Publications

October 2020
Case

Michael Phelps: 'It's Okay to Not Be Okay'

By: Boris Groysberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Michael Norris

In 2020, Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, with 28 medals in various swimming events, was now retired. As he looked back on his 20+ year athletic career, he considered what had gone into making him the greatest of all time—the highs and lows,... View Details

Keywords: Mental Health; Talent and Talent Management; Training; Health; Success; Performance Improvement; Personal Development and Career; Family and Family Relationships; Sports; Competition; Sports Industry; United States; Baltimore; Arizona; Sydney; Athens; Beijing; London

07 Jul 2020
Working Paper Summaries

COVID-19 and the Workplace: Implications, Issues, and Insights for Future Research and Action

Keywords: by Ashley Whillans and 28 coauthors; Health; Retail

01 Feb 2021
News

How the COVID-19 pandemic can be the push forward that the planet needs

Web

Faculty & Advisors | MBA

Technology Chris leads MPM Capital’s public market investing as portfolio manager for BioImpact Equities (formerly known as Burrage Capital) and the Oncology Impact Funds. Previously, Chris was a health care analyst at Fidelity... View Details

February 2002
Case

NeuroTherapy Ventures: Catalyzing Neurologic Innovations

Discusses the impact of limited market size on epilepsy therapies and shows how an early-stage venture fund can catalyze faster development of new treatments. View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Commercialization; Innovation and Management; Business Startups; Pharmaceutical Industry

June 1991 (Revised March 1995)
Background Note

Coming of the Railroads

Makes possible a discussion of the growth of the railroads in the nineteenth century and the impact of that growth on the American economy. View Details

Keywords: Rail Transportation; Macroeconomics; Rail Industry; United States

December 2020 (Revised June 2021)
Case

France Télécom (A): A Challenging Restructuring

By: Cynthia A. Montgomery and Ashley V. Whillans

These cases explore the impacts of industry shocks, resulting corporate actions that had a devastating impact on employees, and the legal conviction of corporate leaders for “institutional harassment."

This case series follows the evolution of France... View Details

April 2021
Supplement

Buy Online, Pickup in Store: CEO Supplement

By: Antonio Moreno, Santiago Gallino and Amy Klopfenstein

In April 2019, Sylvarella CEO Sylvia Coparella must assess the impact of the company’s Buy Online, Pickup in Store (BOPS) program on her company’s overall sales. To do so, she must review analyses of both e-commerce and brick-and-mortar sales data and compare the... View Details

Keywords: Operations; Service Delivery; Logistics; Infrastructure; Distribution Channels; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Analysis; Retail Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United States; Canada

2017
Article

Handgun Waiting Periods Reduce Gun Deaths

By: Michael Luca, Deepak Malhotra and Christopher Poliquin

Handgun waiting periods are laws that impose a delay between the initiation of a purchase and final acquisition of a firearm. We show that waiting periods, which create a “cooling off” period among buyers, significantly reduce the incidence of gun violence. We estimate... View Details

Keywords: Gun Policy; Gun Violence; Waiting Period; Injury Prevention; Policy; Safety; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; United States

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September 2011
Case

AXA Private Equity: The Diana Investment

By: Michael J. Roberts and William A. Sahlman

The case focuses on an investment made by AXA Private Equity, a French manufacturer of food ingredients. The investment is made at the height of the financial markets, and financed with significant debt. Soon thereafter, the financial crisis impacted the company's... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Ethics; Investment; Financial Crisis

2007
Working Paper

How Is Foreign Aid Spent? Evidence from a Natural Experiment

By: Eric D. Werker, Faisal Z. Ahmed and Charles Cohen

We use oil price fluctuations to construct a new instrument to test the impact of transfers from wealthy OPEC nations to their poorer Muslim allies. The instrument identifies plausibly exogenous variation in foreign aid. We investigate how aid is spent by tracking its... View Details

Keywords: International Finance; Energy Sources; Energy Industry; Asia

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September 1991 (Revised September 2010)
Case

Dore-Dore

By: Janice H. Hammond and Audris Wong

Dore-Dore, a French manufacturer of socks and children's knitwear, has just converted a portion of its knitwear operations to a flexible modular system to allow faster response and greater flexibility. The case provides an opportunity to assess the changes in knitwear... View Details

Keywords: Order Taking and Fulfillment; Logistics; Production; Performance Productivity; Apparel and Accessories Industry; France

Article

Friends or Foes? Examining Platform Owners' Entry into Complementors' Spaces

By: Feng Zhu

As platform owners continue to expand their ecosystems, many of them have started to provide consumers with their own complementary applications. These moves position the platform owners as direct competitors to their complementors. This paper surveys empirical studies... View Details

Keywords: Platform; Complementors; Digital Platforms; Market Entry and Exit; Competition

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02 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

Managing the Open Source vs. Proprietary Decision

Editor's note: In their new book, The Comingled Code: Open Source and Economic Development, HBS professor Josh Lerner and London School of Economics professor Mark Schankerman look at the impact of open source software on economic... View Details

Keywords: by Josh Lerner & Mark Schankerman; Technology

Program

The Women's Leadership Forum

success. Key Benefits Offering exceptional opportunities for feedback, networking, and learning from peers, this program will help you lead with lasting impact and build strategic advantage for your company. Equipped with new... View Details

31 Jan 2020
Video

Blavatnik Fellow Rich Horgan is Advocating Promising Treatments for Rare Diseases

10 AM – 11 AM EDT, 22 Oct 2015
Webinars: Trending@HBS

Collective Impact: An Innovative Approach to Improving Public Education

In this webinar, Professor Grossman will describe an innovative approach to improving public education Collective Impact and how you can get involved to help transform public education in the communities you care about. View Details

November 2016 (Revised April 2018)
Case

reMarkable: e-Writing the Future

By: Elie Ofek and Curtis Hsu

Magnus Wanberg is the creator of reMarkable, a breakthrough e-writer device set apart from similar products on the market by having solved the frustrating “slow ink” problem typically experienced on pen-based electronic devices, thus providing a “pen and paper” like... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Marketing; Innovation Management; Go To Market Strategy; Marketing Plan; Target Market; Digital Devices; Consumer Electronics; Forecasting; Information Technology; Marketing Strategy; Innovation and Management; Marketing Channels; Entrepreneurship; Forecasting and Prediction; Product Marketing; Product Development; Electronics Industry