Publications

March 2007 (Revised April 2011)
Case

Madam C.J. Walker: Entrepreneur, Leader, and Philanthropist

By: Nancy F. Koehn, Anne Dwojeski, William Grundy, Erica Helms and Katherine Miller

Madam C. J. Walker, who has been credited as the first self-made African-American woman millionaire, created a hair-care empire after years spent as a laundress in St. Louis, Missouri. Decades before the Civil Rights movement, her company gave employment to thousands... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Business History; Race; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Entrepreneurship; Personal Development and Career; Gender; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Saint Louis

October 2022 (Revised September 2023)
Teaching Note

Kwame Owusu-Kesse at Harlem Children's Zone

By: Jon M. Jachimowicz

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 422-020. View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Leadership; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Decisions; Nonprofit Organizations; Personal Development and Career; Growth and Development Strategy; Race; Social Issues; New York (city, NY)

March 2021
Supplement

Artea (A), (B), (C), and (D): Designing Targeting Strategies

By: Eva Ascarza and Ayelet Israeli

Power Point Supplement to Teaching Note for HBS No. 521-021,521-022,521-037,521-043. This collection of exercises aims to teach students about 1)Targeting Policies; and 2)Algorithmic bias in marketing—implications, causes, and possible solutions. Part (A) focuses on... View Details

Keywords: Targeted Advertising; Targeting; Algorithmic Data; Bias; A/B Testing; Experiment; Advertising; Gender; Race; Diversity; Marketing; Customer Relationship Management; Prejudice and Bias; Analytics and Data Science; Retail Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Technology Industry; United States

27 Nov 2017
Blog Post

Joining a Start-up: 10 Lessons Along the Way

for advice to budding founders and joiners. He said it's simple: "Don't do it." He was joking, but this is actually the perfect test: are you so passionate and eager to run your own race that you can ignore everyone that says... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Consumer Products / Retail

September 2024 (Revised December 2024)
Case

Ming Min Hui at Boston Ballet

By: Edward H. Chang, David Allen and Annelena Lobb

This case asks how Ming Min Hui, the newly appointed executive director of Boston Ballet, should ensure that the company stays true to its art form yet relevant to its times. Hui stood out among ballet leaders as a young, Asian American woman with a Harvard Business... View Details

Keywords: Arts; Change; Diversity; Gender; Race; Theater Entertainment; Leadership; Management; Nonprofit Organizations; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Music Industry; United States; Massachusetts; Boston

Article

Health Equity, Schooling Hesitancy, and the Social Determinants of Learning

By: Meira Levinson, Alan C. Geller, Joseph G. Allen and John D. Macomber

At least 62 million K-12 students in North America—disproportionately low-income children of color— have been physically out of school for over a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These children are at risk of significant academic, social, mental, and physical harm... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Public Health; Air Quality; Social Determinants Of Health; Schooling Hesitancy; Vaccine Hesitancy; Racial Injustice; Inequity; Inequality; Health Pandemics; Education; Health Care and Treatment; Policy; Race; Equality and Inequality

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2021
Working Paper

Racial Disparities in the Paycheck Protection Program

By: Sergey Chernenko and David S. Scharfstein

Using a large sample of Florida restaurants, we document significant racial disparities in borrowing through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and investigate the causes of these disparities. Black-owned restaurants are 25% less likely to receive PPP loans.... View Details

Keywords: Discrimination; Paycheck Protection Program; Economic Injury Disaster Loans; Bank Lending; Nonbank Lending; Banks and Banking; Financing and Loans; Prejudice and Bias; Race

SSRN

April 2006
Case

Managing a Public Image: Cheri Mack

By: Robin J. Ely and Ingrid Vargas

Cheri Mack, an African-American woman, has just arrived at Harvard Business School after working for three years at a major consulting firm where she learned to adopt the demeanor of her male colleagues in order to fit in. Some of her male classmates are critical of... View Details

Keywords: Management Style; Race; Reputation; Personal Development and Career; Leadership Style; Gender; Massachusetts

David Shin is a doctoral student in the Organizational Behavior program jointly offered by Harvard Business School and the Department of Sociology at Harvard University. His research explores how technological innovation shapes relationships at work, particularly as it... View Details

Peter Vundla

Keywords: Advertising; Marketing

Profile

Frank Mycroft

big ‘ah-ha' for me is that you really can build a business from scratch." New frontiers As the founder and co-president of the Aerospace and Aviation Club, Frank is bringing the space race — and industry leaders such as George... View Details

01 Dec 2006
News

HBS Honors Four Alumni

Currently the chairman of Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Philip Yeo has for many years overseen the planning and implementation of the key drivers of Singapore’s remarkable economic successes. Now Yeo is pushing the 250-square-mile city-state... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

10 Feb 2022
Blog Post

African American Student Union Spotlight on HBCUs

leaders in the Black community. I chose to attend Spelman College in particular because after attending majority-white institutions my whole life, it was a welcome reprieve and an opportunity to not feel different based on my race or my... View Details

18 Sep 2017
Blog Post

Applying HBS Lessons in an African Context

example, in my first semester Technology and Operations Management class where we studied a New Zealand yacht racing case, I used my experience from doing a churn reduction model for a South African Telecom operator to recommend whether... View Details

01 Oct 1997
News

Theory & Practice

Defining Moments by Joseph L. Badaracco, Jr. (Harvard Business School Press) How should you respond if you are offered an opportunity at work solely because of your race or gender? What should you do if a single parent on your staff is... View Details

01 Mar 2011
News

On the Outside at HBS

of my race, gender, age, professional background, or some combination thereof. And it probably doesn’t matter: Assumptions about race and gender exist across all contexts, and those stereotypes are likely no worse at HBS than anywhere... View Details

February 2023
Teaching Note

Colette Phillips and GetKonnected: Creating Inclusive Ecosystems

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 323-035. View Details