Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(2,910)
- Faculty Publications (175)
- November 2019 (Revised April 2020)
- Case
Away: Scaling a DTC Travel Brand
By: Jill Avery and Joseph B. Fuller
Away, a direct-to-consumer, digital native e-commerce seller of travel luggage, is debating how to invest its latest round of venture funding. How quickly could and should Away scale and what were the most promising growth trajectories to maximize its potential? Three... View Details
Keywords: Brand Management; DTC; Brand Extension; Lifestyle Brand; Customer Segmentation; Retailing; Scaling And Growth; Startup; Brands and Branding; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Marketing Channels; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Consumer Behavior; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Startups; E-commerce; Consumer Products Industry; Travel Industry; United States; North America
- October 2019
- Case
Harlem Capital: Changing the Face of Entrepreneurship (A)
By: George Serafeim and David Freiberg
Jarrid Tingle and Henri Pierre-Jacques had spent the summer between their first and second years of their Harvard Business School MBA program fund raising for their start-up venture capital (VC) firm, Harlem Capital Partners. Harlem Capital was founded upon the... View Details
Keywords: Impact Investing; Gender Bias; Gender Inequality; Minority Representation; Entrepreneurial Finance; Investment Management; Investing; Inequality; Race And Ethnicity; Black Entrepreneurs; Black Inventors; Black Leadership; Venture Investing; Fund Raising; Venture Capital; Entrepreneurship; Diversity; Gender; Race; Equality and Inequality; Equity; Mission and Purpose; Investment Funds; Financial Services Industry; United States
- October 2019 (Revised February 2025)
- Case
A Conversation with Ellen J. Kullman, Chair & CEO of DuPont, 2009-2015
By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz
Ellen J. Kullman, the retired Chairman and CEO of DuPont, describes how she guided the storied science and technology company through a contentious proxy battle with activist investor Trian Partners, which acquired DuPont shares in 2013 and sought to break up the... View Details
- September 2019
- Teaching Note
Gun Safety in America: Three Leaders Propose Innovative Solutions
By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Joseph Paul
This is a teaching note to the original case: Gun violence was a significant problem in America. Three Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellows Christy Wood, Russell Sternlicht, and Gareth Glaser each decided to do something about gun safety. They each used... View Details
Keywords: Gun Violence; Guns; Advanced Leadership; Advanced Leadership Initiative; Innovation; Innovation ＆ Entrepreneurship; Social Change; Social Responsibility; Leadership; Change Management; Experience and Expertise; Social Entrepreneurship; Values and Beliefs; Policy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Leading Change; Non-Governmental Organizations; Social Issues; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; United States
- September 2019 (Revised January 2020)
- Case
Gun Safety in America: Three Leaders Propose Innovative Solutions
By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Joseph Paul
Gun violence was a significant problem in America. Three Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellows Christy Wood, Russell Sternlicht, and Gareth Glaser each decided to do something about gun safety. They each used their professional and leadership experience to... View Details
Keywords: Gun Violence; Guns; Advanced Leadership; Advanced Leadership Initiative; Innovation; Innovation ＆ Entrepreneurship; Social Change; Social Responsibility; Leadership; Change Management; Experience and Expertise; Social Entrepreneurship; Values and Beliefs; Policy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Leading Change; Non-Governmental Organizations; Social Issues; Innovation and Invention; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; United States
- September 2019 (Revised June 2020)
- Case
2U: Higher Education Rewired
By: Yael Grushka-Cockayne and Karim R. Lakhani
In its 2019 Partner Symposium, 2U, an online program management provider (OPM), showcased its new vision: “Career. Curriculum. Continuum. A construct for lifelong learning in the 21st century.” 2U, founded in 2008 and went public in 2014, was looking to expand beyond... View Details
- 2019
- White Paper
Impact-Weighted Financial Accounts: The Missing Piece for an Impact Economy
By: George Serafeim, T. Robert Zochowski and Jennifer Downing
Reimagining capitalism is an imperative. We need to create a more inclusive and sustainable form of capitalism that works for every person and the planet. Massive environmental damage, growing income and wealth disparity, stress, and depression within developed... View Details
- August 2019 (Revised August 2024)
- Case
The Walt Disney Company: Theme Parks
By: Rory McDonald, Allison Mnookin and Iuliana Mogosanu
As he seeks to place the division he leads on a firm footing for the future, Tom Staggs, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, is considering a range of investments designed either to upgrade the guest experience in the company’s existing parks or to expand access... View Details
- September 2019
- Article
Household Matters: Revisiting the Returns to Capital Among Female Microentrepreneurs
By: Arielle Bernhardt, Erica Field, Rohini Pande and Natalia Rigol
Multiple field experiments report positive financial returns to capital shocks for male and not female microentrepreneurs. But these analyses overlook the fact that female entrepreneurs often reside with male entrepreneurs. Using data from experiments in India, Sri... View Details
- May 2019 (Revised July 2019)
- Case
Walmart's Workforce of the Future
By: William R. Kerr and Jordan Bach-Lombardo
Faced with intense competition from Amazon, Walmart began a transformation of its operations and workforce in 2015. The goal was to create an omnichannel retail experience for customers that seamlessly joined online and offline shopping. This case explores Walmart's... View Details
- February 2019
- Technical Note
Can Multiunit Organizations Remain Agile as They Grow?
