Publications

Program

Program for Leadership Development

on a higher level. This highly personalized program features two on-campus and two virtual, self-paced modules that focus on accelerating your business and your career. You will return to your organization more confident, more capable,... View Details

03 Oct 2005
Research & Ideas

The Truck Driver Who Reinvented Shipping

to maritime trade so phenomenal that he has been compared to the father of the steam engine, Robert Fulton. As a youth growing up on a farm in a small town of Maxton, North Carolina, McLean learned early on about the value of hard work... View Details

Keywords: by Anthony J. Mayo & Nitin Nohria; Manufacturing; Transportation; Aerospace

2017
Working Paper

Self-Employment Dynamics and the Returns to Entrepreneurship

By: Eleanor W. Dillon and Christopher T. Stanton

Small business owners and others in self-employment have the option to transition to paid work. If there is initial uncertainty about entrepreneurial earnings, this option increases the expected lifetime value of self-employment relative to pay in a single year. This... View Details

Keywords: Self-employed; Small Business; Business Earnings; Entrepreneurship; Ownership; Compensation and Benefits

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News

An Opportunity for Global Engagement

30 Jul 2020
News

Employees and employers both face trade-offs as offices reopen

29 Oct 2019
News

Karen Mills: «La pyme en España no tiene una voz líder en tecnología que le represente»

20 Mar 2019
News

A Proposed Megadeal Exposes the Grim Outlook for Europe’s Banks

15 Mar 2020
News

‘Experimentation Works’ and ‘The Power of Experiments’ Review: Test, Test and Test Again

HBS Case: SANY — Going Global

April 17, 2012, was a special day for SANY Group and for its founder Liang Wen'gen. Headquartered in Changsha, SANY Group had transformed itself in two decades from a small welding material factory in 1989 to a leading global construction equipment manufacturer with... View Details

2009
Working Paper

Banking Deregulations, Financing Constraints and Firm Entry Size

By: William R. Kerr and Ramana Nanda

We examine the effect of US branch banking deregulations on the entry size of new firms using micro-data from the US Census Bureau. We find that the average entry size for startups did not change following the deregulations. However, among firms that survived at least... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Financing and Loans; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Market Entry and Exit; Banking Industry; United States

SSRN

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October 2014 (Revised December 2018)
Case

Jean-Claude Biver (A): The Reemergence of the Swiss Watch Industry

By: Ryan Raffaelli

In the early 1980s, the Swiss watch industry was near collapse after failing to adapt to Japanese competition from battery-powered quartz technology. In 1982, Jean-Claude Biver purchased Blancpain, a watch company that had been out of business since 1961 but had once... View Details

Keywords: Re-emergence; Leading Change; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Transformation; Leadership; Personal Development and Career; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Switzerland

08 Apr 2021
Blog Post

HBS Entrepreneurship Immersion - Four Highlights

analytics for startups and small businesses. It is a very dynamic environment; I spent half of last year leading a new product launch (from customer discovery to creating marketing collateral) and the rest of the time on hiring, strategy,... View Details

27 Jun 2005
Research & Ideas

Asian and American Leadership Styles: How Are They Unique?

Political connections and family control are more common in Asian businesses than in the United States. In addition, says HBS professor D. Quinn Mills, American CEOs tend to use one of five leadership styles: directive, participative,... View Details

Keywords: by D. Quinn Mills

May 2003
Supplement

Jim Sharpe: Extrusion Technology, Inc.

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Paul W. Marshall

Jim Sharpe discusses his early career at General Electric to his decision to purchase and run a small company. The discussion includes a detailed acquisition financing proposal, which resulted in Sharpe being able to raise virtually all of the financing from some... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Mergers and Acquisitions; Financing and Loans

25 Jan 2012
Research & Ideas

A Few Firms Have Outsized Influence in D.C.

question to economists," says Harvard Business School Associate Professor William R. Kerr. "It's uncharted territory." Kerr's interest in the topic came from studies he's done on immigration issues—in particular, looking at... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

May 1990 (Revised July 1991)
Case

Workbench Pricing Strategy

An abridged version of Workbench, most notably the results of two customer surveys, given in their complete form in Workbench. Focuses on the pricing decision for a small contemporary furniture retailer. Should Workbench continue its highly promotional pricing policy... View Details

Keywords: Price; Business Strategy; Consumer Products Industry

There is a growing belief that scalable and low-cost AI assistance can improve firm decision-making and economic performance. However, running a business involves a myriad of open-ended problems, making it hard to generalize from recent studies showing that generative... View Details

June 2006 (Revised April 2007)
Case

BioScale

By: H. Kent Bowen and Bradley R. Staats

In 2004, Mark Lundstrom must decide on a funding method and strategic approach for BioScale, a biotechnology company that he founded. BioScale has developed a microchip-based bioanalytical platform that can be used to detect very small concentrations of cells, viruses,... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Science-Based Business; Capital; Financing and Loans; Partners and Partnerships; Biotechnology Industry