Publications

June 2007 (Revised April 2016)
Case

Octone Records

By: Anita Elberse and Elie Ofek

In February 2007, Octone Records founders James Diener, Ben Berkman, and David Boxenbaum had been highly successful with the first two bands they had signed, Maroon 5 and Flyleaf. Known for its grassroots marketing campaigns, Octone operated through a unique... View Details

Keywords: Arts; Joint Ventures; Investment Return; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Product Development; Outcome or Result; Creativity; Music Industry

04 Jul 2011
Research & Ideas

Making the Case for Consumer-Driven Health Care

of health care is a major research topic at Harvard Business School and its Healthcare Initiative, where some 40 faculty conduct research on questions as diverse as how "work-around" cultures develop in hospitals to the best... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Health

September 2010 (Revised January 2012)
Case

OPOWER: Increasing Energy Efficiency through Normative Influence (A)

By: Amy J.C. Cuddy, Kyle Todd Doherty and Maarten W. Bos

The case profiles OPOWER, an energy efficiency software company that applies Cialdini's principles of social influence to successfully encourage consumers to reduce their energy usage. OPOWER was co-founded in 2008 by two young Harvard graduates, Dan Yates and Alex... View Details

Keywords: Mathematical Methods; Applications and Software; Attitudes; Entrepreneurship; Energy Conservation; Power and Influence; Growth and Development Strategy; Energy Industry; United States

October 2010 (Revised July 2011)
Case

PrimedicProviding Primary Care in Mexico

By: Richard G. Hamermesh, Regina Garcia-Cuellar and Lauren Sarah Margulies

Primedic is a Mexican start-up that aims to deliver affordable primary and preventative healthcare to those at the base of the economic pyramid. The company is about to exhaust its first round of venture capital funding and the business model has yet to gain traction.... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Startups; Developing Countries and Economies; Social Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Health Care and Treatment; Social Enterprise; Health Industry; Mexico

August 2013
Case

Pixability: Bettina's Board Walk

By: Noam Wasserman and Yael Braid

Description: Bettina Hein, founder-CEO of Pixability, is meeting with her board of directors to discuss her startup's fundraising prospects and the recent strategic pivot. Though Bettina loves the entrepreneurial exhilaration of "riding a rollercoaster every day,"... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Board Of Directors; Power And Influence; Entrepreneurship; Negotiation

June 2001
Teaching Note

Teaching IT Executive Education Courses TN

By: Richard L. Nolan

In the information age, it is important that IT be addressed in an effective way accessible to practicing executives. Teaching IT to executives continues to change in concepts and content as IT penetrates deeply into every area of business. Driven by Moore's Law, the... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Developing Countries and Economies; Business Education; Managerial Roles; Organizational Structure; Performance Effectiveness; Performance Improvement; Information Technology

2022
Working Paper

When the Journey—And Not Just the Destination—Matters: How Internationalization Shapes Entrepreneurial Experimentation

By: Nataliya Langburd Wright and Laura Huang

Internationalization—gaining exposure to cross-border markets—is often the result of an entrepreneur’s experimentation and strategy around their core business. Scholars have shown how entrepreneurs develop products or services, and after achieving some traction, turn... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship And Strategy; Entrepreneurial Ventures; Entrepreneurial Journey; International Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Global Range; Strategy

2017
Other Article

Designing an Agile Software Portfolio Architecture: The Impact of Coupling on Performance

By: Alan MacCormack and Robert Lagerstrom

The modern industrial corporation encompasses a myriad of different software applications, each of which must work in concert to deliver functionality to end-users. However, the increasingly complex and dynamic nature of competition in today’s product-markets dictates... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Design; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Effectiveness

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June 2001 (Revised May 2002)
Case

Tradeoffs: Juggling Careers in Professional Services Firms with Private Life

By: Thomas J. DeLong, Ashish Nanda, Scot Landry and Scott M O'Neil

Balancing professional and private lives continues to challenge single and committed partners alike. Professionals are expected to work long hours. It is simply part of the ethos of professional service firms. This case focuses on the lives of three couples connected... View Details

Keywords: Work-Life Balance; Family and Family Relationships; Problems and Challenges; Service Industry

Teaching Interest

Large-Scale Investment (LSI, MBA Elective Curriculum)

By: Benjamin C. Esty

Large-Scale Investment (LSI) is a case-based course about project finance that is designed for second-year MBA students. Project finance involves the creation of a legally independent project company financed with nonrecourse debt for the purpose of investing in a... View Details

Keywords: Project Finance; Corporate Finance; Corporate Governance; Valuation; Capital Budgeting

June 2004 (Revised June 2006)
Case

Scientific-Atlanta, Inc.

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

Scientific-Atlantia (S-A), a leading manufacturer of cable TV equipment, is confronting strategic challenges in mid-2004. For decades, cable operators have faced high switching costs that have locked them into exclusive supply relationships with either S-A or its... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Competition; Industry Structures; Television Entertainment; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Manufacturing Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry

February 2011 (Revised August 2011)
Case

Brazil: Leading the BRICs?

By: Arthur A. Daemmrich and Aldo Musacchio

Brazil's new president, Dilma Rousseff, had announced plans to sustain GDP growth above 5% annually and continue the country's leadership role among emerging economies. Between 2003 and 2010, Brazil benefited from strong economic growth and stable policies under the... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Intellectual Property; Infrastructure; Economic Growth; Trade; International Relations; Economic Systems; Globalization; Corporate Strategy; Brazil; Russia; India; China; United States

19 Mar 2021
Blog Post

Celebrating Black History: Elevating the Voices of Our Student and Alumni Communities

We’ve enjoyed the opportunity to honor the history and legacy of Black and African American members of our community who have and continue to lay the foundation for the next generation of innovative, successful, and transformational... View Details

07 Dec 2022
Blog Post

2022 Climate Symposium: Tackling Climate Together

The theme of the 2022 Annual Climate Symposium was “Tackling Climate Together” with a focus on the intersectionality of climate change and the critical need for businesses, individuals, policy makers, and consumers to come together to View Details

02 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

10 Trends to Watch in 2024

The lightning-fast ascent of generative AI isn’t the only sea change on the horizon for businesses in the new year. The global economy is in flux as war, climate change, trade issues, and infrastructure problems demand attention. Many companies continue to struggle to... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

Research Summary

The new property: computational property, intellectual property, and cyberspace

The objective of this project is to design ownership regimes for property located in cyberspace, such as websites, links for e-travel, applets that run on distant processors, and other related computational species. The driving assumption of the project is that the... View Details

March 2014
Article

Delivering High-quality Cancer Care: The Critical Role of Quality Measurement

By: Tracy Spinks, Patricia Ganz, George Sledge, Laura Levit, James Hayman, Timothy Eberlein and Thomas W. Feeley

In 1999, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) published Ensuring Quality Cancer Care, an influential report that described an ideal cancer care system and issued ten recommendations to address pervasive gaps in the understanding and delivery of quality cancer... View Details

Keywords: Health Care Quality; Health Care and Treatment; Quality; Measurement and Metrics; Health Industry; North America