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- January 2022
- Case
Dating Ring
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Lindsay N. Hyde
In 2015, the co-founders of Dating Ring, an online dating startup that relied on human matchmakers to arrange dates between its members, were deciding whether to either shut down the service or instead manage Dating Ring as a "lifestyle company," ramping down growth...
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- December 2021
- Case
Katerra (A)
By: Lindsay N. Hyde, Thomas R. Eisenmann and Tom Quinn
In April 2020, Katerra executives struggled with a series of decisions that would determine the fate of one of the best-funded construction startups in history. Katerra was founded in 2015 by technology-industry executive Michael Marks and commercial real estate...
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- December 2021
- Supplement
Katerra (B)
By: Lindsay N. Hyde, Thomas R. Eisenmann and Tom Quinn
In May 2020, SoftBank executives, having invested nearly $2 billion in Katerra, decided the vision of an end-to-end, vertically-integrated construction process was worth saving—with some major changes to company structure. The SoftBank Vision Fund invested $200 million...
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- December 2021 (Revised May 2022)
- Case
Troverie (A)
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Lindsay N. Hyde and Olivia Graham
Six months after the August 2018 launch of Troverie, a U.S.-based online retailer of luxury watches, the average cost of acquiring a customer is much higher than originally projected, and the startup is incurring a substantial loss on each sales transaction. Could...
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- December 2021
- Supplement
Troverie (B)
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Lindsay N. Hyde and Olivia Graham
Resolves the questions raised in Troverie (A); recounts pivots and efforts to raise capital from strategic investors and sell Troverie; and shares the founder's post-mortem reflections on what went wrong and what he might have done differently.
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- 2021
- Book
Why Startups Fail: A New Roadmap for Entrepreneurial Success
Why Startups Fail explores entrepreneurial failure, examining its predictable patterns, how to avoid them, and how to cope when failure does occur. Part I looks at three common failure patterns for early-stage startups, illustrating each with an anchor case...
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- May–June 2021
- Article
Why Start-ups Fail
If you’re launching a business, the odds are against you: Two-thirds of start-ups never show a positive return. Unnerved by that statistic, a professor of entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School set out to discover why. Based on interviews and surveys with hundreds...
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- January 2021
- Supplement
What Went Wrong with Boeing’s 737 Max? (B)
By: William W. George and Amram Migdal
Following the March 10, 2019, crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight 302, en route to Nairobi, Kenya and the October 29, 2018, downing of Lion Air flight 610 as it took off from Jakarta, Indonesia, Boeing’s 737 Max jet, the model flown in both instances, was grounded by...
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Keywords:
Ethics;
Values and Beliefs;
Governance;
Corporate Accountability;
Governance Controls;
Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms;
Leadership;
Management;
Business or Company Management;
Crisis Management;
Risk Management;
Organizations;
Organizational Culture;
Problems and Challenges;
Risk and Uncertainty;
Safety;
Failure;
Transportation;
Air Transportation;
Aerospace Industry;
Air Transportation Industry;
North America;
United States
- 2020
- Working Paper
Determinants of Early-Stage Startup Performance: Survey Results
To explore determinants of new venture performance, the CEOs of 470 early-stage startups were surveyed regarding a broad range of factors related to their venture’s customer value proposition, product management, marketing, technology and operations, financial...
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- October 2020 (Revised April 2022)
- Case
When Institutions Fail: HIV/AIDS in the 1980s
By: Tom Nicholas and Christian Godwin
During the early 1980s, young gay men in urban centers such as San Francisco and New York City began contracting a mysterious illness that would come to be known as HIV/AIDS. A diagnosis meant almost certain death, with a less than 1% survival rate. Conflicting...
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Keywords:
Ethics;
Policy;
Government and Politics;
Health Pandemics;
History;
Rights;
Media;
Organizations;
Business and Community Relations;
Religion;
Social Psychology;
Identity;
Prejudice and Bias;
Social Issues;
Public Opinion;
Pharmaceutical Industry;
Biotechnology Industry;
Health Industry;
Journalism and News Industry;
Media and Broadcasting Industry;
Public Administration Industry;
United States
- Fall 2020
- Article
Sizing Up Corporate Restructuring in the COVID Crisis
By: Robin Greenwood, Benjamin Iverson and David Thesmar
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the financial and legal system will need to deal with a surge of financial distress in the business sector. Some firms will be able to survive, while others will face bankruptcy and thus need to be liquidated or reorganized. Many...
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- June 2020 (Revised October 2020)
- Case
What Went Wrong with Boeing's 737 Max?
By: William W. George and Amram Migdal
This case describes the development of the Boeing 737 Max airplane model and the events leading up to two tragic plane crashes, in which a total of 346 people died: the crash of Lion Air flight 610 on October 29, 2018, in Indonesia, and the crash of Ethiopian Airlines...
