Publications

2009
Working Paper

Clusters of Entrepreneurship

By: Edward L. Glaeser, William R. Kerr and Giacomo A.M. Ponzetto

Employment growth is strongly predicted by smaller average establishment size, both across cities and across industries within cities, but there is little consensus on why this relationship exists. Traditional economic explanations emphasize factors that reduce entry... View Details

Keywords: Economic Growth; Entrepreneurship; Cost; Employment; Market Entry and Exit

Read Now

March 2010
Article

Extreme Governance: An Analysis of Dual-Class Firms in the United States

By: Paul A. Gompers, Joy Ishii and Andrew Metrick

We construct a comprehensive list of dual-class firms in the United States and use this list to analyze the relationship between insider ownership and firm value. Our data have two useful features. First, since dual-class stock separates cash-flow rights from voting... View Details

Keywords: Voting; Cash Flow; Stocks; Rights; Ownership Stake; Value; United States

March 2010
Article

Interpersonal Authority in a Theory of the Firm

By: Eric J. Van den Steen

This paper develops a theory of the firm in which a firm's centralized asset ownership and low-powered incentives give the manager, as an equilibrium outcome, interpersonal authority over employees (in a world with open disagreement). The paper thus provides... View Details

Keywords: Theory; Assets; Ownership; Motivation and Incentives; Governance Controls; Power and Influence; Projects; Perspective; Employees

December 2009
Article

Catering Through Nominal Share Prices

By: Malcolm Baker, Robin Greenwood and Jeffrey Wurgler

We propose and test a catering theory of nominal stock prices. The theory predicts that when investors place higher valuation on low-price firms, managers will maintain share prices at lower levels, and vice-versa. Using measures of time-varying catering incentives... View Details

Keywords: Stocks; Stock Shares; Investment; Investment Return; Price; Theory; Valuation

Read Now

January 2023 (Revised August 2023)
Case

Veeva Systems and the Transformation to a Public Benefit Corporation

By: Ranjay Gulati and Allison M. Ciechanover

Peter Gassner, the co-founder and CEO of Veeva Systems, steered the company through rapid scaling from its launch in 2007 to 2022. Year after year, the company had exceeded expectations, with its market capitalization reaching $50 billion at its peak. By 2022, the... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Corporate Governance; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Information Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United States; California

December 2005 (Revised December 2008)
Case

SchoolNet: Pursuing Opportunity beyond Federal Mandates

Settling into his seat on the train bound for New York, CEO Jonathan Harber reflected on the evolution of SchoolNet's position in the educational technology market and its important relationship with Philadelphia. Specifically, how could it transition from a project to... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Education; Performance Improvement; Partners and Partnerships; Expansion; Technology Adoption; Philadelphia

July 22, 2024
Article

Why People Resist Retirement

By: Teresa M. Amabile

Research suggests making the decision to retire means grappling with three psychological issues. First, identity issues can loom large for any deeply engaged professional. Even a small step away from a career can make a person wonder who they are without it. Second,... View Details

Keywords: Retirement; Identity; Leadership; Satisfaction; Relationships; Age

Register to Read

June 2008 (Revised August 2008)
Case

World Wildlife Fund US

By: Jane Wei-Skillern and Kerry Herman

World Wildlife Fund US is a leading international conservation nonprofit that operates within a global network of WWF organizations. This case examines WWF US's strategy to achieve its mission of protecting natural wildlife and resources. In contrast to traditional... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Partners and Partnerships; Environmental Sustainability; Nonprofit Organizations; Social and Collaborative Networks; Trust; Integration; Sumatra; United States

31 Oct 2023
HBS Case

Checking Your Ethics: Would You Speak Up in These 3 Sticky Situations?

day, you are an associate, and this is a partner-led relationship,” he says. “The partner is the one who has the core relationship with the client.” As difficult and distasteful as it may be to observe the behavior, in most cases you... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Consulting

January 2010 (Revised March 2013)
Case

HubSpot: Lower Churn through Greater CHI

By: F. Asis Martinez Jerez, Thomas Steenburgh, Jill Avery and Lisa Brem

HubSpot, a web marketing startup is under pressure from VCs to rapidly acquire new customers and to maintain a low level of customer churn. In the case, students explore the drivers of customer churn and uncover opportunities to increase customer retention across the... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Customer Relationship Management; Customer Satisfaction; Customer Value and Value Chain; Forecasting and Prediction; Consumer Behavior; Happiness; Consulting Industry

05 Dec 2023
Research & Ideas

Lessons in Decision-Making: Confident People Aren't Always Correct (Except When They Are)

Sometimes, the loudest, most confident voice in the room might indeed be the best decision-maker. Other times, the person who understands that they don’t know the answer—and therefore holds back in a discussion—may be wiser. Whether groups and organizations reach good... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

Article

Big Names or Big Ideas: Do Peer-Review Panels Select the Best Science Proposals?

By: Danielle Li and Leila Agha

This paper examines the success of peer-review panels in predicting the future quality of proposed research. We construct new data to track publication, citation, and patenting outcomes associated with more than 130,000 research project (R01) grants funded by the U.S.... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Research; Entrepreneurship; Forecasting and Prediction; Innovation and Invention; Business and Government Relations; United States

Program

Leading and Building a Culture of Innovation

take risks, experiment, and learn from failures Unleash the diverse talent in your organization to create "collective genius" Manage your network of relationships with colleagues, employees, and other stakeholders to break down barriers... View Details

Research Summary

Buyers, Sellers, Manufacturers in China’s Emerging Market around 1900

Ever since the economic reforms in the post-Mao period China’s economy as an emerging market has attracted much interest. However, we tend to forget that China was already an emerging market at the turn of the 19^th century, if not earlier. This... View Details

November 5, 2024
Article

The International Empirics of Management

By: Daniela Scur, Scott Ohlmacher, John Van Reenen, Morten Bennedsen, Nick Bloom, Ali Choudhary, Lucia Foster, Jesse Groenewegen, Arti Grover, Sjoerd Hardeman, Leonardo Iacovone, Ryo Kambayashi, Marie-Christine Laible, Renata Lemos, Hongbin Li, Andrea Linarello, Mika Maliranta, Denis Medvedev, Charlotte Meng, John Miles Touya, Natalia Mandirola, Roope Ohlsbom, Atsushi Ohyama, Megha Patnaik, Mariana Pereira-López, Raffaella Sadun, Tatsuro Senga, Franklin Qian and Florian Zimmermann

A country’s national income broadly depends on the quantity and quality of workers and capital. But how well these factors are managed within and between firms may be a key determinant of a country’s productivity and its GDP. Although social scientists have long... View Details

Keywords: Performance Productivity; Economy; Management Practices and Processes