Publications

August 2007
Case

Lightspeed Venture Partners -- International Expansion

By: Krishna G. Palepu and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

Looks at various international expansion models for a venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley. Lightspeed Venture Partners believed that India had tremendous potential for venture capital returns--the question was how best to tap into that potential while also... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Expansion; Investment Return; Global Strategy; Emerging Markets; Investment; International Finance; Organizational Structure; India; Israel

08 Feb 2011
First Look

First Look: Feb. 8

mortality, respectively). Contrary to prediction, interdisciplinary collaboration mediates, rather than moderates, the relationship between using deliberate learning activities and workgroup performance. Thus, our data suggest that using... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 1992
Case

International Airlines

A frequent flyer for a large international airline encounters typical but recurring service problems. The marketing management of the company explores the use of information technology in understanding and dealing with the issues involved. Concepts of database... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Communications; Information Technology; Customer Focus and Relationships; Air Transportation Industry

30 Jan 2018
Blog Post

HBS Global Opportunity Fellowship: Making a Difference in Africa

manufacturing client with a senior corporate relationship manager. We drove through a dusty, potholed two-lane road and it took us the better part of the afternoon to make the visit in the hot sun, passing many street merchants along the... View Details

October 1997 (Revised March 1998)
Case

Appalachian Mountain Club: Transforming Governance

By: Walter J. Salmon and Jaan Elias

Starting in 1988, the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) began a controversial transformation in management and governance. For its first 112 years, the AMC's structure had resembled that of a country club--volunteer leaders directed the club's operations and its small,... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Transformation; Corporate Governance; Employee Relationship Management; Recruitment; Leading Change; Organizational Culture; Labor and Management Relations; Nonprofit Organizations; Education Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

September 2003 (Revised March 2004)
Case

Yale University Investments Office: June 2003

By: Josh Lerner

The Yale Investments Office must decide whether to continue to allocate the bulk of the university's endowment to illiquid investments--hedge funds, private equity, real estate, and so forth. Considers the risks and benefits of a different asset allocation strategy.... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Assets; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Investment Funds; Resource Allocation; Partners and Partnerships; Risk and Uncertainty; Strategy; Education Industry

14 Aug 2014
Working Paper Summaries

The State of Small Business Lending: Credit Access During the Recovery and How Technology May Change the Game

Keywords: by Karen Mills & Brayden McCarthy; Banking; Financial Services

Research Summary

Firm and aggregate volatility

US publicly traded companies have become more volatile over the postwar period. This trend has been the result of increased competition in product markets through deregulation, through more intensive innovation activity, and through easier access to capital markets.... View Details

20 Apr 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Why Every Company Needs a CSR Strategy and How to Build It

Keywords: by Kash Rangan, Lisa A. Chase & Sohel Karim

Program

Investment Management Workshop

more effectively Broaden your range of potential investment and allocation strategies Expand your personal and professional network Extend your network by living and working with accomplished investment industry executives from various backgrounds and countries across... View Details

October 2000 (Revised November 2005)
Case

Hilton HHonors Worldwide: Loyalty Wars

By: John A. Deighton and Stowe Shoemaker

Hilton Hotels regards the frequent guest program as the industry's most important marketing tool, directing marketing efforts at the heavy user. What is Hilton to do then, when a competitor ups the ante? This case illustrates the economics of frequency marketing in... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Brands and Branding; Competitive Strategy; Accommodations Industry

Research Summary

Technology and Knowledge Transfer in the Evolution of China’s Machine Industry

This work-in-progress provides a historical perspective on the role of foreign companies as providers of machinery equipment and facilitators of technology transfer in China from the last decade of the 19^th century to the early 1950s. The project focuses on... View Details

May 2016 (Revised April 2019)
Case

Olivia Lum: Wanting to Save the World

By: Geoffrey Jones and Essie Alamsyah

This case considers the entrepreneurial career of Olivia Lum, who founded the Singaporean water company Hyflux in 1989. An orphan born in Malaysia, Lum provides a rare case of an entrepreneurial success in a country whose economic success has primarily rested on... View Details

Research Summary

Fintech, Small Business & the American Dream: How Technology Is Transforming Lending and Shaping a New Era of Small Business Opportunity

Fintech, Small Business & the American Dream describes the needs of small businesses for capital and demonstrates how technology—novel data sources, artificial intelligence, machine learning—will transform the small business lending market. This market has been... View Details

May 2018 (Revised January 2019)
Case

AirFox (A): Embracing the Blockchain and an ICO

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Edward B. Berk and Nate Schwalb

In summer 2017, Victor Santos, CEO of AirFox, considered whether to pivot his startup towards a new product built with blockchain—a quickly growing technology at the time. AirFox was an early stage startup that sold Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) to small telecom... View Details

Keywords: Blockchain; Cryptocurrency; Initial Coin Offering; ICO; Business Startups; Finance; Currency; Strategy; Decision Making; United States

March 2017
Case

PharmAccess and the M-TIBA Platform: Leveraging Digital Technology in the Developing World

By: Kevin Schulman, Sashidaran Moodley and Anant Vasudevan

PharmAccess is an Amsterdam-based NGO working to support the development of the private health care market in Africa. This work is critical as over 50% of care is delivered through the private sector, but well-intentioned efforts to address global health through the... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Entrepreneurship; Health Care and Treatment; Online Technology; Health Industry; Africa; Kenya