Publications

July 2006 (Revised August 2007)
Case

The Mozilla Foundation: Launching Firefox 1.0 (A)

Explores the Mozilla Foundation's decisions leading up to the launch of Firefox 1.0, including its default browser, managing corporate partnerships, managing product development, and moving toward a revenue-based model. Mitchell Baker, president of the Mozilla... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Commercialization; Open Source Distribution; Partners and Partnerships; Information Technology; Social Entrepreneurship; Applications and Software; Innovation and Invention; Information Technology Industry; United States

November 2024
Supplement

Clara Wu Tsai and Brooklyn Loan Innovation (B)

By: Archie Jones, Mathieu Davis, Mourya Mamidala and Max Hancock

This (B) case provides an update on “Clara Wu Tsai and Brooklyn Loan Innovation (A)” View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Social Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Banks and Banking; United States; New York (city, NY)

11 Jun 2019
Book

These Aren't Beach Books, but Managers Should Read Them Anyway

R. Kerr’s book explores why global talent flows matter to national economic development and security Trust: Creating the Foundation for Entrepreneurship in Developing CountriesLegal and social institutions... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

November 2019
Article

Conversations and Idea Generation: Evidence from a Field Experiment

By: Sharique Hasan and Rembrand Koning

When do conversations lead people to generate better ideas? We conducted a field experiment at a startup boot camp to evaluate the impact of informal conversations on the quality of product ideas generated by participants. Specifically, we examine how the personality... View Details

Keywords: Peer Effects; Field Experiment; Interpersonal Communication; Creativity; Personal Characteristics; Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention

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2012
Case

Robert Whelan and the Student Loan Crisis (A)

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Olivia Leskinen

Robert Whelan and the Student Loan Crisis (A) 2009 AL Fellow Bob Whelan developed an idea with partners that was a seed before his fellowship year and seemed to address a significant national challenge - college financing - with a creative concept and experience from... View Details

2018
Book

Varieties of Green Business: Industries, Nations and Time

By: Geoffrey Jones

Published at a time of ever-increasing warnings that the pace of climate change and other environmental changes risk making the Earth unsustainable within our own lifetimes, this book looks at the past of green business to identify lessons for the future. It provides... View Details

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24 Apr 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, April 24, 2018

Hernando, María Luz González-Gadea, Rafael Di Tella, Agustín Ibáñez, and Mariano Sigman Abstract—Previous studies in adults demonstrated that beliefs and sharing decisions in social scenarios are closely related. However, to date, little... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

03 Aug 2010
First Look

First Look: August 3

social cues from reputation stakeholders and from prominent third-party bureaucratic actors can serve as symbolic signals that can affect the decision making of regulatory agencies. Our findings suggest that while View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

September 2009 (Revised August 2011)
Case

Root Capital

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Katharine Lee

Founded in 1999, Root Capital had loaned $150 million to nearly 250 small and growing businesses, mainly in Latin America. In 2009, as the organization launched a five-year, $55 million capital campaign, it had to determine a strategic path going forward in keeping... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Social Entrepreneurship; Capital; Financing and Loans; Growth and Development Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Latin America

July 2022 (Revised February 2024)
Teaching Note

The DivaCup: Navigating Distribution and Growth

By: Ayelet Israeli

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 519-055. When the mother-daughter founders of DivaCup set out with a mission to disrupt the menstrual care industry with an innovative product form, they initially struggled to gain legitimacy and convince retailers to carry their unique... View Details

March 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

The DivaCup: Navigating Distribution and Growth

By: Ayelet Israeli

When the mother-daughter founders of DivaCup set out with a mission to disrupt the menstrual care industry with an innovative product form, they initially struggled to gain legitimacy and convince retailers to carry their unique product. Fifteen years later, the... View Details

June 2007 (Revised October 2009)
Case

Les is More, Times Four

By: Noam T. Wasserman and Rosy Fynn

"I've had enough! I've decided that I need to resign," read the email from the founder of Webpoint to the company's board of directors. Les Trachtman, the CEO of Webpoint, has to figure out how to react to the founder's "it's Trachtman or me" ultimatum. Webpoint was... View Details

Keywords: Conflict Management; Management Succession; Entrepreneurship

27 Jan 2016
Research & Ideas

A Politician's Investment Portfolio Might Tip Off Corruption Potential

while he was in Congress. DeLay’s portfolio between 2004 and 2006 was allocated 100 percent to stocks, Minor says. Lessons for the boardroom The implications extend beyond the Senate or House floor to the boardroom. “Whether it’s View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland

February 2024 (Revised September 2024)
Case

TimeCredit

By: Emanuele Colonnelli, Raymond Kluender and Shai Benjamin Bernstein

TimeCredit is an artificial intelligence (AI) startup that is developing large language models (LLMs) to generate accounting memos. The case follows Ndonga Sagnia, a Gambian Harvard Business School MBA student with an accounting background, as she decides how much... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; AI and Machine Learning; Entrepreneurial Finance; Identity; Technology Industry

24 Feb 2009
First Look

First Look: February 24, 2009

scholars to reintroduce entrepreneurship into the research agenda of business historians. We examine the value and limitations of adapting recent social scientific theories and methods on View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Article

Entrepreneurial Creativity Through Motivational Synergy

By: T. M. Amabile

This paper defines and describes entrepreneurial creativity, which is the generation and implementation of novel, appropriate ideas to establish a new venture. Entrepreneurial creativity can be exhibited in established organizations as well as in start-up firms. The... View Details

Keywords: Creativity; Motivation and Incentives; Organizational Culture; Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention

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2025
Working Paper

Investor Influence on Media Coverage: Evidence from Venture Capital-Backed Startups

By: Brian K. Baik and Albert Shin

We examine whether and how investors influence media coverage of their private portfolio companies. Using a stacked difference-in-differences design, we find that media coverage of startups increases significantly following venture capital (VC) investment. The effect... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Entrepreneurship; Media; Reputation; Information

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February 2019 (Revised May 2019)
Case

Hot Chicken Takeover

By: William R. Kerr, Manjari Raman and Olivia Hull

By December 2018, entrepreneur Joe DeLoss’s fried chicken company, Hot Chicken Takeover, has opened three restaurants in Columbus, Ohio, using an unconventional employment model that helps people with criminal records get back on their feet. DeLoss is proud of the... View Details