Publications

03 Mar 2003
Research & Ideas

Top Ten Legal Mistakes Made by Entrepreneurs

they leave earlier, that stock can be retrieved and given to whoever is brought in to replace them. #8: Hiring a lawyer not experienced in dealing with entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. Many venture capitalists say that they often... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

08 Dec 2003
Research & Ideas

Why Europe Lags in Pharmaceuticals and Biotech

Governmental, academic, and cultural differences are hurting Europe's chances of creating more competitive pharmaceutical and biotech industries—and not much hope is on the horizon, according to a panel of experts at the 2003 HBS European... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Biotechnology; Health; Pharmaceutical; Technology

31 May 2023
HBS Case

Why Business Leaders Need to Hear Larry Miller's Story

View Video Editor's note: Watch the video in "full screen" mode for the best viewing experience. If Larry Miller hadn’t concealed his criminal record, would he ever have been given the chance to turn his life around? Would his talent have... View Details

Keywords: by Jamal Meneide; Entertainment & Recreation; Consumer Products

04 Feb 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Unravelling in Two-Sided Matching Markets and Similarity of Preferences

Keywords: by Hanna Halaburda

04 Apr 2012
Research & Ideas

When Founders Recruit Friends and Family as Investors

chance to thrive. Drawing on more than a decade of researching smashing successes and painful failures alike, Wasserman walks readers through the dilemmas that plague and challenge most new entrepreneurs, starting with pre-founding career... View Details

Keywords: by Noam Wasserman

2002
Book

Searching for a Corporate Savior: The Irrational Quest for Charismatic CEOs

By: Rakesh Khurana

Corporate CEOs are headline news. Stock prices rise and fall at word of their hiring and firing. Business media debate their merits and defects as if individual leaders determined the health of the economy. Yet we know surprisingly little about how CEOs are selected... View Details

Keywords: Managerial Roles; Selection and Staffing; Personal Characteristics; Experience and Expertise; Investment Activism; Corporate Strategy

Find at Harvard

April 2021
Case

Distinct Software

By: Das Narayandas, Arijit Sengupta and Jonathan Wray

Distinct Software (disguised name), a global enterprise software company, is at an important point in its growth trajectory where the luster of its mantra of “grow and win at any cost” has dimmed with increasing competition and margin pressures. To help navigate its... View Details

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Marketing; Sales; Performance Productivity; Technological Innovation; AI and Machine Learning

08 Jan 2020
Research & Ideas

NFL Head Coaches Are Getting Younger. What Can Organizations Learn?

Post article, a mindset shift has occurred among owners and general managers responsible for hiring coaches: They are starting to embrace innovative offensive tactics, and to empower head coaches who can implement them. “For years,”... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg, Evan M.S. Hecht, and Abhijit Naik; Sports

2022
Working Paper

Coordination and Incumbency Advantage in Multi-Party Systems: Evidence from French Elections

By: Kevin Dano, Francesco Ferlenga, Vincenzo Galasso, Caroline Le Pennec and Vincent Pons

In theory, free and fair elections can improve the selection of politicians and incentivize them to exert effort. In practice, incumbency advantage and coordination issues may lead to the (re)election of bad politicians. We ask whether these two forces compound each... View Details

Keywords: Political Parties; Incumbent Politicians; Democracy; Political Elections; Competitive Advantage

Read Now

January–February 2017
Article

Buying Your Way into Entrepreneurship

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

An increasingly popular route to success as a small business owner is “acquisition entrepreneurship”—buying and running an existing operation. If you’re considering such a path, the authors offer practical advice for each stage of the process. Think it through. Do you... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Acquisition; Planning

Find at Harvard

Register to Read

18 Nov 2021
Op-Ed

5 Principles for Scaling Change from IBM’s High School Innovation

students are graduates of Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH), an innovative six-year public high school program spearheaded by IBM that has improved college completion rates among disadvantaged youth and created a View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

May 2019
Supplement

Kjell and Company: Motivating Salespeople with Incentive Compensation (D)

By: Doug J. Chung

Kjell & Company was a Swedish retail electronics chain. The company’s products consisted of home electronics and accessories. The company was noted for its excellent customer service and a fair “one-for-all” HR policy. Historically, the salespeople had been compensated... View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management; Compensation and Benefits; Motivation and Incentives; Change Management; Behavior; Electronics Industry; Sweden

2014
Working Paper

The Unfairness Trap: A Key Missing Factor in the Economic Theory of Discrimination

By: Jordan I. Siegel, Naomi Kodama and Hanna Halaburda

Prior evidence linking increased female representation in management to corporate performance has been surprisingly mixed, due in part to data limitations and methodological difficulties, and possibly to omission of a fairness factor in the economic theory of... View Details

Keywords: Managerial Roles; Fairness; Performance Productivity; Gender; Japan

SSRN

Read Now

October 1991 (Revised October 2004)
Case

Hilton Manufacturing Company

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

A professional manager is hired by a small manufacturing company after the president discovers he made poor decisions. One product appears to be unprofitable, whereas the product sold in highest volume is under competitive price pressure. A crude cost accounting system... View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Asset Pricing; Problems and Challenges; Risk and Uncertainty; Decisions; Governance Controls; Performance Effectiveness; Business Strategy; Two-Sided Platforms; Fair Value Accounting; Manufacturing Industry

January 2017 (Revised May 2019)
Case

Kjell and Company: Motivating Salespeople with Incentive Compensation (A)

By: Doug J. Chung

Kjell & Company was a Swedish retail electronics chain. The company’s products consisted of home electronics and accessories. The company was noted for its excellent customer service and a fair “one-for-all” HR policy. Historically, the salespeople had been compensated... View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management; Compensation and Benefits; Change; Decision Making; Electronics Industry; Sweden

May 2019
Supplement

Kjell and Company: Motivating Salespeople with Incentive Compensation (C)

By: Doug J. Chung

Kjell & Company was a Swedish retail electronics chain. The company’s products consisted of home electronics and accessories. The company was noted for its excellent customer service and a fair “one-for-all” HR policy. Historically, the salespeople had been compensated... View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management; Compensation and Benefits; Change Management; Behavior; Electronics Industry; Sweden