Publications

Forthcoming
Article

You've Got Mail! The Late 19th-Century U.S. Postal Service Expansion, Firm Creation, and Firm Performance

By: Astrid Marinoni and Maria P. Roche

This paper examines the impact of the expansion of the US Postal Service in the late 19th century on firm creation and performance. Utilizing newly digitized archival data on historic business establishments, post office locations, and road networks in California,... View Details

Keywords: Institutional Innovation; Knowledge Exchange; US Postal Service; Firm Performance; Infrastructure; Expansion; Government Administration; Communication; Business History; Entrepreneurship; Public Administration Industry; California

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April 2021 (Revised January 2022)
Supplement

SA Taxi: A Vehicle for Empowerment? (B)

By: Nien-he Hsieh, Dilyana Karadzhova Botha and F. Christopher Eaglin

SA Taxi was a vertically integrated business that operated in South Africa’s distinctive taxi industry. Despite being plagued by violence, informal structures, unsafe road practices and lack of government support, the taxi industry had grown to become South Africa’s... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Accountability; Ownership; Ownership Stake; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Equality and Inequality; Race; Situation or Environment; Transportation Industry; South Africa; Africa

January 2023 (Revised December 2023)
Case

OhmConnect: Energizing the Future

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Jennifer Fonstad and Nicole Tempest Keller

Founded in 2013, OhmConnect was a free consumer web app that alerted customers about peak hours of electricity demand, and paid them to lower their energy use at home during these periods. The company sold the aggregated reductions generated by thousands of households... View Details

Keywords: App Development; Renewable Energy; Electricity Usage; Regulations; VC; Technology; Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC); Scalability; Applications and Software; Growth and Development Strategy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business Model; Venture Capital; Energy Industry; United States; California; Texas; Europe

09 Feb 2010
First Look

First Look: Feb. 9

has been little empirical evidence on the propensity with which core-periphery structures are observed in practice, the factors that explain differences in the design of such structures, or the manner in which these structures evolve over... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

03 Oct 2006
Working Paper Summaries

Cartels and Competition: Neither Markets nor Hierarchies

Keywords: by Jeffrey Fear

2015
Chapter

The Fourth Wave: Business Management and Business Education in the Age of the Anthropocene

By: Andrew J. Hoffman and John Ehrenfeld

Sustainability has become mainstream in both management practice and management research. Firms incorporate sustainability strategies into their core mission. University administrators promote sustainability as central to their curricula. Scholars pursue sustainability... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Social Issues; Natural Environment; Leading Change; Management Systems

2015
Chapter

Government and the Minimalist Platform: Business at the Kumbh Mela

By: John D. Macomber and Tarun Khanna

India's Kumbh Mela, a religious festival occurring once every 12 years at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, attracts over 80 million pilgrims to a temporary "pop-up megacity" over the course of two months. A team of faculty and students from five Harvard... View Details

2022
Case

Tesla's Battery Supply Chain: A Growing Concern

By: Andrew J. Hoffman

In October 2021, the fictional vice president of supply chain sustainability at Tesla is working on finding the best way to achieve Tesla's goal of 100% recycling for the batteries in its electric vehicles (EVs) as they reach their end of life. A major challenge in... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain Management; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Governance Compliance; Metals and Minerals; Auto Industry

2015
Book

MOVE: Putting America's Infrastructure Back in the Lead

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter

Americans are stuck. We live with travel delays on congested roads; shipping delays on clogged railways; and delays on repairs, project approvals, and funding due to gridlocked leadership. These delays affect us all, whether you are a daily commuter, a frequent flyer,... View Details

18 Oct 2016
First Look

October 18, 2016

Ejaz, Arti Grover Goswami, and William R. Kerr Abstract—We investigate the impact of the Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) highway project on the spatial organization and efficiency of manufacturing activity. The GQ project upgraded the quality... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 16, 2021
Article

From Driverless Dilemmas to More Practical Commonsense Tests for Automated Vehicles

By: Julian De Freitas, Andrea Censi, Bryant Walker Smith, Luigi Di Lillo, Sam E. Anthony and Emilio Frazzoli

For the first time in history, automated vehicles (AVs) are being deployed in populated environments. This unprecedented transformation of our everyday lives demands a significant undertaking: endowing complex autonomous systems with ethically acceptable behavior. We... View Details

Keywords: Automated Driving; Public Health; Artificial Intelligence; Transportation; Health; Ethics; Policy; AI and Machine Learning

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March 2011
Article

The New Path to the C-Suite

By: Boris Groysberg, L. Kevin Kelly and Bryan MacDonald

Job requirements at the top of corporations have changed. Companies have come to expect much more from their C-level executives, who need new and different skills to deal with today's business realities. Exactly what abilities do firms want in their leaders—now and in... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Leadership; Management Skills; Personal Development and Career

28 Feb 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Colonial Land Tenure, Electoral Competition and Public Goods in India

Keywords: by Abhijit Banerjee & Lakshmi Iyer

03 Oct 2023
Research Event

Build the Life You Want: Arthur Brooks and Oprah Winfrey Share Happiness Tips

central conclusion about a a road to happiness. Brooks: This is a book-- Winfrey: It's key. It's key. Brooks: Yeah, for sure. Winfrey: It's key for everything to be able to separate yourself from the thing that's happening out there.... View Details

Keywords: by HBS Staff

July 2024
Article

Acceptance of Automated Vehicles Is Lower for Self than Others

By: Stuti Agarwal, Julian De Freitas, Anya Ragnhildstveit and Carey K. Morewedge

Road traffic accidents are the leading cause of death worldwide for people aged 2–59. Nearly all deaths are due to human error. Automated vehicles could reduce mortality risks, traffic congestion, and air pollution of human-driven vehicles. However, their adoption... View Details

Keywords: Transportation; Risk and Uncertainty; Technology Adoption; Prejudice and Bias

April 2002
Case

In vivo to in vitro to in silico: Coping with Tidal Waves of Data at Biogen

By: Juan Enriquez-Cabot, Gary P. Pisano and Gaye Bok

Biogen is a successful biotech company facing a critical juncture. CEO John Mullen ponders how technological changes introduced into the research function will shape larger corporate decisions. This world in which biotechnology companies operated had changed... View Details

Keywords: Change; Decisions; Product Development; Research and Development; Expansion; Technology; Biotechnology Industry

26 Sep 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, September 26, 2017

forthcoming Review of Financial Studies Managing the Family Firm: Evidence from CEOs at Work By: Bandiera, Oriana, Andrea Prat, Renata Lemos, and Raffaella Sadun Abstract—We present evidence on the labor supply of CEOs and View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

07 Mar 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, March 7

in press Academy of Management Annals Scaling: Organizing and Growth in Entrepreneurial Ventures By: DeSantola, Alicia, and Ranjay Gulati Abstract—Entrepreneurial ventures face unique challenges related to growth, particularly in the management of internal... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 2007 (Revised October 2007)
Background Note

An Overview of Project Finance & Infrastructure Finance - 2006 Update

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Aldo Sesia

Provides an introduction to the fields of project finance and infrastructure finance, and gives a statistical overview of project-financed investments over the years from 2002 to 2006. Examples of project-financed investments include the $4 billion Chad-Cameroon... View Details

Keywords: Project Finance; Infrastructure; Investment; Projects; Trends