Publications

18 Nov 2014
First Look

First Look: November 18

commercialization of technologies. This evidence also points to an important mechanism relating financial market development to technology diffusion and economic growth. Download working paper: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2520551 Entrepreneurship... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

13 Nov 2020
News

Global Ambition

startup. “So many of our classmates were also working in the Bay Area. It was an amazing summer,” remembers Kao, who prior to HBS attended Wellesley College and then spent four years at Goldman Sachs. “I was working for a startup that... View Details

11 Jun 2013
First Look

First Look: June 11

Publications 2006 Journal of International Business Studies Firm Rivalry, Knowledge Accumulation, and MNE Location Choices By: Alcácer, Juan, Cristian Deszo, and Minyuan Zhao Abstract—The international View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

Web

Blavatnik Fellowship in Life Science Entrepreneurship - Health Care

Blavatnik Fellowship in Life Science Entrepreneurship Blavatnik Fellowship in Life Science Entrepreneurship Building Businesses around Breakthrough Science 24 AUG 2017 Harvard Business School The Science of... View Details

March 2020
Case

Cafe Kenya

By: Lynda M. Applegate and James T. Kindley

This case describes Café Kenya (CK), a Kenyan-based chain of casual quick-food restaurants. The chain was started in 2011 in Nairobi by Nekesa Kuria. Kuria started Café Kenya and grew it by reinvesting profits into company stores and through franchising. She also... View Details

Keywords: Restaurants; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Kenya

2023
Working Paper

How Resilient Is Venture-Backed Innovation? Evidence from Four Decades of U.S. Patenting

By: Sabrina T. Howell, Josh Lerner, Ramana Nanda and Richard Townsend

Despite theoretical predictions to the contrary, corporate innovation is strongly pro-cyclical. In this paper, we compare innovation in the economy as a whole to that of firms backed by venture capital (VC), a source of capital associated with the most impactful young... View Details

Keywords: Recessions; Venture Capital; Innovation and Invention; Patents; Business Cycles; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation

SSRN

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October 2018
Case

Accomplice: Scaling Early Stage Finance

By: Ramana Nanda, Raffaella Sadun and Olivia Hull

Accomplice, an early-stage venture capital firm based in Boston, is raising its second fund in November 2017. Since 2009, the firm has followed a seed-led investment model, investing in tech companies at the earliest stages, often when products and business models are... View Details

Keywords: Early Stage Finance; Seed Finance; Scouts; Venture Capital; Business Startups; Private Equity; Investment Portfolio; Organizational Structure; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Partners and Partnerships; Networks; Adaptation; Corporate Strategy; Technology; Financial Services Industry; Massachusetts; Boston; Cambridge; United States

February 2010
Case

Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise

By: Rajiv Lal and Natalie Kindred

To grow Phirbol, a telecom retail franchise chain in Delhi, India's underdeveloped markets, its founders were exploring ways to offer more value to the franchisees. In mid-2009, the Phirbol franchise was comprised of some 150 franchisees that had converted their small... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Startups; Innovation and Management; Brands and Branding; Service Operations; Franchise Ownership; Value Creation; Telecommunications Industry; Delhi

30 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

‘Intrinsic Joy’ Sparks Ideas Better than Cash

contributed far more “repos” (software packages placed and held in a repository) during the run-up to their payout than those who didn’t participate. Yet, once paid, a sponsored user’s community-driven contributions and long-term engagement tanked, finds recent... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Technology

03 Dec 2015
Blog Post

4 Things You Need to Know About Independent Projects

Unlike many business schools today, HBS offers only one type of MBA degree: the two year, full time residential MBA. Everyone graduates with the same degree, and we don’t offer official concentrations or specialties. That isn’t to say... View Details

20 Jan 2015
First Look

First Look: January 20

between the management scores of autonomous government schools and regular government schools is accounted for by differences in the principal's leadership and better governance. Publisher's link: http://www.people.hbs.edu/rsadun/Management_Schools_November2014.pdf... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

28 May 2024
In Practice

Job Search Advice for a Tough Market: Think Broadly and Stay Flexible

of Labor Statistics. US employers added 175,000 jobs, seasonally adjusted, far fewer than the more than 300,000 in March and below the 240,000 analysts expected. For those seeking business careers, success might mean searching beyond... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

July 2006 (Revised February 2007)
Case

LinkedIn (A)

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski

In the summer of 2005, LinkedIn, a two-year-old start-up, was choosing between two options to monetize its 5 million business people network. Members could contact each other through trusted intermediaries on the network to offer or seek jobs, consulting engagements,... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Business Growth and Maturation; Internet and the Web; Social and Collaborative Networks; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Industry

May 2022
Case

Maestro Pizza: Coming in Hot!

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Fares Khrais

Maestro Pizza opened its first store in 2013 after its founder, Khalid Al Omran, recognized an opportunity in Saudi Arabia to offer high quality pizza at affordable prices. The business grew rapidly and under the radar at first, but soon enough caught the attention of... View Details

07 Mar 2016
HBS Seminar

Scott Stern, MIT Sloan School of Management

16 Nov 2016
Research & Ideas

Turning One Thousand Customers into One Million

First 1,000 Customers, we explored how these two-sided platforms got their start and attracted a significant number of early adopters based on a Harvard Business School case that professor Teixeira wrote with Morgan Brown. “Airbnb... View Details

Keywords: by Thales S. Teixeira and Michael Blanding; Retail; Transportation; Accommodations

November 1991 (Revised July 1995)
Case

Body Shop International

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Describes the start-up and rapid growth of a company whose founder holds strong, non-traditional beliefs about the role of the corporation and its responsibility to society. After profiling Anita Roddick as a person, the case describes the anti-mainstream approach she... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Business Growth and Maturation; Leadership Style; Management Succession; Management Teams; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Values and Beliefs; Global Strategy; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

March 2025 (Revised April 2025)
Case

Perplexity: Redefining Search

By: Suraj Srinivasan, Michelle Hu, Sriraghav Srinivasan and Radhika Kak

By early 2025, Perplexity had rapidly evolved from a modest startup into a popular "answer engine" valued at $9 billion. The company had boldly positioned itself as the disruptor to Google aiming to redefine search for the AI age. Through novel AI... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Venture Capital; Innovation Leadership; Technological Innovation; Internet and the Web; Business Startups; Competitive Strategy; Technology Industry; United States

August 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

Unifying Divisions: Joro's Mission to Preserve the Planet

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Marilyn Morgan Westner

The case focuses on the initial startup team and Founders’ agreements. In March 2018, Sanchali Pal proposed renegotiating the informal founders’ agreement and equity split she and her co-founders had drafted the previous spring. They had been working together for over... View Details

Keywords: Founders' Agreements; Business Startups; Climate Change; Agreements and Arrangements; Conflict Management