Publications

01 Apr 2025
Blog Post

Alumni in Climate Networking Series: Miami

Are you interested in connecting with other alumni leveraging their careers to confront climate change? BEI invites HBS Alumni to join our Alumni in Climate Networking Series for a chance to connect with local alumni to discuss ideas, trends, opportunities, and... View Details

Web

Polaroid Films - Edwin H. Land & Polaroid | Harvard Business School

Clubs Faculty & Research Business & Environment Business History Christensen Center for Teaching & Learning Entrepreneurship Faculty & Research Global Healthcare HBS Working Knowledge Institute for Strategy... View Details

January 2017 (Revised October 2023)
Case

Classtivity: Payal's Pirouette

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Olivia Hull

A few months after launching a new fitness technology product, the small staff of New York startup Classtivity gathers on a Saturday in April 2013 to take stock. With one successful pivot under its belt, Classtivity is finally generating revenue and enthusiasm among... View Details

July 2017 (Revised July 2018)
Case

Upwork: Creating the Human Cloud

By: Dylan Minor and David Yoffie

Stephane Kasriel, the new CEO of Upwork, the leading platform for freelance labor, needs to decide on how to redesign its business model. While the firm has been growing rapidly since the merger of Odesk and eLance, the newly combined firm continues to face problems of... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Platform; Platform Businesses; Technology; Business Model; Digital Platforms; Growth and Development Strategy; Internet and the Web; Labor

Research Summary

Overview

Prof. Altman's research interests include innovation, strategy, organizational change, platform-based businesses and their related ecosystems. Her work focuses on the impact to incumbent organizations as platform-based highly networked business models become more... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Management; Multi-sided Platforms; Business Ecosystems; Organizational Change; Paradox; Organizational Identity

March 2021 (Revised March 2024)
Case

M-KOPA: Empowering Lives

By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Wale Lawal and Pippa Tubman Armerding

The Pay As You Go solar power company in East Africa had sales of $71 million in 2019. It wished to grow to $300 million by 2025. M-KOPA, founded by three entrepreneurs in 2011, had grown nicely in Kenya and Uganda to reach nearly 750,000 households with an innovative... View Details

Keywords: Mobile Payment; Go-to-market Strategy; Business At The Base Of The Pyramid; Business Growth; Social Entrepreneurship; Renewable Energy; Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; Expansion; Marketing Strategy; Developing Countries and Economies; Kenya; Uganda; Nigeria

14 Dec 1999
Research & Ideas

From Spare Change to Real Change: The Social Sector as a Beta Site for Business Innovation

write a check to community residents or a small neighborhood organization to do the work. And that, indeed, is what many companies do. A great deal of business participation in social sector problems derives from the classic View Details

Keywords: by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Web

“It’s like a pie-eating contest” | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

“It’s like a pie-eating contest” One night during his RC year at HBS, Josh Latson (MBA 2015) shadowed an emergency room physician through his rounds in a busy urban hospital. Josh was there as a member of the school’s Health Care Club,... View Details

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Content & Community for Students | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

and giving them resources to make the less-structured career search less intimidating. Third, bringing the message that businesses can be a force for social good to the broader student body at HBS, even those who don't consider themselves... View Details

May 2018
Article

Nowcasting Gentrification: Using Yelp Data to Quantify Neighborhood Change

By: Edward L. Glaeser, Hyunjin Kim and Michael Luca

Data from digital platforms have the potential to improve our understanding of gentrification and enable new measures of how neighborhoods change in close to real time. Combining data on businesses from Yelp with data on gentrification from the Census, Federal Housing... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting Models; Simulation Methods; Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, And Changes; Geographic Location; Local Range; Transition; Analytics and Data Science; Measurement and Metrics; Economic Growth; Forecasting and Prediction

Find at Harvard

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Research & Development, Project Code SX-70 - Edwin H. Land & Polaroid | Harvard Business School

Clubs Faculty & Research Business & Environment Business History Christensen Center for Teaching & Learning Entrepreneurship Faculty & Research Global Healthcare HBS Working Knowledge Institute for Strategy... View Details

Web

Democratizing development: Inequality in Latin America | Institute for Business in Global Society

opportunity," in which individuals and families face barriers beyond their control, preventing them from improving their circumstances. Government policies to address these inequalities have varied widely, from Chile’s Chicago School View Details

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Evolution of the Social Enterprise Conference | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

environmentally. It's a real privilege to have this opportunity as a member of the Harvard community—I can't imagine another place where this kind of impact would be possible! SEI: What is the role of Social Enterprise at HBS? Why is it important? Adam: The HBS... View Details

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Values Matter—No Matter Where You Are | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

new business models to decrease its dependence on fundraising. Shilla became Director of Strategy, Venture Group, which served as “an internal consulting group” to a portfolio of View Details

June 2012
Case

Aman Resorts (Abridged)

By: Eugene Soltes and Aldo Sesia

This case describes the operating model and philosophy of this high-end set of global properties. Aman relies on employees taking considerable initiative to deliver the highest quality personalized service in the hospitality industry. The case also highlights Aman's... View Details

Keywords: Global Business; Management Skills; Performance Appraisals; Customer Service; Incentives; Hospitality; Globalized Firms and Management; Business Model; Employees; Service Delivery; Customer Focus and Relationships; Business Strategy; Accommodations Industry