Publications

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March 2025
Case

Skylight: Hit Product or Scalable Company?

By: Rembrand Koning, Christina Wallace and Jeff Huizinga

Skylight, originally a digital frame startup aimed at connecting dispersed families, expanded with a second product—Calendar—to help families manage schedules. Despite significant potential, Calendar struggled with persistent technical issues and poor customer... View Details

Keywords: Culture; Software; Hardware; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Customer Satisfaction; Resource Allocation; Product Launch; Business Strategy; Expansion

October 2016 (Revised November 2016)
Case

Innovating Beyond Ochsner

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Olivia Hull

The Ochsner Health System has developed a proprietary software tool designed to treat hypertension. Built into the system’s electronic medical records, the Hypertension Digital Medicine program allows patients to record their blood pressure at home and share readings... View Details

18 Mar 2014
First Look

First Look: March 18

http://dx.doi.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.01.041 August 2013 The Changing Frontier: Rethinking Science and Innovation Policy Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Renewable Energy By: Nanda, Ramana, Ken Younge, and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

29 Sep 2015
First Look

September 29, 2015

(HBIP) provides a platform for managing a corporate heritage brand. Originality/value—This is the first field-based study of the Nobel Prize from a strategic brand management perspective. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=49747 View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2023
Supplement

Astyanax Kanakakis at norbloc: A Founder's Experience with the DIFC Fintech Hive

By: Linda A. Hill and Lydia Begag

norbloc was founded in 2016 in Stockholm, Sweden, by Astyanax Kanakakis and his co-founders, Vitalii Demianets and Sam Saatchi. Kanakakis and Demianets got to work to address a key gap in the industry: Know Your Customer (KYC) data sharing. As the first distributed KYC... View Details

November 2003 (Revised December 2003)
Case

Proteome Systems Limited: The First Five Years

A Sydney-based biotechnology company is moving from the development of proteomics technology to the commercialization of its first instruments in the worldwide proteomics market. The case study highlights the range of activities engaged in by the 120-person company,... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Information Technology; Commercialization; Entrepreneurship; Biotechnology Industry; Sydney

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August 2018
Case

BlackBuck (A)

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai

The case presents the challenges of scaling an asset-heavy company (that relies on its operations). It highlights how decisions on the early team impact a company’s ability to scale, linkage between growth and cash flows, as well the organizational impact of high... View Details

Keywords: Founders; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Delivery; Cash Flow; Growth Management; Truck Transportation; Online Technology; India

21 Feb 2012
First Look

First Look: Feb. 21

and contracts in shaping the growth and influence of business enterprises. It presents entrepreneurs, executives, and the firms they controlled as driving actors in national economies and international growth. Alongside an original... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

08 Jun 2010
First Look

First Look: June 8

empirical lacuna, we have developed a research program to measure the internal organization of firms—including their decentralization decisions—across a large range of industries and countries. Enamored with Scale: Scaling with Limited... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

28 Jul 2006
Research & Ideas

Meeting China’s Need for Management Education

an impact in a wide range of industries. Q: How has this area changed over the years since your first visit? A: While Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong have always had a strong bias for entrepreneurship and global competitiveness (albeit... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Education

16 Nov 2016
Research & Ideas

Turning One Thousand Customers into One Million

the advertising. To do this, it provided support to the sellers to market their crafts and in turn, market the Etsy platform to their loyal customers. Etsy created a “Seller Handbook” and other internal management tools for sellers to... View Details

Keywords: by Thales S. Teixeira and Michael Blanding; Retail; Transportation; Accommodations

February 2014 (Revised August 2014)
Case

The Michelin Restaurant Guide: Charting a New Course

By: Mukti Khaire, Elena Corsi and Jerome Lenhardt

Created in 1900 by the tire manufacturer Michelin, the Michelin Restaurant Guide was widely considered the international benchmark of food rating, and, by 2013, boasted paper editions in 23 countries, and had recently expanded to the United States and Asia. Paper sales... View Details

17 May 2011
First Look

First Look: May 17

Healthcare Reform: International Perspectives" updating key events and disputes concerning the reform law, including the 2010 Congressional elections, legislative proposals, legal challenges, and responses by employers. Purchase this... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

December 2014 (Revised October 2017)
Case

Dow: Breakthroughs to World Challenges

By: Michael E. Porter, Mark R. Kramer and Annelena Lobb

Dow had adopted the "Breakthroughs to World Challenges" (BWC) program as part of its ten-year 2015 Sustainability Goals. BWC was an internal award recognizing products that effectively addressed one of five world challenges: energy and climate change, sustainable water... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Strategy; Social Issues; Entrepreneurship

06 Jun 2024
Research & Ideas

How Younger Immigrants Gain an Edge in American Business

they are more frequently in jobs with “supervisor” as part of the title. They are also less likely to be in the nail care sector, itself a unique and well-developed entrepreneurship path among Vietnamese immigrants to the US—but one that... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

April 1999
Case

Steve Perlman and WebTV (A)

By: James K. Sebenius and Ron Fortgang

The dynamics of a linked series of internal and external negotiations involved in launching, growing, and selling a high-tech, Internet start-up are explored. Steve Perlman unfurled an impressive new technology, recruited a top technical and management team, secured... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Agreements and Arrangements; Negotiation Tactics; Alliances; Internet; Communications Industry

08 Mar 2021
In Practice

COVID Killed the Traditional Workplace. What Should Companies Do Now?

A year ago, COVID-19 forced many companies to send employees home—often with a laptop and a prayer. Now, with COVID cases subsiding and vaccinations rising, the prospect of returning to old office routines appears more possible. But will employees want to flock back to... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

17 Jan 2023
In Practice

8 Trends to Watch in 2023

As 2023 begins, businesses and employees face an uncertain economy and labor market, as the twin dilemmas of inflation and interest rates weigh on forecasts. Harvard Business School faculty share the top trends that they believe will shape the workplace and markets... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

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