Publications

2012
Working Paper

Clear and Present Danger: Planning and New Venture Survival Amid Political and Civil Violence

By: Shon Hiatt and Wesley Sine

Although entrepreneurs constitute a key economic driving force for many emerging economies, they often face unstable environments due to the failure of governments to maintain civil and political order. Yet, we know very little about how environments characterized by... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Developing Countries and Economies; Government and Politics; Crime and Corruption; Balance and Stability; Strategic Planning

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February 2009 (Revised March 2013)
Case

Shanghai Diligence Law Firm (A)

By: Robert G. Eccles and Catherine Zhang

Shanghai Diligence Law Firm, started in January 2006, is a rapidly growing law firm in China's burgeoning legal services market. In addition to the usual challenges facing all professional service firms (picking and retaining talent and building a desired client... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Compensation and Benefits; Retention; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Operations; Motivation and Incentives; Legal Services Industry; China

September 2019 (Revised May 2020)
Supplement

Keroche (E): Considering Additional Capacity

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Pippa Tubman Armerding

This case describes Keroche’s growth after entering the beer business in 2008. Although the company was operating at full capacity and not able to fulfill all of its orders, Tabitha Karanja had set a goal of growing Keroche’s share of the Kenyan beer market from... View Details

January 2005 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Stonewall Kitchen

By: Myra M. Hart, Victoria Winston, Kristin Lieb, Kenna Wyllie Baudin, Alison Bell and Leslie Simmons

Jonathan King and Jim Stott, the founders of Stonewall Kitchen, started out in 1992 with a simple business selling jams and jellies at local farmers' markets. By 2004, they had grown the company into a $25 million organization with 250 employees. They expanded their... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Food; Expansion; Business Growth and Maturation; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

July 2000
Case

Dawn Riley at America True (E)

By: Linda A. Hill and Kristin Doughty

Supplements the (C) and (C1) cases. View Details

Keywords: Management Style; Leadership; Groups and Teams; Decision Making; Organizational Culture; Problems and Challenges; Gender; Management Teams; Sports; Business Startups; New Zealand; North and Central America

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July 2000
Case

Dawn Riley at America True (D)

By: Linda A. Hill and Kristin Doughty

Supplements the (C) and (C1) cases. View Details

Keywords: Management Style; Leadership; Groups and Teams; Decision Making; Organizational Culture; Problems and Challenges; Gender; Management Teams; Sports; Business Startups; New Zealand; North and Central America

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November 1997 (Revised December 1999)
Case

Cinemex

By: James L. Heskett

The founders of Cinemex, the largest capitalized venture start-up in Mexican history, are debating several issues concerning the operations of their new chain of motion picture theatres in Mexico City. The first concerns whether some seats should be left unsold to... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Service Operations; Debates; Venture Capital; Customer Satisfaction; Advertising; Investment; Theater Entertainment; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Mexico City

04 Mar 2002
What Do You Think?

Why the Bull Market in Leadership Books?

... leadership of (especially people) assets." The timing of this "bull market," Chris Wolfington writes, may be accounted for by "the wave of managers who were hired at fast growing startups into leadership positions... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

15 Mar 2016
First Look

March 15, 2016

https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/116019-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 515-089 Instacart and the New Wave of Grocery Startups Instacart is testing an Uber-style solution to the challenge of building a home-delivered grocery... View Details

25 Jun 2014
Lessons from the Classroom

FIELD Trip: Conquering the Gap Between Knowing and Doing

same time that FIELD faculty has dealt with the challenges of sending 900 students to 14 different countries and registering 150 startups in Delaware, they've tweaked the design of the course over the past three years. Originally,... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Education

January 2024
Supplement

Frank Cornelissen: The Great Sulfite Debate (B)

By: Tiona Zuzul and Susan Pinckney

In 2018, artisanal Italian vineyard Frank Cornelissen was one of the world’s leading natural wine vineyards. Its founder, Frank Cornelissen, faced weather related conditions that forced him to have to decide between staying true to the tenets of the natural wine... View Details

April 2020
Case

Ment.io: Knowledge Analytics for Team Decision Making

By: Yael Grushka-Cockayne, Jeffrey T. Polzer, Susie L. Ma and Shlomi Pasternak

Ment.io was a software platform that used proprietary data analytics technology to help organizations make informed and transparent decisions based on team input. Ment was born out of founder Joab Rosenberg’s frustration that, while organizations collected ever... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Information Technology; Knowledge; Knowledge Acquisition; Knowledge Management; Operations; Information Management; Product; Product Development; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Communications Industry; Information Industry; Information Technology Industry; Web Services Industry; Middle East; Israel

January 2011
Case

Serious Materials

By: Thomas J. Steenburgh and Elizabeth A. Kind

Serious Materials is a start up who is moving into clean tech markets. The company's first product, QuietRock, originated the sound proofing drywall category and created a steady stream of revenue. It was now considering how to expand its product line to compete in the... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Market Entry and Exit; Green Technology Industry

May 2008 (Revised August 2009)
Case

Intel NBI: MXP Digital Media Processor

By: Willy C. Shih and Thomas Thurston

"Gila" was a high-performance image processor project housed in Intel's New Business Initiatives (NBI) group. NBI was an incubator for corporate entrepreneurs, and it had an established methodology for ensuring a degree of autonomy while these ventures got started. But... View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Change Management; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Integration; Semiconductor Industry; United States

Article

Policy Implications of Weak Patent Rights

By: James J. Anton, Hillary Greene and Dennis Yao

Patents vary substantially in the degree of protection provided against unauthorized imitation. In this chapter we explore a range of work addressing the economic and policy implications of "weak" patents—patents that have a significant probability of being overturned... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Motivation and Incentives; Entrepreneurship; Competition; Policy; Innovation and Invention; Rights; Monopoly; Business Startups

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February 2000 (Revised May 2001)
Case

BET.com

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Pauline M Fischer

Black Entertainment Television, a leading cable programmer, is launching BET.com, an Internet portal targeted toward African-Americans. This case examines the challenges facing BET management as it defines its service offerings and target customer segments in a... View Details

Keywords: Product Positioning; Ethnicity; Internet and the Web; Age; Race; Decision Choices and Conditions; Business Startups; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States