Publications

December 1997 (Revised February 2000)
Case

Hewlett Packard: Creating, Running, and Growing an Enduring Company

By: H. Kent Bowen and Courtney Purrington

Traces the development of Hewlett-Packard Co. from a small start-up company in 1938 to a world-class manufacturer of electronic instruments and computer products. Examines the challenges of starting and running a small company, including financing, human resources... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Product Positioning; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Brands and Branding; Computer Industry; Electronics Industry

Forthcoming
Article

The Rise of Remote Work: Evidence on Productivity and Preferences from Firm and Worker Surveys

By: Alexander Bartik, Zoë Cullen, Edward L. Glaeser, Michael Luca and Christopher Stanton

Drawing on surveys of small business owners and employees, we present three main findings about the evolution of remote work after the onset of COVID-19. First, uptake of remote work was abrupt and widespread in jobs suitable for telework according to the task-based... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Remote Work; Health Pandemics; Jobs and Positions; Demographics; Surveys

July 2012 (Revised July 2015)
Case

Nalli Silk Sarees (A)

By: V.G. Narayanan, Namrata Arora and Vidhya Muthuram

Nalli Silk Sarees Private Limited was a family owned and operated business that retailed Indian ethnic wear. This 83-year-old company had enjoyed impressive growth with a $95 million turnover, a 22-store retail footprint, and had outdone its competitors by being the... View Details

Keywords: Pricing Strategy; Price; Strategy; Family Business; Growth and Development; Brands and Branding; Growth and Development Strategy; Expansion; Competitive Strategy; Apparel and Accessories Industry; India

November 2009
Case

METRO Cash & Carry in China, 2008

By: Tarun Khanna

In April 2008, the country head for METRO AG's Cash & Carry wholesaling operations is considering the most appropriate model for expansion in China, where METRO has operated stores for small business professionals for eight years. In addition, METRO is actively... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Emerging Markets; Distribution Channels; Partners and Partnerships; Competitive Strategy; Expansion; Retail Industry; China

03 Oct 2012
News

Top-Level Leaders Have Less Stress Than Others

10 Aug 2018
News

The Worm Has Turned: Bookstores Beats Odds in An Amazon World

Article

Deregulation, Misallocation, and Size: Evidence from India

By: Laura Alfaro and Anusha Chari

This paper examines the impact of the deregulation of compulsory industrial licensing in India on firm size dynamics and reallocation of resources within industries. Following deregulation, resource misallocation declines, and the left-hand tail of the firm size... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Size; Emerging Markets; Supply and Industry; Manufacturing Industry; India

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November 2016 (Revised February 2017)
Case

BrightStar Care: The Evolution of a Leadership Team

By: Boris Groysberg, Colleen Ammerman and John D. Vaughan

BrightStar Care was a rapidly growing franchise of home health care agencies. Founded by husband and wife team JD and Shelly Sun as a single agency near Chicago in 2002, BrightStar had opened nearly 300 franchises across the United States by 2016, generating over $300... View Details

Keywords: Health Care Services; Entrepreneurs; Board Of Directors; Boards Of Directors; Health Care Industry; Growth Strategy; Organizational Change; Brand Positioning; Entrepreneurial Organizations; Entrepreneurial Management; Franchising; Family-owned Business; Home Health Care; Managing Growth; Management Styles; Organizational Development; Talent Management; Women Executives; Women And Leadership; Business Startups; Family Business; Small Business; Talent and Talent Management; Governing and Advisory Boards; Health Care and Treatment; Human Capital; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Management Skills; Management Style; Management Succession; Management Systems; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Strategy

April 2008
Case

Engstrom Auto Mirror Plant: Motivating in Good Times and Bad

By: Michael Beer and Elizabeth Collins

In May 2007, the Engstrom Auto Mirrors plant, a relatively small supplier based in Indiana, faces a crisis. The business was in the second year of a downturn. Sales had started to decline in 2005; a year later, plant manager Ron Bent had been forced to lay off more... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Behavior; Human Resource Management; Incentives; Motivation; Manufacturing; Leadership; Change Management; Employees; Motivation and Incentives; Goals and Objectives; Manufacturing Industry; Indiana

September 2018 (Revised May 2021)
Teaching Plan

Eastern Bank: Innovating Through Eastern Labs

By: Karen Mills, Dennis Campbell and Aaron Mukerjee

Eastern Bank is a 200-year-old New England mutual bank with a community focus. Eastern specializes in small business lending, having made strategic investments to become the top SBA lender in New England in the midst of the Great Recession, when other banks were... View Details

Keywords: Banks; Fintech; Innovation; Innovation ＆ Entrepreneurship; Innovation And Strategy; Technological Change; Technology And Innovation Management; Entrepreneurial Management; Intrapreneurship; Banks and Banking; Innovation and Invention; Entrepreneurship; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Management

October 2024
Case

Estímulo: Blended Finance in Brazil

By: Vikram S. Gandhi, James Barnett, Maxim Pike Harrell and Marina Osborn

In December 2022, Estímulo—a Brazilian impact investment fund supporting small businesses—found itself at a crossroads. The fund was established in 2020 to provide emergency relief through accessible credit and financial education. When low default rates from borrowers... View Details

Keywords: Credit; Financial Management; Financing and Loans; Investment; Social Enterprise; Business Model; Financial Services Industry; Brazil; South America; Latin America

25 Jan 2022
News

Baseball’s Next Competitive Advantage Isn’t Analytics. It’s Culture.

05 Dec 2018
News

6 Ways Traveling Makes You A Better Employee

18 Dec 2017
News

Hospital Giants Vie for Patients in Effort to Fend Off New Rivals

January 2024 (Revised May 2024)
Case

Runa

By: Paul Gompers and Carla Larangeira

In early 2022, Courtney McColgan, founder and CEO of Runa, a human resources and payroll Software-as-a-Service platform, faced an unexpected tech market downturn. Founded in 2018, Runa catered to small and medium-sized businesses in Mexico, offering an affordable and... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Volatility; Entrepreneurship; Decision Making; Leadership; Management; Venture Capital; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business Growth and Maturation; Latin America

Leonard A. Schlesinger is Baker Foundation Professor at the Harvard Business School where he serves as Chair of the School’s Practice based faculty and faculty Chair of the MBA Field Global Immersion program. He has served as a member of the HBS faculty from 1978 to... View Details

December 2003 (Revised December 2004)
Case

Building Hedge Funds at Prospero Capital

This case discusses the issues facing a relatively new and small equity hedge fund as it attempts to expand its investor base. View Details

Keywords: Expansion; Business Startups; Finance; Financial Services Industry

October 2013 (Revised April 2018)
Technical Note

Non-Equity Financing for Entrepreneurial Ventures

By: Joan Farre-Mensa, Ramana Nanda and Piyush Jain

Young, and particularly high-growth ventures often need to raise significant external finance, since their internal cash flow is usually insufficient to support the investments needed to grow. Although raising equity from venture capital or angel investors is the... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Finance; Entrepreneurship; Finance; Financial Services Industry

October 2018
Article

Competing with Complementors: An Empirical Look at Amazon.com

By: Feng Zhu and Qihong Liu

Platform owners sometimes enter complementors' product spaces to compete against them directly. Prior studies have offered two possible explanations for such entries: platform owners may target the most successful complementors so as to appropriate value from their... View Details

Keywords: Amazon; Complementors; Co-opetition; Entry; Platform-based Markets; Competition; Digital Platforms; Competitive Strategy