Publications

April 2004 (Revised August 2004)
Teaching Note

BuildingBlocks International

BuildingBlocks International (BBI) plans to accomplish its mission to help children in developing countries succeed in school by bringing management expertise to local organizations. Two years after founding BBI, however, the team hasn't figured out exactly how to make... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Social Marketing; Developing Countries and Economies; Sales

25 Apr 2023
Op-Ed

How SHEIN and Temu Conquered Fast Fashion—and Forged a New Business Model

fashion crowd in 2019. Today, its revenues exceed $24 billion, making it the world’s biggest fashion retailer. It offers a rapidly changing assortment of affordable clothing, shoes, accessories, and beauty products for young women and, increasingly, for View Details

Keywords: by John Deighton; Fashion; Retail; Consumer Products

14 Sep 2023
Research & Ideas

Working Moms Are Mostly Thriving Again. Can We Finally Achieve Gender Parity?

doesn’t affect kids’ happiness in adulthood is really important.” The results probed whether adult children of employed moms are as happy as those of stay-at-home moms, and found that daughters’ and sons’ own self-reports indicate no... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

12 Jul 2016
First Look

July 12, 2016

that a 10% increase in the average price of in-state tuition is associated with a 13.9% decrease in new business starts of parents with college-age children in the CPS, relative to both non-parents and parents of younger children. A one... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

December 2014
Article

Rethink What You 'Know' about High-Achieving Women

By: Robin Ely, Pamela Stone and Colleen Ammerman

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the admission of women to Harvard Business School's MBA program, the authors, who have spent more than 20 years studying professional women, set out to learn what HBS graduates had to say about work and family and how their... View Details

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July – August 2010
Article

Are You Ignoring Trends That Could Shake Up Your Business?

By: Elie Ofek and Luc Wathieu

Virtually all managers in consumer businesses recognize major social, economic, and technological trends. But many do not consider the profound ways in which trends--especially those that seem unrelated to their core markets--influence consumers' aspirations,... View Details

Keywords: Trends; Innovation and Invention; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Product Development

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09 Oct 2012
First Look

First Look: October 9

PublicationsAuctions, Market Mechanisms, and Their Applications Authors:Peter Coles, Sanmay Das, Sébastien Lahaie, and Boleslaw Szymanski Publication:Second International ICST Conference, AMMA 2011 Abstract This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 2025
Case

IQanat: Empowering Rural Youth in Kazakhstan

By: Boris Groysberg and Maxim Pike Harrell

In June 2025, IQanat CEO Aliya Salikova considered scaling opportunities for the foundation, which provided educational opportunities for children from rural regions of Kazakhstan. Established by Kazakhstani businessman and philanthropist Aidyn Rakhimbayev, IQanat... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership; Social Enterprise; Social Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Rural Scope; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Equality and Inequality; Education Industry; Central Asia; Kazakhstan

24 Jul 2023
Research & Ideas

Part-Time Employees Want More Hours. Can Companies Tap This ‘Hidden’ Talent Pool?

workers are mainly middle-aged, sandwich-generation women: 72 percent of part-timers were female, and 65 percent were 35 and older. “The single-biggest driver of that is caregiving obligations,” Fuller says. Nearly all, or 91 percent, of part-time employees caring for... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

March 2013
Case

An Entrepreneur's New Product Development Journey

By: Elie Ofek

This case tracks the new product development process undertaken by Gauri Nanda, the founder and CEO of Nanda Home, as she ventures to innovate beyond her initial product launches. Having achieved commercial success with her first product Clocky, a roll away alarm clock... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Decision Making; Product Development; Manufacturing Industry; Consumer Products Industry

23 Jan 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, January 23, 2018

2018 Protean Power: Exploring the Uncertain and Unexpected in World Politics Firms in Firmament: Hydrocarbons and the Circulation of Power By: Abdelal, Rawi Abstract—No abstract available. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=53729... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

December 2019
Case

Noiler

By: José B. Alvarez and Natalie Kindred

In 2019, Nigerian entrepreneur Dr. Ayoola (Ayo) Oduntan is accelerating distribution of Noiler, a genetically optimized breed of poultry, to smallholder farmers across Nigeria. The bird was bred to be productive as a source of both meat and eggs and to thrive in the... View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise; Animal-Based Agribusiness; Poverty; Health; Growth and Development Strategy; Nigeria

October 2007
Article

The Art of Designing Markets

By: Alvin E. Roth

Traditionally, markets have been viewed as simply the confluence of supply and demand. But to function properly, they must be able to attract a sufficient number of buyers and sellers, induce participants to make their preferences clear, and overcome congestion by... View Details

Keywords: Market Design; Market Participation; Market Transactions; Information Technology; Internet and the Web

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02 Jul 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Religion, Politician Identity, and Development Outcomes: Evidence from India

Keywords: by Sonia Bhalotra, Guilhem Cassan, Irma Clots-Figueras & Lakshmi Iyer

16 Jan 2006
Research & Ideas

What Customers Want from Your Products

having to say "no" to their kids. They hired milk shakes as an innocuous way to placate their children and feel like loving parents. The researcher observed that the milk shakes didn't do this job very well, though. He saw... View Details

Keywords: by Clayton M. Christensen, Scott Cook & Taddy Hall; Consumer Products

Research Summary

The Baby Business: How Markets are Changing the Future of Birth

By: Debora L. Spar

It is difficult to conceive of the child as commerce. For even at the start of the 21st century, we like to believe that some things remain beyond both markets and science; that there are some things that money can't buy. In economic terms, these things are defined as... View Details

February 2013 (Revised September 2013)
Case

Elasto Therm: The Next Step

By: Jim Sharpe and James Weber

Julia and Nate Burstein were living their dream running their own business and balancing the demands between their work and family obligations while creating a company that was responsive to their employees' and their customers' needs. The Bursteins had joined a large... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Management; Entrepreneurs; Pricing; Pricing Policies; Pricing Strategy; Pricing Structure; Sales Force Management; Acquisitions; Work/family Balance; Family-owned Business; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Expansion; Work-Life Balance; Manufacturing Industry; Rubber Industry; United States