Publications

Benjamin Esty is the Roy and Elizabeth Simmons Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Over the years, he has taught a variety of courses ranging from advanced corporate finance and project finance to competitive strategy and leadership. He... View Details

Keywords: banking; asset management; investment banking industry; consumer products; shipping; wine; financial services

2020
Working Paper

Reinventing Retail: The Novel Resurgence of Independent Bookstores

By: Ryan Raffaelli

This study examines how community-based brick-and-mortar retailers can achieve sustained market growth in the face of online and big box retail competition. The appearance of Amazon.com in 1995 led to a significant decline in the number of independent bookstores in the... View Details

Keywords: Bookstores; Competitive Strategy; Business and Community Relations; Customization and Personalization; Growth and Development; Retail Industry; United States

January 2022 (Revised October 2022)
Case

Second Harvest Heartland: Ending Hunger Together

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Courtney Han

In March 2020, Second Harvest Heartland, one of six Foodbanks serving Minnesota, was caught in the COVID-19 emergency with considerably more people exposed to hunger and food insecurity. Its management team led by CEO Allison O’Toole and COO Thierry Ibri alertly... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Food Insecurity; Social Enterprise; Food; Health Pandemics; Crisis Management; Strategy; Adaptation; Social Issues; Mission and Purpose; Decision Making; United States; Minnesota

March 2015
Case

The I-PASS Patient Handoff Program

By: Robert S. Huckman and Michael Norris

In 2015, the I-PASS Patient Handoff Program Team, led by six pediatricians around the U.S., had to determine the best way to disseminate their program that had been proven to reduce communication errors in patient handoffs in hospital settings. Should they turn it into... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Hospitals; Operations Improvement; Entrepreneurship; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; United States

September 2001 (Revised January 2002)
Case

The American Medical Association-Sunbeam Deal (C): Denouement

By: Ashish Nanda and Kimberly A. Haddad

On September 5, 1997, the American Medical Association(AMA) withdrew from a contract with Sunbeam Corporation, the maker of small home appliances. Sunbeam sued the AMA to pay for the damages or to comply with the contract. The fracas led to the dismissal of three top... View Details

Keywords: Medical Services; Appliances; Lawsuit; Litigation; Professionalism; Contracts; Corporate Accountability; Organizations; Lawsuits and Litigation; Consumer Products Industry; Health Industry; United States

10 Nov 2008
Research Event

Social Media Leads the Future of Technology

Internet-connected televisions, social media, and the power of simplicity were all cited as launch pads for future innovation in technology, according to a panel of experts that convened at Harvard Business School as part of the HBS Centennial Business Summit in... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

Article

Adding Value by Talking More

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Derek A. Haas and Jonathan Warsh

The prevailing fee-for-service payment model has led health care administrators and physician practices to impose severe constraints on the time physicians spend talking, for which they are reimbursed poorly or not at all. New value-based reimbursement models, however,... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Cost Management; Health Care and Treatment; Customer Focus and Relationships; Health Industry

August 2016
Case

Building Smart Neighborhoods at Bouygues

By: Amy C. Edmondson, Bertrand Moingeon, Guo Bai and Jean-François Harvey

Can a consortium of 16 organizations, including multinational corporations, local government agencies, and startups, turn a rundown Paris suburb into a “smart” (ecologically viable, high-tech, livable) neighborhood? This case explores how Bouygues Immobilier led such a... View Details

Keywords: Collaboration; Teaming; Cross-industry Collaboration; Interorganizatonal Relationships; Innovation; Nascent Industries; Smart Cities; Governance; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Information Technology Industry; Construction Industry; Paris; France

June 2016 (Revised December 2017)
Case

The Cheese and the Oligarchs: The Politics, the Media, and Israel's Dream of a Start-Up Nation

By: Rafael Di Tella and Christine Snively

Israel enjoyed the highest concentration of technology start-ups in the world per capita. Despite regional instability, the country maintained strong economic growth and was considered a high-tech powerhouse. But not all Israelis benefited. Between the 1980s and 2010s,... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Information Technology; Business Conglomerates; Business Startups; Israel

September 2014
Article

OSHA Inspections Should Be Welcome: Results from a Natural Field Experiment in California

By: David I. Levine and Michael W. Toffel

For companies with strong internal occupational safety and health auditing programs, OSHA inspections might seem a formality that risk uncovering, at most, nitpicky deviations from the thousands of pages of safety regulations. For those with poor safety practices, OSHA... View Details

Keywords: Business and Government Relations; Operations; Safety; Governance Compliance; United States; California

Article

Entrepreneurship and Urban Growth: An Empirical Assessment with Historical Mines

By: Edward L. Glaeser, Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr

We study entrepreneurship and growth through the lens of U.S. cities. Initial entrepreneurship correlates strongly with urban employment growth, but endogeneity bedevils interpretation. Chinitz (1961) hypothesized that coal mines near cities led to specialization in... View Details

Keywords: Industrial Organization; Chinitz; Agglomeration; Clusters; Cities; Mines; Industry Clusters; Urban Development; Entrepreneurship; City; Mining; Mining Industry; United States

February 2010
Article

Input Constraints and the Efficiency of Entry: Lessons from Cardiac Surgery

By: David M. Cutler, Robert S. Huckman and Jonathan T. Kolstad

Prior studies suggest that, with elastically supplied inputs, free entry may lead to an inefficiently high number of firms in equilibrium. Under input scarcity, however, the welfare loss from free entry is reduced. Further, free entry may increase use of high-quality... View Details

Keywords: Government Legislation; Health Care and Treatment; Medical Specialties; Market Entry and Exit; Welfare; Health Industry; Pennsylvania

Find at Harvard

December 2005 (Revised May 2007)
Case

Cynthia Fisher and the Rearing of ViaCell

By: Robert F. Higgins, Richard G. Hamermesh and Ingrid Vargas

Describes the start up of Viacord, a Boston-based medical services firm founded by Cynthia Fisher (HBS MBA) in 1993. Told from Fisher's perspective, the entrepreneur details the conceptualization and launch of the business and the many obstacles and expenses faced in... View Details

Keywords: Managerial Roles; Business Growth and Maturation; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Service Industry; Health Industry; Boston

January 1993 (Revised November 1997)
Case

BayBank Boston

In 1992, the Federal Reserve released a study of mortgage lending patterns in Boston. It concluded that even when credit factors were taken into account, black and Hispanic applicants experienced higher rejection rates. Richard Pollard, chairman of BayBank Boston, had... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Ethics; Race; Mortgages; Banking Industry; Boston