small businesses - Publications - Faculty & Research

15 Oct 2024
Research & Ideas

We Have Better Ways to Break Habits Than Willpower. Why Don't We Use Them?

doing so may expose a weakness: a lack of self-control that would make others judge them harshly, says Harvard Business School Associate Professor Julian Zlatev in a recent paper published in the Journal of Personality and Social... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

18 Feb 2013
Research & Ideas

Breaking Through a Growth Stall

Starting a successful business is often considered the hardest thing entrepreneurs do—but growing an existing venture may be even more difficult. Many companies get stuck on a plateau that inhibits their ability to grow: a scale stopper.... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

31 Oct 2004
What Do You Think?

Should the Wisdom of Crowds Influence Our Thinking About Leadership?

continuum according to the situation." Do you agree? Does unleashing the "wisdom of crowds" work well in situations where rapid-fire decision-making is called for? Or is it a luxury available only when the pace of the organization's View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

05 Jan 2010
First Look

First Look: January 5

graduate from HBS in Spring 2009. He must decide whether to join his father's company, Toronto-based AME Learning, as president working alongside his father who will be CEO. AME has been in business for 12 years, mostly as a View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

23 May 2011
Op-Ed

Leading and Lagging Countries in Contributing to a Sustainable Society

Editor's note: Please see related story, Corporate Sustainability Reporting: It's Effective. To what extent companies contribute to a sustainable society is a question increasingly important, not only to the companies themselves, but also to investors, the countries... View Details

Keywords: by Robert G. Eccles & George Serafeim

13 Feb 2006
Research & Ideas

The Hidden Market for Babies

"It is difficult to conceive of a child as commerce," writes Harvard Business School professor Debora L. Spar in her new book, The Baby Business: How Money, Science, and Politics Drive the Commerce of Conception. In fact, baby... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls; Biotechnology; Health; Technology

31 Jan 2017
Research & Ideas

The Dow at 20,000: What's That All About?

It took more than a century for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which tracks thirty selected blue chip stocks, to hit 20,000, but it finally happened last Wednesday – a milestone marked by banner headlines and happy investors. In a recent conversation in his Morgan... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner

14 Jun 2004
Research & Ideas

The Big Money for Big Projects

There is nothing small about the research practiced by Harvard Business School professor Benjamin Esty. He studies the financing of some of the largest projects in the world: the Eurotunnel, Hong Kong... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen; Financial Services

06 Sep 2022
Research & Ideas

Curbing an Unlikely Culprit of Rising Drug Prices: Pharmaceutical Donations

ripple through the balance sheets of businesses and households alike. Indeed, after years of debate, Congress recently took aim at drug prices through provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act. But there are many systemic factors leading... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Insurance; Health; Pharmaceutical

02 Jan 2018
Op-Ed

'Dear Working Knowledge'--Our Favorite Reader Comments of the Year

They are often born of deep business experience, delivered with great style, wit, and humor. Here are some of our favorite comments in 2017. Some have been edited for clarity. Want to be Happier? Spend Some Money Avoiding Household Chores... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

10 Sep 2013
First Look

First Look: September 10

particular, supportive incumbent industrial structures for input and output markets are strongly linked to higher establishment entry rates. We also find substantial evidence for the Chinitz effect where small local incumbent suppliers... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

26 May 2015
Research & Ideas

Corporate Field Researchers Share Tricks of the Trade

world. Among economic scholars, field research often takes place within the walls of corporations, non-profits, small businesses, or government entities. Ideally, these organizations eventually can apply the findings of the research to... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

15 Aug 2005
Research & Ideas

The Founding CEO’s Dilemma: Stay or Go?

Noam Wasserman is an assistant professor and MBA Class of 1961 Fellow in the entrepreneurial management unit at Harvard Business School. His paper "Founder-CEO Succession and the Paradox of Entrepreneurial Success," published in... View Details

10 Nov 2003
Research & Ideas

A Fast Start on Your New Job

relationships to sustain them. Transitions also are times when small differences in a new leader's actions can have disproportionate impacts on results. Everyone is straining to take the leader's measure and people are forming opinions... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

21 Apr 2020
Research & Ideas

7 Successful Battle Strategies to Beat COVID-19

Drawing on lessons from the battlefield is common practice for business leaders seeking tested strategies to succeed against adversity. Today, the battle against COVID-19, an invisible enemy, feels to many observers like a military... View Details

Keywords: by Euvin Naidoo

04 Nov 2014
First Look

First Look: November 4

Inkpen Abstract—The globalization of state-owned multinational companies (SOMNCs) has become an important phenomenon in international business (IB), yet it has received scant attention in the literature. We explain how the analysis of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

13 Feb 2013
Research & Ideas

5 Weight Loss Tips From Behavioral Economists

Business scholars increasingly hinge their hypotheses on sociological and psychological studies, seeking a true handle on what motivates executives, employees, consumers, and policymakers. For instance, the following studies suggest... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

14 Apr 2008
Research & Ideas

The Surprising Right Fit for Software Testing

If there is one job that many software analysts and programmers cannot stand, it is testing software on the path to launch. The grinding concentration and repetitive nature of the tasks serve to drive many techies around the bend. Testing—due in no View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Video Game; Web Services; Computer

28 May 2013
Research & Ideas

Can LEGO Snap Together a Future in Asia?

a factory in a low-cost location in Asia? Such a move over the next five to seven years would be full of risk, especially considering LEGO has had a checkered history of expansion—one such effort almost led to bankruptcy. So Harvard View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Entertainment & Recreation

19 Dec 2014
Research & Ideas

China’s Complicated Relationship With Mother Nature

Despite its name, the Great Wall of China began as a series of smaller, isolated defensive fortifications. Those structures grew and were later unified into the imposing structure that exists today. The Great Wall is a great metaphor for the Chinese economy. By... View Details

Keywords: Re: William C. Kirby; Manufacturing

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