Business Failures - Publications - Faculty & Research

22 Mar 2016
First Look

March 22, 2016

in 2012. However, doing business in emerging markets remains subject to a high degree of "policy risk," namely the risk that a government will discriminatorily change the laws, regulations, or contracts governing an... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

31 May 2011
First Look

First Look: May 31

election years. These results describe how failures in electoral accountability can lead to suboptimal policy outcomes. Read the paper: http://www.cgdev.org/doc/events/MADS/Shawn_Cole.pdf Earnings and Ratings at Google Answers... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

23 Sep 2014
First Look

First Look: September 23

that pursue a social mission through the use of market mechanisms. These hybrid organizations, often referred to as social enterprises, combine aspects of both charity and business at their core. In this paper we distinguish between two... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

23 Sep 2008
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First Look: September 23, 2008

Media.) Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/09-039.pdf From Social Control to Financial Economics: The Linked Ecologies of Economics and Business in Twentieth Century America Authors:Marion Fourcade and Rakesh Khurana... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

21 Apr 2009
First Look

First Look: April 21, 2009

businesses outperform both single-unit firms and multi-unit firms composed of unrelated businesses. Explanations for this relationship between focus and firm performance have largely centered on economies of scope achieved by sharing... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

26 Feb 2008
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First Look: February 26, 2008

contribute to the development of broader firm capabilities. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/08-019.pdf Cases & Course MaterialsAkshaya Patra: Feeding India's Schoolchildren Harvard Business School Case 608-038 No... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

10 Jan 2012
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First Look: January 10

for interaction, but how these two mechanisms interact in formal organizations is not well understood. We argue that organizational structures and geography delimit opportunities for interaction, but that within the opportunity sets created by View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

December 1989
Supplement

People Express Decline: Interview with Don Burr, Video

By: Michael Beer

Presents an interview with Don Burr, CEO, as he reviews his account of how and why People Express failed as a corporation and was ultimately sold to Continental Airlines. View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Failure; Business Exit or Shutdown; Air Transportation Industry

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2004
Chapter

When Good Names Go Bad: Organizational Illegitimacy, and the Dotcom Collapse

By: Mary Ann Glynn and Christopher Marquis

Keywords: Business Ventures; Failure; Web Services Industry

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13 Sep 2011
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First Look: September 13

PublicationsHigher Ambition: How Great Leaders Create Economic and Social Value Authors:Michael Beer, Russel A. Eisenstat, Nathaniel Foote, Tobias Fredberg, and Flemming Norrgren Publication:Harvard Business Press, 2011 Abstract... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

04 Jan 2012
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First Look: January 4

PublicationsCases about Redefining Global Strategy Authors:Pankaj Ghemawat and Jordan I. Siegel Publication:Harvard Business Publishing, 2011 An abstract is unavailable at this time. Publisher's Link:... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

October 2019 (Revised January 2020)
Supplement

Dulcie Madden (C)—A Final Chance?

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai

This is part of a three-case series that follows Dulcie Madden's journey as a founder over five years. Case (A) is about managing growth and cash flow; Case (B) is about the exit decision and conditions on a sale; Case (C) shows Madden dealing with adversity and the... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Growth Management; Cash Flow; Success; Failure; Acquisition; Business Model; Technology

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January 2022
Case

Dating Ring

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Lindsay N. Hyde

In 2015, the co-founders of Dating Ring, an online dating startup that relied on human matchmakers to arrange dates between its members, were deciding whether to either shut down the service or instead manage Dating Ring as a "lifestyle company," ramping down growth... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Failure; Business Exit or Shutdown; Internet and the Web; Venture Capital; Service Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States

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December 2021
Supplement

Troverie (B)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Lindsay N. Hyde and Olivia Graham

Resolves the questions raised in Troverie (A); recounts pivots and efforts to raise capital from strategic investors and sell Troverie; and shares the founder's post-mortem reflections on what went wrong and what he might have done differently. View Details

Keywords: Startup; Failed Startup; Luxury Goods; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Failure; Luxury; Fashion Industry; United States

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Working Paper Summaries

Determinants of Early-Stage Startup Performance: Survey Results

Keywords: by Thomas R. Eisenmann

January 2006
Case

Jack Strang at SequenceLabs

By: Mukti Khaire, John J. Gabarro and Lynda M. Applegate

How can entrepreneur manage his firm if things go wrong despite having a great idea, a solid team, and financial backing? Jack Strang founded a biotech firm with his friend Peter Evans, to develop molecular pathway-based "cures" for metabolic disorders. The idea was... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business or Company Management; Venture Capital; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Business Growth and Maturation; Failure; Biotechnology Industry

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Educators

21 Aug 2012
Research & Ideas

How to Sink a Startup

continue to be as the venture grows, or they are avoiding a serious conversation about the split. Such an arrangement ignores life's vicissitudes and a venture's changing business requirements. Imposing vesting terms on themselves and... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons

August 2019
Supplement

Rand Fishkin at Moz (B)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Startups; Scaling; Entrepreneurship; Failure; Business Startups; Diversification; Growth Management

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17 Jan 2012
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First Look: January 17

PublicationsUncommon Service: How to Win by Putting Customers at the Core of Your Business Authors:Frances Frei and Anne Morriss Publication:Harvard Business Review Press, forthcoming An abstract is not... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne