Publications

13 Aug 2014
Lessons from the Classroom

Managing the Family Business: Entrepreneurs Needed for Long-Run Success

generations of the family are supposed to take care of and grow the founder's creation; they are not expected to be entrepreneurs themselves. Even attempting to reinvent the family company can be seen as disloyal by the family. This... View Details

Keywords: by Michael J. Roberts

24 Jul 2000
Research & Ideas

Linking the Globe: The Role of Media and Communications

number of very sharp and very important junctures." Critical Junctures The first critical juncture was the invention of the printing press, which made it possible to have a media industry to begin with. The second major juncture occurred with the rapid development... View Details

Keywords: by Kenneth Liss; Information; Publishing; Journalism & News; Media & Broadcasting

Web

Faculty & Advisors | MBA

M.D. MS/MBA Program Faculty Co-Chair for MS Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University, Chief of Pathways Consult Service at Massachusetts General Hospital Douglas Melton, Ph.D. MS/MBA Program Faculty Co-Chair... View Details

January 2023 (Revised April 2023)
Case

Cobalt Robotics: Scaling Workplace Robotics

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Nicole Tempest Keller and Kyung Keun Park

Founded in 2016, Cobalt Robotics, based in Fremont, California, was a Robot-as-a-Service (RaaS) company that built autonomous workplace robots that were designed to replace or supplement human security guards. Outfitted with over 60 sensors, Cobalt robots patrolled... View Details

Keywords: Information Infrastructure; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation and Invention; Marketing Strategy; Marketing Channels; Customers; Technology Industry; United States; California

February 2023
Case

Roblox: Virtual Commerce in the Metaverse

By: Ayelet Israeli and Nicole Tempest Keller

In 2022, Roblox had 58.8 million daily active users, including over half of all children and teens under the age of 16 in the United States. Roblox, a free-to-use “co-experience platform”, allowed users to come together in immersive 3D experiences to socialize, work,... View Details

April 2024 (Revised December 2024)
Case

Anthropic: Building Safe AI

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai

In late 2024, Anthropic, a leading AI safety and research company, achieved a significant breakthrough with computer use capabilities that allowed AI to interact with computers like humans. Co-founded by former OpenAI employees and known for its generative AI... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business Growth and Maturation; Corporate Strategy; Technology Industry; United States

March 2023 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Wilshire Lane Capital

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Lindsay N. Hyde and Stacy Straaberg

In September 2021, Adam Demuyakor (MBA 2017) was faced with decisions about how to launch his venture capital (VC) investment firm. His previous investment activities were a series of angel investments and special purpose vehicles alongside two part-time general... View Details

Keywords: Ownership Stake; Investment Funds; Venture Capital; Business and Shareholder Relations; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Los Angeles; California; United States

April 1995 (Revised August 1995)
Case

World Trade Organization, The: Toward Free Trade or World Bureaucracy?

By: George C. Lodge and Jack High

In January 1995, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) evolved into the World Trade Organization (WTO), which faced the task of implementing the recently approved Uruguay Round of international trade agreements. This case describes the development of GATT,... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Agreements and Arrangements; Negotiation Process; Business and Government Relations

Research Summary

Reverse Innovation

VG and Chris Trimble reveal a bold discovery with far-reaching implications in REVERSE INNOVATION: Create Far From Home, Win Everywhere (Harvard Business Review Press; April 10, 2012;... View Details

02 May 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Profits and Economic Development

Keywords: by Dan Schwab & Eric Werker

05 Dec 2019
News

How Artificial Intelligence Can Set Meaningful Sales Goals

April 2019 (Revised June 2019)
Case

Voatz

By: Mitchell Weiss and Maddy Halyard

Nimit Sawhney scrolled through the tweet stream on his phone, unsure of what to make of it on August 6, 2018 or how to respond. Voatz, the Boston-based startup he co-founded and led, provided a mobile-voting platform. In March of 2018, had successfully piloted the new... View Details

Keywords: Mobile App; Business Startups; Voting; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Safety; Cybersecurity

2023
Article

Balancing Risk and Reward: An Automated Phased Release Strategy

By: Yufan Li, Jialiang Mao and Iavor Bojinov

Phased releases are a common strategy in the technology industry for gradually releasing new products or updates through a sequence of A/B tests in which the number of treated units gradually grows until full deployment or deprecation. Performing phased releases in a... View Details

Keywords: Product Launch; Mathematical Methods; Product Development

Read Now

19 Jul 2019
Blog Post

Making a Broader Impact with Multiple Disciplines

humanly-impossible procedures with precision, accuracy, and consistency. I work on commercializing science and building businesses around these technology paradigms to democratize high-quality surgical care to billions around the world.... View Details

September 2019 (Revised August 2020)
Case

Engineering an Inclusive Bioeconomy

By: Tarun Khanna, Raffaella Sadun and Susie L. Ma

In 2019, entrepreneur Juan Carlos Castilla-Rubio was developing a project he hoped could generate and share wealth from the natural resources of the Amazon without destroying those resources. His idea, called Earth Bank of Codes (EBC), would create a library of the... View Details

15 Apr 2022
Blog Post

How I Spent My HBS 2+2 Deferral: Kelly Ogiesoba

and staff in the Michigan College of Engineering program. Also, I attended an HBS 2+2 presentation on campus and thought it was a good fit after listening to the HBS representatives speak. It sounded like a low-risk argument with a very View Details

April 1996 (Revised May 1997)
Case

Netscape's Initial Public Offering

By: W. Carl Kester and Kendall Backstrand

In August 1995, Netscape's board of directors was confronted with a decision about what price to offer the company's shares in its initial public offering (IPO). Preliminary demand for shares was high, but the company had not generated any positive earnings at the time... View Details

Keywords: Initial Public Offering; Information Technology; Problems and Challenges; Valuation; Governing and Advisory Boards; Information Technology Industry