Publications

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September 2015
Background Note

Doing Business in South Africa 2015 Update

By: Andy Zelleke and Monica Baraldi

2006
Article

Schumpeter's Plea: Historical Methods in the Study of Entrepreneurship

By: Rohit Daniel Wadhwani and Geoffrey Jones

This paper outlines the case for why and how historical methods are important to the study of entrepreneurship. We show that research in entrepreneurship has displayed declining attention to historical context since the field first emerged in the 1940s. We discuss why... View Details

Keywords: History; Research; Entrepreneurship

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2007
Book

Entrepreneurship and Global Capitalism

By: G. Jones and Rohit Daniel Wadhwani

These volumes demonstrates the importance of historical perspectives in the study of entrepreneurship. By exploring the role of entrepreneurship in the history of global capitalism, the authors show that historical knowledge can challenge widely accepted... View Details

Keywords: History; Diasporas; Economic Systems; Globalized Economies and Regions; Globalized Firms and Management; Cultural Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurship; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues

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June 2013 (Revised November 2016)
Case

Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa

By: Geoffrey Jones and Elliot R. Benton

This case considers the strategies of Charles W. Engelhard, an American mining magnate who made large investments in apartheid-era South Africa. Engelhard was widely believed to have been the model for the James Bond villan Auric Goldfinger. During the 1950s and 1960s... View Details

Keywords: Political Economy; Business History; FDI; Corporate Social Responsibility And Impact; South Africa; Mining; Ethics; Globalization; Government and Politics; History; Mining Industry; Africa; South Africa

February 2025
Supplement

eBee: Affordable Mobility for Africa

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Gamze Yucaoglu and Jordan Mitchell

The case opens in March 2023, as Sten van der Ham and Jaap Maljers, CEO and co-founder of eBee, an electric bike (e-bike) company in Africa, are contemplating the different avenues for growth and path to profitability for the young and ambitious company. In 2023, the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Value Creation; Competition; Logistics; Profit; Resource Allocation; Expansion; Business Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Distribution Channels; Entrepreneurial Finance; Bicycle Industry; Africa; Kenya

April 2024 (Revised February 2025)
Teaching Note

eBee: Affordable Mobility for Africa

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Gamze Yucaoglu and Jordan Mitchell

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 724-360.The case opens in March 2023, as Sten van der Ham and Jaap Maljers, CEO and co-founder of eBee, an electric bike (e-bike) company in Africa, are contemplating the different avenues for growth and path to profitability for the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Value Creation; Competition; Expansion; Logistics; Profit; Resource Allocation; Corporate Strategy; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Product Marketing; Entrepreneurial Finance; Bicycle Industry; Africa; Kenya

April 2011 (Revised December 2012)
Supplement

South Africa (B): Getting Unstuck?

By: Richard H. K. Vietor and Diego Comin

15 years after ending apartheid, formal unemployment in South Africa was still at 24%. While the country had grown at 4 to 5% annually during the 2000s, the financial crisis set it back by 1 million more unemployed. Moreover, it seemed as if the nation were stuck... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Inflation and Deflation; Policy; Employment; Wages; Competition; South Africa

August 2023 (Revised April 2024)
Case

eBee: Affordable Mobility for Africa

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in March 2023, as Sten van der Ham and Jaap Maljers, CEO and co-founder of eBee, an electric bike (e-bike) company in Africa, are contemplating the different avenues for growth and path to profitability for the young and ambitious company. In 2023, the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Bicycle Industry; Africa; Kenya

July 2017 (Revised July 2018)
Case

Entrepreneurship for All

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Julia Kelley

Entrepreneurship for All (EforAll) is a Lowell, Massachusetts–based nonprofit that hosts business accelerators for entrepreneurs in underserved communities. By mid-2017, EforAll has five office locations in Massachusetts, and its leadership and the Board of Directors... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions

January 2003 (Revised May 2003)
Case

Heineken NV: Workplace HIV/AIDS Programs in Africa (C)

Third in a three-part series that explores the multifaceted organizational and strategic choices that companies now face as a result of the global AIDS epidemic. Heineken is considering becoming one of the first companies to offer AIDS drugs (antiretroviral therapy) to... View Details

Keywords: Health Disorders; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Employees; Food and Beverage Industry; Africa

December 2008 (Revised June 2009)
Case

Lapdesk Goes Global - Africa First

Shane Immelman, founding CEO of the Lapdesk Company of South Africa, is facing a number of challenges in taking Lapdesk from South Africa and into the rest of the African continent. How should the African strategy be different from that of South Africa? What is the... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Africa; South Africa

03 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

HBS Faculty on Revolution in the Middle East and North Africa

From Tunisia to Egypt, Bahrain to Yemen, as a number of nations in North Africa and the Middle East go through cataclysmic changes, the world watches and wonders what the future may hold as myriad protestors... View Details

Keywords: Re: Deepak Malhotra; Energy; Utilities

January 2003 (Revised May 2003)
Case

Heineken NV: Workplace HIV/AIDS Programs in Africa (A)

This case is the first in a three-part series that explores the multifaceted organizational and strategic choices that companies now face as a result of the global AIDS epidemic. Heineken is considering becoming one of the first companies to offer AIDS drugs... View Details

Keywords: Health Disorders; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Employees; Food and Beverage Industry; Africa

December 2008 (Revised October 2009)
Case

Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)

By: David E. Bell and Brian Matthew Milder

In 2006, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation joined together to form a new organization, AGRA, to tackle the historic challenge of increasing agricultural production in Africa. Launched with much fanfare and led by former U.N.... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Investment Funds; Food; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Business and Government Relations; Non-Governmental Organizations; Poverty; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Africa

April 2011 (Revised July 2011)
Case

Renewing GE: The Africa Project (A)

By: David A. Thomas and Stephanie J. Creary

This case profiles the evolution of General Electric's African American Form (AAF), an employee affinity group, and its efforts to increase the company's involvement in Africa. The AAF formed in 1991 to help advance GE's recruitment, retention and development of black... View Details

Keywords: Diversity; Global Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Employees; Employee Relationship Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Africa; United States

July 2004 (Revised October 2018)
Case

Opium and Entrepreneurship in the Nineteenth Century

By: Geoffrey Jones, Elisabeth Koll and Alexis Gendron

This case examines the role of Jardine Matheson, a trading company founded by two Scottish merchants, in the opium trade between India and China during the nineteenth century. The two Opium Wars fought between Western powers and China, which sought to stop opium... View Details

Keywords: History; Globalized Economies and Regions; Ethnicity; Multinational Firms and Management; Groups and Teams; Trade; Social and Collaborative Networks; China; United Kingdom

November 2014
Course Overview Note

Entrepreneurship and Technology Innovations in Education

By: John J-H Kim

January 2003 (Revised May 2003)
Case

Heineken NV: Workplace HIV/AIDS Programs in Africa (B)

Second in a three-part series that explores the multifaceted organizational and strategic choices that companies now face as a result of the global AIDS epidemic. Heineken is considering becoming one of the first companies to offer AIDS drugs (antiretroviral therapy)... View Details

Keywords: Health Disorders; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Employees; Food and Beverage Industry; Africa