Publications

November 6, 2017
Article

The Common Traps of Working in Your Family's Business

By: Josh Baron

When your family’s name is on the door, you will never just be one of the gang — and everything you do could be fodder for the office rumor mill. Your actions are amplified because of your status in the company, and even seemingly small gestures can unintentionally... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Attitudes; Behavior; Personal Development and Career; Mission and Purpose

27 Dec 2010
Research & Ideas

HBS Faculty on 2010’s Biggest Business Developments

didn't happen. Big companies with cash didn't spend it. Banks with cash didn't lend it. Small businesses didn't attract capital and thus didn't help reduce unemployment. Europeans were paralyzed by debt... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

15 May 2019
Research Event

The Unconventional Capitalism That Shapes Business History

Lalocracio In thinking about the current contested state of global capitalism, and what to do about it, much can be learned from the debates I heard at the recent Harvard Business School conference, Seeking the Unconventional in Forging... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey G. Jones; Education

02 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

Digital Initiative Summit: The Business of Crowdsourcing

credibility.'" Lakhani said business leaders have an opportunity to further harness the power of crowdsourcing platforms, particularly by finding ways of enticing traditional organizations to use them more. "It's a darn exciting time," he... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

April 2020 (Revised August 2020)
Case

CredEx Fintech: Business Model Transformation During the Digital Era

By: Laura Huang, Raphael Amit and Xu Han

Founded in 2010, CredEx has been a fast and constant innovator in the microfinance industry in China. Tang Xia, CEO and co-founder of CredEx, has led the company through a number of profound business model innovations in response to external environment changes, which... View Details

Keywords: Digitization; Fintech; Business Model; Innovation and Invention; Transformation; Microfinance; Organizational Change and Adaptation

14 May 2008
Research & Ideas

Getting Down to the Business of Creativity

business world. Yet any entrepreneur can attest to the creative power required to build an organization where none existed before. "Look, I made a hat /Where there never was a hat," sings Georges Seurat in the musical Sunday in... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail; Apparel & Accessories; Fashion; Entertainment & Recreation

11 Aug 2014
HBS Case

The Business of Behavioral Economics

choices, those efforts should be enough to change your behavior. If you know the consequences but still get fat, you must want to be overweight. “Losing $100 is more painful than gaining $100 is pleasurable” Of course not, say Leslie John and Michael Norton, professors... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Food & Beverage; Health

22 Jul 2002
Research & Ideas

How Business Strategy Tamed the “Invisible Hand”

Until the nineteenth century, the scope for applying (imperfectly) competitive thinking to business situations appeared to be limited: Intense competition had emerged in many lines of business, but individual firms apparently often lacked... View Details

Keywords: by Pankaj Ghemawat

2021
Chapter

Business Continuity Insurance in the Next Disaster

By: Samuel Gregory Hanson, Adi Sunderam and Eric Zwick

This article draws lessons from the business support policies pursued in the COVID-19 pandemic to guide policy design for the next disaster. We contrast the performance of the Paycheck Protection Program to the Main Street Lending Program to illustrate how design... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Policy; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Financing and Loans; United States

Read Now

13 Oct 2022
Other Presentation

4 Business Ideas That Changed the World: Disruptive Innovation

By: Amy Bernstein, Rita McGrath, Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Derek van Bever

A roundtable conversation takes stock of Clayton Christensen’s influential theory. This first in a series of roundtable conversations assessing the origins and impact of four breakthrough ideas.

In the 1980s, Clayton Christensen cofounded a startup that... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation

20 Jul 2021
Research & Ideas

Bankruptcy Spells Death for Too Many Businesses

the 2019 Small Business Reorganization Act seeks to make it easier for small businesses to reorganize under Chapter 11—something smaller... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

12 Aug 2002
Op-Ed

Using Big Business to Fight Poverty

will require a new institution that can harness the capabilities of global corporations and, helped by loans from development agencies, directly attack the root causes of poverty. The need for corporate involvement in the fight against... View Details

Keywords: by George C. Lodge

June 2016
Teaching Note

N12 Technologies: Building an Organization and Building a Business

By: David A. Garvin

N12 Technologies was a startup founded in 2010 that employed nanotechnology to manufacture a patented material to improve the performance of carbon fiber composites, which were used in a wide variety of products, ranging from bicycles to automobiles to aircraft parts.... View Details

Keywords: Startup; Organizational Structure; Nanotechnology; Business Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Management Systems; Commercialization; Industrial Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; Bicycle Industry; Transportation Industry; United States

May 2009
Case

Ceres Gardening Company: Funding Growth in Organic Products

By: John H. McArthur and Sunru Yong

Ceres is a leading player in the growing organic gardening industry, selling seeds, small plants, and related items. Their distribution depends heavily on retail sales through independent nurseries and garden centers. Because these small dealers are unable to finance... View Details

Keywords: Accounting Procedures; Marketing; Business Growth; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Marketing Strategy; Expansion; Business Growth and Maturation; Marketing Channels; Credit; Financial Statements; Sales; Retail Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

19 Oct 2015
Research & Ideas

Business Research that Makes for Smarter Public Policy

academics are uniquely suited to play, says Karen Mills, former administrator of the US Small Business Administration (SBA) and now a senior fellow at HBS. “When I went to Washington, I saw a tremendous need... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

21 May 2020
Research & Ideas

Fighting the COVID Blues: Advice from Business Research

We asked Harvard Business School experts who study well-being to share strategies for coping with this unsettling period to prevent the coronavirus blues from taking a huge toll, both personally and professionally. “You're not going to be... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman and Danielle Kost

January 2002
Case

Banco Solidario: The Business of Microfinance

Examines the founding and evolution of a for-profit microlending organization in Bolivia. Explores the mechanics of microlending, nonprofit and for-profit approaches to serving the informal sector, and how the industry evolves over a 15-year period. View Details

Keywords: Microfinance; Emerging Markets; Bolivia