Publications

Article

Entrepreneurship as Experimentation

By: William R. Kerr, Ramana Nanda and Matthew Rhodes-Kropf

Entrepreneurship research is on the rise, but many questions about its fundamental nature still exist. We argue that entrepreneurship is about experimentation: the probabilities of success are low, extremely skewed, and unknowable until an investment is made. At a... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention

March 2020
Article

Context, Time, and Change: Historical Approaches to Entrepreneurship Research

By: R. Daniel Wadhwani, David A. Kirsch, Frederike Welter, William B. Gartner and Geoffrey Jones

The article discusses the value of historical methods and reasoning in strategic entrepreneurship research and theory. A framework is introduced for integrating history into entrepreneurship theory. The framework demonstrates how historical assumptions play a formative... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; History; Research; Theory

Find at Harvard

2008
Working Paper

Cost of External Finance and Selection into Entrepreneurship

By: Ramana Nanda

This paper examines the extent to which the positive relationship between personal wealth and entry into entrepreneurship is due to financing constraints. I exploit a tax reform and use unique micro-data from Denmark to study how exogenous changes in the cost of... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Cost; Financing and Loans; Personal Finance; Human Capital; Wealth; Denmark

October 2008
Supplement

John and Andrea Rice: Entrepreneurship and Life

By: Howard H. Stevenson and Shirley M. Spence

Video of an interview conducted by Professor Howard Stevenson with John and Andrea Rice. It presents their views on their notions of career success, finding happiness in life, managing their competitiveness, their goals for the next ten years, and the pursuit of... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Success; Personal Development and Career; Opportunities; Happiness; Competitive Strategy

November 2011
Article

Social Strategies That Work

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski

Although most companies have collected lots of friends and followers on social platforms such as Facebook, few have succeeded in generating profits there. That's because they merely port their digital strategies into social environments by broadcasting their commercial... View Details

Keywords: Social Platforms; Social Strategies; Social and Collaborative Networks; Customers; Relationships; Business Strategy; Profit

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2009
Working Paper

Clusters of Entrepreneurship

By: Edward L. Glaeser, William R. Kerr and Giacomo A.M. Ponzetto

Employment growth is strongly predicted by smaller average establishment size, both across cities and across industries within cities, but there is little consensus on why this relationship exists. Traditional economic explanations emphasize factors that reduce entry... View Details

Keywords: Economic Growth; Entrepreneurship; Cost; Employment; Market Entry and Exit

December 2007 (Revised February 2012)
Case

John and Andrea Rice: Entrepreneurship and Life

By: Howard H. Stevenson, Janet Kraus and Shirley Spence

The case follows the professional and personal lives of John and Andrea Rice, illustrating the challenge of "juggling" the multiple aspects of life (career, family, community, self) in the pursuit of a personal vision of success. Particular attention is paid to the... View Details

Keywords: For-Profit Firms; Entrepreneurship; Work-Life Balance; Family and Family Relationships; Nonprofit Organizations

Educators

January 2010
Article

Clusters of Entrepreneurship

By: Edward L. Glaeser, William R. Kerr and Giacomo A.M. Ponzetto

Employment growth is strongly predicted by smaller average establishment size, both across cities and across industries within cities, but there is little consensus on why this relationship exists. Traditional economic explanations emphasize factors that reduce entry... View Details

Keywords: Economic Growth; Entrepreneurship; Cost; Employment; Market Entry and Exit

Research Summary

Strategy and Technology

By: David B. Yoffie

Professor Yoffie’s research examines different aspects of strategy and technology. His most recent research has focused on three areas. The first research topic looks at the dynamics of cooperation and competition among “complements.” In a number of articles and... View Details

9 AM – 9 AM EDT, 18 Apr 2018
HBS Online

HBX Entrepreneurship Essentials

Master a proven framework for building and financing new ventures, make your entrepreneurial dreams a reality, and speak the language of the start-up world. Entrepreneurship Essentials introduces you to the entrepreneurial journey, from finding an idea, to gaining... View Details

January 2006 (Revised December 2006)
Module Note

Introduction to International Strategy

By: David J. Collis and Jordan I. Siegel

Provides an overview framework for understanding international strategy. Observes that international strategy draws on much of the same theory as corporate strategy. The same tests that can be applied to justify expansion across businesses--the better off and ownership... View Details

Keywords: International Strategy; Multinational Corporations; Global Strategy

August 2017
Article

A Formal Theory of Strategy

By: Eric J. Van den Steen

What makes a decision strategic? When is strategy most important? This paper formally studies these questions, starting from a (functional) definition of strategy as “the smallest set of choices to optimally guide (or force) other choices.” The paper shows that this... View Details

Keywords: Strategy Development; Strategy; Decisions

Find at Harvard

31 Oct 2015
News

Social networks, ethnicity and entrepreneurship

News

Financing high-potential entrepreneurship

2014
Working Paper

Entrepreneurship as Experimentation

By: William R. Kerr, Ramana Nanda and Matthew Rhodes-Kropf

Entrepreneurship research is on the rise but many questions about its fundamental nature still exist. We argue that entrepreneurship is about experimentation: the probabilities of success are low, extremely skewed and unknowable until an investment is made. At a macro... View Details

Keywords: Experiments; Innovation; Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention

SSRN

May 2014
Article

Political Reservations and Women's Entrepreneurship in India

By: Ejaz Ghani, William R. Kerr and Stephen D. O'Connell

We quantify the link between the timing of state-level implementations of political reservations for women in India with the role of women in India's manufacturing sector. While overall employment of women in manufacturing does not increase after the reforms, we find... View Details

Keywords: Women; Female; Political Reservations; Development; Informal Sector; Entrepreneurship; Gender; Manufacturing Industry; India; South Asia