Publications

February 2025 (Revised April 2025)
Case

Shake Shack's Playbook for the Digital Era

By: Christopher Stanton, Allison Ciechanover and George Gonzalez

This case examines Shake Shack’s journey from a single New York City hot dog cart to a global fast-casual restaurant chain renowned for both premium quality and a culture of “enlightened hospitality.” As the company expands worldwide, it pilots digital ordering... View Details

April 2018
Article

We Ask Men to Win & Women Not to Lose: Closing the Gender Gap in Startup Funding

By: Dana Kanze, Laura Huang, Mark Conley and E. Tory Higgins

Male entrepreneurs are known to raise higher levels of funding than their female counterparts, but the underlying mechanism for this funding disparity remains contested. Drawing upon Regulatory Focus Theory, we propose that the gap originates with a gender bias in the... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Finance; Gender; Prejudice and Bias

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April 2019
Case

American Ballet Theatre

By: Anita Elberse, Tsubasa Nakajima and Melissa Rodman

Kara Medoff Barnett, executive director of American Ballet Theatre (ABT), widely regarded as one of the world’s premier ballet companies, faces several challenges. It is June 2018. Despite its prestige, the company’s $45 million annual budget and $22 million endowment... View Details

Keywords: Performing Arts; Superstars; Talent; Talent Development; Non-profit; Contracts; Labor Economics; General Management; Arts; Entertainment; Media; Talent and Talent Management; Nonprofit Organizations; Marketing; Strategy

19 Nov 2014
HBS Case

Marketing Marijuana

companies—perhaps the existing "big tobacco" powerhouses—muscle their way in and perpetrate "The Bud Light-ification of Bud," as the New York Times suggested? Those pursuing answers need... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Food & Beverage

July 2017 (Revised November 2017)
Case

Propel

By: Mitchell Weiss and Sarah McAra

In 2014, Jimmy Chen, a former product manager at Facebook, founded the start-up Propel to build software for low-income Americans. After conducting in-depth behavioral research, Chen and his small team in New York City began to develop technology to address the... View Details

08 Feb 2016
Research & Ideas

The Civic Benefits of Google Street View and Yelp

learning to analyze images. Using these techniques, he took some 3,600 images of New York City blocks, obtained from the Google Street View Image API, and “taught” the computer... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Consumer Products

27 May 2009
First Look

First Look: May 27, 2009

Tepperberg is celebrating the fifth anniversary of his New York City nightclub Marquee. While most clubs are over within their first one-and-a-half years, Tepperberg has... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Research Summary

Re-Producing Exclusivity: A History of the Transatlantic Fashion Industry, 1929-1960

The history of fashion has been increasingly explored over the last decade, but two important and intertwined features of the topic are still underdeveloped: business and its international aspect. These dimensions are crucial. Fashion is first and foremost an industry... View Details

March 2020
Case

A Tower for the People: 425 Park Avenue

By: John Macomber, Joseph G. Allen and Emily Jones

Healthy buildings and superior air quality are increasingly important since people now spend so much time indoors. Indoor spaces drive performance and productivity. Commercial real estate landlords and investors are responding to the demands of sophisticated tenants... View Details

Keywords: Health And Wellness; Real Estate; Sustainability; Health; Pollution; Buildings and Facilities; Performance Productivity; Finance; Real Estate Industry; New York (city, NY)

Working Paper

Visual Uniqueness in Peer-to-Peer Marketplaces: Machine Learning Model Development, Validation, and Application

By: Flora Feng, Charis Li and Shunyuan Zhang

Peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplaces have seen exponential growth in recent years featured by unique offerings from individual providers. Despite the perceived value of uniqueness, scalable quantification of visual uniqueness in P2P platforms like Airbnb has been largely... View Details

Keywords: Peer-to-peer Markets; Marketplace Matching; AI and Machine Learning; Demand and Consumers; Digital Platforms; Marketing

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September–October 2022
Article

Case Study: What's the Right Career Move After a Public Failure?

By: Jon M. Jachimowicz and Francesca Gino

“Reunions are for happy people,” Mariani Kallis said to her friend Whitney on the phone. “I’m not going.” “Come on, it won’t be the same without you,” Whitney pleaded. “Besides, no one is happy right now. Everyone’s life is a mess.” “I’m pretty sure none of our... View Details

Keywords: Career Decisions; Personal Development and Career

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April 2020
Background Note

U.S. Food Retail During the Pandemic: March 2020

By: José B. Alvarez and Natalie Kindred

This note, written in late March 2020 and mainly U.S. focused, looks at the unfolding impact of the coronavirus pandemic on food retailers and their suppliers. It allows student to consider the challenges facing food retail executives as they navigate urgent supply... View Details

Keywords: Coronavirus Pandemic; Risk and Uncertainty; Risk Management; Food; Supply Chain; Consumer Behavior; Demand and Consumers; Trade; Crisis Management; Health Pandemics; Food and Beverage Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Retail Industry; United States

24 Jul 2013
Op-Ed

Detroit Files for Bankruptcy: HBS Faculty Weigh In

taxpayers and politicians, afflicted with disaster fatigue, will likely have limited appetite for subsidizing struggling cities like Detroit or Rochester or St. Louis. Steven Rattner's recent New View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber, Robert C. Pozen, Eric D. Werker & Benjamin Kennedy; Auto

15 Oct 2013
First Look

First Look: October 15

Talent Recruitment at frog design Shanghai (B) Supplements 411-040. Purchase this case: http://hbr.org/search/414024-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 714-404 New York City: Bloomberg's Strategy for... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 May 2007
First Look

First Look: May 1, 2007

http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=807144 The New York Times Co. Harvard Business School Case 207-113 The Sulzberger family owns 20 percent of the View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

16 Dec 2008
First Look

First Look: December 16, 2008

City from its founding in the 17th century through 2008. Focuses on the decisions made by New York City officials, past and present, highlighting... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 2019
Case

Scaling at Chief

By: Katherine B. Coffman, Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Kathleen L. McGinn, Julia Kelley and Katherine Chen

Chief is a New York-based peer network that provides mentorship, support, networking opportunities, and a sense of community to women executives. Co-founders Carolyn Childers and Lindsay Kaplan launched the company in January 2019, and just two months later, Chief has... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Leadership Development; Expansion; Growth Management; Customer Satisfaction; North and Central America; United States; New York (state, US); New York (city, NY)