Publications

April 2019 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Clear Link Technologies, LLC: Driving Sales with Peer Effects

By: Christopher Stanton, Richard Saouma and Olivia Hull

The importance of a good peer or coworker is widely discussed, but understanding the glue that makes coworkers valuable is less understood. This case sheds light on the importance of peers and the practices and environments that make a group greater than the sum of its... View Details

May 2023
Case

Natural Gas in New England

By: Robin Greenwood, Richard S. Ruback and Gil Highet

Participants in the New England power market are exploring several strategies to meet the region's renewable power goals while also providing its residents with inexpensive and reliable electricity and heating fuel. New England was a first-mover into natural gas power... View Details

Keywords: Natural Gas; Energy; Energy Industry; United States; Massachusetts

April 2020
Teaching Note

Indigo Agriculture: Harnessing Nature

By: Michael W. Toffel and James Barnett

Teaching Note for HBS No. 620-024. Indigo Agriculture used a digital-enabled research and development (R&D) process to launch its initial product, microbial coatings for agricultural seeds, which increase crop yields while reducing the need for fertilizers. In doing... View Details

Keywords: Operations; Supply Chain; Social Enterprise; Product Development; Distribution Channels; Business Strategy; Digital Platforms; Science-Based Business; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Green Technology Industry; United States; Massachusetts

May 2025
Case

'Net Zero in Action': Impact Investing at the McKnight Foundation

By: Lauren Cohen, Christina R. Wing and Sophia Pan

Elizabeth McGeveran, Vice President of Investments at the McKnight Foundation, reflected on how to effectively advance the organization’s net-zero strategy. The foundation had committed 10% of its endowment to building a portfolio of impact investments and was among... View Details

April 2024 (Revised October 2024)
Case

New Belgium Brewing and Climate Change

By: Michael W. Toffel, Kenneth P. Pucker and Michael Norris

In 2023, Colorado-based craft brewery New Belgium Brewing was considering how best to meet its emissions reduction targets. After decades of growth, the beermaker had grown to become one of the largest craft brewers in the U.S., and was purchased in 2019 by Japanese... View Details

Keywords: Beer; Carbon Accounting; Carbon Credits; Operation Management; Renewable Energy; Supply Chain; Environmental Sustainability; Climate Change; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Accounting; Food and Beverage Industry; United States; Colorado

February 2024
Supplement

Can Cities Beat the Heat? (B3): Chattanooga Climate Action Snapshot

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Coelin P. Scibetta and Jacob A. Small

Climate snapshots provide a summary of climate actions that occurred between 2018 and 2024, highlighting major green initiatives, innovations, carbon mitigation strategy, and action across multiple levels of government and the private sector. Snapshots also provide an... View Details

Keywords: Cities; Climate; Climate Impact; Innovation; Mitigation Policies; Carbon Footprint; Investing; Climate Finance; Mobility; Adaptation; Renewable Energy; Climate Change; Problems and Challenges; Sustainable Cities; United States; Tennessee

25 Aug 2022
News

September 2022 Alumni and Faculty Books

Edited by Margie Kelley Alumni Books The Juneteenth Story: Celebrating the End of Slavery in the United States By Alliah L. Agostini (MBA 2009); Illustrated by Sawyer Cloud becker&mayer! Kids On June 19,... View Details

29 Apr 2025
News

Challenge Accepted

(MBA 1990), Deborah Farrington (MBA 1976), Jeremy Grantham (MBA 1966), and John Rice (MBA 1992) Photos by Susan Young READ MORE Julia Hanna: In 1998, Deborah Farrington (MBA 1976) cofounded StarVest Partners, one of the largest women-owned venture capital firms in the... View Details

Keywords: challenges; failure; advice; experience

01 Jun 2018
News

The Long Run

in his path. Langford, 65, is far too genteel and affable for that, as anyone who knows him will tell you—and plenty of people in Georgia know Jim Langford (MBA 1984), whose family roots in the state stretch back to 1853. But those same... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; photographed by Melissa Golden

05 Mar 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, March 5, 2019

of typical businesses (undertaking commercial activity) and not-for-profit organizations (pursuing a social mission). In this essay, I discuss my research, as well as that of others, on social enterprises with the objective of tracing my perspective on the current... View Details

Keywords: 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

October 2023
Supplement

Rheaply: Circularity For Every Business Supplement 2

By: Rembrand Koning and Alicia Dadlani

Pitch deck explaining the later vision of the company that was presented by the CEO to potential investors. View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Social Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurial Finance; Mission and Purpose; Technology Industry; Green Technology Industry; United States; Illinois; Chicago

April 2017
Case

Luminopia: Improving Treatment for Visual Disorders

By: Doug J. Chung and Sarah Mehta

Luminopia—a start-up founded in January 2016 by three Harvard College freshmen—uses virtual reality technology to treat amblyopia (more commonly called “lazy eye”), the single biggest cause of visual disorders among children. By February 2017, the three founders had... View Details

Keywords: Pricing; Virtual Reality; Startup; Marketing; Marketing Channels; Product Marketing; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Business Startups; Price; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Cambridge; Massachusetts; United States

28 Feb 2011
News

Rebooting the Human Condition

HBS Life Sciences project. More recently, he joined Venter at various stages of Venter's global sailing voyage, collecting marine organisms for their DNA to expand genomic knowledge. Enriquez is the author of As the Future Catches You; The Untied View Details

Keywords: Health, Social Assistance; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

19 Jun 2012
First Look

First Look: June 19

micro-interactions, the broad improvisations, and the resulting substantive and relational outcomes. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/12-107.pdf Leviathan in Business: Varieties of State Capitalism and Their... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Mar 2013
News

Delivering the Power to Dream Big

technology will not only increase solar adoption in the United States, but help people in the developing world as well. In industrialized countries, "you can imagine the impact on portable electronics—it can give you freedom from the... View Details

Keywords: solar power; Electric Power Generation, Transmission, Distribution; Utilities

February 2022 (Revised September 2022)
Case

Lilium: Preparing for Takeoff

By: Navid Mojir, Vincent Dessain, Mette Fuglsang Hjortshoej and Emer Moloney

Lilium is a German company focused on developing electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles (eVTOLs) that can be used to offer air taxi services. The company went public in September 2021 through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) deal, raising more than... View Details

September 2021 (Revised November 2022)
Case

Community Solutions

By: Brian Trelstad and Tom Quinn

Community Solutions was an anti-homelessness nonprofit founded in 2011 after protagonist Rosanne Haggerty grew frustrated with the limited impact of traditional housing and outreach strategies. It set an ambitious goal, reached in some partner communities, of ending... View Details

Keywords: Change; Change Management; Disruption; Transformation; Communication; Communication Strategy; Decision Making; Cost vs Benefits; Decision Choices and Conditions; Decisions; Forecasting and Prediction; Social Entrepreneurship; Ethics; Values and Beliefs; Capital Budgeting; Capital Markets; Country; Government Administration; Government Legislation; Housing; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation and Invention; Innovation Strategy; Knowledge Sharing; Leading Change; Resource Allocation; Mission and Purpose; Performance Evaluation; Performance Improvement; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Opportunities; Social Enterprise; Nonprofit Organizations; Human Needs; Public Opinion; Social Issues; Societal Protocols; Poverty; Welfare; Well-being; System; Equality and Inequality; Consulting Industry; Real Estate Industry; United States; New York (city, NY); Florida; Texas