Publications

November 2018 (Revised June 2022)
Teaching Note

AirFox (A): Embracing the Blockchain and an ICO

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Nathaniel Schwalb

Teaching Note for HBS No. 818-097. In summer 2017, Victor Santos, CEO of AirFox, considered whether to pivot his startup towards a new product built with blockchain—a quickly growing technology at the time. AirFox was an early stage startup that sold... View Details

Keywords: Blockchain; Cryptocurrency; Initial Coin Offering; ICO; Business Startups; Finance; Currency; Strategy; Decision Making; United States

22 Apr 2014
First Look

First Look: April 22

decision-making is limited. Exploiting exogenous variation in state compulsory schooling laws in both standard and two-sample instrumental variable strategies, we show... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2018
Introduction

Introduction

By: Sophus A. Reinert

BOOK ABSTRACT: When Istvan Hont died in 2013, the world lost a giant of intellectual history. A leader of the Cambridge School of Political Thought, Hont argued passionately for a global-historical approach to political ideas. To better understand the development of... View Details

Keywords: Markets; Moral Sensibility; Government and Politics; Trade; History

Find at Harvard

August 1993 (Revised November 1994)
Case

Deaver Brown and Cross River, Inc.

Cross River makes and sells an innovative, folding baby stroller to the U.S. market. The company has broken even in its first year, selling mainly to small retailers. CEO Deaver Brown urgently wants to expand distribution to national chains and has secured appointments... View Details

Keywords: Expansion; Entrepreneurship; Product Marketing; Consumer Products Industry; United States

26 Sep 2011
HBS Case

HBS Cases: Lady Gaga

Celebrated for both her outré style and musical prowess, the recording artist known as Lady Gaga is not only one of the world's biggest pop stars, but also one of the most recognized brands. She's garnered five Grammys, holds two spots in... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Entertainment & Recreation; Music

December 2006 (Revised August 2008)
Case

Pervasis Therapeutics, Inc.

By: Robert F. Higgins and Virginia Fuller

In May 2005, Steve Bollinger was about to become president and chief operating officer of Pervasis Therapeutics, a small cell therapy start-up in Cambridge, Mass. If proven successful, Pervasis' product, Vascugel, could change the way vascular disease is treated and... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Venture Capital; Financial Strategy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Health Care and Treatment; Health Testing and Trials; Health Industry; Cambridge

July 2022 (Revised August 2022)
Case

Athletic Brewing Company: Crafting the U.S. Non-Alcoholic Beer Category

By: Ayelet Israeli and Anne V. Wilson

Athletic Brewing Company (“Athletic,” for short) was founded by Bill Shufelt and John Walker in 2017. In creating Athletic, Shufelt and Walker opened the first U.S. brewery and taproom fully devoted to the production of non-alcoholic (NA) craft beer. By 2021, Athletic... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Brands and Branding; Product Development; Product Marketing; Product Positioning; Product Launch; Product Design; Product; Competition; Marketing; Entrepreneurship; Growth Management; Cultural Entrepreneurship; Culture; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

05 Oct 2016
What Do You Think?

Can the US Economy Regain the Growth and Prosperity of the Past?

the middle class in the past with Uber’s small middle class core corps of engineers and large “army of owner drivers treated and priced out like commodities.” Others concentrated on ways of achieving a... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

22 Jan 2014
Research & Ideas

High-Tech Immigrant Workers Don’t Cost US Jobs

Many high-tech companies in the United States look overseas to fill talent gaps in their employment ranks by hiring skilled immigrants, often sponsoring the visas these workers... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Computer; Financial Services

March 2020 (Revised May 2020)
Case

Redefining Mogul

By: George Serafeim, Ethan Rouen and Sarah Gazzaniga

Tiffany Pham taught herself to code and created a technology platform, Mogul, with the goal of providing girls and women around the world with information and opportunities. After several years Mogul had reached more than 146 million women around the world and had... View Details

Keywords: Women; Inclusion; Technology; Branding; Social Impact; Entrepreneurship; Internet and the Web; Information; Knowledge Dissemination; Gender; Diversity; Brands and Branding; Expansion; Strategy; Media; Personal Development and Career; Technology Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; United States

27 Mar 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research, March 27, 2018

of growing importance and has created fresh opportunities for new product development. Pioneering a new application of supervised document classification, we consider over 35,000 new medical devices that came to market View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

14 Jan 2002
Research & Ideas

Countries on the Cusp: The Power of Nationalism

What does nationalism mean for the world economy? And what does it have to say in a world of ever-increasing globalization? We recently put those questions to political... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

25 Sep 2017
Research & Ideas

Why Politics is Failing America, and What Business Can Do To Help

personified the success of modern democracy after World War II could have fallen into a state of failure and inertia, with no end in sight. “How do you have this system that’s... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette

July 2015
Case

Uncharted Play (A)

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Ali Huberlie

The case recounts the process of launching an early stage venture, from idea conception through initial efforts to validate the concept, followed by product launch, and fund raising. It emphasizes the Customer Value Proposition of the business model, and asks – Who is... View Details

Keywords: Early Stage; Female Protagonist; Value Proposition; Team Building; Founders' Agreements; Start-up; Entrepreneurship; Business Model; Business Startups; Sports; United States; North America; Nigeria; Africa

27 Jun 2011
Research & Ideas

Recovering from the Need to Achieve

his office isn't as big as Jenny's. And he blames others when he screws up. Joe is an HNAP, or a high-need-for-achievement professional, according to Harvard Business School professor Thomas J. DeLong, who explores Joe's world of driven,... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

01 Jul 2013
Research & Ideas

Crowdfunding a Poor Investment?

offers funders more than just the intangible reward of supporting a company or cause they believe in; it also gives them a direct share in the company that can produce returns over time. Think of it as E*TRADE, but for private companies... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

October 2022
Case

Colette Phillips and GetKonnected!: Creating Inclusive Ecosystems

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Amy Chiu and Joyce Kim

Colette Phillips’ marketing firm had just won the City of Boston’s 2nd largest contract in history to a Black-owned company. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Get Konnected!, the networking organization for people of color that she founded 15 years earlier and led to... View Details