Publications

SSRN

July 2024 (Revised December 2024)
Background Note

District Heating: An Overview

By: Willy Shih and Michael W. Toffel

This note provides an overview of district heating: systems in which central plants generate heat that is conveyed by steam or water through a set of insulated pipes to send heat to residential and/or commercial buildings. It describes key elements of the system (heat... View Details

Keywords: Decarbonization; Energy Efficiency; Energy Storage; Energy Transmission; Construction; Energy; Buildings and Facilities; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Climate Change; Operations; Energy Industry; Denmark; Europe; United States

March 2019
Article

Economics of Converting Renewable Power to Hydrogen

By: Gunther Glenk and Stefan Reichelstein

The recent sharp decline in the cost of renewable energy suggests that the production of hydrogen from renewable power through a power-to-gas process might become more economical. Here we examine this alternative from the perspective of an investor who considers a... View Details

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February 2021
Case

Yellow Digital Retailers: Providing Solar Electricity to Transform Rural Africa

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Frank V. Cespedes and Michael Norris

In 2020, Mike Heyink and Maya Stewart, co-founders of the Pay-as-you-Go Solar company Yellow were considering how to grow their startup. They had achieved some success in their first market, Malawi, and had recently entered Uganda, where business was slower. What did... View Details

Keywords: Solar Energy; Business Model; Business Startups; Developing Countries and Economies; Alternative Energy; Renewable Energy; Social Entrepreneurship; Green Technology; Salesforce Management; Diversification; Expansion; Energy Industry; Africa; South Africa; Malawi; Uganda

August 2010 (Revised June 2020)
Teaching Note

Generation Investment Management (TN)

By: Sandra J. Sucher

Teaching Note for 613-002. The case and/or its teaching note includes references to case supplement videos that are intended for students to view, along with the written case, before class. As a reminder, the (A) video supplement is intended for students to view... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Development Economics; Environmental Sustainability; Energy Generation; Rural Scope; Non-Renewable Energy; Pollutants; Financial Services Industry; India

May 2020
Teaching Note

Big Boom Beverages: Fight or Flight? (Brief Case)

By: Stephen A. Greyser and William Ellet

Teaching Note for HBS Brief Case No. 920-557. The case addresses analysis and decisions related to the entrepreneurial life of a distinctive energy beverage, including its niche market launch, early problems, reformulation, social media impact, market success, and... View Details

Keywords: Alcoholic Beverages; Energy Drinks; Regulation; Entrepreneurship; Ethics; Marketing Communications; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Reputation; Communication Strategy; Decision Making

August 2012
Case

Messer Griesheim (A) (Abridged)

By: Josh Lerner, Eva Lutz and Kerry Herman

In 2001, Allianz Capital Partners and Goldman Sachs acquired a majority stake in Messer Griesheim, a European industrial gas concern held by Hoechst. The dealmakers faced several challenges, including delicate corporate governance issues due to partial family... View Details

Keywords: Germany; Energy; Private Equity; Venture Capital; Energy Industry; European Union

February 2015 (Revised June 2016)
Case

Solar Geoengineering

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and Stephanie Puzio

On December 8th 2013, as Dr. David Keith was leaving the set of the Colbert Show, he couldn't help but replay the interview over and over in his mind. Did he actually get his point of view on solar geoengineering across or had he just added to the stereotype that he... View Details

Keywords: Geoengineering; Carbon; Carbon Emissions; Energy; Nuclear; Nuclear Energy; De-extinction; Climate Change; Engineering; Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention; Energy Sources; Energy Industry; Energy Industry

19 Mar 2018
Sharpening Your Skills

8 Ways To Be An Environmentally Conscious Manager

don't necessarily conflict with making a profit, business leaders today don't face such formidable challenges to their views. Still, what can managers do to ensure that their industries, their companies, their workplaces, their work,... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Energy

June 2012 (Revised February 2014)
Case

Low-Carbon, Indigenous Innovation in China

By: Richard H.K. Vietor

For the past seven years or so, the Chinese government has been powering ahead with industrial policies to promote low-carbon energy technologies—wind, solar, electric batteries and vehicles, nuclear power, and even carbon capture and sequestration. In 2009, the... View Details

