Publications

April 2022 (Revised August 2022)
Case

Restaurant Brands International: Version 2.0

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott

In 2010, 3G Capital acquired Burger King, the second largest burger chain globally. 3G expanded Burger King’s operations via acquisitions into a multi-brand business, renamed Restaurant Brands International. The acquisition had been a financial success story for 3G.... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Growth and Development; Performance Evaluation; Private Equity; Franchise Ownership; Culture; Change Management; Strategy; Human Resources; Information Technology; Competition; Retail Industry; United States

09 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Leadership Lessons of the Great Recession: Options for Economic Downturns

Accountability, a required course for first-year MBA students that examines the responsibilities business leaders have to their shareholders, customers, employees, and to society Click Here Cote visited Boston for the occasion, sitting in... View Details

Keywords: by Sandra Sucher & Susan Winterberg; Aerospace; Electronics

February 2022
Case

Toraya

By: Lauren Cohen and Akiko Kanno

Mitsuharu Kurokawa was the 18th generation leader of a family firm that produced and sold premium Japanese sweets, Toraya Confectionery Co., Ltd. He had succeeded the business from his father, Mitsuhiro Kurokawa who had led the firm for thirty years. Mitsuharu was... View Details

Keywords: Branding; Luxury Brand; Succession; Family Business; Management Succession; Brands and Branding; Luxury; Marketing; Expansion; Globalization; Innovation and Invention; Customer Satisfaction; Food and Beverage Industry; Retail Industry; Japan

August 2020 (Revised July 2021)
Case

From Farm Boy to Financier: Eiichi Shibusawa and the Creation of Modern Japan

By: Geoffrey Jones, Gabriel Ellsworth and Ryo Takahashi

This case describes the career of Eiichi Shibusawa (1840-1931), a serial entrepreneur who is widely known as the “father of Japanese capitalism” and as a pioneer of socially responsible investment. Born in feudal Edo Japan, following the Meiji Restoration in 1868... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Personal Development and Career; Business History; Ethics; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Economy; Society; Japan

09 Jul 2010
Working Paper Summaries

The Limits of Nonprofit Impact: A Contingency Framework for Measuring Social Performance

Keywords: by Alnoor Ebrahim & V. Kasturi Rangan

27 Sep 2021
Blog Post

Working to Change the Food System

opportunity at HBS for confronting environmental challenges like climate change? It’s increasingly evident that challenges in food, climate, and society are inextricably linked, disproportionately impacting those on the fringes and in... View Details

16 May 2005
Research & Ideas

Nonprofit Networking: The New Way to Grow

they pursued the mission through various organizational structures." She said that the National Audubon Society in the United States is a network of organizations, some of them corporate-owned and others independent or formerly... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

04 May 2021
Blog Post

Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month at HBS

And I continue to be grateful to be part of such a dynamic, complex, colorful community. Aaron Gan – Class of 2021 I grew up in Singapore in a multi-racial and cosmopolitan society where everyone in my generation is bilingual. I did not... View Details

February 2018 (Revised August 2018)
Case

OpenInvest

By: Shawn Cole, Boris Vallée and Nicole Tempest Keller

Founded by a team of hedge fund and NGO alumni, OpenInvest launched its platform in 2015 to enable retail investors to tailor their portfolios to their personal values in an automated way, for instance by screening out weapons manufacturers stocks or overweighting... View Details

Keywords: Fintech; Impact Investing; Investment Portfolio; Customization and Personalization; Technological Innovation; Social Issues; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Model; Financial Services Industry

Web

HBS - The year in Review

exceeding Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) standards. Innovation in Executive Education Executive Education was able... View Details

April 2011 (Revised February 2016)
Case

Jamaica's Anemic Growth: The IMF, China and the Debt(th) Trap

By: Rafael Di Tella and Natalie Kindred

This case describes the economic development problems faced by the small Caribbean-island country of Jamaica over most of the past half-century. The Jamaican economy showed relatively strong growth in the 1960s but stagnated in the 1970s. By the end of that decade,... View Details

Keywords: Government Administration; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; International Finance; Crime and Corruption; Poverty; Private Sector; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Economy; Developing Countries and Economies; Borrowing and Debt; Jamaica

01 Feb 2002
News

It's academic. (Not!)

world are stronger than one might think. "The topic of my thesis is actually very hot in business economics today. I analyzed the effects of large-scale privatization in the ancient corporate world. Roman society was highly privatized -... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

July 2020
Case

Amanda and Kristen: Mented Cosmetics

By: Steven Rogers, Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Alterrell Mills

The co-founders (Black HBS alumnae) of an e-commerce beauty startup explore the unmet needs within the beauty industry. This case study examines the entrepreneurial opportunities that come from identifying an underserved market, specifically within the Black community... View Details

22 Feb 2022
News

New Urban Order

book) is accelerating that trend. “There are substantial public health impacts in wildfire smoke, extreme heat, and the aftermath of flooding,” notes Macomber, who teaches the MBA electives Business Opportunities in Climate Adaptation and Building Sustainable Cities.... View Details

Keywords: Kathleen Fu, Deborah Blagg, Julia Hanna, and Maureen Harmon; illustrations by; energy; environment; sustainability; entrepreneurship; Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation; Transportation; Water, Sewage and Supply Systems; Utilities; Construction of Buildings; Construction; Waste Management and Remediation Services; Corporate Services

February 2000 (Revised December 2000)
Case

Coca-Cola's New Vending Machine (A): Pricing To Capture Value, or Not?

By: Charles King III and Das Narayandas

Chairman and CEO M. Douglas Ivester stumbles when he tells a Brazilian newsmagazine about a new Coke vending machine that can automatically raise prices in hot weather. Reaction around the world is swift and negative. View Details

Keywords: Price; Strategy; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Product Development; Global Range; Public Opinion; Value Creation

Web

Harvard Business School

To...prevent some young people from following the wrong path is quite fulfilling.” Harris received his engineering degree from Purdue University. Inspired by a campus group, he co-founded the National Society of Black Engineers, which now... View Details

Web

Commercialization of the Polarizer - Edwin H. Land & Polaroid | Harvard Business School

Brown, "Protection Through Patents: The Polaroid Story," Journal of the Patent Office Society XLII, no. 7 (July 1960): 452. 21. Edwin H. Land, "Thinking Ahead," Harvard Business Review 37, no. 5 (September-October 1959): 147. 22. Edwin H.... View Details

October 2018 (Revised October 2019)
Case

Arlan Hamilton and Backstage Capital

By: Laura Huang and Sarah Mehta

Frustrated by an inability to convince existing venture capital firms to invest in companies led by women, people of color, and LGBT founders, Arlan Hamilton started her own firm, Backstage Capital, in 2015. Hamilton understood the untapped potential of companies run... View Details

Keywords: Black Leadership; LGBTQ; Women; People Of Color; Entrepreneurship; Mission and Purpose; Venture Capital; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Identity; Personal Characteristics; Prejudice and Bias; Social Issues; Diversity; Gender; Race