Faculty & Research

Facilitating faculty research and case development on an international scale

Our unprecedented network of research centers and regional offices in key areas of the world enable faculty to work with leaders, industry, government, and academia worldwide, and to learn from business challenges and innovations wherever they occur. Through sustained work in the field, faculty are provided the opportunity to immerse themselves in the culture and values – as well as intricacies and nuances – that lead to truly meaningful and insightful global research.

Research Centers & Offices

More than half the faculty are actively involved in international research, developing high-impact cases and course materials on relevant global issues and innovations.

New Research

December 2024
Article
Energy Policy

Coordinating the Energy Transition: Electrifying Transportation in California and Germany

By: Nicholas Goedeking and Jonas Meckling

California and Germany share ambitious emission reduction targets. Yet California is ahead of Germany in electrifying transportation by several metrics, including the number of public charging stations. We show that variation in the politics of coordination in California and Germany explains the different outcomes. Transforming energy systems requires coordination across various complementary technologies and infrastructures—here between the supply of electric vehicles and the buildout of charging stations. In California, a strong electrification coalition emerged across automakers selling electric vehicles as well as utilities and third-party firms providing charging infrastructure. Power market rules made capital investments for charging infrastructure instantly profitable for California monopoly utilities. By contrast, in Germany's liberalized power market, investing in capital-intensive charging infrastructure was not profitable for electric utilities. As a result, utilities did not emerge as a political force in the electrification coalition. Instead, utilities and automakers were in gridlock, failing to coordinate electric vehicle rollout and public charging station buildout. Our findings highlight the limits of business-led coordination, raising the question which institutions help address coordination failures in clean energy transitions.

November 2024
Teaching Material

Social Enterprise in the MENA Region

By: Brian Trelstad and Ahmed Dahawy

This research note provides an overview of the socio-economic landscape of social enterprise in the Middle East and North Africa. It highlights the diversity of players in the region including social enterprise organizations (in their many forms) and supporting agencies, funders, and regulators. The note also dives briefly into the demographics of social entrepreneurs in the region as well as the common social objectives they aimed to address through their organizations.

November 2024
Teaching Material

Mercado Bitcoin: M&A, IPO, or Series B?

By: Raymond Kluender, Emanuele Colonnelli and Sabrina Howell

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 825-047. In April 2021, Brazilian cryptocurrency platform Mercado Bitcoin, had to decide how to scale: go public, M&A with a bank, or take a VC big check. In a highly volatile market, Roberto Dagnoni, chairman of the board, viewed the unprecedent crypto momentum as a window of opportunity for achieving the liquidity they needed to accelerate the company’s expansion plans. In a striking twist of events for Mercado Bitcoin, which had just closed a challenging Series-A capital round after a year of hard negotiations, while considering an Initial Public Offering (IPO), the company was approached by the M&A teams of two large banks. And SoftBank, the largest-ever technology-focused fund in Latin America, presented a tempting term sheet. The case goes through the history of Mercado Bitcoin, from being the first Brazilian cryptocurrency exchange platform into becoming one of the largest crypto asset exchanges in Latin America; the challenges faced throughout it, from market swings to the lack of regulatory infrastructure; up to the dilemma point, presenting the cons and pros of the three options, viewing the company’s insights, revenue forecasts, and comparatives of reference companies.

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Global Colloquium for participant-centered learning

For senior faculty at top business schools in emerging economies who want to be trained in interactive methods of teaching and learning. GloColl comprises a seven-day session held on the HBS campus, followed by a three-day session held in two cities in Asia, Europe, or Latin America each year.

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Faculty & Research

Facilitating faculty research and case development on an international scale

Research Centers & Offices

New Research

Coordinating the Energy Transition: Electrifying Transportation in California and Germany

Social Enterprise in the MENA Region

Mercado Bitcoin: M&A, IPO, or Series B?

Global Colloquium for participant-centered learning

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