Publications

June 2017
Teaching Note

TalentCorp Malaysia and the Returning Expert Programme

By: William R. Kerr and Alexis Brownell

Teaching Note for HBS No. 817-092. View Details

2015
Chapter

Agglomeration and Innovation

By: Gerald Carlino and William R. Kerr

This chapter reviews academic research on the connections between agglomeration and innovation. We first describe the conceptual distinctions between invention and innovation. We then describe how these factors are frequently measured in the data and some resulting... View Details

Keywords: Industry Clusters; City; Innovation and Invention

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September 2013
Case

Homestrings, Inc.: Diaspora-Based Financing and the Crowd Funding of Development

By: William R. Kerr and Alexis Brownell

Homestrings is an online investment platform for overseas diasporas to link financially with their home countries. The founder believes crowd-funding can become a pillar for development, but U.S. regulatory hurdles and resources constraints are substantial. The company... View Details

Keywords: Diasporas; Investments; Regulations; Africa; Crowd-funding; Development Finance; Entrepreneurship; Business Growth and Maturation; Financial Services Industry; Africa; United States

June 2013 (Revised August 2013)
Case

AVA.ph: Growing a Filipino E-Commerce Company

By: William R. Kerr and Henry Motte-Munoz

AVA is a three-year old e-commerce company in the Philippines. From its early start mimicking the Gilt Groupe concept of online flash sales, the company has grown into a broader e-commerce platform for local fashion commerce. Oliver Segovia needs to evaluate where AVA... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Business Growth and Maturation; Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Fashion Industry; Retail Industry; Philippines

September 2012 (Revised February 2013)
Case

micro Home Solutions: A Social Housing Initiative in India

By: William R. Kerr and Alexis Brownell

mHS is a social enterprise for the provision of affordable housing in India. After India's microfinance industry collapses, mHS needs to reposition itself for continued operations and long-term growth. View Details

Keywords: India; Loans; Development; Micro Finance; Entrepreneurship; Housing; Social Enterprise; Poverty; India

April – May 2010
Article

Banking Deregulations, Financing Constraints and Firm Entry Size

We examine the effect of US branch banking deregulations on the entry size of new firms using micro-data from the US Census Bureau. We find that the average entry size for startups did not change following the deregulations. However, among firms that survived at least... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Financing and Loans; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Market Entry and Exit; Banking Industry; United States

2009
Working Paper

Financing Constraints and Entrepreneurship

2011
Chapter

Financing Constraints and Entrepreneurship

Financing constraints are one of the biggest concerns impacting potential entrepreneurs around the world. Given the important role that entrepreneurship is believed to play in the process of economic growth, alleviating financing constraints for would-be entrepreneurs... View Details

Keywords: Economic Growth; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Investment; Policy; Research

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2007
Chapter

The Rationales and Performance of Public Venturing: Survey Evidence from Belgium and Finland

By: Ant Bozkaya and William R. Kerr

Keywords: Public Sector; Public Ownership; Mission and Purpose; Performance; Belgium; Finland

June 2022 (Revised October 2022)
Case

Can Goodr Fight Food Insecurity at Scale?

By: Daniel Isenberg and William R. Kerr

Jasmine Crowe founded Goodr to redirect food waste to people in need. Now a profitable enterprise, she’s searching for Series A funding and encountering pushback. Scaling and contract concerns are also at the forefront of her mind, but so are her values. Feeding... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Investor Demand; Food; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Values and Beliefs; Social Issues; Race; Opportunities; Contracts; Mission and Purpose; Financing and Loans

November 2023
Case

Will Fintechs and Central Banks Play in Emtech's Sandbox?

By: Daniel Isenberg and William R. Kerr

In February 2023, Emtech’s founder Carmelle Cadet is facing a dilemma. Rapidly running out of cash, Cadet has a term sheet from a leading VC but has a choice of how to structure the investment. The decision will have significant implications for Cadet’s own stake, as... View Details

Keywords: Cryptocurrency; Business Startups; Venture Capital; Cash Flow; Currency; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Digital Platforms

March 2022 (Revised September 2022)
Case

Can Papaya Global Keep Scaling Fast?

By: Daniel Isenberg and William R. Kerr

Companies that employ people all around the world also need to pay those people. That can be an exceedingly complex task, though - defining terms of employment, complying with global regulations, and working with huge quantities of data, among other obstacles,... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Scaling And Growth; Job Design and Levels; Compensation and Benefits; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Global Range

December 2017
Teaching Note

Yemeksepeti: Growing and Expanding the Business Model through Data

By: William R. Kerr and Alexis Brownell

Teaching Note for HBS No. 817-095. View Details

Keywords: Turkey; Internet; Online Ordering; Restaurants; Big Data; Entrepreneurship; Analytics and Data Science; Internet and the Web; Growth and Development Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; Turkey

October 2017
Case

NetDragon

By: William R. Kerr and Alexis Brownell

Keywords: NetDragon; China; E-learning; Fuzhou; Gaming; Education; Entrepreneurship; Internet; Education Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Technology Industry; Video Game Industry; China

November 2016
Supplement

PunchTab, Inc. Investor Presentation Deck

2015
Working Paper

The Logic of Agglomeration

By: Gilles Duranton and William R. Kerr

This review discusses frontier topics in economic geography as they relate to firms and agglomeration economies. We focus on areas where empirical research is scarce but possible. We first outline a conceptual framework for city formation that allows us to contemplate... View Details

Keywords: Agglomeration; Clusters; Cities; Innovation; Industry Clusters; City; Innovation and Invention

SSRN

June 2012 (Revised March 2015)
Teaching Note

PunchTab, Inc.

By: Ramana Nanda and William R. Kerr

A Teaching Note for the PunchTab case, which discusses how high-tech startups structure seed financing, merits of angels vs. super angels vs. VCs, and related topics (e.g., convertible notes, priced versus non-priced financing rounds, entrepreneurial finance networks). View Details

Keywords: Finance; Entrepreneurial Finance; Venture Capital; Entrepreneurship

November 2011 (Revised February 2012)
Background Note

Location Choice for New Ventures: Choices within Cities

By: William R. Kerr and Alexis Brownell

Keywords: Business Startups; Urban Scope; Geographic Location

2010
Working Paper

Growth through Heterogeneous Innovations

By: Ufuk Akcigit and William R. Kerr

We study how exploration versus exploitation innovations impact economic growth through a tractable endogenous growth framework that contains multiple innovation sizes, multi-product firms, and entry/exit. Firms invest in exploration R&D to acquire new product lines... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Decision Choices and Conditions; Economic Growth; Investment; Innovation and Invention; Patents; Size; Research and Development; United States