Publications

July 2017 (Revised March 2018)
Case

Magic Bus: From Childhood to Livelihood

By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Vikram Gandhi, Anjali Raina and Rachna Chawla

Founded in 1999 by Matthew Spacie to give poor children an opportunity to play, Magic Bus had evolved to a leading social enterprise engaged in sports for development, holistic childhood development, and livelihood training for youth between the ages of 6 to 18. By... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Management; Development; Growth And Scaling; Social Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Nonprofit Organizations; Management

Dennis “DJ” DiDonna has dedicated his career to commercializing social science research to create organizations which positively impact the world.

He is a Senior Lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School where he teaches the... View Details

August 2007 (Revised June 2008)
Case

The Lapdesk Company: A South African FOPSE

Shane Immelman, founding CEO of Lapdesk (South Africa), is facing several acute problems: a conflict between his director of marketing and his director of field operations; a dramatic increase in prices by a key supplier; and a major strategic alliance that does not... View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise; For-Profit Firms; Entrepreneurship; Problems and Challenges; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Education Industry; South Africa

Article

How Social Entrepreneurs Zig-Zag Their Way to Impact at Scale

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Tricia Gregg

This article provides guidance to social entrepreneurs and their funders as they seek to advance the enterprise from startup to scale. It focuses on the evolution of four social entrepreneurs and their decision-making paths as they attempt to scale their respective... View Details

Keywords: Systemic Impact; Scaling; Strategy Process; Nonprofit Organizations; Social Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy

July 2017
Article

Intellectual Property Rights Protection, Ownership, and Innovation: Evidence from China

By: Lily Fang, Josh Lerner and Chaopeng Wu

Using a difference-in-difference approach, we study how intellectual property right (IPR) protection affects innovation in China in the years around the privatizations of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Innovation increases after SOE privatizations, and this increase... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Privatization; State Ownership; Trademarks; Copyright; Innovation and Invention; China

May 2004
Supplement

Slingshot Technology, Inc. Supplement: Partnership Agreements

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Elizabeth Collins

Slingshot Technology Inc. (STI) is a privately held software start-up founded in 1995 focused on identifying emerging spaces in the IT services industry and partnering with vendors selling promising but unproven technologies in those spaces. The vendors used STI to... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Emerging Markets; Partners and Partnerships; Intellectual Property; Information Technology Industry; Consulting Industry

May 2004 (Revised December 2004)
Case

Slingshot Technology, Inc. (A)

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Elizabeth Collins

Slingshot Technology Inc. (STI) is a privately held software start-up founded in 1995 focused on identifying emerging spaces in the IT services industry and partnering with vendors selling promising but unproven technologies in those spaces. The vendors used STI to... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Private Ownership; Opportunities; Partners and Partnerships; Entrepreneurship; Applications and Software; Intellectual Property; Business Startups; Information Technology Industry

August 2001
Technical Note

Technical Note on Expectations

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

Reviews the mathematics of expectations embedded in a company's current stock price and the related (whole) enterprise value. Begins by showing how the current stock price can be compounded forward to arrive at an expectation one or more years in the future. Describes... View Details

Keywords: Performance Expectations; Price; Stocks

Teaching Interest

Overview

By: Willy C. Shih

Professor Shih has taught the Technology and Operations Management (TOM) course and FIELD Global Immersion in the first-year MBA required curriculum. He also has taught Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise (BSSE) in the second-year MBA curriculum, as well as... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain Management; Operations Management; Operations Strategy; Globalization Of Supply Chain; Competitiveness; Globalization; Trade; Operations; Manufacturing Industry; Transportation Industry; United States; China; Europe; Japan

October 2011 (Revised August 2012)
Case

INNOVA-MEX's Bid for ENKONTROL

By: Ramana Nanda, William R. Kerr and Carin-Isabel Knoop

In their second year, two Mexican HBS MBAs joined forces to start a search fund based in Mexico City. They had raised money to acquire an existing private company in Mexico with an initial enterprise value between $5 million and $15 million. Just seven months after... View Details

Keywords: Business Exit or Shutdown; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Investment Funds; Corporate Finance; Mexico City

25 Mar 2009
News

Harvard Business School Selects Inaugural Recipient of Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship

29 Jan 2020
News

The Potentially Toxic Combination of Management Culture and Modern Surveillance

01 Mar 2019
News

Building a Movement

Nien-he Hsieh

Nien-hê Hsieh is the Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration in the General Management Unit at Harvard Business School. His research and teaching aims at helping business leaders and organizations determine and deliver on their responsibilities. He... View Details

July–August 2014
Article

Where to Launch in Africa?

By: Eugene F. Soltes

A case study in the management of new business enterprises in developing countries is examined. A dilemma facing a Malawian entrepreneur in whether to locate a packaging industry new business in his native Malawi or in the larger market of Nigeria is examined.... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Developing Countries and Economies; Geographic Location; Decision Making; Africa

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Article

Las Microfinanzas: Creación simultánea de impacto social y valor comercial

By: Michael Chu

Microfinance is the best known and most successful expression of inclusive business. When the disbursement of financial services in small sizes to enterprising people in the informal sectors of the economy is capable of yielding superior commercial returns, it enables... View Details

Keywords: Microfinance; Economy; Investment Return; Service Operations; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Poverty