Publications

31 Oct 2017
News

Predictions for the Future of Small Business Lending and Fintech

July 2018 (Revised January 2019)
Teaching Note

MC Tool

By: Richard S. Ruback, Royce Yudkoff and Ahron Rosenfeld

Sean Witty and Jason Premo acquired MC Tool, a machine shop located in South Carolina in 2007 with the intent to transform it into a precision manufacturer. Witty and Premo were able to more than double revenue to $6 million in their first year of managing MC by... View Details

Keywords: Small ＆ Medium-sized Enterprises; Small Business; Production; Transformation; Problems and Challenges; Financial Condition; Business Strategy; Manufacturing Industry; United States

July 16, 2015
Article

How Small Businesses Can Fend Off Hackers

By: Lou Shipley

If you wanted to hack a business, which one would you pick: A Fortune 500 company with a large digital-security budget and a team dedicated to protecting its cyberassets? Or a small enterprise that doesn’t employ a single IT security specialist? Security breaches at... View Details

Keywords: Hack; Data Security; Small Business; Analytics and Data Science; Safety; Information Technology; Cybersecurity

Register to Read

August 2019 (Revised July 2023)
Course Overview Note

Demystifying the Family Enterprise

By: Christina R. Wing and Madeline Keulen

90% of the GDP in the world is created through family-owned businesses. Family businesses are frequently thought to be exclusively mom-and-pop, small businesses. Most fail to realize that Walmart, Fidelity, Cargill, Koch Industries, and Ford, to name a few, are all... View Details

Keywords: Family Office; Family Business; Family Ownership

Web

Social Enterprise & Nonprofits Programs

December 2001 (Revised June 2002)
Case

Monsanto: Technology Cooperation and Small Holder Farmer Projects

By: James E. Austin, Diana Barrett and Stephanie Oestreich

As the leading plant technology company in the global food system, how can Monsanto share this technology with small-sale producers and not-for-profit researchers and institutions? View Details

Keywords: Food; Globalized Markets and Industries; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Nonprofit Organizations; Society; Technology; Biotechnology Industry

01 Feb 2012
What Do You Think?

Is Support for Small Business Misplaced?

small business. (Because of outsourcing) It is big networks made up of small partners. And the way to make this type of enterprise thrive does... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

Web

Impact of the New Medium - Edwin H. Land & Polaroid | Harvard Business School

Steve Allen Show in 1954, where television hosts revealed through one new medium the wonders of another. 71 Polaroid excelled at customer service. Camera owners received letters of welcome and inviting... View Details

03 Apr 2019
Book

Fintech's Game-Changing Opportunities for Small Business

will dramatically change the options for small businesses.” Her new book, Fintech, Small Business, & the American Dream: How Technology is Transforming Lending and Shaping... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Banking; Financial Services

15 Sep 2008
Research & Ideas

The Coming Transformation of Social Enterprise

Professor Kash Rangan is one of the pioneers of Harvard Business School's Social Enterprise Initiative, now 15 years old. Back in 1993, most people took a "spray and pray" approach to... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson

20 Mar 2019
Working Paper Summaries

In the Shadows? Informal Enterprise in Non-Democracies

Keywords: by Kristin Fabbe, Allison Spencer Hartnett, and Steve L. Monroe

March 2022
Case

The Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program: 2009-2021

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Julia Kelley

In December 2021, more than a decade after its founding, Goldman Sachs’s 10,000 Small Businesses program was still going strong — and the firm now needed to evaluate potential program modifications to reach a wider group of small business owners. Launched in the... View Details

March 2011 (Revised November 2011)
Case

Harmonic Hearing Co.

By: Howard H. Stevenson and Craig H. Stephenson

Harmonic is a small, privately held manufacturer of hearing aids. Harriet Burns and Marc Davis, two employees at Harmonic, have an opportunity to purchase the company from the founder. As well-informed insiders who understand the industry, Burns and Davis believe the... View Details

Keywords: Debts; Quantitative Analysis; Financing; Entrepreneurial Finance; Development Stage Enterprises; Small ＆ Medium-sized Enterprises; Small Business; Business Growth and Maturation; Cash Flow; Mathematical Methods; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Borrowing and Debt; Equity; Manufacturing Industry

March 2011 (Revised November 2011)
Teaching Note

Harmonic Hearing Co. (Brief Case)

By: Howard H. Stevenson and Craig Stephenson

Teaching Note for 4271. View Details

Keywords: Debts; Quantitative Analysis; Financing; Entrepreneurial Finance; Development Stage Enterprises; Small ＆ Medium-sized Enterprises; Cash Flow; Mathematical Methods; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Borrowing and Debt

Web

Medium of Artistic Expression - Edwin H. Land & Polaroid | Harvard Business School

sensibility, Land conceived of his revolutionary system as a democratic art form and means of expression. "An enormous number of people who lack talent or inclination for the early arts, do have the taste for View Details

May 2020
Teaching Note

Talismark

By: Richard S. Ruback, Royce Yudkoff and Ahron Rosenfeld

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 211-097. Talismark negotiated waste hauling contracts for small and medium size companies. Its owners, Charles Muszynski and Marshall Staiman, were able to grow the business by more than 30% per year since it was founded, but believed... View Details

Keywords: Small Business; Small Business Administration; Infrastructure; Restructuring; Business Processes; Information Management; Sales; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Wastes and Waste Processing

December 2012
Course Overview Note

Entrepreneurial Management in a Turnaround Environment (EMTE) Fall 2012: Course Overview and Syllabus

Course Overview and Syllabus in the Fall Term 2012 for the Entrepreneurial Management in a Turnaround Environment (EMTE) course. View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Management; Entrepreneurs; Entrepreneurship; Turnarounds; Bankruptcy Reorganization; Bankruptcy; Small ＆ Medium-sized Enterprises; Careers; Entrepreneurial Finance; Distressed Debt; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture