Publications

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December 1997 (Revised August 1998)
Case

Randy Haykin: The Making of an Entrepreneur (A)

By: Linda A. Hill and Jennifer Suesse

An MBA graduate, 10 years out, reflects on his career path. Randy Haykin is currently running his own venture catalyst organization in the Silicon Valley. View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Personal Development and Career; Leadership Style; Organizations; San Francisco

2012
Working Paper

Entrepreneurship in the Natural Food and Beauty Categories Before 2000: Global Visions and Local Expressions

By: Geoffrey Jones

This working paper examines the creation of the global natural food and beauty categories before 2000. This is shown to have been a lengthy process of new category creation involving the exercise of entrepreneurial imagination. Pioneering entrepreneurs faced little... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Consumer Goods; Entrepreneurs; Environment; Food; Globalization; Business History; Agribusiness; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Asia; Europe; Latin America; Middle East; North and Central America

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June 2008 (Revised February 2011)
Case

Year Up: A Social Entrepreneur Builds High Performance

By: Allen S Grossman and Naomi Greckol-Herlich

Year Up, a nonprofit job-skills training program for low-income, urban youth has run four successful programs in four cities for the past seven years. Now, after an ambitious capital campaign, the organization is poised to grow into a national program in an attempt to... View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Growth Management; Quality; Nonprofit Organizations; United States

09 Apr 2020
Research & Ideas

How Social Entrepreneurs Can Increase Their Investment Impact

Foundation has made frequent use of investments in the form of “program-related investments” to support its social and environmental goals. How can an entrepreneur trying to do good evaluate the best form of... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

April 1996
Case

The Road Well Traveled: A Note on the Journeys of HBS Entrepreneurs

Based on a 1992 mail survey of Harvard MBAs who started their own businesses. Questions focused on 4 areas: 1) development of the business concept, 2) sales and marketing, 3) finance, and 4) building a staff. The entrepreneurs surveyed include 24 in consulting, 17 in... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship

2014
Book

Own Your Future: How to Think Like an Entrepreneur and Thrive in an Unpredictable Economy

By: Paul B. Brown, Charles F. Kiefer and Leonard A. Schlesinger

It used to be that if you studied and worked hard, you could be assured of an extremely satisfying career. But in a world of constant layoffs and dying industries, it has become increasingly difficult to "plan" your way to success. So what is the solution? Well, when... View Details

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February 2006 (Revised August 2006)
Case

Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Art of the Entrepreneur

By: G. Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the artists who created The Gates in New York City in 2005, are trying to decide how best to finance their next project. Over the River, a project to drape sections of the Arkansas River with translucent fabric is a very different enterprise... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Arts; Fine Arts Industry; Arkansas

Article

Stretch the Mission? A Nonprofit That Supports Emerging-market Entrepreneurs Considers Expanding to the U.S.

By: William A. Sahlman and Ramana Nanda

A case study is presented concerning a nonprofit organization that helps entrepreneurs in emerging-markets countries in regions including Latin America and Asia, focusing on the decision over whether to expand its services into the Miami, Florida, area, a question on... View Details

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2014
Working Paper

Entrepreneurship and Business Groups: An Evolutionary Perspective on the Growth of the Koç Group in Turkey

By: Asli M. Coplan and Geoffrey Jones

This working paper examines the origins and development of the Koç Group, which grew to be the largest business group in Turkey. This enterprise was an important actor in the emergence of modern business enterprise in the new state of the Republic of Turkey from the... View Details

Keywords: Business Groups; Turkey; Entrepreneurship In Emerging Markets; Entrepreneurship; History; Government and Politics; Auto Industry; Banking Industry; Electronics Industry; Middle East; Europe

SSRN

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September 2015 (Revised March 2016)
Case

Intuit: Turbo Tax PersonalPro - A Tale of Two Entrepreneurs

By: Shikhar Ghosh, Joseph Fuller and Michael Roberts

The case provides a vehicle for teaching about both corporate intrapreneurship and the use of lean startup methods. It tells the story of a product manager within Intuit who develops an idea for a new product that spans two of the company's existing business... View Details

Keywords: Business Units; Business or Company Management; Applications and Software; Accounting; Product Development; Financial Services Industry

13 Aug 2014
Lessons from the Classroom

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

In the world of family business, the entrepreneurs we celebrate are usually founders of companies. These clever, hardworking individuals identify a good business opportunity, scrape together some money and... View Details

Keywords: by Michael J. Roberts

January 2021
Case

Andela: Africa's AWS for Talent

By: Caroline M. Elkins, Tarun Khanna and Joyce J. Kim

Five years after the company’s founding, Andela, a company that built and trained remote engineering teams, became arguably Africa’s greatest technology unicorn. By January 2019, Andela raised $100 million in Series D funding. As Andela looked to scale in an... View Details

Keywords: Education In Africa; Entrepreneur; Remote Work; Software Engineering; Edtech; Entrepreneurship; Education; Applications and Software; Engineering; Growth and Development Strategy; Africa

18 Aug 2011
Lessons from the Classroom

Business Plan Contest: 15 Years of Building Better Entrepreneurs

met a number of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and came away with "a gut feeling that I could build my own company." So he did, collaborating via Skype with friends located in Israel, Sydney, and Boston and... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Education

June 2021
Case

Selassie Atadika: Entrepreneurship in Africa

By: Boris Groysberg, Susan Seligson and Katherine Connolly Baden

This case profiles the career of Ghana-based chef and entrepreneur, Selassie Atadika. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, she faced many questions about the future, such as: How could she convince Ghanaian consumers to view their native cuisine in a fresh,... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneur; Women And Leadership; Women-owned Businesses; Food; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; South Africa

2004
Book

Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital

By: Amar Bhidé

Academics and practitioners readily admit the importance of entrepreneurs for the wealth of nations. However, the relationship between the economic and social environment, entrepreneurship and value creation is not yet well understood. Moreover, at the micro-level, the... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneur; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Corporate Finance