Publications

2014
Other Teaching and Training Material

Entrepreneurship Reading: Financing Entrepreneurial Ventures

By: William R. Kerr, Ramana Nanda and James McQuade

"Financing Entrepreneurial Ventures" introduces students to the key issues involved in the financing of entrepreneurial enterprises. The Reading begins by examining how business models shape external financing requirements. It then contrasts the choice to bootstrap... View Details

April 2020 (Revised October 2020)
Case

Unilever's Response to the Future of Work

By: William R. Kerr, Emilie Billaud and Mette Fuglsang Hjortshoej

In February 2020, Nick Dalton, executive vice president HR business transformation at Unilever, reflected on the changing nature of work marked by rapid advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation. Launched in 2016, Unilever’s Future of Work... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Human Capital; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Structure; Transformation; Human Resources; Consumer Products Industry; Europe

January 2014
Article

The Consequences of Entrepreneurial Finance: Evidence from Angel Financings

By: William R. Kerr, Josh Lerner and Antoinette Schoar

This paper documents that ventures that are funded by two successful angel groups experience superior outcomes to rejected ventures: they have improved survival, exits, employment, patenting, web traffic, and financing. We use strong discontinuities in angel funding... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Financing and Loans; Interests; Employment; Patents; Internet and the Web; Operations; Entrepreneurship; Business Exit or Shutdown

13 Jan 2015
First Look

First Look: January 13

http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/15-007_e181fd00-4426-4db8-8f70-89b1b5054a8f.pdf January 2015 Routledge Handbook of Immigration and Refugee Studies International Migration and Innovation: Insights from the U.S. Experience By: View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2016
Case

Supercell

By: William R. Kerr, Benjamin F. Jones and Alexis Brownell

Supercell is a young Finnish smartphone game company with an unusual team structure and company philosophy. It is already one of Finland’s most valuable companies, and despite being only six years old, it has put up some impressive numbers: as of 2016, it has released... View Details

Keywords: Supercell; Finland; Video Games; Firm Structure; Startups; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Groups and Teams; Video Game Industry; Finland

27 Apr 2021
Research & Ideas

New Research: Surviving Bankruptcy, Useful Economics, and Retirement

Cash Out Josh Lerner and James Mason “In November 2020, the co-founders of DigiPlex study the future growth trajectory of their Nordic data center venture. A critical question was on the agenda: was now... View Details

17 Jan 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: January 17

Kerr, Sari Pekkala, William R. Kerr, Çağlar Özden, and Christopher Parsons Abstract—This paper reviews recent research regarding high-skilled... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

July 2015
Article

Skilled Immigration and the Employment Structures of U.S. Firms

By: Sari Pekkala Kerr, William R. Kerr and William F. Lincoln

We study the impact of skilled immigrants on the employment structures of U.S. firms using matched employer-employee data. Unlike most previous work, we use the firm as the lens of analysis to account for a greater level of heterogeneity and the fact that many skilled... View Details

Keywords: Firms; Scientists; Engineers; Inventors; H-1B; Age; Employment; Immigration; United States

2013
Working Paper

Skilled Immigration and the Employment Structures of U.S. Firms

By: Sari Pekkala Kerr, William R. Kerr and William F. Lincoln

We study the impact of skilled immigrants on the employment structures of U.S. firms using matched employer-employee data. Unlike most previous work, we use the firm as the lens of analysis to account for a greater level of heterogeneity and the fact that many skilled... View Details

Keywords: H-1B; Firms; Scientists; Engineers; Inventors; Age; Employment; Competency and Skills; Immigration; United States

27 Sep 2016
First Look

September 27, 2016

forthcoming Measuring Entrepreneurial Businesses: Current Knowledge and Challenges Venture Capital Data: Opportunities and Challenges By: Kaplan, Steven N., and Josh Lerner Abstract—This paper describes the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

05 Mar 2013
First Look

First Look: March 5

Essentials: Building a Global Service Business with Local Operations Applegate, Lynda M., William R. Kerr, and David LaneHarvard Business School Case 811-078 Chris Exline... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2012
Article

Reviving Entrepreneurship

By: Josh Lerner and William Sahlman

New enterprises don't exist in a vacuum: They rise or fall depending on myriad contextual factors, all of them interrelated, and all of them affected by government policy. U.S. lawmakers must carefully consider the effects of interventions in at least 12 areas, ranging... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Government and Politics; Policy; Economy; Public Administration Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

Register to Read

01 Sep 2009
First Look

First Look: September 1

disclosure regulation (the U.K.), the analyst school-tie premium has remained large and significant over the entire sample period. Specialization and Success: Evidence from Venture Capital Authors:Paul A. Gompers, Anna Kovner, and Josh... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

May 2018 (Revised October 2019)
Case

Managing the Future of Work

By: William R. Kerr, Allison Ciechanover and Jeff Huizinga

By 2019, leaders from the public and private sector had become increasingly anxious about how advanced technologies and aging global populations could affect labor markets, workplaces, and workers’ lives. Some analysts forecasted that hundreds of millions of workers... View Details

Keywords: Labor Markets; Workplace; Employment; Technological Innovation; Demographics; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Problems and Challenges; Opportunities

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

19 Jul 2011
First Look

First Look: July 19

intangibles. Read the paper: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=913363 Cases & Course MaterialsInternet Securities, Inc.: Path to Sustainability Lynda M. Applegate, William R. View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

30 Apr 2013
First Look

First Look: April 30

suggests that exclusive preferential placement disproportionately impacts traffic to top sites most likely relevant to users' requests. Download working paper: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2251294 Diasporas and Outsourcing: Evidence from oDesk and India By: Ghani, Ejaz,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

26 Aug 2008
First Look

First Look: August 26, 2008

Immigration: A Survey Authors:Sari Pekkala Kerr, William R. Kerr Abstract This paper surveys recent empirical studies on the economic impacts of immigration. Particular... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Article

Entrepreneurship as Experimentation

By: William R. Kerr, Ramana Nanda and Matthew Rhodes-Kropf

Entrepreneurship research is on the rise, but many questions about its fundamental nature still exist. We argue that entrepreneurship is about experimentation: the probabilities of success are low, extremely skewed, and unknowable until an investment is made. At a... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention