Publications

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Lou Shipley is a Senior Lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at the Harvard Business School. Lou is a three-time technology CEO, most recently at Black Duck Software.

Lou teaches four sales courses at HBS. He specializes in tech entrepreneurship,... View Details

2024
Working Paper

What Makes Players Pay? An Empirical Investigation of In-Game Lotteries

By: Tomomichi Amano and Andrey Simonov

In 2020, gamers spent more than $15 billion on loot boxes, lotteries of virtual items in video games. Paid loot boxes are contentious. Game producers argue that loot boxes complement the gameplay and expenditures on loot boxes reflect players’ enjoyment of the game.... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Policy; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Product Design; Ethics; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Video Game Industry

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January 2017
Supplement

Medtronic: Making the Big Leap Forward (B)

By: William W. George and Monica Baraldi

On December 1, 2014, Medtronic announced that it had completed a $17 billion bond sale to finance the Covidien acquisition, officially completed on January 26, 2015. Medtronic’s legal headquarters moved to Ireland, while its operational headquarters remained in... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Medtronic; Covidien; Mission; Tax Inversion; Business Strategy; Leadership; Mergers and Acquisitions; Integration; Pharmaceutical Industry; Republic of Ireland; Europe; Minnesota; United States

06 Dec 2020
News

Neera Tanden, Biden’s pick for budget chief, runs a think tank backed by corporate and foreign interests

July 2018
Article

Personality Traits of Entrepreneurs: A Review of Recent Literature

By: Sari Pekkala Kerr, William R. Kerr and Tina Xu

We review the extensive literature since 2000 on the personality traits of entrepreneurs. We first consider baseline personality traits like the Big-5 model, self-efficacy and innovativeness, locus of control, and the need for achievement. We then consider risk... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurs; Venturing; Personality Traits; Characteristics; Big-5; Risk Attitudes; Goals; Skills; Entrepreneurship; Personal Characteristics; Goals and Objectives; Competency and Skills; Success; Demographics; Research

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05 Jun 2014
Blog Post

Learning to fail at HBS

I’ve spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday reflecting on my first year at HBS. In that process, I wrote an email to a few close friends updating them on my time here. As I started to write this post, I realized that the content of that email... View Details

Keywords: Consulting; Consumer Products / Retail

2012
Article

Friends with Money

By: Christopher Parsons, J. Engelberg and P. Gao

When banks and firms are connected through interpersonal linkages—such as their respective management having attended college or previously worked together—interest rates are markedly reduced, comparable with single shifts in credit ratings. These rate concessions do... View Details

Keywords: Social and Collaborative Networks; Interest Rates; Banking Industry

Find at Harvard

February 2008
Case

Cincom Systems, Inc.

By: Tom Nicholas and David Chen

Tom Nies, charismatic CEO of Cincom Systems, is considering a public offering of his software enterprise, but the 1987 stock market crash checks his plans. Nies reflects that capital for expansion will keep Cincom at the frontier of technological development in a... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Capital; Initial Public Offering; Organizational Culture; Going Public; Corporate Strategy; Information Technology Industry

June 2006 (Revised April 2007)
Case

Howard Schultz: Building Starbucks Community

By: William W. George and Andrew N. McLean

In 2006, Howard Schultz reflects on his leadership at Starbucks in light of its continued growth plans. Provides information on the leadership development of the protagonist, tracing his youth and education, his early business career, his acquisition of Starbucks, and... View Details

Keywords: Education; Biography; Leadership; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Growth and Development Strategy; Personal Development and Career

29 Sep 2020
News

Employee Performance vs. Company Values: A Manager’s Dilemma

May 2021
Case

Megan Ming Francis: Leadership and Racial Injustice

By: Francesca Gino and Frances X. Frei

In this multimedia case, Megan Ming Francis, a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Washington (UW) and a visiting professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, discusses the roots of racial injustice and the need for change. Through... View Details

Keywords: Racial Injustice; Race; Prejudice and Bias; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership

Web

Doctoral

New Ideas for a Changing World New Ideas for a Changing World Some of the greatest intellectual challenges of our time are emerging from the broad fields of business management. Harvard Business School together with the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences... View Details

August 2020 (Revised February 2021)
Case

Luckin Coffee (A): Caffeine-fueled Growth?

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Karen Elterman

This case describes the founding of Chinese coffee chain Luckin Coffee in 2017 and its path to surpassing Starbucks as the largest coffee chain in China (by number of stores) in 2019. Unlike Starbucks stores, which were designed to be welcoming “third places” for... View Details

June 2023 (Revised January 2024)
Case

Siemens AG: A Private Equity Approach within an Industrial Corporation?

By: David J. Collis and Haisley Wert

In July 2022, Horst Kayser, Chairman of Siemens AG Portfolio Companies (POC), was reflecting on the advice he could offer Roland Busch, Chief Executive Officer of the parent company Siemens AG, about whether and how to operate a private equity-like approach inside the... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Management; Value Creation; Private Equity; Corporate Strategy

November 2022
Case

Jon Fortt: The Art of Debate and Effective Communication

By: Francesca Gino, Sarah Livick-Moses and Ruth Page

This stand-alone multimedia case explores the art of communication in the space of negotiation. It follows the career journey of business journalist, media influencer, and co-anchor of CNBC's "Squawk Alley," Jon Fortt. He offers reflections on the race crisis in the... View Details

Keywords: Communication; Negotiation; Race

March 2014
Case

MediaTek: From Feature Phones to Smartphones

By: Willy Shih

MediaTek was the third largest fabless semiconductor company in the world, and was the second largest supplier of the silicon microchips that powered mobile phones. Yet as the company's chairman reflected on his R&D strategy, he wondered why it hadn't moved faster on... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Decisions; Business Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Technology Adoption; Telecommunications Industry; Semiconductor Industry; China; Taiwan

2010
Casebook

Transforming Public Education: Cases in Education Entrepreneurship

Based on a popular education entrepreneurship course at Harvard Business School, Transforming Public Education organizes 18 case studies into modules that reflect the predominant opportunities pursued by social entrepreneurs focused on public education in the United... View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Education; Transformation

November 2003 (Revised October 2005)
Case

Leading the Josie Esquivel Franchise (A)

By: Boris Groysberg and Laura Morgan Roberts

Reviews Josie Esquivel's career history, detailing how, through her personal attributes, skills, experiences, and organizational practices she has developed into a star analyst. Should Esquivel accept an offer to leave Lehman Brothers for Morgan Stanley? To make this... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Decision Choices and Conditions; Resignation and Termination; Job Offer; Franchise Ownership; Performance; Personal Development and Career; Personal Characteristics; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage