Entrepreneurial Management

- August 2025
- Article
Revenue Collapses and the Consumption of Small Business Owners in the COVID-19 Pandemic

By: Olivia S. Kim, Jonathan A. Parker and Antoinette Schoar

Using financial account data linking small businesses to their owner households, we examine how business owners’ consumption responded to changes in business revenues during the COVID-19 crisis. In the first two months following the National Emergency, business revenues declined by 40 percent, largely driven by national factors rather than local infection rates or policies. However, the pass-through of revenue losses to owner consumption was limited: each dollar of revenue loss resulted in only a 1.6-cent decline in consumption. This muted pass-through persisted through 2021, even after the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines. Our findings suggest that federal subsidies and pandemic-induced reductions in spending opportunities explain the limited impact.
- August 2025
- Article
Revenue Collapses and the Consumption of Small Business Owners in the COVID-19 Pandemic

By: Olivia S. Kim, Jonathan A. Parker and Antoinette Schoar

Using financial account data linking small businesses to their owner households, we examine how business owners’ consumption responded to changes in business revenues during the COVID-19 crisis. In the first two months following the National Emergency, business revenues declined by 40 percent, largely driven by national factors rather than local...
- June 2025
- Article
Collusion in Brokered Markets

By: John William Hatfield, Scott Duke Kominers and Richard Lowery

High commissions in the U.S. residential real estate agency market present a puzzle for economic theory because brokerage is not a concentrated industry. We model brokered markets as a game in which agents post prices for customers and then choose which other agents to work with. We show there exists an equilibrium in which each agent conditions working with other agents on those agents’ posted prices. Resulting prices can be appreciably higher than the competitive level (for a fixed discount factor), regardless of the number of agents. Thus, brokered markets can remain uncompetitive even with low concentration and easy entry.
- June 2025
- Article
Collusion in Brokered Markets

By: John William Hatfield, Scott Duke Kominers and Richard Lowery

High commissions in the U.S. residential real estate agency market present a puzzle for economic theory because brokerage is not a concentrated industry. We model brokered markets as a game in which agents post prices for customers and then choose which other agents to work with. We show there exists an equilibrium in which each agent conditions...
- May 2025
- Case
Grand Rounds

By: William A. Sahlman and Lauren Barley
- May 2025
- Case
Grand Rounds

By: William A. Sahlman and Lauren Barley

About the Unit

The Entrepreneurial Management Unit strives to raise the level of academic work in the field of entrepreneurship, in methodological rigor, conceptual depth, and managerial applicability. We also strive to improve the odds of entrepreneurial success for our students and for practitioners worldwide.

Because it is such a complex phenomenon, entrepreneurship must be studied through multiple lenses. We use three.

The process of entrepreneurship - We seek to understand the processes of entrepreneurial activity in start-ups and established firms by examining the antecedents and consequences of various forms of entrepreneurial opportunity identification and opportunity pursuit for individuals, organizations, and industries. We see experimentation and innovation in products, services, processes, and business models as central to entrepreneurial activity.
The finance of entrepreneurship - We seek to understand the financing of entrepreneurial ventures by studying the antecedents and consequences of entrepreneurial funding decisions both domestically and internationally.
The context of entrepreneurship - We seek to understand the ways in which entrepreneurs both respond to and shape the context in which they operate, by examining the history of entrepreneurship across time and national borders and by analyzing the legal and cultural contexts for managerial action.

Please also visit the Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship.

Recent Publications

Revenue Collapses and the Consumption of Small Business Owners in the COVID-19 Pandemic

By: Olivia S. Kim, Jonathan A. Parker and Antoinette Schoar

August 2025 |
Article |
Journal of Financial Economics

Using financial account data linking small businesses to their owner households, we examine how business owners’ consumption responded to changes in business revenues during the COVID-19 crisis. In the first two months following the National Emergency, business revenues declined by 40 percent, largely driven by national factors rather than local infection rates or policies. However, the pass-through of revenue losses to owner consumption was limited: each dollar of revenue loss resulted in only a 1.6-cent decline in consumption. This muted pass-through persisted through 2021, even after the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines. Our findings suggest that federal subsidies and pandemic-induced reductions in spending opportunities explain the limited impact.

Keywords: Revenue; Small Business; Health Pandemics; Spending; Consumer Behavior

Citation

Read Now

Collusion in Brokered Markets

By: John William Hatfield, Scott Duke Kominers and Richard Lowery

June 2025 |
Article |
Journal of Finance

High commissions in the U.S. residential real estate agency market present a puzzle for economic theory because brokerage is not a concentrated industry. We model brokered markets as a game in which agents post prices for customers and then choose which other agents to work with. We show there exists an equilibrium in which each agent conditions working with other agents on those agents’ posted prices. Resulting prices can be appreciably higher than the competitive level (for a fixed discount factor), regardless of the number of agents. Thus, brokered markets can remain uncompetitive even with low concentration and easy entry.

Citation

Purchase

Clay Ridge Capital

By: William R. Kerr and Martin A. Sinozich

May 2025 |
Teaching Note |
Faculty Research

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 823-089. Kel Jackson, with the support of his young family, has been searching for a manufacturing business to purchase. After a long process, Kel had submitted a written offer to buy Sheetfab that matched his original conversation with the owner, but a broker whom Kel had never met wrote back with a counter-offer that was less attractive. Kel must decide whether to take the counter-offer, attempt to negotiate it, pursue a smaller deal with Precision Parts, or keep searching.

Citation

Purchase

Grand Rounds

By: William A. Sahlman and Lauren Barley

May 2025 |
Case |
Faculty Research

Citation

Educators

Purchase

The Future of the BBC: Public Ownership vs. Privatization

By: Henry McGee

May 2025 |
Case |
Faculty Research

With viewership of the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) in decline, the country’s Culture Minister must recommend a new funding model for the venerated public institution which will allow the broadcaster to succeed in an increasingly competitive media environment.

Keywords: Television Entertainment; Cooperative Ownership; State Ownership; Privatization; Public Ownership; Media and Broadcasting Industry; United Kingdom

Citation

Educators

Wilburn Medical USA

By: David Ager, Lynda M. Applegate and James Barnett

May 2025 |
Case |
Faculty Research

In September 2024, Emily Wilburn Andrews, CEO of Wilburn Medical USA, is five years into her tenure leading the medical equipment supply company since taking over for her father, the company’s founder. She considers approaches to grow the company while maintaining the company purpose—to provide value to customers and improve their quality of life.

Keywords: Small Business; Change Management; Decision Making; Ethics; Values and Beliefs; Health; Medical Specialties; Leadership; Health Industry; United States

Citation

Educators

Shifting Work Patterns with Generative AI

By: Eleanor W. Dillon, Sonia Jaffe, Nicole Immorlica and Christopher T. Stanton

Working Paper |
Faculty Research

We present evidence on how generative AI changes the work patterns of knowledge workers using data from a 6-month-long, cross-industry, randomized field experiment. Half of the 7,137 workers in the study received access to a generative AI tool integrated into the applications they already used for emails, document creation, and meetings. We find that access to the AI tool during the first year of its release primarily impacted behaviors that workers could change independently and not behaviors that require coordination to change: workers who used the tool in more than half of the sample weeks spent 3.6 fewer hours, or 31% less time on email each week (intent to treat estimate is 1.3 hours) and completed documents moderately faster, but did not significantly change time spent in meetings.

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Behavior; Time Management

Citation

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Workplace Segregation Between College and Non-college Workers

By: Francis Dillon, Edward L. Glaeser and William Kerr

May 2025 |
Article |
AEA Papers and Proceedings

We measure the level and growth of education segregation in American workplaces from 2000 to 2020. American workplaces show an educational segregation, measured by the degree to which the establishment has mostly workers of similar education levels, that is comparable to racial residential segregation in a typical metro area. Workplace isolation was particularly high for young and male workers without college degrees. The isolation of non-college workers is increasing over time.

Keywords: Isolation; Segregation; Mobility

Citation

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More Publications