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- All HBS Web (217)
- 31 Aug 2016
- Research & Ideas
One Quarter of Entrepreneurs in the United States Are Immigrants
Debates over the pluses and minuses of immigrant entrepreneurs on the American economy are white hot, but one thing seems stubbornly lacking from them: facts. The arguments are familiar by now. Immigrants take jobs from native-born Americans, claims one side in... View Details
Keywords: by Michael Blanding
- 15 Jun 2016
- Research & Ideas
These VC Partners May Make Your Firm Less Innovative
You don’t know what you don’t know—and almost by definition new entrepreneurial ventures need a helping hand from established partners if they hope to succeed. “Startups suffer from what researchers call ‘liability of newness,’” says Harvard Business School Assistant... View Details
- 02 May 2016
- Research & Ideas
Why People Don’t Vote--and How a Good Ground Game Helps
Democracy has a dirty little secret. Despite the fever pitch over presidential primaries this year, the truth is there are few people actually voting. Before the most recent round of voting, only some 11 percent of eligible Democrats voted in the primaries, and the... View Details
- 17 Aug 2015
- Research & Ideas
Who is Boss in the Sharing Economy?
When is a company not a company? A modern-day Zen koan, maybe, but the evidence is all around us—Airbnb, Elance-oDesk, Handy, HourlyNerd, TaskRabbit, Uber. These businesses seem much more like conglomerations of independent professionals that connect to customers... View Details
- 20 Aug 2014
- Research & Ideas
Dragging Patent Trolls Into the Light
The Texas town of Marshall has a population of 25,000 people, 2,000 of whom are students attending one of the four colleges that have earned Marshall the nickname "Athens of Texas." Marshall is also home to a historic pottery industry and one of the country's... View Details
- 16 Jun 2014
- Research & Ideas
The Unfulfilled Promise of Educational Technology
Not only has technology entered nearly every area of our personal life, it's the rare industry that isn't computerized, networked, and advertised on Facebook. Except one: education. Outside of the occasional computer lab, basic webpage, or iPad in the classroom,... View Details
- 12 Jan 2015
- Research & Ideas
Regulators Ease Up on Companies Generating Political Benefits
We all know how political influence works: company X donates money to politician Y, and then that pol leans on regulator Z to go easy on his new best friend. In economic parlance, that circle of back-scratching is known as "regulatory capture." Economists... View Details
Keywords: by Michael Blanding
- 24 Mar 2014
- Research & Ideas
The Surprising Link Between Language and Corporate Responsibility
We've heard that Eskimos have 100 words for snow—a common way of expressing how language affects the way we see the world. Whether or not that particular example is true, cultural linguists have long theorized that the words a particular group of people have at their... View Details
Keywords: by Michael Blanding
- 23 Apr 2014
- HBS Case
Are Electronic Cigarettes a Public Good or Health Hazard?
When electronic cigarettes first appeared a little over a decade ago, they were hailed by many as a godsend: a tool to help smokers quit while mitigating the most harmful effects of tobacco. "The [e-cigarette] market is producing, at no cost to the taxpayer, an... View Details
- 01 Apr 2014
- Research & Ideas
When Do Alliances Make Sense?
To answer one of the oldest business quandaries—is it better to partner or go solo on a project—John Beshears looked for answers in an unusual place: the oil and gas drilling industry in the Gulf of Mexico. But instead of mining for energy sources, Beshears dug for... View Details
- 12 Aug 2013
- Research & Ideas
‘Hybrid’ Organizations a Difficult Bet for Entrepreneurs
Consider two organizations with the same noble purpose: to solve the problem of poor eyesight in developing countries. The first, the Centre for Vision in the Developing World, follows a traditional nonprofit model, soliciting donations that fund the creation and... View Details
Keywords: by Michael Blanding
- 15 Apr 2013
- Research & Ideas
Solving the Search vs. Display Advertising Quandary
The dirty little secret of advertising agencies is that much of their work is pure guesswork. Companies spread out their advertising budgets across channels—a little bit of TV, some print media, a few billboards—and wait for customers to roll in. In very few cases,... View Details
- 16 Apr 2012
- Research & Ideas
The Inner Workings of Corporate Headquarters
Physicists tell us entropy is the natural state of the world, and that law seems especially true in today's multidivisional company. "When you create organizational subunits of any form, they'll have a tendency to focus internally on their own things," says... View Details
Keywords: by Michael Blanding
- 19 Dec 2011
- Research & Ideas
Climbing the Great Wall of Trust
In recent conversations with US executives doing business in China, Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Roy Y.J. Chua heard about a new trend. In an East Asian version of cutting deals on the golf course, Chinese executives often take partners to teahouses to... View Details
Keywords: by Michael Blanding
- 22 Aug 2012
- Research & Ideas
Advertising: It’s Not ‘Mad Men’ Anymore
Fans of the television show Mad Men are well acquainted with the mystique of the advertising business, circa 1960s, where relationships were consummated over martinis and campaigns fashioned through the wizardry of creative director Don Draper, swooping into the pitch... View Details
- 16 Jul 2024
- Research & Ideas
Weighing Digital Tradeoffs in Private Equity
When private equity (PE) firms buy a company, they typically follow a standard playbook to create value—streamlining operations, restructuring debt, changing management, and cutting costs. However, as digital technologies and artificial intelligence allow companies to... View Details
- 21 Oct 2015
- Research & Ideas
How to Predict if a New Business Idea is Any Good
In 2008, entrepreneur Brian Chesky and his two San Francisco roommates made the rounds of Silicon Valley VC firms with what they thought was a great idea: a website and mobile app that would allow homeowners to open their homes to strangers to sleep on their floor... View Details
- 31 Jan 2018
- Research & Ideas
American Idle: Workers Spend Too Much Time Waiting for Something to Do
Paul Bradbury American workers are usually a pretty busy bunch, yet their time spent idle costs employers an estimated $100 billion per year, according to a new study from Harvard Business School. “We suspected idle time might be more prevalent than most people would... View Details
Keywords: by Michael Blanding
- 29 Jul 2013
- Research & Ideas
A Manager’s Moral Obligation to Preserve Capitalism
Most of us tend not to think of capitalism as a moral system. The prevailing view of the free market, among laypeople and economists alike, is that it's one step removed from the law of the jungle. But the fact is that capitalism has always had an explicit moral... View Details
Keywords: by Michael Blanding
- 17 Oct 2022
- Research & Ideas
Why Quiet Quitters Need More Than Money to Re-Engage
There’s a scene in the drama series Mad Men when junior ad exec Peggy Olson complains to her mercurial boss Don Draper, “You never say thank you.” Don peevishly replies: “That’s what the money is for!” Harvard Business School Professors Rawi E. Abdelal and Thomas J.... View Details
Keywords: by Michael Blanding