Publications

Read Now

March 2012 (Revised February 2013)
Background Note

The Hybrid Vehicle Market

By: Michael W. Toffel and Nazli Z. Uludere Aragon

This note describes the hybrid electic vehicle market, the results of different automaker strategies, and the environmental regulatory issues that can promote or inhibit market growth in the United States. Introduces students to the technologies and regulatory aspects... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Environmental Sustainability; Product Development; Information Technology; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Auto Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Japan; United States

May 1968 (Revised January 1992)
Case

Graybar Syndications

By: William J. Poorvu

A potential investor evaluates a proposed offering—a major office building in downtown Manhattan. View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Investment; Construction; City; Valuation; Real Estate Industry; Construction Industry; New York (city, NY)

March 2020
Case

A Tower for the People: 425 Park Avenue

By: John Macomber, Joseph G. Allen and Emily Jones

Healthy buildings and superior air quality are increasingly important since people now spend so much time indoors. Indoor spaces drive performance and productivity. Commercial real estate landlords and investors are responding to the demands of sophisticated tenants... View Details

Keywords: Health And Wellness; Real Estate; Sustainability; Health; Pollution; Buildings and Facilities; Performance Productivity; Finance; Real Estate Industry; New York (city, NY)

25 Jan 2000
Research & Ideas

Strategic Alliances

next stage." In the first, or philanthropic, stage (which some partnerships skip entirely), the parties assume the traditional roles of "benevolent donor" and "grateful recipient." For example, urban community-service nonprofit City Year... View Details

Keywords: by Nancy O. Perry

June 2010 (Revised September 2013)
Case

IDFC India: Infrastructure Investment Intermediaries

By: John D. Macomber and Viraal Balsari

Indian financial intermediary matching international capital to local infrastructure decides how to balance range of services, risk-adjusted return, margin pressure, and nation building. IDFC was chartered with partial ownership from the Indian government to help... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Infrastructure; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; State Ownership; Business and Government Relations; Business and Shareholder Relations; Partners and Partnerships; Financial Services Industry; India

11 Sep 2012
First Look

First Look: September 11

surprisingly, local governments exercise the greatest control over urban land in cities that adopted market reforms earliest. Slavery's Scientific Management: Accounting for Mastery Author:Caitlin C.Rosenthal Publication:In Slavery's... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 1, 2021
Article

Transitioning to Clean Energy Transportation Services: Life-cycle Cost Analysis for Vehicle Fleets

By: Stephen Comello, Gunther Glenk and Stefan Reichelstein

Comprehensive global decarbonization requires that transportation services cease to rely on fossil fuels for power generation. This paper develops a generic, time-driven life-cycle cost model for mobility services to address two closely related questions central to the... View Details

Read Now

07 Sep 2019
Op-Ed

Even for Non-Believers, These Are the Next Steps on Climate Change

coastal cities like Mumbai or Lagos or Bangkok as people seek jobs or flee wars or drought. The fact of migration exposes more people to weather-related disturbances. If sea rise were to accelerate, many of the newcomers would be in... View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber

01 Aug 2007
Op-Ed

Company Town: Fixing Corrupt Governments

Ernst & Young, or McKinsey should all get a shot at becoming candidates to run cities and districts with a history of corruption. Entities that are experts at municipal accounting, consulting to foreign governments, or providing... View Details

Keywords: by Eric Werker

15 Jan 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, January 15, 2019

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=53888 Racial Heterogeneity and Local Government Finances: Evidence from the Great Migration By: Tabellini, Marco Abstract—Is racial heterogeneity responsible for the distressed financial conditions of U.S. central View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

April 2020 (Revised June 2020)
Case

Shorefast: A Strange and Familiar Way to Reimagine Capitalism

By: Brian Trelstad, Wendy Smith and Natalie Slawinski

In 2006, Zita Cobb and two of her brothers, Alan Cobb and Tony Cobb, native Newfoundlanders, launched Shorefast to help grow another leg of Fogo Island’s economy. Like so many rural communities, Fogo Island’s fate was tied directly to one primary resource—in this case... View Details

Keywords: Place Making; Non-profit; Hotel; Economic Development; Tourism; Social Entrepreneurship; Nonprofit Organizations; Development Economics; Economic Systems; Tourism Industry; Canada

11 Feb 2019
Research & Ideas

The Business of Saving the Planet

undervalued? How a Coal Polluter Became a Renewable Energy Leader Enel, Italy’s state-owned power company, was one of Europe’s largest coal-users and polluters. Now it is recognized as a leader in renewable energy services. Smart Cities... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Energy; Green Technology

06 Nov 2017
Research Event

Who is Responsible for the Future of Cities?

CAMBRIDGE, Mass — On a rainy afternoon in late October, Mohsen Mostafavi stood before a packed auditorium at Harvard University and considered the history of cities in terms of three cooked eggs. Mostafavi, the Dean of the Harvard... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

December 2012
Background Note

Jefferson County: Specific Swap Detail

Jefferson County, Alabama, faces an EPA mandate requiring sewer system upgrades. How will they finance the upgrades? What consequences will follow? View Details

Keywords: Local Government; Political Process; Bankruptcy; Debt Management; Financial Planning; Financial Management; Urban Development; City; Infrastructure; Government and Politics; Alabama

February 2024
Teaching Note

CityScore: Big Data Comes to Boston

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 422-050. In 2016, Mayor Marty Walsh of Boston introduced CityScore, a data dashboard that measured the city’s progress across a range of metrics. View Details

Keywords: Government Administration; Leadership; Transformation; City; Analytics and Data Science; Measurement and Metrics; Public Administration Industry; United States; Boston

February 2022
Case

CityScore: Big Data Comes to Boston

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott

In 2016, Martin “Marty” Walsh, the Mayor of Boston, introduced CityScore, a data dashboard that measured the city’s progress across a range of metrics. The dashboard was updated daily and publicly available. The mayor frequently discussed the CityScore targets in... View Details

Keywords: Analytics and Data Science; Government Administration; Leadership; Transformation; City; Measurement and Metrics; Public Administration Industry; Boston; United States

May 2018 (Revised October 2018)
Case

Urban Us

By: Mitchell Weiss and Phoebe Peronto

Shaun Abrahamson and Stonly Baptiste aimed to invest in what they called "urbantech superheroes." At Urban Us, the seed-stage urban technology-focused venture capital firm the two started in 2012, they looked for startups innovating around the future of cities. By... View Details

Keywords: Public Entrepreneurship; Govtech; Urbantech; Seed Investing; Urban Us; Shaun Abrahamson; Stonly Baptiste; Remix; One Concern; Starcity; SeamlessDocs; Venture Capital; Public Sector; City; Urban Development; Entrepreneurship; Miami; San Francisco; New York (city, NY)

2010
Chapter

The Agglomeration of U.S. Ethnic Inventors

By: William R. Kerr

The ethnic composition of US inventors is undergoing a significant transformation - with deep impacts for the overall agglomeration of US innovation. This study applies an ethnic-name database to individual US patent records to explore these trends with greater detail.... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Geographic Location; Patents; Ethnicity; City; Innovation and Invention; United States