Keywords: Energy; Renewables; Carbon; Environment; Industrial Policy; Competitiveness; Environmental Sustainability; Policy; Renewable Energy; Competition; Globalized Markets and Industries; Energy Industry; China

Web

Technology & Operations Management - Faculty & Research

Technology & Operations Management Overview Faculty Curriculum Seminars & Conferences Awards & Honors Doctoral Students 2025 Working Paper Productivity Beliefs and Efficiency in Science By: Fabio Bertolotti, Kyle R. Myers and Wei Yang... View Details

May 2018 (Revised October 2018)
Case

Argentina Power—Don't Cry for Me Argentina

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Sayiddah Fatima McCree

In 2016, Bruce Wayne, Managing Director of Energy Finance Corporation (“EFC”), was refining the Investment/Credit Committee materials for the development of up to 10 power generating plants in Argentina. As a subsidiary of the much larger International Conglomerate... View Details

Keywords: Cross Border; Energy Markets; Infrastructure Finance; Infrastructure Development; Business Subsidiaries; Business Cycles; Macroeconomics; Energy Generation; International Finance; Project Finance; Government and Politics; Demand and Consumers; Infrastructure; Energy Industry; Energy Industry; Energy Industry; Argentina; Latin America

07 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

Innovation Corrupted: How Managers Can Avoid Another Enron

for natural gas, and to create derivative supply contracts that could help customers manage the risks of demand volatility and price swings more effectively than before. In this way, Skilling and his colleagues solved a major contracting... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Energy; Energy

10 Sep 2007
Research & Ideas

High Note: Managing the Medici String Quartet

Why would a business school professor want to write a case study about a string quartet? The answer was easy for Robert Austin, a scholar with research expertise in the management of innovation. While attending an academic workshop near... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Music

Web

General Management Curriculum - Faculty & Research

General Management Overview Faculty Curriculum Awards & Honors Doctoral Students MBA Required Curriculum (FIRST YEAR) Leadership and Corporate Accountability In this course, students learn about the complex responsibilities facing... View Details

01 Dec 1998
News

Managing the Business of Life

interview, we catch up with the group for another update. Not surprisingly, much has changed over the past decade in their households and in their careers. In the profiles that follow, our protagonists once again candidly discuss how they are View Details

February 2014
Teaching Note

A.P. Møller–Maersk Group: Evaluating Strategic Talent Management Initiatives

By: Boris Groysberg, Sarah L. Abbott and Robin Abrahams

This teaching note is an accompaniment to the case, A.P. Møller–Maersk Group: Evaluating Strategic Talent Management Initiatives. The case reviews the talent management issues being discussed at Maersk Group, a global conglomerate with large shipping and oil & gas... View Details

Keywords: Retention; Human Capital; Human Resources; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Management Practices and Processes; Energy Industry; Energy Industry; Denmark

February 2002 (Revised November 2002)
Case

Activity-Based Management at W.S. Industries (B)

By: V.G. Narayanan and Jeremy Cott

Describes activity-based budgeting at W.S. Industries. Also describes target costing-led product redesign, and product, customer, and order profitability. View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Operations; Energy Industry; India

November 2000 (Revised November 2002)
Case

Activity-Based Management at W.S. Industries (A)

By: V.G. Narayanan and Sanjay Pothen

W.S. Industries undertakes the design and implementation of an activity based costing (ABC) system, and the ABC information empowers workers to make process improvement decisions. Workers' incentive pay is tied to cost savings from process improvements. View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Motivation and Incentives; Performance Evaluation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Knowledge Management; Energy Industry; India

2021
Book

Management as a Calling: Leading Business, Serving Society

By: Andrew J. Hoffman

Business leaders have tremendous power to influence our society, how it operates, whether it is fair, and the extent to which it impacts the environment. And yet, we do not recognize or call out the responsibility that comes with that power. This book is meant to... View Details

Keywords: Business Education; Power and Influence; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Issues; Leadership