Publications

October 2022
Case

EducationSuperHighway 2.0

By: William A. Sahlman, Allison M. Ciechanover and Emily Grandjean

In 2012, Evan Marwell launched EducationSuperHighway (ESH) to address a major problem: though most public K-12 schools in the US had access to the Internet, only roughly 30% had true broadband access that would enable every student to have high speed connectivity. ... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Social Entrepreneurship; Social Issues; Leading Change; Early Childhood Education; Infrastructure; Internet and the Web; Telecommunications Industry; Education Industry; Technology Industry; United States; San Francisco

May 2022
Case

Deborah Quazzo at GSV Ventures

By: William A. Sahlman, Michael D. Smith and Nicole Tempest Keller

As COVID-19 swept across the globe in 2020, the education sector faced unprecedented disruption. Schools and colleges worldwide shut down, forcing over a billion students and teachers to move to online learning. Investor interest in the EdTech space exploded as... View Details

Keywords: Edtech; Technology; Online Learning; COVID-19 Pandemic; Education; Information Technology; Venture Capital; Change Management; Strategy; Education Industry; Financial Services Industry; Chicago; California

November 2017
Supplement

Winning (and Losing) the Olympics: Boston 2024 (B)

By: David Fubini, Ethan Bernstein, Mark Saadine, Sarah McAra and James Barnett

A summary of events that occurred after the (A) case, including Los Angeles winning nomination for the 2028 Olympics with assistance from Pagliuca and Boston 2024 bid material. View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Projects; Los Angeles; Boston

23 Jun 2020
Book

Beginning America Over Again with a New Electoral System

years later, the spirit of American revolution still reverberates for many of us, and the successes of initiatives in states such as Maine and California reinvigorate the democratic renegade in our marrow. But skepticism is bound to creep... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

10 May 2017
Research & Ideas

Amazon Web Services Changed the Way VCs Fund Startups

with Michael Ewens of the California Institute of Technology and Matthew Rhodes-Kropf of MIT Sloan School of Management. The researchers focus on one of the most important technological shifts in recent years—the introduction of Amazon... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Banking; Financial Services; Information Technology

14 Sep 2016
Research & Ideas

Web Surfers Have a Schedule and Stick to It

is crucial to online success. A recent research paper offers insights that carry unexpected implications for advertisers or anyone else trying to capture that attention. The Empirical Economics of Online Attention was written by Andre Boik, University of View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail; Web Services

24 Feb 2015
First Look

First Look: February 24

incident response to the terror attack. This abridged version of their final report focuses on the lessons learnt. Publisher's link: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/content/download/67364/1242266/version/1/file/Making+Boston+Stronger_ICSS+Journal.pdf February 2015 View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

17 Aug 2015
Research & Ideas

Who is Boss in the Sharing Economy?

than traditional businesses that employ their workers. And so it seemed until June, when the California Labor Commission disrupted the sharing economy when it declared that an Uber driver was an employee, not an independent contractor.... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Service; Technology

July 2020 (Revised September 2020)
Case

The Honor Foundation: Accessing Special Operations Talent

By: Boris Groysberg and John Masko

In 2020, The Honor Foundation (THF), a nonprofit dedicated to helping U.S. military special operators to transition into civilian careers, was facing a series of strategic challenges. THF had been founded in 2013 by former Navy SEAL trainee Joe Musselman, who observed... View Details

July 2000 (Revised June 2002)
Case

Dawn Riley at America True (A)

By: Linda A. Hill and Kristin Doughty

Dawn Riley is the CEO/Captain of America True, the first coed syndicate to race for the America's Cup. Over three years, based on her vision for America True, she built the syndicate from scratch, bringing on investors and sponsors, designing and building a boat, and... View Details

Keywords: Management Style; Leadership; Problems and Challenges; Sports; Gender; Business Startups; North and Central America; New Zealand; San Francisco

30 Sep 2008
First Look

First Look: September 30, 2008

contracting intensity in privately governed organizations, whereas we expect no such association for publicly governed organizations. We analyze data from California hospitals to determine differences in these roles across ownership... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

August 2014 (Revised March 2015)
Case

Molycorp: Issuing the 'Happy Meal' Securities (B)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and E. Scott Mayfield

Molycorp, the Western hemisphere's only producer of rare earth minerals, was in the middle of a $1 billion capital expansion in its effort to become a vertically integrated supplier of rare earth minerals, oxides, and metals. After reporting lower than expected... View Details

27 Jul 2019
Op-Ed

Does Facebook's Business Model Threaten Our Elections?

California passed a similar law last year, which will go into effect in 2020. It’s an open question whether that law will spur the US Congress to enact similar measures, or water down California’s law. Congress has been talking about a... View Details

Keywords: by George Riedel

July 2020
Technical Note

Digital Natives Growing Without a Sales Force

By: Das Narayandas, Michael Norris and Amram Migdal

This brief case describes the rise of so-called digital natives (also called born-in-digital) in the 2000s and 2010s that successfully grew without a sales force. The case highlights the emergence of business-to-business Internet and cloud-based companies and their... View Details

Research Summary

Managing sustainability in supply chains

By: Michael W. Toffel

I am examining codes of conduct, management process standards, and government voluntary programs that address environmental and labor issues, seeking to understand what enables some of these programs to actually deliver on their promise of distinguishing organizations... View Details

Keywords: Environment; Environmental Performance; Environmental Regulation; Environmental Strategy; Regulation; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; Service Industry; Construction Industry; United States; California

June 2024
Supplement

Legacy Partners (A)

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Instructors should consider the timing of making videos available to students, as they may reveal key case details.

Stephen Holbrook and Austin Pulsipher (both HBS '19) had been leading Nutrishare since acquiring the company six months earlier in mid-2021.... View Details

January 2021
Supplement

Bespoken Spirits: Disrupting Distilling

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

On October 7, 2020, Bespoken Spirits publicly announced it had received $2.6 million of seed funding for its “sustainable maturation process,” a process that could produce award-winning whiskeys in just days rather than years using a novel technology and data science. ... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Business Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Disruption; Entrepreneurship; Environmental Sustainability; Cash Flow; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Brands and Branding; Business Model; Consumer Products Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Service Industry; United States; California

March 2019 (Revised June 2019)
Supplement

Gender and Free Speech at Google (C)

By: Nien-hê Hsieh and Sarah Mehta

This case reveals Google’s response to a list of employee demands aiming to combat sexual misconduct in the workplace. This case should accompany the (A) and (B) cases, “Gender and Free Speech at Google” (318-085) and (319-085). View Details

Keywords: Free Speech; Ethnicity; Gender; Race; Employees; Employee Relationship Management; Recruitment; Labor; Employment; Lawsuits and Litigation; Technology Industry; United States; California