Startup Nation - Publications - Faculty & Research

09 Nov 2022
In Practice

COP27: What Can Business Leaders Do to Fight Climate Change Now?

The US government’s newly passed Inflation Reduction Act will direct $370 billion toward advancing renewal energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions—the country's largest investment in fighting climate change so far. As business and government leaders around the... View Details

Keywords: by Lynn Schenk and Danielle Kost

18 Oct 2022
Research & Ideas

When Bias Creeps into AI, Managers Can Stop It by Asking the Right Questions

in a recent article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Harvard Business School professors Eva Ascarza and Ayelet Israeli suggest intervening at points along the algorithm’s decision-making chain using what they call... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

02 Jun 2020
Research & Ideas

Coronavirus Careers: Cloud Kitchens Are Now Serving

perceived as a cool phenomenon with a ton of money to be earned if the model can be made to work. Nothing made the point better than former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick’s founding of the startup CloudKitchens. The economics are appetizing... View Details

Keywords: by Lena Ye and Geoffrey Jones; Food & Beverage

25 Jun 2018
Research & Ideas

In America, Immigrants Really Do Get the Job Done

helps drive innovation and growth—and could even become more vital to global competitiveness in the future. “The debate is red-hot right now, but in the background, the workforces are rapidly aging in most advanced countries, and public debt levels are high,” he says.... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Agriculture & Agribusiness; Technology; Service

24 Dec 2013
First Look

First Look: December 24

entry into a new market for Plámo, a company that created startup companies in Europe and emerging markets based upon existing successful business models. She had only been with the company a few months, and while excited by the... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

22 Feb 2022
Research & Ideas

Lack of Female Scientists Means Fewer Medical Treatments for Women

National Institutes of Health that spurred more women to become scientists and discouraged biases among men in the field, Koning says. While male inventors far outnumber women inventors, biomedical patents secured by women rose from 6... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

12 Nov 2019
Research & Ideas

Corporate Innovation Increasingly Benefits from Government Research

sponsored by government agencies, such as the National Science Foundation (NSF) or the National Institutes of Health (NIH). “Previously, it was possible to figure out what patents came directly out of... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

08 Dec 2020
Research & Ideas

Why Companies Hunt for Talent on Digital Platforms, Not in Resume Piles

don’t we do our own nationally representative survey?” The result is a new working paper, Hunting for Talent: Firm-Driven Labor Market Search in America, that quantifies the steep increase in outbound recruiting by firms largely at the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Employment

20 Feb 2019
Research & Ideas

Rocket-tunity: Can Private Firms Turn a Profit in Space?

space race have been blessed somewhat by the glamour of it all. Investors enthusiastically, maybe too much so, backed a host of startups including those headed by superstar names like Sir Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk. Rich... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Wallask; Aerospace; Tourism; Transportation

02 Oct 2017
What Do You Think?

Do Bitcoin and Digital Currency Have a Future?

not prone to attack.” He goes on to suggest that it is likely that a nation that is recovering from terrible leadership will decide to adopt a cryptocurrency instead of relying on a central banking system.” This might appeal to... View Details

Keywords: by James L. Heskett; Financial Services

01 Nov 2019
What Do You Think?

Should Non-Compete Clauses Be Abolished?

have learned as well as their skills. If they are senior enough, they may also take trade secrets (although those are covered by NDAs, non-disclosure agreements, close relatives to NCCs). In certain industries in which startups are... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

18 Oct 2017
Research & Ideas

How Economic Clusters Drive Globalization

institutions gathered and disseminated knowledge about the country’s biodiversity, an effort that, with government support, led to the creation of national reserves and parks. As with Malaysia, Costa Rica’s relative political stability,... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Agriculture & Agribusiness

04 Oct 2018
Research & Ideas

Diversity Boosts Profits in Venture Capital Firms

ethnically homogenous saw a success rate 26 to 32 percent lower. Despite such strong correlations, the data didn’t necessarily prove one caused the other, since there are a number of confounding factors that could skew those results. In a View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Banking; Financial Services

30 Jun 2021
In Practice

The Harvard Business School Faculty Summer Reader 2021

enjoying my colleague Tom Eisenmann's latest book, Why Startups Fail. This book is a well-crafted collection of case examples of how startups fail. Eisenmann offers a means for both entrepreneurs and their... View Details

Keywords: by Kathryn Haviland

27 Aug 2018
Sharpening Your Skills

Guts, Gall, and Good Luck: What It Takes To Be An Entrepreneur

reports that attempt to explain the necessary ingredients to becoming a successful entrepreneur—no matter how unlikely. The Most Successful Startups Have Hands-On Founders The best-performing startups are... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

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

09 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

A Playbook for Small-Business Job Creation

States—about one in six private-sector jobs, according to the National Association of Manufacturers. While largely disregarded by VCs, the Great Lakes and Southeast regions lead the nation in manufacturing... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Banking; Financial Services

27 Apr 2021
Research & Ideas

New Research: Surviving Bankruptcy, Useful Economics, and Retirement

Crisis or Opportunity? Psychological Science Ayse Yemiscigil, A.V. Whillans, and N. Powdthavee “Does retirement lead to an existential crisis or present an opportunity to experience a renewed sense of purpose in life? In a nationally... View Details

17 Oct 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, October 17, 2017

economy, while freshly minted MBAs see magic in founding something new. Yes, startups look magical, but they can also be chaotic and inaccessible. Many books are written for those who aspire to be founders, but a company only has one or... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

21 Mar 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, March 21

largely emphasizes the collective benefits of market creation and overlooks the costs borne by individual evangelists. Through an inductive multiple-case study of five startup competitors, we traced firms’ efforts to stake out a new... View Details