Publications

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11 Apr 2011
Lessons from the Classroom

Teaching a ‘Lean Startup’ Strategy

doing that, and waste a lot of money on sales and marketing trying to sell that wrong product," says Tom Eisenmann, a professor in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School.... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Technology; Computer

02 Feb 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Mobile Money: The Effect of Service Quality and Competition on Demand

Keywords: by Karthik Balasubramanian & David F. Drake; Banking

May 2006
Case

Nokia in 2003

By: Paul M. Healy

Examines the challenges facing a money manager who owns stock in Nokia, the leading wireless handset provider. Two analysts covering the stock make very different predictions about the economies of the industry, Nokia's future performance, and stock recommendations.... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Forecasting and Prediction; Performance Effectiveness; Performance Evaluation; Problems and Challenges; Electronics Industry

12 Feb 2021
News

How Dunkin’ Donuts Took Over the World

He recalls this moment in his new book, Around the Corner to Around the World: A Dozen Lessons I Learned Running Dunkin’ Donuts. “Up until that point,” he writes, “the only thing I had managed were a couple of donut shops—replacing View Details

Keywords: brands; leadership; management; strategy; operations; career; Food and Beverage Stores; Retail Trade

August 2018
Case

MISHA: Modernizing the World of Shisha

By: William R. Kerr and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in 2017 with two of the five co-founders of MISHA telling the company’s CEO Michal Portz that they believe it is time for the global venture to shut down its operations and cease investments. Portz and another co-founder believe MISHA can still... View Details

Keywords: Innovation And Management; Entrepreneurship; Private Sector; For-profit Firms; Business Strategy; Decision; Business Startups; Emerging Markets; Business Model; Marketing Strategy; Distribution Channels; Market Entry and Exit; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Value Creation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Technology Industry; Qatar; United States

28 Jan 2019
Research & Ideas

Forget Cash. Here Are Better Ways to Motivate Employees

that money is meaningless to employees. The team’s findings are contingent on the understanding that employees are paid competitive, fair salaries. Because, let’s be honest: If an employee has worked overtime for weeks on an important... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

September 2023
Case

The Meteoric Rise of Skims

By: Ayelet Israeli, Jill Avery and Leonard A. Schlesinger

Since its founding in 2019 by Kim Kardashian and Jens Grede, Skims, a solutions-oriented brand creating the next generation of underwear, loungewear, and shapewear with an eye toward body-type and skin-tone inclusivity, has experienced a meteoric rise. Kardashian, who... View Details

August 1993 (Revised October 1993)
Case

Dimensional Fund Advisors: 1993

By: Jay O. Light

A small California-based money manager is now offering specialty products for institutional investors based upon recent financial research findings. View Details

Keywords: Financial Instruments; Investment; Financial Services Industry; California

05 Oct 2020
Book

Want to Be Happier? Make More Free Time

After earning a doctorate, Ashley Whillans received two tempting job offers: one in her hometown, where she could remain close to family and friends and work reasonable hours for the local government, and another that required a cross-country move and promised more... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

2020
Working Paper

Best Ideas

By: Miguel Antón, Randolph B. Cohen and Christopher Polk

We ﬁnd that the stocks in which active mutual fund or hedge fund managers display the most conviction towards ex-ante, their “Best ideas,” outperform the market, as well as the other stocks in those managers’ portfolios, by approximately 2.8 to 4.5 percent per year,... View Details

Keywords: Mutual Funds; Managerial Skill; Market Efficiency; Investment Funds; Management; Investment Portfolio; Decision Making

Read Now

12 Feb 2007
Lessons from the Classroom

‘UpTick’ Brings Wall Street Pressure to Students

minute—and the decision of whether to ride it out and hope for a recovery or to blink and 'puke their position' (pardon the phrase but it's how actual traders describe it)—to be an extremely harrowing experience," says professor Joshua Coval. And that's the point.... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Financial Services; Education

March 2010 (Revised August 2010)
Case

Creative Capital: Sustaining the Arts

By: G. Felda Hardymon and Ann Leamon

Creative Capital provides grants to individual artists using a venture capital model—the money comes with guidance and governance. Artists receive money as milestones are reached and also receive guidance on managing their lives and business to increase their... View Details

Keywords: Arts; Business Model; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Growth and Development Strategy; Nonprofit Organizations; Financial Services Industry

September 2006
Case

Earthbound Farm

By: William A. Sahlman and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

Describes a set of decisions confronting the senior management of Earthbound Farm, the largest organic produce company in the world. Focuses on what to do with an East Coast distribution center that is losing money but may be useful strategically. View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Distribution; Food; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Management Teams; Capital Budgeting; Business or Company Management; Business Strategy; Corporate Finance; Food and Beverage Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

Find at Harvard

March 2019
Case

Wattpad

By: John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

How to run a platform to match four million writers of stories to 75 million readers? Use data science. Make money by doing deals with television and filmmakers and book publishers. The case describes the challenges of matching readers to stories and of helping writers... View Details

11 Apr 2011
News

Teaching a 'Lean Startup' Strategy

June 1991 (Revised April 1995)
Case

Second Bank of the United States: Banks and Banking Before the Second Bank of the United States

Describes the problems of early banking, early attempts at central banking, achieving a sound uniform currency, and economic growth. Illustrates the problems of developing a sound money economy in a developing country and shows the difficulties of branch management in... View Details

Keywords: Currency; Business History; Central Banking; Communication; Economic Growth; Banking Industry; United States

March 2017 (Revised March 2019)
Case

Ant Financial (A)

By: Feng Zhu, Ying Zhang, Krishna G. Palepu, Anthony K. Woo and Nancy Hua Dai

Headquartered in Hangzhou (China), Ant Financial has grown into a fintech “Unicorn.” The fintech empire that the company established spanned verticals such as mobile and online payment (Alipay), money market fund (Yu’e Bao), wealth management (Ant Fortune),... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Global Strategy; Finance; Opportunities; Financial Services Industry; Technology Industry

Awards

Doing Good with Good O.R. Student Paper Competition

Finalist with Karthik Balasubramanian and Doug Fearing for the 2017 Doing Good with Good O.R. Student Paper Award from the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) for “Inventory Models for Mobile Money Agents in the Developing World.” View Details

December 2006 (Revised March 2008)
Case

Prosper Marketplace, Inc.

By: William A. Sahlman and Elizabeth Kind

Describes a set of financial and strategic decisions confronting the founding management team of a new online financial services company. Prosper Marketplace is an internet-based market for individuals to borrow money from other individuals who wish to invest in such... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Financial Strategy; Innovation and Invention; Management Teams; Financial Services Industry