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Entrepreneurial Management

Entrepreneurial Management

  • Faculty
  • Curriculum
  • Seminars & Conferences
  • Awards & Honors
  • Doctoral Students
Overview Faculty Curriculum Seminars & Conferences Awards & Honors Doctoral Students
    • July–August 2025
    • Article

    Case Study: Do We Reskill or Replace Our Workforce?

    By: William Kerr

    To remain competitive in the internet-of-things era, should the CEO of SolidTech Innovations, a fictional elevator company, invest a lot of money in reskilling its entire staff? The industry is moving from hardware to software in the form of smart, connected elevators. But instead of laying off legacy hardware staff and hiring new talent, the CEO wants to offer the employees a "Grand Bargain": The company will pay for voluntary reskilling and retraining, but the workers will need to take responsibility for their own futures. Those who opt in will gain valuable skills and have a future with the company; those who don't may face demotions and pay cuts. However, there is pushback from the company's shareholders and leaders. Some want to use the program as a fig leaf for laying off staff; others think it costs too much and might put the company at a competitive disadvantage relative to companies that are hiring technologically skilled people right away. Leaders are worried that longtime workers will balk at learning these new skills and end up quitting, causing the company to lose hundreds of years of cumulative experience. The CEO is now unsure of how to proceed.

    • July–August 2025
    • Article

    Case Study: Do We Reskill or Replace Our Workforce?

    By: William Kerr

    To remain competitive in the internet-of-things era, should the CEO of SolidTech Innovations, a fictional elevator company, invest a lot of money in reskilling its entire staff? The industry is moving from hardware to software in the form of smart, connected elevators. But instead of laying off legacy hardware staff and hiring new talent, the CEO...

    • 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...

    • 2025
    • Working Paper

    How Does Wage Inequality Affect the Labor Movement

    By: Barbara Biasi, Zoë B. Cullen, Julia H. Gilman and Nina Roussille

    This paper provides causal evidence on how wage inequality among workers affects the labor movement using three complementary research designs: a vignette experiment with union organizers, a natural policy experiment that increased wage inequality among Wisconsin school teachers, and an information intervention during the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike. Across all studies, we find that inequality undermines union strength through multiple channels. First, workers with high individual bargaining power are more likely to withdraw support in unequal environments, preferring individual over collective bargaining. Second, union organizers strategically respond to inequality in ways that may preserve membership but limit redistribution, such as shifting their campaign away from wages and choosing smaller, more homogeneous bargaining units. Taken together, our findings highlight the potential for “inequality traps,” where rising inequality erodes the very institutions designed to counteract it.

    • 2025
    • Working Paper

    How Does Wage Inequality Affect the Labor Movement

    By: Barbara Biasi, Zoë B. Cullen, Julia H. Gilman and Nina Roussille

    This paper provides causal evidence on how wage inequality among workers affects the labor movement using three complementary research designs: a vignette experiment with union organizers, a natural policy experiment that increased wage inequality among Wisconsin school teachers, and an information intervention during the 2023 Writers Guild of...

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

Case Study: Do We Reskill or Replace Our Workforce?

By: William Kerr
  • July–August 2025 |
  • Article |
  • Harvard Business Review
To remain competitive in the internet-of-things era, should the CEO of SolidTech Innovations, a fictional elevator company, invest a lot of money in reskilling its entire staff? The industry is moving from hardware to software in the form of smart, connected elevators. But instead of laying off legacy hardware staff and hiring new talent, the CEO wants to offer the employees a "Grand Bargain": The company will pay for voluntary reskilling and retraining, but the workers will need to take responsibility for their own futures. Those who opt in will gain valuable skills and have a future with the company; those who don't may face demotions and pay cuts. However, there is pushback from the company's shareholders and leaders. Some want to use the program as a fig leaf for laying off staff; others think it costs too much and might put the company at a competitive disadvantage relative to companies that are hiring technologically skilled people right away. Leaders are worried that longtime workers will balk at learning these new skills and end up quitting, causing the company to lose hundreds of years of cumulative experience. The CEO is now unsure of how to proceed.
Keywords: Training; Competency and Skills; Employees; Change Management; Leading Change
Citation
Find at Harvard
Read Now
Related
Kerr, William. "Case Study: Do We Reskill or Replace Our Workforce?" Harvard Business Review 103, no. 4 (July–August 2025): 141–145.

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
Related
Kim, Olivia S., Jonathan A. Parker, and Antoinette Schoar. "Revenue Collapses and the Consumption of Small Business Owners in the COVID-19 Pandemic." Art. 104079. Journal of Financial Economics 170 (August 2025).

How Does Wage Inequality Affect the Labor Movement

By: Barbara Biasi, Zoë B. Cullen, Julia H. Gilman and Nina Roussille
  • 2025 |
  • Working Paper |
  • Faculty Research
This paper provides causal evidence on how wage inequality among workers affects the labor movement using three complementary research designs: a vignette experiment with union organizers, a natural policy experiment that increased wage inequality among Wisconsin school teachers, and an information intervention during the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike. Across all studies, we find that inequality undermines union strength through multiple channels. First, workers with high individual bargaining power are more likely to withdraw support in unequal environments, preferring individual over collective bargaining. Second, union organizers strategically respond to inequality in ways that may preserve membership but limit redistribution, such as shifting their campaign away from wages and choosing smaller, more homogeneous bargaining units. Taken together, our findings highlight the potential for “inequality traps,” where rising inequality erodes the very institutions designed to counteract it.
Citation
Read Now
Related
Biasi, Barbara, Zoë B. Cullen, Julia H. Gilman, and Nina Roussille. "How Does Wage Inequality Affect the Labor Movement." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 33978, July 2025.

On the Economic Origins of Concerns Over Women’s Chastity

By: Anke Becker
  • July 2025 |
  • Article |
  • Review of Economic Studies
This paper studies the origins and function of customs and norms that intend to keep women from being promiscuous. Using large-scale survey data from more than 100 countries, I test the anthropological theory that a particular form of preindustrial subsistence—pastoralism—favored the adoption of such customs and norms. Pastoralism was characterized by heightened paternity uncertainty due to frequent and often extended periods of male absence from the settlement, implying difficulties in monitoring women's behavior and larger incentives to imposing restrictions on women’s promiscuity. The paper shows that women from historically more pastoral societies (i) are subject to stronger antiabortion attitudes; (ii) are more likely to have undergone infibulation, the most invasive form of female genital cutting; (iii) are more restricted in their freedom of mobility; and (iv) adhere to more restrictive norms about women’s promiscuity. At the historical society level, pastoralism predicts patrilocality, the custom of living close to the husband's family after marriage, allowing them to monitor the bride. Instrumental variable estimations that make use of the ecological determinants of pastoralism support a causal interpretation of the results. I also provide evidence that the mechanism behind these patterns is male absence, rather than male dominance, per se, or historical economic development.
Keywords: Infibulation; Female Sexuality; Paternity Uncertainty; Concern About Women's Chastity; Pastoralism; Economic Anthropology; History; Gender; Social Issues; Culture
Citation
Find at Harvard
Purchase
Related
Becker, Anke. "On the Economic Origins of Concerns Over Women’s Chastity." Review of Economic Studies 92, no. 4 (July 2025): 2303–2329.

Bessemer Venture Partners (2025)

By: Jo Tango and Srimayi Mylavarapu
  • June 2025 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
Bessemer Venture Partners, one of the oldest venture capital firms in the United States, had long been known for its decentralized culture and thesis-driven investing. An internal debate had surfaced around the firm’s approach to seed-stage investing. With competitors moving aggressively, Bessemer was at a crossroads: how much uncomfortable change to adapt today in exchange for more possible future upside?
Keywords: Venture Capital
Citation
Educators
Related
Tango, Jo, and Srimayi Mylavarapu. "Bessemer Venture Partners (2025)." Harvard Business School Case 825-209, June 2025.

Konko AI: Automating Work with AI Agents

By: Shikhar Ghosh, Shweta Bagai and Liang Wu
  • June 2025 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
Keywords: AI; AI and Machine Learning
Citation
Educators
Related
Ghosh, Shikhar, Shweta Bagai, and Liang Wu. "Konko AI: Automating Work with AI Agents." Harvard Business School Case 825-145, June 2025.

Clay Ridge Capital

By: William R. Kerr and Martin A. Sinozich
  • June 2025 |
  • Supplement |
  • Faculty Research
Citation
Purchase
Related
Kerr, William R., and Martin A. Sinozich. "Clay Ridge Capital." Harvard Business School PowerPoint Supplement 825-203, June 2025.

To Found or to Cofound? That Is the Question

By: Christina Wallace and Stacy Straaberg
  • June 2025 |
  • Teaching Note |
  • Faculty Research
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 824-034. Entrepreneurs often struggle with the question of whether to found solo or alongside one or more cofounders. This case is comprised of three vignettes detailing common founding scenarios: the first-time technical founder; the serial commercial founder; and the MBA co-founders who are friends first. Coupled with robust research, this case offers students the opportunity to break down the roles, responsibilities, relationships, and resources of a founding team and determine when and why they should found alone or seek a cofounder.
Keywords: Business Startups; Decisions; Partners and Partnerships; Entrepreneurship; Fashion Industry; Financial Services Industry; Technology Industry; United States
Citation
Purchase
Related
Wallace, Christina, and Stacy Straaberg. "To Found or to Cofound? That Is the Question." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 825-148, June 2025.
More Publications

In the News

    • 20 Jun 2025
    • Bloomberg

    Silicon Valley’s ‘Tiny Team’ Era Is Here

    Re: Jeff Bussgang
    • 13 Jun 2025
    • Valor International

    Sabbaticals Gain Ground as a Tool for Mental Health, Reinvention, and Innovation Strategy

    Re: DJ DiDonna
    • 10 Jun 2025
    • Mass Live

    Is Boston Losing Its Biotech Crown? Bio Conference Takes Place Amidst

    Re: Satish Tadikonda
→More Faculty News

HBS Working Knowledge

    • 12 Nov 2024

    Inside One Startup's Journey to Break Down Hiring (and Funding) Barriers

    Re: Paul A. Gompers
    • 28 Oct 2024

    Latino Voters Have Grown More Politically Divided. That’s Not Surprising.

    Re: Vincent Pons & Jesse M. Shapiro
    • 24 Oct 2024

    Charting the US-China Trade War: What Does 'Made in Vietnam' Mean?

    Re: Ebehi Iyoha & Jaya Y. Wen
→More Working Knowledge Articles

Harvard Business Publishing

    • March 10, 2025
    • Article

    How Gen AI Could Change the Value of Expertise

    By: Joseph Fuller, Matt Sigelman and Michael Fenlon
    • May 2025
    • Case

    Grand Rounds

    By: William A. Sahlman and Lauren Barley
→More Harvard Business Publishing

Seminars & Conferences

There are no upcoming events.

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Faculty Positions

Harvard Business School seeks candidates in all fields for full time positions. Candidates with outstanding records in PhD or DBA programs are encouraged to apply.
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Contact Information

Entrepreneurial Management Unit
Harvard Business School
Rock Center
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
EM@hbs.edu

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