Publications

November 2008 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Maggie Lena Walker and the Independent Order of St. Luke

By: Anthony Mayo and Shandi Onise Smith

As America struggled to regain its balance in the aftermath of the American Civil War, Maggie Lena Walker did her best to actively effect change by finding solutions to the social and economic problems facing blacks and especially black women. Taking charge of the... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leading Change; Ethnicity; Race; Social Entrepreneurship; Personal Development and Career; Welfare; Business and Community Relations; Gender; Banks and Banking

September 22, 2023
Article

How Software Companies Can Avoid the Trap of Product-Led Growth

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Oliver Jay

Companies like Slack and Dropbox have pioneered the use of Product-Led Growth (PLG). They start by building a product that’s indispensable for small teams, then count on low friction and customer advocates to expand throughout the organization. PLG works, at least at... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Product; Network Effects; Business Strategy

Register to Read

31 Jul 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, July 31, 2018

integrating global market and local technical knowledge. We refer to this type of firm as a Knowledge Integrator and discuss how its strategy supports the competitiveness of localized suppliers. Publisher's link:... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

April 1998 (Revised November 1999)
Case

Hambrecht & Quist

By: Thomas J. DeLong and Nicole Tempest

Hambrecht & Quist (H&Q), an investment bank headquartered in San Francisco, has a very unique culture relative to its Wall Street counterparts. Firm members and even competitors describe the culture as entrepreneurial, team-driven, non-bureaucratic, and... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Investment Banking; Growth and Development Strategy; Emerging Markets; Organizational Culture; Competitive Advantage; Banking Industry; San Francisco

12 Sep 2011
Research & Ideas

The Untold Story of ‘Green’ Entrepreneurs

In the 1920s, on pitch black nights in rural eastern Montana, the farmhouse owned by the parents of brothers Marcellus and Joe Jacobs stood out for one reason: it had light, although located far from power lines and gasoline supplies. It was a beacon in the dark that... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

15 May 2015
Research & Ideas

Kids Benefit From Having a Working Mom

findings are stark, and they hold true across 24 countries. "There are very few things, that we know of, that have such a clear effect on gender inequality as being raised by a working mother," says Kathleen L. McGinn, the Cahners-Rabb Professor of View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

Article

Course Research: Using the Case Method to Build and Teach Management Theory

By: Clayton M. Christensen and Paul R. Carlile

Some in the Academy have questioned the usefulness of case studies in teaching sound management theory (Shugan 2006). Our research and experience suggests exactly the opposite-that case studies can unite the development of theory with the teaching of it in a single... View Details

Keywords: Business Education; Curriculum and Courses; Teaching; Cases; Research; Theory

Find at Harvard

16 Oct 2012
First Look

First Look: October 16

in managing business analytics and big data at the enterprise level. It includes key applications of analytics, human and organizational issues in building analytical capabilities, and case studies of the application of analytics in... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2014
Case

Victors & Spoils: 'Born Open'

By: Karim R. Lakhani and Michael L. Tushman

Victors & Spoils (V&S), located in Boulder, Colorado, was the first advertising agency built on open innovation and crowdsourcing principles from the ground-up. V&S was co-founded in 2009 by John Winsor, Claudia Batten and Evan Fry, all former members of the... View Details

Keywords: Advertising Agency; Marketing; Crowdsourcing; Open Innovation; Growth; Acquisitions; Advertising; Advertising Campaigns; Digital Marketing; Acquisition; Innovation and Invention; Advertising Industry; United States

Profile

Anddria Clack

Why was earning your MBA at Harvard Business School important to you? I have been a student and practitioner of business for several years. I started requesting to attend college-level View Details

Keywords: Technology; Investment Management / Hedge Fund; Other Financial Services

16 Jun 2020
Research & Ideas

Your Customers Have Changed. Here's How to Engage Them Again.

longer term. Whether industries are experiencing decreases or increases in demand, all firms and organizations need to take a step back or forward and ask themselves: What should be my minimally viable strategy to get through these... View Details

Keywords: by Rohit Deshpandé, Ofer Mintz, and Imran S. Currim; Retail; Service

04 Jul 2016
Research & Ideas

Is Your Org Chart Stuck in a Rut? Try a Scientific Experiment

the Organizational Behavior unit at Harvard Business School, who spent five years as a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) before joining the HBS faculty. “And so we have this sort of... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

March 2008
Case

Cambrian House

By: Peter A. Coles, Karim R. Lakhani and Andrew P. McAfee

Cambrian House builds internet-based products and services by relying entirely on its user community for all aspects of its innovation and new product development process. Users suggest ideas for new products and services and also participate in a monthly voting... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Voting; Technological Innovation; Knowledge Management; Marketing Strategy; Open Source Distribution; Product Development; Strategic Planning; Business and Community Relations; Internet

Web

People - Behavioral Finance & Financial Stability

Investment Strategies course in the MBA elective curriculum and a PhD course in Empirical Methods. Victoria Ivashina Lovett-Learned Professor of Business Administration; Unit... View Details

August 2024 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Barbie: Reviving a Cultural Icon at Mattel

By: Elie Ofek, Ryann Noe and Sarah Mehta

The 2023 release of the live-action film Barbie, and its accompanying marketing blitz, incited a worldwide Barbie craze. Suddenly Barbie was everywhere, a celebrated icon reinstated at the forefront of cultural conversation. This goodwill stood in contrast to... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Media; Intellectual Property; Business Strategy; Entertainment; Gender; Public Opinion; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Retail Industry; United States

February 2003 (Revised May 2003)
Case

Bombardier: Canada versus Brazil at the WTO

By: Rawi E. Abdelal, Laura Alfaro and Brett Laschinger

In less than a decade, Bombardier had grown from a medium-size Canadian company to a highly profitable global player largely on the strength of the introduction of a new generation of regional jet and successfully marketing its product to airlines around the world.... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Global Strategy; Five Forces Framework; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Business and Government Relations; Situation or Environment; Competition; Air Transportation Industry; Canada; Brazil