California - Publications - Faculty & Research

18 Feb 2014
First Look

First Look: February 18

dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. The company plans to market the captured CO2 to produce low carbon transportation fuels in markets such as California where regulation, derived from a state law designed to manage climate change,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Research Summary

Managing sustainability in supply chains

By: Michael W. Toffel

I am examining codes of conduct, management process standards, and government voluntary programs that address environmental and labor issues, seeking to understand what enables some of these programs to actually deliver on their promise of distinguishing organizations... View Details

Keywords: Environment; Environmental Performance; Environmental Regulation; Environmental Strategy; Regulation; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; Service Industry; Construction Industry; United States; California

June 2024
Supplement

Legacy Partners (A)

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Instructors should consider the timing of making videos available to students, as they may reveal key case details.

Stephen Holbrook and Austin Pulsipher (both HBS '19) had been leading Nutrishare since acquiring the company six months earlier in mid-2021.... View Details

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January 2021
Supplement

Bespoken Spirits: Disrupting Distilling

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

On October 7, 2020, Bespoken Spirits publicly announced it had received $2.6 million of seed funding for its “sustainable maturation process,” a process that could produce award-winning whiskeys in just days rather than years using a novel technology and data science. ... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Business Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Disruption; Entrepreneurship; Environmental Sustainability; Cash Flow; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Brands and Branding; Business Model; Consumer Products Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Service Industry; United States; California

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March 2019 (Revised June 2019)
Supplement

Gender and Free Speech at Google (C)

By: Nien-hê Hsieh and Sarah Mehta

This case reveals Google’s response to a list of employee demands aiming to combat sexual misconduct in the workplace. This case should accompany the (A) and (B) cases, “Gender and Free Speech at Google” (318-085) and (319-085). View Details

Keywords: Free Speech; Ethnicity; Gender; Race; Employees; Employee Relationship Management; Recruitment; Labor; Employment; Lawsuits and Litigation; Technology Industry; United States; California

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October 2017
Supplement

Snap Inc. Goes Public (B)

By: Lynn Sharp Paine and Will Hurwitz

Supplements the (A) case.

Snap Inc.’s chairman must decide how to address investor concerns about the company’s unprecedented plans to issue only non-voting shares in its upcoming IPO. View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Capital Structure; Corporate Accountability; Governing and Advisory Boards; Corporate Governance; Going Public; Business and Shareholder Relations; Leadership; Management; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Venture Capital; Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States; California

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December 2016 (Revised January 2017)
Supplement

Accounting for the iPhone Upgrade Program (B)

By: Jonas Heese, Krishna G. Palepu, H. David Sherman and Monica Baraldi

In October 2016, Apple Inc. announced the financial results for its fiscal year 2016. CEO Tim Cook commented on a very successful fiscal year 2016 and focused on all the positive financial results. However, Apple’s 2016 annual report was also telling another story.... View Details

Keywords: Apple Inc.; iPhone 6s; Accounting; Revenue Recognition; California; United States

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23 Jun 2020
Book

Beginning America Over Again with a New Electoral System

years later, the spirit of American revolution still reverberates for many of us, and the successes of initiatives in states such as Maine and California reinvigorate the democratic renegade in our marrow. But skepticism is bound to creep... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

10 May 2017
Research & Ideas

Amazon Web Services Changed the Way VCs Fund Startups

with Michael Ewens of the California Institute of Technology and Matthew Rhodes-Kropf of MIT Sloan School of Management. The researchers focus on one of the most important technological shifts in recent years—the introduction of Amazon... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Banking; Financial Services; Information Technology

14 Sep 2016
Research & Ideas

Web Surfers Have a Schedule and Stick to It

is crucial to online success. A recent research paper offers insights that carry unexpected implications for advertisers or anyone else trying to capture that attention. The Empirical Economics of Online Attention was written by Andre Boik, University of View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail; Web Services

24 Feb 2015
First Look

First Look: February 24

incident response to the terror attack. This abridged version of their final report focuses on the lessons learnt. Publisher's link: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/content/download/67364/1242266/version/1/file/Making+Boston+Stronger_ICSS+Journal.pdf February 2015 View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

26 Jul 2024
Research & Ideas

Why Great Ideas Get Stuck in Universities

Entrepreneurs must overcome many barriers to get discoveries to market, but academic researchers face an additional one they might not realize: themselves. Academics tend to develop a myopic focus on the unique expertise they spend their lives developing, but that... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Biotechnology; Health

July 2022 (Revised November 2022)
Case

Building a Mishap-Free U.S. Navy

By: Amy C. Edmondson, Herman B. Leonard, Michael W. Toffel and Michael Norris

In 2021, Kevin “Bud” Couch, a retired Navy captain who was now working as a civilian employee of the Navy Safety Center, was trying to determine how best to reduce the risk of Navy mishaps. The Navy had experienced a series of major mishaps in 2017 that had led to a... View Details

Keywords: National Security; Safety; War; Ship Transportation; Risk Management; Operations; Singapore; Tokyo; San Diego

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March 2024 (Revised May 2025)
Case

Governing OpenAI (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine, Suraj Srinivasan and Will Hurwitz

In late November 2023, OpenAI’s new board of directors took stock of the situation. The company, which sought to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI)—computer systems with capabilities exceeding human abilities—was looking to regain its footing after a chaotic... View Details

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June 2018
Case

Candor at Clever

By: Ethan Bernstein and Om Lala

Clever, a high-growth EdTech company based in San Francisco, had grown quickly in market share and headcount. As with many high-growth companies, however, early employees (many of whom had never managed people before) had been given the opportunity to manage teams, and... View Details

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March 2017
Teaching Note

Hello Alfred: Come Home Happy

By: Joseph B. Fuller and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Teaching Note for HBS No. 316-154. View Details

Keywords: On-demand Economy; Sharing Economy; Technology Startup; Technology; Growth Strategy; Business Startups; Business Growth and Maturation; Entrepreneurship; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Strategic Planning; Service Industry; United States; Boston; Cambridge; New York (city, NY); California

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01 Feb 2011
First Look

First Look: Feb. 1

Investors' Tale Lena G. Goldberg and Chad M. CarrHarvard Business School Case 311-078 The competing narratives of the founders of Alantec, Inc. and the venture capitalists who funded the company are explored in the context of Kalashian v. Advent VI Ltd., a View Details

07 Oct 2014
First Look

First Look: October 7

Results from a Natural Field Experiment in California By: Levine, David I., and Michael W. Toffel Abstract—For companies with strong internal occupational safety and health auditing programs, OSHA inspections might seem a formality that... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

27 May 2014
First Look

First Look: May 27

Download working paper: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2182628 Government Green Procurement Spillovers: Evidence from Municipal Building Policies in California By: Simcoe, Timothy, and Michael W. Toffel Abstract—We study how government green... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2014 (Revised May 2015)
Case

Yahoo: Both Sides of the Stamped Deal

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Lisa C. Mazzanti

In 2012, Marissa Mayer became the CEO of Yahoo!, a tech giant with a tumultuous past. When Mayer tries to reinvigorate the company, she hires Jacqueline Reses, who has a private equity background, to head both human resources and mergers and acquisitions (M&A). As part... View Details