Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(6,877)
- Faculty Publications (1,037)
- 2021
- Working Paper
Being the Boss: Gig Workers' Value of Flexible Work
By: Laura Katsnelson and Felix Oberholzer-Gee
Workers who join the gig economy face a challenging trade-off. Gig work provides worktime flexibility and a sense of being one’s own boss, but gig workers forgo certain protections that employees enjoy. In this paper, we study the work patterns of a large sample of... View Details
- May 13, 2021
- Article
How to Lead in the Stakeholder Era
By: Hubert Joly
The world is clearly facing multifaceted crises: a health crisis, an economic crisis, a societal crisis, a racial crisis, an environmental crisis, and rising geopolitical tensions. In the face of these challenges, there is a growing realization that business and... View Details
- 2021
- Book
The Heart of Business—Leadership Principles for the Next Era of Capitalism
By: Hubert Joly and Caroline Lambert
A remarkable turnaround by a leader with a remarkable philosophy: Find your noble purpose. Put people at the center. Unleash human magic.
"It was fall in Minnesota. It was getting cold and we were supposed to die." This is how Hubert Joly describes the early,... View Details
"It was fall in Minnesota. It was getting cold and we were supposed to die." This is how Hubert Joly describes the early,... View Details
- April 22, 2021
- Article
Shareholders Are Pressing for Climate Risk Disclosures. That's Good for Everyone
By: Caroline Flammer, Michael W. Toffel and Kala Viswanathan
Does shareholder activism induce firms to voluntarily disclose climate change risks? And how do markets respond to these disclosures? New research finds that the extent of climate-risk disclosure increases by approximately 4.6% for each environment-related proposal... View Details
- April 2021
- Case
Glass-Shattering Leaders: Barbara Hackman Franklin
By: Boris Groysberg and Colleen Ammerman
Barbara Hackman Franklin was one of the first women to earn an MBA from Harvard Business School. She went on to break barriers in the private and public sectors, rising to leadership positions in business and government. In the 1970s, she led a successful White House... View Details
- April 2021 (Revised January 2022)
- Case
SA Taxi: A Vehicle for Empowerment? (A)
By: Nien-he Hsieh, Dilyana Karadzhova Botha and F. Christopher Eaglin
SA Taxi was a vertically integrated business that operated in South Africa’s distinctive taxi industry. Despite being plagued by violence, informal structures, unsafe road practices and lack of government support, the taxi industry had grown to become South Africa’s... View Details
- April 2021 (Revised January 2022)
- Supplement
SA Taxi: A Vehicle for Empowerment? (B)
By: Nien-he Hsieh, Dilyana Karadzhova Botha and F. Christopher Eaglin
SA Taxi was a vertically integrated business that operated in South Africa’s distinctive taxi industry. Despite being plagued by violence, informal structures, unsafe road practices and lack of government support, the taxi industry had grown to become South Africa’s... View Details
- March 2021 (Revised February 2025)
- Teaching Note
Afterpay U.S.: The Omnichannel Dilemma
By: Antonio Moreno and Anibha Singh
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 519-086. In 2018, Nick Molnar, the founder of the Australia-based online payment service Afterpay began its expansion to the U.S. market. The service had gained a loyal following in Australia by enabling customers to pay for online... View Details
Keywords: Omnichannel Retail; Digital Marketing; Business Startups; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Change Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Customer Relationship Management; Customer Satisfaction; Financing and Loans; Microfinance; Global Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Digital Platforms; Product Development; Supply Chain Management; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Networks; Network Effects; Internet and the Web; Financial Services Industry; Technology Industry; United States; Australia
- March 2021 (Revised August 2022)
- Case
Seeding and Selling Asana
By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Susie Ma and Amram Migdal
In December 2019, Oliver Jay, Asana’s Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), was reconsidering his go-to-market (GTM) strategy. Asana was cloud-based work management software that enabled users to break up projects into discrete tasks that could be assigned, scheduled, and... View Details
Keywords: SaaS; Customer Journey; Business Model; Business Organization; Change Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Marketing Channels; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Technology Industry; United States
- March 2021 (Revised July 2021)
- Case
Resident
By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Thomas O. Jones
Launched in 2016, Resident was a leading player in the direct-to-consumer bed-in-a-box mattress market, where it was one of at least 175 venture-backed companies competing in the space. By late 2020, it had realized over $500 million in revenue, profitability in the... View Details
- February 2021 (Revised April 2024)
- Case
Shopify: The Conquest for Chinese E-Commerce
By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Avani Patel, Samantha Lin and Ariel Yang
In mid-2020, Tobias Lütke, CEO of Shopify, faced a critical decision on how to time potential expansion into the China market. Over the prior 15 years, his Canadian software-as-a-service company had grown from a small e-commerce solutions provider to a full service... View Details
Keywords: Timing; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Service Operations; Business Model; Organizational Design; Change Management; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Global Strategy; Health Pandemics; Growth Management; Marketing Strategy; Digital Platforms; Alliances; Partners and Partnerships; Opportunities; Internet and the Web; E-commerce; United States; Canada; China
- February 2021 (Revised March 2022)
- Case
TikTok in 2020: Super App or Supernova?
By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Dan Maher and Dan O'Brien
TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, was launched in 2012 around a simple idea – helping users entertain themselves on their smartphones while on the Beijing Subway. In less than a decade, it had become one of the world’s most valuable private companies, with investors... View Details
Keywords: Business Model; Business Startups; Business Organization; Change Management; Disruption; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Global Strategy; Health Pandemics; Innovation Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Marketing Channels; Network Effects; Digital Platforms; Product Design; Product Development; Partners and Partnerships; Opportunities; Social Issues; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Internet and the Web; Value Creation; United States; China
- February 2021
- Case
A Cultural Transformation at Southeastern Grocers
By: Suraj Srinivasan, Jonah S. Goldberg and Joseph A. Paul
When Anthony Hucker, the CEO of Southeastern Grocers (SEG), took over in that role in July 2017, the company was in dire financial and operational condition and was headed towards bankruptcy. SEG, the fifth largest grocery chain in the U.S. in early 2021, operated... View Details
- February 2021 (Revised June 2021)
- Case
Bairong and the Promise of Big Data
By: Lauren Cohen, Xiaoyan Zhang and Spencer C.N. Hagist
Bairong CEO Felix Zhang, in launching his credit scoring start-up that incorporates 74,000 variables per individual, found strong initial success. However, the shifting regulatory environment, growing breadth of competitors, difficulties in retaining top talent, and... View Details
- January–February 2021
- Article
Cross‐firm Return Predictability and Accounting Quality
By: Wen Chen, Mozaffar Khan, Leonid Kogan and George Serafeim
We test the hypothesis that if poor accounting quality (AQ) is associated with poor investor understanding of firms’ revenue and cost structures, then poor AQ stocks likely respond more slowly than good AQ stocks to new non‐idiosyncratic information that affects both... View Details
- February 2021
- Article
How Transparency into Internal and External Responsibility Initiatives Influences Consumer Choice
By: Ryan W. Buell and Basak Kalkanci
Amid growing calls for transparency and social and environmental responsibility, companies are employing different strategies to improve consumer perceptions of their brands. Some pursue internal initiatives that reduce their negative social or environmental impacts... View Details
- 2021
- Chapter
Sostenibilidad y negocios verdes en América Latina
By: Geoffrey Jones
This chapter in the first-ever business history textbook on Latin America examines the impact of modern business enterprise on the natural environment of the region between the 19th century and the present day. It argues that although global capitalism created much... View Details
- January 2021
- Case
Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (A)
By: David J. Collis, Nobuo Sato and Akiko Kanno
This case follows Christophe Weber, President and CEO of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, a leading pharmaceutical company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, as Takeda considers acquiring Shire Plc, a biotech company based in Ireland. The acquisition would turn... View Details
- January 2021 (Revised May 2021)
- Case
Delta Air Lines: Navigating the COVID-19 Storm
By: Ted Berk and Ryan Flamerich
This case examines Delta Air Lines’ response as demand for its services plummeted in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on the company’s funding needs and capital structure. Following a series of initial actions, the company’s cash “burn” had reduced from... View Details
- December 2020 (Revised December 2021)
- Case
Komatsu and Smart Construction
By: Rajiv Lal, David J. Collis and Akiko Saito
Komatsu, Japan's leading construction equipment manufacturer, is considering investing in a digital platform "Smart Construction" that will digitise the entire work process on a construction site, allowing for substantial reductions in cost and time while improving... View Details