Publications

September 2012
Case

Castronics, LLC

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Patrick Dickinson (HBS '09) and Michael Weiner (MIT's Sloan '07) acquired Castronics, a firm that specialized in threading pipe used in the oil and natural gas industry, at the end of 2009. The partners overcame significant hurdles during the first two years of... View Details

Keywords: Small Business; Search Funds; Corporate Finance; Entrepreneurship; Financial Management; Energy Industry; Western United States

Research Summary

Overview

My research is at the intersection of organizational strategy, global sustainability governance, and social change. It explores the diffusion of sustainability standards to non-traditional sectors (e.g. jewelry, cannabis, plastics, pets) and the relationship between... View Details

12 Apr 2023
News

Step Change

across the e-commerce, health care, transportation, edtech, and fintech sectors. Ayman Ismail, assistant professor of entrepreneurship and founding director of the American University in Cairo's (AUC) Venture Lab, pegs the earliest... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; entrepreneurship; women; venture capital; Egypt; developing economies; Finance

2019
Chapter

Interorganizational Collaboration and Start-Up Innovation

By: Vikas A. Aggarwal and Andy Wu

This chapter presents an overview of the literature on collaborative relationships between start-ups and incumbent firms, focusing on the implications of these relationships for start-up innovation and performance. Value creation in such relationships occurs when... View Details

Keywords: Alliance; Corporate Venture Capital; Complementary Assets; Appropriability; Business Startups; Joint Ventures; Knowledge; Innovation and Invention; Value Creation; Entrepreneurship

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August 2013
Case

Pixability: Bettina's Board Walk

By: Noam Wasserman and Yael Braid

Description: Bettina Hein, founder-CEO of Pixability, is meeting with her board of directors to discuss her startup's fundraising prospects and the recent strategic pivot. Though Bettina loves the entrepreneurial exhilaration of "riding a rollercoaster every day,"... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Board Of Directors; Power And Influence; Entrepreneurship; Negotiation

January 9, 2023
Editorial

The Pursuit of Profit with Purpose Requires Patience

By: George Serafeim

Keywords: Corporate Purpose; Purpose; Purpose Of Business Schools; Entrepreneur; Mission and Purpose; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Profit; Entrepreneurship

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01 Jun 2023
News

Action Plan: Net Proceeds

“I’m a root-cause kind of guy,” says Robert Goodwin (GMP 3, 2007), reflecting on a military, government, and civilian career that has taken him from counterdrug operations in Colombia to assisting with the peace process in Sudan to rebuilding the health care system in... View Details

Keywords: April White; recycling; corporate social responsibility; waste management; water; Corporate Services; Corporate Services

March 2021
Case

Dasra: From Strategic Philanthropy to Field Building

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Tanya Bijlani

Dasra, a pioneer in the Indian Strategic Philanthropy space founded by a husband and wife team, had grown and evolved with the fast changing philanthropy scene in India. By 2017 it had managed to raise nearly $100 million of new capital for NGOs and Nonprofits in... View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy; Impact Investing; Corporate Social Responsibility; Social Sector; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Entrepreneurship; Strategy; India

March 2020
Technical Note

Intrapreneurship: Leading Innovation Efforts in Established Organizations

By: Karen G. Mills and Annie Dang

“Intrapreneurship” is the use of entrepreneurial management techniques within established companies to create new environments that foster innovation. Mature firms have consistently faced risk of elimination from competitors, shifting consumer preferences, and... View Details

Keywords: Intrapreneurship; Innovation; Corporate Venture Capital; Accelerators; Incubators; Lean Startup; Hypothesis Testing; Business Ventures; Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention; Leadership; Framework; Disruption

01 Mar 2023
News

Step Change

care, transportation, edtech, and fintech sectors. Ayman Ismail, assistant professor of entrepreneurship and founding director of the American University in Cairo’s (AUC) Venture Lab, pegs the earliest movements of Egypt’s venture capital... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; photographed by Abdelrahman Gabr – Koree; entrepreneurship; women; venture capital; Egypt; developing economies; Finance

January 2017 (Revised March 2018)
Case

United Housing—Otis Gates

By: Steven Rogers and Mercer Cook

Otis Gates, the only African-American in his HBS graduating class, is an entrepreneur from greater Boston area and has built a successful affordable housing firm. Along the way, he and his partners have contributed countless hours of community service to the... View Details

Keywords: Affordable Housing; Real Estate; Community Engagement; Social-good; Request For Proposal; Diversity; Entrepreneurship; Social Entrepreneurship; Moral Sensibility; Fairness; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Housing; Business and Community Relations; Real Estate Industry

22 Feb 2022
News

New Urban Order

By 2050, nearly 70 percent of the world’s population will live in cities, according to a 2018 UN report, up from 55 percent today. That means making room for and creating the infrastructure for another 2.5 billion people to live, work, move, and consume. Meanwhile, the... View Details

Keywords: Kathleen Fu, Deborah Blagg, Julia Hanna, and Maureen Harmon; illustrations by; energy; environment; sustainability; entrepreneurship; Corporate Services; Corporate Services; Corporate Services; Corporate Services; Corporate Services; Corporate Services; Corporate Services; Corporate Services

January 2015 (Revised November 2016)
Case

Stella McCartney

By: Anat Keinan and Sandrine Crener

Stella McCartney launched her own fashion house under her name in a partnership with the luxury conglomerate Kering as a 50/50 joint venture in 2001. A lifelong vegetarian, Stella McCartney does not use any leather or fur in her collections, which include women's... View Details

01 Jun 2005
News

School’s Entrepreneurial Spirit Runs Deep

Contrary to popular perception, Harvard Business School isn’t just a training ground for future Fortune 500 CEOs, says author Jeffrey L. Cruikshank (PMD 51, 1986). Just as important, it’s a launching pad for thousands of graduates who bypass the View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley; Shaping the Waves; A History of Entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

Brian L. Trelstad

Brian Trelstad is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School in the General Management Unit and the Faculty Chair of the Advanced Leadership Initiative. He teaches elective courses on Social Entrepreneurship and Systems... View Details

Keywords: education industry; health care; service industry; emerging market private equity; private equity (other); venture capital industry

January 2009
Article

Planning a Start-Up? Seize the Day...Then Expect to Work All Night

By: Noam Wasserman

If you dream of starting your own business, it's better to leave the corporate nest sooner than later, before you get too comfortable with the big-company amenities every start-up lacks. Get going before you're 40 - or even earlier, if you want to make entrepreneurship... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Age; Entrepreneurship; Personal Development and Career

Find at Harvard

Shai Bernstein is the Marvin Bower Associate Professor in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School and a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) in both the Corporate Finance group and the Productivity,... View Details

March 2021 (Revised December 2021)
Case

Cedar Environmental: Innovation vs. Corruption in Lebanon?

By: Nien-hê Hsieh and Youssef Abdel Aal

The case follows Ziad Abi Chaker, founder and CEO of Cedar Environmental, as he weighs options for how to grow the company in the face of growing economic and political instability in Lebanon in 2019.

Founded after the Lebanese civil war, Cedar... View Details