Publications

22 Nov 2023
News

So You Want to Join a Startup

Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Spotify More Skydeck episodes Dan Morrell: At age 29, Gus Bessalel (MBA 1988) decided to leave consulting for a decidedly less glamorous life as an entrepreneur, working out of a storage room in the bowels of an underground hotel... View Details

September 2023 (Revised January 2024)
Case

AI21 Labs in 2023: Strategy for Generative AI

By: David Yoffie, Orna Dan and Elena Corsi

Israeli generative artificial intelligence company AI21 Labs was founded in 2017 to realize the vision of true machine intelligence. It sought to reinvent writing and reading and in 2020 it launched Wordtune, an app using GenAI software to offer alternate text... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; AI and Machine Learning; Innovation Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Applications and Software; Competitive Strategy; Technology Industry; Israel

January 2021 (Revised May 2021)
Case

Amazon Shopper Panel: Paying Customers for Their Data

By: Eva Ascarza and Ayelet Israeli

This case introduces a new Amazon program that has consumers upload their receipts from transactions outside of Amazon, in exchange for money. Through the discussion, the case aims to explore issues in customers’ privacy in the digital age, the value of customers’ own... View Details

Web

Winners & Runners-Up | New Venture Competition

science-powered platform. Social Enterprise Track, 2021 Shelly Xu Design (SXD) Shelly Xu, HBS 2021 Ahmed Fardin Junga Park, HBS 2021 Social Enterprise Track & Crowd Favorite Winner Vocal Justice Shawon Jackson, HKS Social Enterprise Track Runner-Up Alumni Track, 2021... View Details

August 2014 (Revised December 2015)
Case

Showrooming at Best Buy

By: Thales Teixeira and Elizabeth Anne Watkins

Best Buy is a consumer electronics retailer with nearly 2,000 stores worldwide. In 2012, the rising popularity of price-matching apps for mobile phones made price differences between retailers transparent, online and offline. Shoppers' desire to test electronics... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Price; Consumer Behavior; Applications and Software; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Retail Industry; Retail Industry

Web

Career Re-Entry & Flexible Work - Alumni

The more people who know, the greater your chances of finding fresh leads, insights, and ideas. Conduct informational interviews Return to your roots and remember to conduct interviews that may not (or probably will not) lead to a job,... View Details

June 2004
Article

Market Liquidity as a Sentiment Indicator

By: Malcolm Baker and Jeremy Stein

We build a model that helps to explain why increases in liquidity-such as lower bid-ask spreads, a lower price impact of trade, or higher turnover-predict lower subsequent returns in both firm-level and aggregate data. The model features a class of irrational... View Details

Keywords: Markets; Financial Liquidity; Price; Trade; Sales; Equity; Information; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Accounting Industry

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17 Dec 2018
Research & Ideas

Women Receive Harsher Punishment at Work Than Men

treatment for women in the workplace, including lower pay and fewer promotions to upper management. 10 years of data studied To investigate the issue of financial misconduct, the researchers used a detailed set of data from the Financial View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

July 2021
Teaching Plan

Shorefast: A Strange and Familiar Way to Reimagine Capitalism

By: Brian Trelstad, Wendy Smith and Natalie Slawinski

Teaching Plan for HBS Case No. 320-098. In 2006, Zita Cobb and two of her brothers, Alan Cobb and Tony Cobb, native Newfoundlanders, launched Shorefast to help grow another leg of Fogo Island’s economy. Like so many rural communities, Fogo Island’s fate was tied... View Details

Keywords: Place Making; Non-profit; Hotel; Economic Development; Tourism; Social Entrepreneurship; Nonprofit Organizations; Development Economics; Economic Systems; Tourism Industry; Canada

April 2020 (Revised May 2025)
Case

Shorefast: A Strange and Familiar Way to Reimagine Capitalism

By: Brian Trelstad, Wendy Smith and Natalie Slawinski

In 2006, Zita Cobb and two of her brothers, Alan Cobb and Tony Cobb, native Newfoundlanders, launched Shorefast to help grow another leg of Fogo Island’s economy. Like so many rural communities, Fogo Island’s fate was tied directly to one primary resource—in this case... View Details

Keywords: Place Making; Non-profit; Hotel; Economic Development; Tourism; Social Entrepreneurship; Nonprofit Organizations; Development Economics; Economic Systems; Tourism Industry; Canada

March 2021
Case

Founders Factory

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and James Barnett

In January 2020, Founders Factory (FF) Executive Chairman Brent Hoberman and CEO Henry Lane Fox were considering FF’s expansion strategy. FF operated as a venture capital (VC) fund built around an accelerator and incubator, and organized around sectors within... View Details

Web

Women’s Leadership Summit - Alumni

Programs & Events Women’s Leadership Summit Drawing alumni from nearly 30 countries and spanning six decades of experience, the two-day Women’s Leadership Summit provided a platform to discuss women’s leadership roles in society, and across View Details

January 2017 (Revised May 2019)
Case

Paytm: Building a Payments Network

By: Sunil Gupta, Das Narayandas and Rachna Tahilyani

By January 2017, Paytm, a mobile payments company that started in 2010, became India’s largest mobile payments platform with over 142 million users and $5 billion valuation. Could Paytm become a $100 billion company its founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma envisioned it be? View Details

Keywords: Mobile Payments; Ecommerce; Mobile App; India; Entrepreneurship; Expansion; Service Operations; Mobile and Wireless Technology; E-commerce; Service Industry; India

24 Jan 2005
Research & Ideas

Rethinking Activity-Based Costing

Managers can review the cost of the unused capacity and contemplate actions to determine whether and how to reduce the costs of supplying unused resources in subsequent periods; they can then monitor those actions over time. In some cases, the View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan & Steven R. Anderson

17 Jan 2018
Research & Ideas

If the CEO’s High Salary Isn't Justified to Employees, Firm Performance May Suffer

high unexplained pay ratio saw their performance drop by as much as half, compared to their industry competitors that had low levels of unexplained pay disparity. In the most glaring cases—about a fifth of the companies studied—not only... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

April 2024 (Revised July 2024)
Case

Unleashing Human Magic at Best Buy

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger, Sunil Gupta and Amram Migdal

The case examines the transformation of Best Buy under CEO Hubert Joly's leadership from 2012. Facing significant business challenges, including competition from online and physical retailers, Joly implemented the "Renew Blue" turnaround strategy, which focused on... View Details