Publications

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October 2007 (Revised April 2009)
Case

TH!NK: The Norwegian Electric Car Company

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and David Kiron

On August 1, 2007, 61-year-old Jan-Olaf Willums' plane was flying along the Greenland coastline on his way back to Norway after intense discussions with several prominent U.S. venture capital investors, among them Kleiner Perkins and Rockport Capital Partners, about... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Innovation and Invention; Product Launch; Market Entry and Exit; Environmental Sustainability; Pollutants; Auto Industry; Green Technology Industry; Europe; Norway

14 Aug 2014
Working Paper Summaries

The State of Small Business Lending: Credit Access During the Recovery and How Technology May Change the Game

Keywords: by Karen Mills & Brayden McCarthy; Banking; Financial Services

30 Jan 2018
Blog Post

HBS Global Opportunity Fellowship: Making a Difference in Africa

manufacturing client with a senior corporate relationship manager. We drove through a dusty, potholed two-lane road and it took us the better part of the afternoon to make... View Details

06 Sep 2022
Blog Post

To Go-Go: A Foodtech Startup Serves Up Scale in Latin America

For all their variety, restaurants have two things in common: a kitchen where food is prepared and a dining area where customers consume it. But what if you could use technology to ditch View Details

September 2012 (Revised September 2012)
Case

Inkaterra

By: Diego Comin, Rohan Gopaldas and Diego Rehder

The case presents the unique business model of Inkaterra, a leading eco-tourism organization in Peru, and the different strategies the company can pursue to grow. Through the experience of Inkaterra the case studies two general issues. First, it discusses the potential... View Details

Keywords: Inkaterra; Ecotourism; Tourism; Environment; Peru; Informal Sector; Regulation; Economic Development; Bottom Of The Pyramid; Technology Diffusion; Competitiveness; Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; Natural Environment; Market Entry and Exit; Conflict Management; Tourism Industry; Peru

01 Jun 2014
News

FIELD 2 in Accra

important information." Learning by Doing Introduced in 2011, FIELD 2 is a transformative experience in learning that sends all 900-plus first-year MBA students across the... View Details

Keywords: FIELD program; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Information

19 Jan 2017
News

Finding Purpose in Profit

been cast in earlier, better times. “My parents were very hard-working, ethical people who instilled in us a sense of duty to country, family, and community,” says Coupounas.... View Details

Keywords: Robert S. Benchley; B corporations

01 Mar 2013
News

A Mission in Motion

Antares cofounder and HBS senior lecturer Michael Chu, who is using his experience as a microfinance pioneer to harness markets to create better public health outcomes. When he stepped down as chair of SEI's... View Details

Keywords: summary

November 2017
Case

The Digital Factory – Siemens: Electronic Works Amberg

By: Rajiv Lal and Scott F. Johnson

The Electronic Works Amberg (EWA) was Siemens' most advanced factory. The plant built industrial automation equipment using state-of-the-art manufacturing techniques. Siemens was considering creating a consulting business for its manufacturing clients. Given the EWA's... View Details

Keywords: Siemens; Internet Of Things; Industrie 4.0; Manufacturing; Consulting; Digital Factory; Ewa; Amberg; Electronic Works Amberg; Information Technology; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Applications and Software; Internet and the Web; Production; Manufacturing Industry; Industrial Products Industry; Technology Industry; Germany

Research Summary

Overview

When information is digitized, it can be aggregated and shared nearly instantly. I am interested in how this acceleration in the aggregation and availability of information, via digitization, affects firms and firm strategy. Platforms have emerged as marketplaces for... View Details

19 Feb 2019
News

Unlocking the Customer Value Chain

21 Mar 2004
Research & Ideas

Loyalty: Don’t Give Away the Store

written by Lal with HBS colleague David Bell, was published in Quantitative Marketing and Economics last June. Lal discusses his findings with Manda Salls. Salls: Frequent shopper programs have become part... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls; Consumer Products; Retail

13 Aug 2007
Research & Ideas

The Dark Side of Trust

Oberholzer-Gee saw in TrapGuard, being marketed for the first time to plumbers in Philadelphia, an interesting way to better understand View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Service

05 Feb 2014
News

The Super Bowl Revisited

2001
Working Paper

Airbus vs. Boeing in Superjumbos: Credibility and Preemption

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Pankaj Ghemawat

In December 2000, Airbus formally committed to spend $12 billion to develop and launch a 555-seat superjumbo plane known as the A380. Prior to and after Airbus’ commitment, Boeing started and canceled several initiatives aimed at developing a “stretch jumbo” with... View Details

Keywords: Air Transportation; Product Development; Market Entry and Exit; Valuation; Game Theory

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23 Feb 2009
Research & Ideas

Creative Entrepreneurship in a Downturn

formation, and innovation. He is also a partner of the international management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, where he is a leader of its Innovation practice. Chakravorti has advised over 30 Fortune 500 companies on innovation,... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

October 2023 (Revised December 2023)
Case

Compound: Lending on the Blockchain

By: Marco Di Maggio, George Gonzalez and Richard Dulude

This case critically examines Compound, an innovative decentralized finance (DeFi) platform. Focusing on Compound’s blockchain-based borrowing and lending protocol, the case explores its automated, intermediary-free system using Ethereum smart contracts. This system... View Details

Keywords: Blockchain; Cryptocurrency; Disruptive Innovation; Borrowing and Debt; Financing and Loans; Organizational Design; Technological Innovation

Article

The Functional Alibi

By: Anat Keinan, Ran Kivetz and Oded Netzer

Spending money on hedonic luxuries often seems wasteful, irrational, and even immoral. We propose that adding a small utilitarian feature to a luxury product can serve as a functional alibi, justifying the indulgent purchase and reducing indulgence guilt. We... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Product Marketing