Coronavirus Pandemic - Publications - Faculty & Research

February 2021 (Revised April 2024)
Case

Shopify: The Conquest for Chinese E-Commerce

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Avani Patel, Samantha Lin and Ariel Yang

In mid-2020, Tobias Lütke, CEO of Shopify, faced a critical decision on how to time potential expansion into the China market. Over the prior 15 years, his Canadian software-as-a-service company had grown from a small e-commerce solutions provider to a full service... View Details

Citation

Educators

June 2020 (Revised January 2024)
Case

TraceTogether

By: Mitchell B. Weiss and Sarah Mehta

By April 7, 2020, over 1.4 million people worldwide had contracted the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Governments raced to curb the spread of COVID-19 by scaling up testing, quarantining those infected, and tracing their possible contacts. It had taken Singapore’s... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Contact Tracing; Government Administration; Crisis Management; Health; Health Pandemics; Innovation and Invention; Innovation Leadership; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Social Issues; Information Technology; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Applications and Software; Technology Adoption; Health Industry; Public Administration Industry; Singapore

Citation

Educators

Purchase

02 Apr 2020
What Do You Think?

What Are Lessons for Leaders from This Black Swan Crisis?

that can be kept fresh for generic, not specific, demands on various functions of the organization (such as 100 percent increases or decreases in short-term demand)? THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS More Business-Related View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

16 Apr 2020
Research & Ideas

Has COVID-19 Broken the Global Value Chain?

The coronavirus pandemic has not only disrupted lives and businesses, it has illuminated underlying fragilities in the global value chain (GVC) that drives economies around the world. The smartphone you use... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

16 Jun 2021
HBS Case

Cruising in Crisis: How Carnival Is Riding Out the COVID-19 Storm

On February 1, 2020, a passenger who had been on Carnival’s Diamond Princess ship docked in Japan tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. Soon afterward, 700 people on the ship contracted the virus—the largest coronavirus outbreak outside... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Travel

26 May 2022
HBS Case

Apple vs. Feds: Is iPhone Privacy a Basic Human Right?

folks there,” said Cook at the time, in defense of Apple’s decisions. A follow-on case written last year as the COVID-19 pandemic raged explores how Cook was presented with another privacy quandary: Public health officials wanted to use... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

16 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Restaurant Revolution: How the Industry Is Fighting to Stay Alive

business model for small independents is often elusive. So when a crisis of the magnitude of the COVID-19 global pandemic forces restaurants to close, and their revenue drops to zero overnight, things get particularly dire. Unlike the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael S. Kaufman, Lena G. Goldberg, and Jill Avery; Food & Beverage

07 May 2020
Research & Ideas

The One Good Thing Caused by COVID-19: Innovation

(and the fear) of contagion will persist once the peak is behind us. All these factors will also likely vary greatly across businesses, markets, and locations. THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS More Business-Related View Details

Keywords: by Hong Luo and Alberto Galasso

12 May 2020
Research & Ideas

It’s Time To Relaunch Your Remote Team

can come when work life and home life become entangled. THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS More Business-Related Pandemic Coverage from Around Harvard and Beyond COVID-19 Business Impact Center (Harvard Business School)... View Details

Keywords: by Tsedal Neeley

07 Apr 2020
Research & Ideas

What Customers Need to Hear from You During the COVID Crisis

in political debates, but work to bridge divides among people during the crisis. THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS More Business-Related Pandemic Coverage from Around Harvard and Beyond How to Manage View Details

Keywords: by Jill Avery and Richard Edelman

23 Nov 2020
Research & Ideas

COVID Was Supposed to Increase Bankruptcies. Instead, They've Gone Down.

potentially shuts out consumers and small businesses when they need debt relief the most. Another could be difficulty in accessing the court system itself as the pandemic worsened and most courts moved proceedings online as a public... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

01 May 2020
What Do You Think?

Does Remote Work Mix with Organizational Culture?

THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS More Business-Related Pandemic Coverage from Around Harvard and Beyond COVID-19 Business Impact Center (Harvard Business School) How to Make Furloughs More Humane (Harvard Business... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

27 Apr 2020
Research & Ideas

How Remote Work Changes What We Think About Onboarding

at the end of the first week and at the end of the first month. THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS More Business-Related Pandemic Coverage from Around Harvard and Beyond COVID-19 Business Impact Center (Harvard Business... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg

14 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Restarting Under Uncertainty: Managerial Experiences from Around the World

the pandemic, some businesses were able to spot and develop new opportunities. 4. Adapt your HR management The coronavirus pandemic has put traditional human resources management practices under extreme... View Details

Keywords: by Raffaella Sadun, Andrea Bertoni, Alexia Delfino, Giovanni Fassio, and Mariapaola Testa

30 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

Readers Ask: I Need Tips for Working at Home

coronavirus is changing everything we know about how to get work done. The New Rules for Remote Work: Pandemic Edition Many parents are working and caring for kids at home. How can managers set expectations?... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

13 Apr 2020
Research & Ideas

Small Businesses Are Worse Off Than We Thought

effects of the economic shutdown and the ways in which small businesses are adjusting both their behaviors and expectations as the situation unfolds, the researchers aim to help shape potential policy responses. THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Financial Services

23 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

How Countries Use Financial Policy to Fight COVID-19

The fiscal and monetary response to the coronavirus pandemic has been emergent, global, and deep. Some countries have more sophisticated fiscal and monetary tools—and the ability to use them swiftly—than... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

15 May 2020
Research & Ideas

Find Your Pragmatic Path through Radical Uncertainty

Henri-Louis Bergson’s injunction: “Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.” THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS More Business-Related Pandemic Coverage from Around Harvard and Beyond COVID-19 Business... View Details

Keywords: by Howard Stevenson, Eugene B. Kogan, and Shirley Spence

03 Jun 2020
Research & Ideas

Who Guarantees Your Workplace Is Safe for Return?

figures of COVID-19. These are simply statistical comparisons of a current readout compared to historic trends. The same techniques can be used to quantify healthy building performance and changes over time. THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS More... View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber and Joseph Allen; Real Estate

30 Nov 2020
Research & Ideas

COVID Not Slowing VC Investment

The COVID-19 pandemic has battered industries around the world, but one sector's prospects aren’t so bleak: venture capital. Startup backers—and private-equity managers in general—say that half of their portfolio companies haven’t been... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Financial Services; Banking

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