Publications

Find at Harvard

February 2000 (Revised May 2001)
Case

eBricks.com

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

eBricks.com is developing an online marketplace for construction materials. The start-up company faces two decisions: 1) whether to merge with BluelineOnline.com, a firm providing project management solutions for the construction industry; and 2) whether to develop an... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Marketplace Matching; Decision Choices and Conditions; Business Startups; Construction Industry

21 Mar 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, March 21

largely emphasizes the collective benefits of market creation and overlooks the costs borne by individual evangelists. Through an inductive multiple-case study of five startup competitors, we traced firms’... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

19 Jan 2022
In Practice

7 Trends to Watch in 2022

As 2022 gets underway we asked our faculty to highlight some trends worth watching in the coming year. Ariel Stern: A new future for digital health care While 2020 and 2021 were years of rapid innovation and deployment of new health care technologies and delivery... View Details

Keywords: by HBS News

22 Jun 2021
Research & Ideas

The COVID-19 Mutiny: When Teams Leave and Take Their Clients

pandemic has motivated and facilitated lift outs in two key ways: Market volatility has motivated searches. Market agitation at any level, from firm to industry to global, can motivate people to browse job... View Details

Keywords: by Robin Abrahams, Boris Groysberg, and Steven L. Manchel

October 1987 (Revised October 1998)
Case

CVD, Inc. vs. A.S. Markham Corp. (A)

Describes the legal odyssey of two engineers who left their old employer to start a company that was directly competitive. The issues include employment contracts, technology licenses, antitrust, trade secrets, and confidential information. Provides a good opportunity... View Details

Keywords: Business Strategy; Human Resources; Contracts; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Intellectual Property; Ethics; Legal Liability; Business Startups; Monopoly

15 Aug 2005
HBS Case

Classic Cases Live On at HBS

mistrustful of exotic foods." He also determined that labor cost and availability was the key problem in the U.S. restaurant business and that eliminating the conventional kitchen could address that. From these fundamental... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons

30 Aug 2016
First Look

August 30, 2016

forthcoming Journal of Marketing Research Incentives versus Reciprocity: Insights from a Field Experiment By: Chung, Doug J., and Das Narayandas Abstract—We conduct a field experiment in which we vary the sales force compensation scheme... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

14 Oct 2013
Research & Ideas

Time that Government Reopens for Business

stimulative enough—and they were worried about their reelection prospects. Now you've got a world capital market that is acutely sensitive about what the Fed does. One thing underreported in the media is that when the Fed flooded the US... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner

30 Jul 2014
Lessons from the Classroom

Teaching The Deal

It's best to be nice when negotiating a business deal, but it's also OK to be aggressive in pursuing your interests—as long as you back up your position with facts. "If you're a seller and your price seems high, but it's justified in some way, with View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Education

May 2024 (Revised May 2024)
Case

Choosing the Course of Passion: Brooke Boyarsky Pratt at knownwell

By: Jon M. Jachimowicz and Alexis Lefort

Brooke Boyarsky Pratt (HBS ’13) enjoyed considerable success in her early career, quickly climbing the ranks to associate partner at McKinsey, and later becoming an executive vice president at Berkadia, a Berkshire Hathaway portfolio company. Throughout these years,... View Details

Keywords: Passion; Career; Career Planning; Purpose; Personal Development and Career; Mission and Purpose; Identity; Business Startups; Health Care and Treatment; Health Disorders; Growth and Development Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Health Industry; United States

03 May 2011
First Look

First Look: May 3

Business Review 89, no. 5 (May 2011) Abstract Although there's ample research to guide marketers in naming new products, little of it has addressed follow-on offerings, even though these make up the bulk of new products in many... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

21 Jul 2009
First Look

First Look: July 21

farm that produced olives, including Kalamata table olives. Alexandra had invested in the expansion of her farm in anticipation of the evolution of her market from domestic trade in Australia to international export. There was, however, a... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

05 Aug 2015
What Do You Think?

What Happened to the ‘Innovation, Disruption, Technology’ Dividend?

even brighter future. Others predict that "disruption," perhaps the most overworked term in business English today, will foster competition, make long-term strategic planning a questionable management activity, and bring new ideas to View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Computer; Technology

06 Sep 2016
First Look

September 6, 2016

negotiator who wants to be fair from the start ensure that his or her counterpart will be reasonable as well? The authors propose the final-offer arbitration challenge, which leverages an approach first applied in labor negotiations in... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

February 2017
Case

BlaBlaCar: The Road Ahead...

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Arun Sundararajan, Emilie Billaud and Caroline Caltagirone

In 2017, the co-founders of BlaBlaCar—the world’s largest long-distance carpooling company—reflected on the evolution of their venture and the way forward. BlaBlaCar had reached critical mass and size; yet staying still was not going to be enough to be relevant and... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Transformation; Decision Making; Values and Beliefs; Growth and Development Strategy; Digital Platforms; Network Effects; Strategic Planning; Competitive Strategy; Expansion; Internet and the Web; Transportation Networks; Transportation Industry; Web Services Industry; France; Europe

February 2013
Case

18 Months in a Startup: Zaggora.com

By: Tom Nicholas

The founders of Zaggora reflected back on a tumultuous year-and-a-half in which they had generated, from just $40,000 in personal savings, a multi-million dollar sportswear enterprise selling Hotpants to women. These were hotpants not of the 1960s hipster variety, but... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Growth Management; Problems and Challenges; Business Startups; Brands and Branding; Innovation and Invention; Corporate Finance; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Sports Industry