By: Tatiana Sandino
This note discusses how multiunit organizations incorporate flexibility into their management control systems, some by authorizing all or a select number of their dispersed units to make input and process decisions, some by investing in data-analytic technologies to... View Details
- January 2019 (Revised December 2020)
- Case
Angola Starts Now
By: Jeremy Friedman and Sophus A. Reinert
After five centuries of colonialism, four decades of civil war, an extended experiment with Marxism-Leninism, and nearly four decades of rule by a single man, José Eduardo Dos Santos, Angola finally has a chance to realize its enormous economic potential. A country... View Details
- January 2019
- Case
First Aid Beauty
By: Karen Mills and Annie Dang
In 2008, Lilli Gordon, an experienced financial and skincare entrepreneur, founded First Aid Beauty (FAB). She had discovered a white space in the prestige beauty market: high-end skin solutions that were suitable for sensitive skin. After initial success through... View Details
- December 2018 (Revised October 2019)
- Case
Barteca: The Challenge and Opportunity of Private Equity
By: Lena G. Goldberg and Michael S. Kaufman
Andy Pforzheimer and Sasa Mahr-Batuz, co-founders of a highly successful seven-location restaurant brand, had just opened the first location of a new brand. They had mapped out future expansion for both brands but wondered if, rather than lining up an assortment of... View Details
- October 2018 (Revised October 2018)
- Teaching Note
La-Z-Boy (A)
By: Joseph B. Fuller and Julia Kelley
Kurt Darrow, CEO of La-Z-Boy furniture, must decide whether to continue an overhaul of the company's strategy in the face of a collapse in demand during the great recession. Having pared back La-Z-Boy's portfolio of brands and manufacturing network, he intends to... View Details
Keywords: Retail; Manufacturing; Organizational Transformations; Reorganization; Furniture Industry; Corporate Strategy; Home Fashion; Turnaround; Portfolio Rationalization; Globalization Of Supply Chain; Brand Repositioning; Business Growth and Maturation; Brands and Branding; Competitive Strategy; Vertical Integration; Transformation; Retail Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States
- June 2018
- Article
Cost of Experimentation and the Evolution of Venture Capital
By: Michael Ewens, Ramana Nanda and Matthew Rhodes-Kropf
We study how technological shocks to the cost of starting new businesses have led the venture capital model to adapt in fundamental ways over the prior decade. We both document and provide a framework to understand the changes in the investment strategy of VCs in... View Details
- January–February 2018
- Article
Inclusive Growth: Profitable Strategies for Tackling Poverty and Inequality
By: Robert S. Kaplan, George Serafeim and Eduardo Tugendhat
More than a billion people in the developing world remain in extreme poverty and outside the formal economy. Traditional CSR programs have done little to alleviate the situation and rarely produce transformative change.
Instead of trying to fix local problems,... View Details
Instead of trying to fix local problems,... View Details
Keywords: Inclusive Growth; Sustainability; Social Impact; Business Strategy; Shared Value; Impact Investing; Inequality; Corporate Governance; Balanced Scorecard; Strategy Execution; Economic Growth; Developing Countries and Economies; Poverty; Equality and Inequality; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Strategy; Investment
- November 2017 (Revised February 2019)
- Case
Kurt Summers: Investing in Our Chicago (Abridged)
By: Joshua Margolis and Michael Norris
In 2016, Kurt Summers, the Chicago City Treasurer, considered his future in Chicago politics. With an unpopular governor and mayor soon up for reelection, should Summers consider running for higher office? Summers reflects on his time growing up in gang-controlled... View Details
- September 2017 (Revised January 2025)
- Case
Dinesh Moorjani and Hatch Labs
By: Christopher Stanton, Shikhar Ghosh, Allison Ciechanover and Jeff Huizinga
This case is about Tinder. It discusses different business models and ways of structuring the initial team. With a $6 million investment from IAC/Interactive in 2010, Dinesh Moorjani founded Hatch Labs to build mobile apps. His mission was to attract entrepreneurial... View Details
- 2017
- Article
Agricultural Insurance and Economic Development
By: Shawn A. Cole and Wentao Xiong
This article provides a review of recent research on agricultural insurance (AI) in developing countries. Agricultural producers face a variety of significant risks; historically, only government-subsidized products have achieved widespread adoption. A recent... View Details