Publications

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May 2002
Case

Venture Capital Fund Restructuring Vignettes (Abridged)

By: Paul A. Gompers

This case examines the changes in fund structures proposed by four venture capital firms in 2002: Accel Partners, Battery Ventures, Charles River Ventures, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The venture capital market has experienced a major downturn, and these... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Restructuring; Financial Crisis; Motivation and Incentives; Business and Shareholder Relations; Investment Funds; Financial Services Industry

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Biography - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

His research has received numerous awards, and he is the most cited scholar today in economics and business. While Michael Porter is at the core a scholar, his work has achieved remarkable acceptance by practitioners across multiple... View Details

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Human Behavior & Decision-Making - Faculty & Research

Rosabeth M. Kanter Robin J. Ely Michael I. Norton Paul A. Gompers Linda A. Hill Joshua D. Margolis Kathleen L. McGinn See All HBS Working... View Details

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Faculty - Private Capital Project

Hill. He then earned a Ph.D. from Harvard's Economics Department. Affiliated Faculty John D. Dionne Senior Lecturer of Business Administration John D. Dionne is a Senior Advisor to Blackstone and a Lecturer in the Finance Unit at the Harvard Business School. View Details

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Business & Environment - Faculty & Research

Jones. "Institutional Entrepreneurship and Climate Change." Chap. 1 in Climate Change and Business: Historical Perspectives , edited by Teresa da Silva Lopes, Paul Duguid, and Robert Fredona, 8–29. London,... View Details

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Health Care - Faculty & Research

Quelch Amitabh Chandra Alvin E. Roth Leemore S. Dafny Tarun Khanna James E. Austin See All HBS Working Knowlege 12 Nov 2024 Inside One Startup's Journey to Break Down Hiring (and Funding) Barriers Re: Paul View Details

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Faculty - Race, Gender & Equity

served with distinction in various... Paul A. Gompers Eugene Holman Professor of Business Administration Paul Gompers, Professor of Business... View Details

February 2024
Case

Tony Elumelu Foundation: Democratizing Luck Across Africa

By: Paul A. Gompers and Samir Saxena

Founded in 2010, The Tony Elumelu Foundation is Africa’s leading philanthropy working to support entrepreneurs in Africa with access to seed capital, business management training, mentorship, and access to networks. Through a $100 million commitment by its founder,... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Innovation Leadership; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Mission and Purpose; Education Industry; Nigeria; Africa

November 1997 (Revised October 2001)
Background Note

Note on Strategic Alliances, A

By: Paul A. Gompers and Alexander Tsai

Presents an overview of strategic alliance. Discusses the academic literature and its implications for the structure of strategic alliances. Also details the types of strategic alliances utilized by small, growing firms. View Details

Keywords: Alliances; Strategy

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Accounting & Management Awards & Honors - Faculty & Research

Accounting Literature Award from the American Accounting Association (AAA) for “Real and Accrual-Based Earnings Management in the Pre- and Post-Sarbanes-Oxley Periods” ( The Accounting Review , May 2008) with Daniel A. Cohen and Thomas Z.... View Details

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Leadership - Faculty & Research

Paul Lawrence and Jay Lorsch on organizational integration , sparked the field of Organizational Behavior. Early work by Michael Beer on leading organizational change , Rosabeth Kanter on innovation for... View Details

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HBR Classics - Alumni

HBR CLASSICS Through the years, a number of Harvard Business Review articles written by Harvard Business School faculty and others have risen to “classics” status – articles that are so groundbreaking in their scope or elemental in their... View Details

March 2001 (Revised October 2001)
Case

Honest Tea

By: Paul A. Gompers

This case examines the decisions of Seth Goldman and Barry Nalebuff, founders of Honest Tea. Honest Tea is a start-up in the ready-to-drink tea market. Goldman and Nalebuff must craft an expansion and financing strategy. View Details

Keywords: Financial Strategy; Expansion; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Decisions

March 2020
Case

SRS and the Defense Innovation Unit: Rethinking Procurement

By: Paul A. Gompers and David Lane

SRS and the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) follows the process by which SRS, a lean maker of remotely-operated submersible vehicles, navigates the DIU’s acquisition process. Set up in 2015 to speed the U.S. military’s access to promising commercial technologies, the DIU... View Details

Keywords: Procurement; Defense Innovation Unit; Business Startups; Acquisition; Technological Innovation; Investment; Commercialization; United States

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Entrepreneurial Management Curriculum - Faculty & Research

Shai Bernstein Spring 2026 Q3Q4 3.0 The Founder Mindset Reza Satchu Fall 2025 Q1Q2 3.0 Global Entrepreneurship (also listed under Finance) Paul Gompers Spring 2026 Q3Q4 3.0 IFC: India; Development While... View Details

May 2004 (Revised June 2004)
Case

Sarvega

By: Paul A. Gompers and Vanessa del Valle Broussard

David Cowan, general partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, has taken the lead on Sarvega, a Bessemer-backed company that was recently orphaned by the departure of one of Bessemer's other general partners. Cowan must decide whether to reinvest in Sarvega and, if so,... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Venture Capital; Investment; Governance Compliance; Resignation and Termination; Negotiation Deal; Partners and Partnerships; Information Technology Industry