Publications

June 2024
Case

Building Innovation at VINCI

By: Dennis Campbell, Aluna Wang and Carlota Moniz

This case study explores how the VINCI Group, a French multinational operating in concessions, energy, and construction, bolstered awareness and adoption rates of new technologies within the organization. Through its separate innovation hub, Leonard, VINCI aimed to... View Details

09 Feb 2009
Research & Ideas

Uncompromising Leadership in Tough Times

received a call from a small manufacturing plant in Medfield, Massachusetts. They had read Douglas McGregor's now classic book The Human Side of Enterprise and wanted to implement, in their relatively new plant, his ideas about how people's View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

29 Apr 2020
Book

The Key to Powerful Social Change: Small Villages

place “outside the building.” The other major book theme that the crisis has laid bare is more positive: the incredible outpouring of creative energy on the part of people who arose like a new army of democracy to fight the virus, fill... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

January 2025 (Revised April 2025)
Case

Blue Frontier: Disrupting Air Conditioning

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jacob A. Small

Serial entrepreneur Daniel Betts founded Blue Frontier in South Florida to offer a climate-friendly solution to increase air conditioning efficiency and dehumidify using new technology he developed. Backed by significant venture capital, Blue Frontier had to choose... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Technological Innovation; Market Entry and Exit; Performance Efficiency; Business Strategy; Florida

27 Apr 2009
Research & Ideas

Building Businesses in Turbulent Times

opportunities. And while oil prices continue to rise and fall, energy services firms are seeing rapid growth—especially those firms that provide services to both traditional and emerging clean technology View Details

Keywords: by Staff

May 2025
Case

'Net Zero in Action': Impact Investing at the McKnight Foundation

By: Lauren Cohen, Christina R. Wing and Sophia Pan

Elizabeth McGeveran, Vice President of Investments at the McKnight Foundation, reflected on how to effectively advance the organization’s net-zero strategy. The foundation had committed 10% of its endowment to building a portfolio of impact investments and was among... View Details

02 Jul 2014
What Do You Think?

Are Today’s Business Heroes Challenging Our Ideas About Leadership?

"Stereotyping leadership might be the greater danger here. Evolution neither begins nor ends with current crops of leaders. In all practical situations, one needs a mixture of different leadership styles to induce human energy "... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

30 Oct 2005
Research & Ideas

Tuning Jobs to Fit Your Company

subordinates to become entrepreneurs. In fact, entrepreneurship has been defined (by Howard H. Stevenson and J. Carlos Jarillo) as "the process by which individuals—either on their own or inside organizations—pursue opportunities... View Details

Keywords: by Robert Simons

11 Oct 2016
First Look

October 11, 2016

back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that advertising would produce a positive return on average for restaurants in our sample. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=51728 Self-Employment Dynamics and the Returns to View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2023 (Revised November 2023)
Case

Recycle & Re-Match: The Future of Soccer Turfs

By: George Serafeim, Lena Duchene and Carlota Moniz

By August 2023, Re-Match, an artificial turf waste-to-value company, had operations in Denmark and the Netherlands and had recycled over 160,000 tons of waste and plastic fiber. With recent capital injection from the VC firm Verdane and a dual revenue business model,... View Details

February 2015
Case

Continental Hope Group

By: Christopher Marquis and Qi Li

This case provides an opportunity to examine and discuss how a traditional Chinese private business was launched and developed into a globalizing, multi-industry corporation. It also highlights how second generation entrepreneurs successfully developed an innovative... View Details

Keywords: Globalization; China; Technology; Real Estate; Talent Retention; Incentives; Talent and Talent Management; Diversification; Family Business; Business Growth and Maturation; Entrepreneurship; Global Strategy; Energy Industry; Energy Industry; Energy Industry; Energy Industry; Energy Industry; China