country’s declining economy and pervasive corruption problems, Awuah saw education as an opportunity to reverse its fortunes by investing in the next generation of African leaders.... View Details
- August 2024
- Case
Quickmart: Sustaining Growth in a Challenging Economic Environment
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Kuria Kamau
In July 2023, Peter Kang’iri, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Quickmart, Kenya’s second-largest retail chain, sat in his Nairobi office reviewing the company’s first half financial results before the weekly executive committee (EXCO) meeting. The company was in... View Details
- Working Paper
The Returns to Skills During the Pandemic: Experimental Evidence from Uganda
By: Livia Alfonsi, Vittorio Bassi, Imran Rasul and Elena Spadini
The Covid-19 pandemic represents one of the most significant labor market shocks to the world economy in recent times. We present evidence from a field experiment to understand whether and why skilled and unskilled workers were differentially impacted by the shock, in... View Details
- July 2024 (Revised January 2025)
- Case
Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors: Bringing Systematic Investment to Philanthropy
By: Lauren Cohen, Hao Gao, Alexander Bischoff and Sophia Pan
Melissa Berman, CEO of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA), evaluated her client’s philanthropy project and its mediocre performance. RPA was a segment of the Rockefeller Family Office’s Philanthropy Department, becoming an independent charity in 2002. Consistently... View Details
Keywords: Philanthropic Sector; Foundation; Due Diligence; Humanitarianism; Humanitarian Assistance; Grants; HNW Products And Services; Donations; Impact; Advisor; Advice; Consulting; Funding; Consulting Services; Family Business; Cost vs Benefits; Developing Countries and Economies; Private Sector; Spending; Mission and Purpose; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Performance Evaluation; Nonprofit Organizations; Reputation; Social and Collaborative Networks; Social Issues; Wealth and Poverty; Experience and Expertise; Consulting Industry; New York (city, NY); New York (state, US); United States
- July 2024
- Case
Jacqueline Cook at Vendasta: Debating an IPO
By: Reza Satchu, Tom Quinn and Andrew Kosc
In May 2021, after a surge in demand for digital services that prompted high valuations for startups across the Canadian tech sector, Saskatchewan-based Vendasta entered the final stages of the initial public offering (IPO) process. COO Jacqueline Cook had invested her... View Details
Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Interpersonal Communication; Cost vs Benefits; Forecasting and Prediction; Business Cycles; Entrepreneurship; Fairness; Capital Markets; Private Equity; Investment Banking; Stock Options; Financial Markets; Initial Public Offering; Institutional Investing; Price Bubble; Digital Platforms; Digital Transformation; Internet and the Web; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Managerial Roles; Agreements and Arrangements; Going Public; Ownership Stake; Performance Expectations; Work-Life Balance; Strategic Planning; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Rank and Position; Risk and Uncertainty; Opportunities; Happiness; Reputation; Status and Position; Well-being; Information Technology Industry; Retail Industry; Canada
- July 2024
- Case
Wizards of the Coast and Magic: The Rebounding
By: Boris Groysberg and Tom Quinn
This case traces the history and growth of the Magic: The Gathering trading card game. From its development in 1993 by tiny studio Wizards of the Coast, to Wizards’ acquisition by toy giant Hasbro in 1999, to its evolution into a billion-dollar brand in 2023,... View Details
Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Change Management; Transformation; Cost vs Benefits; Business Cycles; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Global Strategy; Growth and Development; Selection and Staffing; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation Leadership; Intellectual Property; Job Design and Levels; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Leading Change; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Management Succession; Risk Management; Brands and Branding; Product Positioning; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Expansion; Mergers and Acquisitions; Product Development; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States; Washington (state, US); Seattle; Japan
- June 2024
- Teaching Note
Miami's Climate Tech Potential (A): The State of Play
By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 324-119. Miami-Dade County led the work to get South Florida designated a national climate resilience tech hub, the only one of 31 focused on climate change, an urgent major issue for the region in light of global warming and sea level... View Details