Publications

Program

Senior Executive Program—Africa

teams, and navigate rapid change, you will be ready to help your company drive growth in Africa's dynamic markets. HBS offers this program in partnership with the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) of the University of Pretoria... View Details

December 2024
Case

Xtalic

By: Joshua Lev Krieger and Jim Matheson

This case study examines the commercialization efforts of Xtalic, a startup founded by MIT scientists based on their discovery of a novel material science method to protect metal substrates. The case focuses on the strategic decisions involved in bringing this... View Details

Keywords: Innovation ＆ Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Management; Entrepreneurial Finance; Entrepreneurship; Business Model; Business Startups; Agreements and Arrangements; Science-Based Business; Commercialization

July 2010
Article

The Supply Side of Innovation: H-1B Visa Reforms and U.S. Ethnic Invention

By: William R. Kerr and William F. Lincoln

This study evaluates the impact of high-skilled immigrants on U.S. technology formation. We use reduced-form specifications that exploit large changes in the H-1B visa program. Higher H-1B admissions increase immigrant science and engineering (SE) employment and... View Details

Keywords: Engineering; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Immigration; Innovation and Invention; Patents; Business and Government Relations; Science; United States

June 2025 (Revised June 2025)
Case

Full-funnel Advertising on TikTok

By: Jeremy Yang, Ayelet Israeli and Alexis Lefort

In 2025 TikTok is working to grow its brand and performance advertising business, along with a new integrated full-funnel solution. As an emerging media platform with unique ad formats and user behavior in a privacy-first environment, TikTok faces both significant... View Details

06 Jul 2015
News

Brain on Sports Podcast: Psychology of rooting for a losing team

Dutch Leonard

Herman B. ("Dutch") Leonard is Eliot I. Snider and Family Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and the George F. Baker, Jr. Professor of Public Sector Management at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. In... View Details

Keywords: education industry; federal government; health care; nonprofit industry; state government

26 May 2014
News

How to Win the Lottery (Happily)

March 2023 (Revised June 2023)
Case

Metaverse Wars

By: Andy Wu, David B. Yoffie and Matt Higgins

In 2023, the term metaverse — a combination of “meta” and “universe” — had become a catch-all for a diverse set of expectations about online virtual worlds and the future of the internet. To some, the metaverse conjured images of a massive participatory videogame... View Details

Keywords: Metaverse; Technology; Virtual Reality; Facebook; Social Media; Technological Innovation; Internet and the Web; Technology Adoption

Al Roth is the George Gund Professor of Economics and Business Administration in the Department of Economics at Harvard University, and in the Harvard Business School. His research, teaching, and consulting interests are in game theory, experimental economics, and... View Details

Keywords: e-commerce industry; education industry; health care; information; internet; legal services

Jan W. Rivkin

Jan W. Rivkin is a Professor in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School. In the past, he has served as Faculty Chair of the MBA Program, Senior Associate Dean for Research, and head of the Strategy Unit. His research, course development, and teaching focus on... View Details

Keywords: airline; computer; internet; music; transportation

April 2008
Article

The Survey of Industrial R&D—Patent Database Link Project

By: William R. Kerr and Shihe Fu

This paper details the construction of a firm-year panel dataset combining the NBER Patent Dataset with the Survey of Industrial R&D conducted by the Census Bureau and National Science Foundation. The dataset constitutes a platform that offers an unprecedented view of... View Details

Keywords: Analytics and Data Science; Patents; Surveys; Research and Development; Innovation and Invention; Performance Productivity; Projects; Management Practices and Processes; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques

Read Now

March 2008
Article

Testing a Purportedly More Learnable Auction Mechanism

We describe an auction mechanism in the class of Groves mechanisms that has received attention in the computer science literature because of its theoretical property of being more "learnable" than the standard second price auction mechanism. We bring this mechanism,... View Details

Keywords: Market Design; Auctions; Learning; Economics

Read Now

Web

Organizational Behavior - Doctoral

opportunity to work with faculty from both the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Harvard Business School. Curriculum & Coursework Our program offers two distinct tracks, with research focused either on the micro or macro level. Students... View Details

December 2009 (Revised April 2012)
Case

Neoprene

By: Tom Nicholas and Felipe Tamega Fernandes

In 1931, during one of the worst economic crises in U.S. history, Du Pont announced the discovery of an innovative rubber synthetic product—neoprene. Yet at the time of the announcement, Du Pont did not have any neoprene to sell. Manufacturing facilities were still... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Business History; Innovation and Invention; Product Development; Risk and Uncertainty; Science-Based Business; Commercialization; Chemical Industry; United States