Publications

July 2023 (Revised April 2025)
Case

'Bugs' Burger Bug Killers

By: Ryan W. Buell and William Fulmer

In the height of its success, Bugs Burger Bug Killers (BBBK; Burger has a soft 'g' - it rhymes with merger) was the largest independent extermination company in America, growing at more than 20% per year. BBBK built its business on the promise of pest eradication,... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Service Industry

05 Jan 2009
Research & Ideas

Most Popular Articles and Working Papers 2008

a Harvard Business Review classic, and has just been reissued in book form. We asked Sahlman what he would change if he wrote the article, now a decade old, today. 6. Spending on Happiness Money can't buy you love but it can buy... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

03 Oct 2005
Research & Ideas

The Box Office Power of Stars

owned by Cantor Index Holdings, mimics a real supply-and-demand-based stock exchange like the NYSE. HSX acts as the market maker—its technology is set up so that when there is high demand for a certain stock, prices will automatically go... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Entertainment & Recreation; Motion Pictures & Video

11 Oct 2006
Research & Ideas

U.S. Tops Business Competitiveness Index 2006

competitiveness of individual firms. Harvard Business School and Harvard University jointly created the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness in 2001. It is led by Porter, the Bishop William Lawrence... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

21 Feb 2005
Research & Ideas

The VC Quandary: Too Much Money

and Russia. Too Many Deals? HBS professor William A. Sahlman, the panel's moderator, noted: "One of the historical factors in the venture capital industry…wasn't too much money chasing too few deals. It was too much money going... View Details

Keywords: by Julie Jette; Financial Services

August 1996
Supplement

Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organization Change

By: Ashish Nanda and Michael Y. Yoshino

Remarks by William (Bill) Barnard, partner-in-charge for Strategic Services in the subregion of Western Europe, in a conversation he had with Professors Ashish Nanda and Michael Yoshino of the Harvard Business School on November 1, 1995. View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Consulting Industry; Europe

Research Summary

A Case Study Approach to Teaching Real Estate

By: William J. Poorvu

William J. Poorvu has developed a casebook and instructor's manual for teaching real estate by the case method. Real Estate: A Case Study Approach elaborates a conceptual framework for viewing real estate and the real-estate process. The instructor's manual (which... View Details

September 2024
Supplement

National Public Broadcasting (B)

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Pre-abstract: Instructors should consider the timing of making videos available to students, as they may reveal key case details.
Abstract: This (B) case supplement is designed for use by faculty only to support classroom instruction in conjunction with... View Details

Keywords: Financial Strategy; Financial Management; Media; Ownership; Strategy; Advertising; Decision Choices and Conditions; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Mergers and Acquisitions; Private Equity; Journalism and News Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; United States

13 Jul 2009
Research & Ideas

Diagnosing the Public Health Care Alternative

liabilities, estimated at about $34 trillion. They are omitted from Medicare's costs because the government uses cash accounting. If Medicare followed the accrual accounting, which private sector insurers must use, its administrative costs would increase View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Health

07 Oct 2013
Research & Ideas

The Case for Combating Climate Change with Nuclear Power and Fracking

If you ask any given environmentalist to identify the biggest threat to the planet, you may expect to hear about man-made climate change, consumerism, or overpopulation. But if you ask Harvard Business School's Joseph B. Lassiter, he'll toss in another: single-issue... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Energy; Utilities

10 Aug 2011
Research & Ideas

HBS Faculty Views on Debt Crisis

ironic, given that in 2008 and 2009, they were given a hard time for issuing excessively positive ratings of structured products based on home mortgages that turned sour. Whatever they do, someone gets mad. That said, the mistakes on structured products were a historic... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

17 Feb 2003
Research & Ideas

Tales of the Newly-minted MBA

H. Naylor Fitzhugh Conference to tell their stories—the ups, downs, and detours that brought them to where they are today. "I moved back home. That's where I started," said Joseph Williams (HBS MBA '99), cofounder of Wakefield... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

20 Oct 2003
Research & Ideas

Gaps in the Historical Record: Development of the Electronics Industry

In a recently published book on current international research in business history, edited by Harvard Business School professor Geoffrey Jones, HBS professor emeritus Alfred D. Chandler Jr. contributed an essay on the opportunities... View Details

Keywords: by Alfred D. Chandler Jr.; Consumer Products

January 2011 (Revised July 2012)
Case

National Public Broadcasting

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Bob Williams, the CEO of National Public Broadcasting (NPB), was considering an unsolicited offer to purchase the company in the early spring of 2006. The company was a media underwriting representative for public television and radio stations throughout the United... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Management; Ownership; Advertising Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry

February 2022 (Revised March 2022)
Case

Hertz in Bankruptcy: A Wild Ride in Pandemic Times

By: Samuel Antill, Stuart Gilson and Kristin Mugford

Hertz filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in response to asset-backed securities (ABS) obligations and the COVID-19 pandemic. Enthusiastic Robinhood investors and shrewd negotiating tactics helped Hertz stabilize. Roughly nine months into the bankruptcy, Hertz received... View Details

Keywords: Bankruptcy Reorganization; COVID-19 Pandemic; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Health Pandemics; Valuation; Capital Structure; Negotiation; Private Equity; Travel Industry; United States