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Keywords:
Communication;
Communication Intention and Meaning;
Communication Strategy;
Forms of Communication;
Announcements;
Decision Making;
Decision Choices and Conditions;
Judgments;
Ethics;
Moral Sensibility;
Values and Beliefs;
Globalization;
Global Strategy;
Governance;
Corporate Accountability;
Governance Controls;
Human Resources;
Resignation and Termination;
Leadership;
Leadership Style;
Management;
Business or Company Management;
Crisis Management;
Management Practices and Processes;
Management Skills;
Management Style;
Management Systems;
Risk Management;
Time Management;
Markets;
Demand and Consumers;
Digital Platforms;
Supply and Industry;
Duopoly and Oligopoly;
Industry Structures;
Operations;
Product Development;
Organizations;
Organizational Change and Adaptation;
Organizational Culture;
Outcome or Result;
Failure;
Success;
Planning;
Strategic Planning;
Problems and Challenges;
Relationships;
Business and Community Relations;
Business and Government Relations;
Business and Stakeholder Relations;
Risk and Uncertainty;
Safety;
Strategy;
Transportation;
Air Transportation;
Aerospace Industry;
Air Transportation Industry;
Africa;
Ethiopia;
Asia;
Indonesia;
North and Central America;
United States;
Seattle;
Chicago
- Article
Using the Balanced Scorecard for Successful Health Care M&A Integration
By: Robert S. Kaplan
The failure of merged organizations to achieve stated goals is commonplace. In health care, the challenge is exacerbated by the industry’s third-party payer system and multiple stakeholders, especially the physicians in the merging entities. This article describes how...
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- April 29, 2020
- Article
The Case for AI Insurance
By: Ram Shankar Siva Kumar and Frank Nagle
When organizations place machine learning systems at the center of their businesses, they introduce the risk of failures that could lead to a data breach, brand damage, property damage, business interruption, and in some cases, bodily harm. Even when companies are...
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- April 2020 (Revised July 2020)
- Case
Amazon in China and India
By: Krishna G. Palepu and Kairavi Dey
Amazon has been unsuccessful in its efforts to develop a business in China. Even though Amazon was an early entrant into China’s e-commerce space, its domestic rivals, especially Alibaba, created innovative business models uniquely suited for the conditions in China. ...
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- November 2019 (Revised February 2020)
- Case
Starbucks: Reaffirming Commitment to the Third Place Ideal
By: Francesca Gino, Katherine B. Coffman and Jeff Huizinga
On April 12, 2018, two African American entrepreneurs had scheduled a business meeting at a Starbucks in Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square neighborhood. They sat without ordering, waiting for a local businessman to show up for the meeting. The store manager called 911...
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- October 2019 (Revised January 2020)
- Case
Dulcie Madden (A)—Growth or Exit?
By: Shikhar Ghosh, Christopher Payton and Shweta Bagai
This is part of a three-case series that follows Dulcie Madden's journey as a founder over five years. Case (A) is about managing growth and cash flow; Case (B) is about the exit decision and conditions on a sale; Case (C) shows Madden dealing with adversity and the...
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Keywords:
Entrepreneurial Management;
Family;
Family Conflicts;
Founders' Agreements;
Growth And Development;
Hardware;
VC;
Scaling;
Start-up;
Female Ceo;
Risk Assessment;
Entrepreneurship;
Growth Management;
Equity;
Cash Flow;
Success;
Failure;
Acquisition;
Business Model;
Information Technology;
Valuation;
Family and Family Relationships;
Information Infrastructure;
Apparel and Accessories Industry;
Technology Industry;
United States
- October 2019 (Revised January 2020)
- Supplement
Dulcie Madden (B)—A Difficult Choice
By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai
This is part of a three-case series that follows Dulcie Madden's journey as a founder over five years. Case (A) is about managing growth and cash flow; Case (B) is about the exit decision and conditions on a sale; Case (C) shows Madden dealing with adversity and the...
View Details
Keywords:
Entrepreneurial Management;
Family;
Family Conflicts;
Founders' Agreements;
Growth And Development;
Hardware;
VC;
Scaling;
Start-up;
Female Ceo;
Risk Assessment;
Entrepreneurship;
Growth Management;
Cash Flow;
Equity;
Success;
Failure;
Acquisition;
Business Model;
Information Technology;
Valuation;
Family and Family Relationships;
Information Infrastructure
- October 2019 (Revised January 2020)
- Supplement
Dulcie Madden (C)—A Final Chance?
By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai
This is part of a three-case series that follows Dulcie Madden's journey as a founder over five years. Case (A) is about managing growth and cash flow; Case (B) is about the exit decision and conditions on a sale; Case (C) shows Madden dealing with adversity and the...
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Keywords:
Entrepreneurship;
Growth Management;
Cash Flow;
Success;
Failure;
Acquisition;
Business Model;
Technology
- September 2019 (Revised December 2019)
- Case
Anthony Soohoo at Dot & Bo: Bringing Storytelling to Furniture E-Commerce
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Allison M. Ciechanover and George Gonzalez
The case provides students an opportunity to examine the founding of an e-commerce startup that used storytelling and compelling images to sell furniture and home accessories to millennials. The case describes the rapid sales growth the company experienced, as well as...
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