Publications

June 2013
Background Note

Mobilizing an Online Business

By: Peter Coles and Benjamin Edelman

Entrepreneurs starting online businesses often need to mobilize multiple sets of users or customers, each of whom hesitates to participate unless others join also. This case presents several challenges with similar structure. View Details

Keywords: Mobilization Strategy; Network Effects; Platforms; Internet; Entrepreneurship; Strategy; Two-Sided Platforms; Technology Adoption; Innovation Strategy; Information Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Computer Industry

August 2018
Background Note

Note on Hackathons

By: Ethan Bernstein

Organizations have often sought to meet the pressures of rapid change through novel ways of managing human capital to boost innovation and productivity. Hackathons have emerged as one of the latest approaches to do just that. How can those responsible for managing... View Details

Keywords: Hackathon; Crowdsourcing; Hack; Innovation; Productivity; Minimum Viable Product; Time; Transparency; Bootcamp; Design; Entrepreneurship; Human Resources; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Management; Organizational Structure; Performance Productivity; Technology; Technology Industry

September 2022 (Revised November 2023)
Case

Wordle

By: Karen G. Mills, Christina Wallace, Ebehi Iyoha, Gabriella Elanbeck and Morgane Herculano

After sourdough bread, countertop chive gardens, and vaccine selfies came a pandemic-era trend that everyone seemed to be in on: one daily chance to guess a five-letter word and crow about your success on social media via little green and yellow squares. From a... View Details

Keywords: Games; Innovation; General Management; Mergers and Acquisitions; Trends; Entrepreneurship; Bids and Bidding; Consumer Behavior; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Technology Industry

02 Mar 2020
News

Cheese Whiz

At Specialty Cheese Co. in Reeseville, Wisconsin, founder Paul Scharfman (MBA 1979) heads up a company that makes one of the state’s best-known exports: cheese. But as its name suggests, Specialty’s 250 employees manufacture products more unusual than the standard... View Details

Keywords: manufacturing; labor; innovation; cheese; Food Manufacturing; Manufacturing

June 2017
Case

Waze Connected Citizens Program

By: Mitchell Weiss and Alissa Davies

Di-Ann Eisnor, Director of Growth at Waze, founded the company’s Connected Citizens Program (CCP), a data-sharing partnership that provided officials with traffic incident and congestion data. Since 2015, her program had enabled officials in Kentucky and elsewhere to... View Details

28 Mar 2014
News

Wanted: Public Entrepreneurs

Keywords: public entrepreneurs; government innovation; Government

2024
Working Paper

You've Got Mail! The Late 19th Century U.S. Postal Service Expansion, Entrepreneurship, and Firm Performance

By: Astrid Marinoni and Maria P. Roche

This paper examines the impact of the expansion of the US Postal Service in the late 19th century on firm creation and performance. Utilizing newly digitized archival data on historic business establishments, post office locations, and road networks in California,... View Details

Keywords: Institutional Innovation; Knowledge Exchange; US Postal Service; Firm Performance; Infrastructure; Expansion; Government Administration; Communication; Business History; Entrepreneurship; Public Administration Industry; California

Read Now

01 Dec 2013
News

Joining Together for HBS

collaboration between Dean Nitin Nohria and the HBS faculty has resulted in innovative programs, increased student engagement, and cross-disciplinary projects with Harvard University faculty. The campus has also been energized by the... View Details

Keywords: alumni giving; innovation; business education

24 May 2021
Blog Post

Rebekah Emanuel: Host of Season 3 of the Climate Rising Podcast

Rebekah Emanuel (MBA 2015), Director of Social Entrepreneurship for the Harvard Innovation Labs (i-Lab) and host of the third season of the BEI’s Climate Rising podcast, reflects on the role of View Details

12 Apr 2023
News

Step Change

across the e-commerce, health care, transportation, edtech, and fintech sectors. Ayman Ismail, assistant professor of entrepreneurship and founding director of the American University in Cairo's (AUC) Venture Lab, pegs the earliest... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; entrepreneurship; women; venture capital; Egypt; developing economies; Finance

February 2018 (Revised May 2018)
Case

Haier: Incubating Entrepreneurs in a Chinese Giant

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Nancy Hua Dai

CEO Zhang Ruimin must plan how to accelerate the growth of self-managed microenterprises. Platforms were Haier’s business platforms operating in five major sectors: white goods transformation, investment and incubation, financial holdings, real estate, and cultural... View Details

Keywords: China; Microenterprise; Appliances; Platform; Change; Innovation; Opportunities; Entrepreneurship; Digital Platforms; Transformation; Innovation and Invention; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; China

February 2015
Teaching Note

Eataly: Reimagining the Grocery Store

By: Sunil Gupta and Michela Addis

Within a few years of its operations, the Italian-based supermarket Eataly created a lot of buzz and excitement among consumers and media. Eataly's initial success was even more impressive in an industry known for its intense competition and low margins. How did Eataly... View Details

Keywords: Customer Engagement; Innovation; Retailing; Supermarkets; Agribusiness; Entrepreneurship; Food; Customers; Innovation and Invention; Marketing; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Europe; North and Central America; Asia

23 Feb 2024
News

Rock Center Faculty Co-Chairs Q+A

20 Nov 2015
News

A Smart(Phone) Approach to Diabetes Testing

Keywords: mobile technology; mobile healthcare; India; diabetes; social enterprise; entrepreneurship; Ambulatory Health Care Services; Health, Social Assistance

June 2013
Teaching Note

Rock Health

By: Robert Higgins and Ian McKown Cornell

This is the teaching note associated with HBS Case #813035. The case should enable students to identify emerging challenges, evaluate Rock Health's funding model, debate the effectiveness of its incubation service and assess its long-term viability. View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Incubation; Healthcare Technology; Startups; Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Management; Health Care and Treatment; Business Startups; Health Industry; San Francisco; California; United States

December 2018 (Revised March 2019)
Case

R/GA: Corporate Venture Studio vs. Accelerator

By: Andy Wu, Grant Son and Aastha Thakkar

New approach to accelerating the development of innovation through corporate venturing by creating partnerships between startup venture and established corporations through the launch of the Global Sports Venture Studios created by R/GA Ventures and the Los Angeles... View Details

Video

Paths Forward: San Francisco

April 2016
Teaching Note

Advanced Leadership Pathways: Junko Yoda and Her Collaboration to Address Sex Trafficking in Asia

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ai-Ling Jamila Malone and Tessa Natanay Hamilton

Following a successful career as the first female Vice President of Goldman Sachs in Asia, Junko Yoda became a 2010 Advanced Leadership Fellow at Harvard University. During her fellowship, she set out to promote awareness, and prevent and alleviate the effects of human... View Details

Keywords: Crime; Business And Community; Community Impact; Communities; Economic Development; Innovation; Leadership; Change Management; Crime and Corruption; Social Entrepreneurship; Business and Community Relations; Gender; Asia