Publications

March 2009
Case

Incept LLC and Confluent Surgical (A)

By: Bhaskar Chakravorti, Toby E. Stuart and James Weber

A venture capitalist must decide whether to invest in a medical technology company that licenses intellectual property from a privately held IP holding company based on a platform technology. Entrepreneurs Amar Sawhney and Fred Khosravi founded Incept LLC to... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Entrepreneurship; Intellectual Property; Rights; Agreements and Arrangements; Partners and Partnerships; Trust; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

30 Jun 2014
Lessons from the Classroom

The Role of Emotions in Effective Negotiations

"Rather than discussing topics in the rarified air of investment banking, an industry foreign to many of our students, we wanted to be as universal as possible." Not that it is a simple situation emotionally. Stressed out over... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Entertainment & Recreation; Sports

January 2016
Case

Haiti Hope: Innovating the Mango Value Chain

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Jean-François Harvey

This case study examines a market-based approach to economic development through the eyes of NGO TechnoServe's project manager, implementing a US$9.5 million five-year public-private partnership between Coca-Cola, IDB, and USAID. The case ends at the beginning of the... View Details

01 Jun 1999
News

Ikenna Okezie

rotation was tough but enjoyable. "I liked the juxtaposition of discussing a marketing case in Aldrich and then crossing the river to see a patient in Cambridge," he says. This year, as part of an HBS field study, Okezie has formulated a business plan for AccessMED, a... View Details

Keywords: Judith A. Ross

10 Oct 2023
Blog Post

Policy Drivers for Environmental Justice: What Businesses Need to Know

communities disproportionately face increased levels of pollution and are often more vulnerable to the dangerous effects of climate change. Dorceta E. Taylor’s Toxic Communities breaks down environmental racism as it relates to the siting of View Details

10 Mar 2009
First Look

First Look: March 10, 2009

develop an inductive theory of "IP modularity," from which we derive testable propositions and managerial implications. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/09-097.pdf Diasporas and Domestic Entrepreneurs: Evidence from the Indian Software... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

January 2025 (Revised April 2025)
Case

Duolingo: On a 'Streak'

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Nicole Tempest Keller and Nicole Luo

In December 2024, Severin Hacker, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Duolingo, reflected on the remarkable evolution of the language-learning app he helped launch in 2011. As the #1 most downloaded education app in the world, Duolingo had over 100 million... View Details

Keywords: Learning; AI and Machine Learning; Growth and Development Strategy; Motivation and Incentives; Diversification; Business Model; Market Entry and Exit; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United States

March 2017 (Revised March 2019)
Case

Ant Financial (A)

By: Feng Zhu, Ying Zhang, Krishna G. Palepu, Anthony K. Woo and Nancy Hua Dai

Headquartered in Hangzhou (China), Ant Financial has grown into a fintech “Unicorn.” The fintech empire that the company established spanned verticals such as mobile and online payment (Alipay), money market fund (Yu’e Bao), wealth management (Ant Fortune),... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Global Strategy; Finance; Opportunities; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry

November 2022 (Revised June 2023)
Case

UGG Steps into the Metaverse

By: Shunyuan Zhang, Sharon Joseph, Sunil Gupta and Julia Kelley

In the fall of 2022, boot maker UGG and its parent company, Deckers, were working to position the brand in the nascent but fast growing metaverse. The metaverse, the online realm that individual users could navigate as digital avatars, was becoming more commercialized,... View Details

Keywords: Metaverse; Digital Marketing; Innovation and Invention; Marketing Channels; Marketing Strategy; Social Marketing; Internet and the Web; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United States

27 Sep 2016
First Look

September 27, 2016

(multidimensional) objective functions of executive participants and their organizations and show how the trio of disruptive forces (disintermediation, disaggregation, and decoupling) that have figured prominently in other industries... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 1998 (Revised April 2000)
Case

GM Powertrain

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Mikelle Eastley

Discusses a young MBA plant manager who is improving the operations of a small General Motors components plant in Fredericksburg, Virginia. At 29 years old, Joe Hinrichs is the youngest plant manager at GM, and in his new assignment, he is faced with the daunting... View Details

Keywords: Service Operations; Labor Unions; Problems and Challenges; Technological Innovation; Change Management; Machinery and Machining; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States

June 2024
Case

Growing Foodology into Latin America's Largest Platform for Virtual Restaurants

By: Jorge Tamayo, Rembrand Koning and Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago

This case delves into the expansion strategy of Foodology, a cloud kitchen startup based in Bogotá that operated across four Latin American countries (Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru). Co-founders Daniela Izquierdo and Juan Guillermo Azuero (both HBS, 2019) grappled... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Food; Digital Platforms; Product Launch; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Business Model; Business Startups; Profit; Marketing Strategy; Expansion; Diversification; Food and Beverage Industry; Latin America; South America; Colombia; Brazil; Mexico; Peru

August 2004 (Revised June 2005)
Case

Fate of the Vasa, The

By: Alan D. MacCormack and Richard Mason

In 1628, the royal warship Vasa was launched. It was Sweden's most expensive naval vessel ever built, costing over 5% of GNP. On its maiden voyage, the ship sailed 1,400 yards in its own harbor, heeled over to the side, and then sank. One third of the 150 crew and... View Details

Keywords: History; Risk and Uncertainty; Technological Innovation; Ship Transportation; Product Design; Technology Adoption; Failure; Business and Government Relations; Product Development; Sweden

06 Oct 2003
Research & Ideas

The Problem with Hedge Funds

writes, "Secretive and far from pristine, the industry [hedge funds] has long been notorious for providing scant information (if any at all) and for suspect fundraising practices."282 Research... View Details

Keywords: by D. Quinn Mills

08 Feb 2024
Blog Post

African American Student Union Spotlight on Joint Degrees

as joint degree students, sharing insights from their time before and during the MBA program. Swanee Golden (MBA/MPP 2025) Where is your hometown? My hometown is Princeton, New Jersey. What was your pre-MBA industry and role? Before HBS,... View Details

25 Apr 2024
News

Origin Stories

Jersey, to New Orleans, Louisiana. One soloed in a single engine airplane on Long Island at the age of 14. Another toured Cleveland’s factories with her father at the height of the city’s industrial powers. That range of experiences... View Details

March 2011 (Revised July 2011)
Case

Vestas' World of Wind

By: Thomas J. Steenburgh and Elena Corsi

The wind turbine manufacturer Vestas launched the industry's first highly localized and customized new product launch campaigns which used also new tools such as web 2.0 platforms. Used to operate in a market where demand exceeded supply, Vestas had lost contact with... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Marketing Channels; Internet and the Web; Product Launch; Demand and Consumers; Advertising Campaigns; Global Strategy; Customization and Personalization; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Finance; Product Marketing; Technology Adoption; Energy Industry