Publications
Publications
Show Results For
-
All HBS Web
(150)
- Faculty Publications (19)
Page 1 of
19
Results
- May 2022
- Case
Rawbank's Illico Cash: Can 'Fast Money' Overcome Cash Dependency in the DRC?
By: Lauren Cohen and Grace Headinger
Thomas de Dreux-Brézé, the Head of Strategy and Project Management at Rawbank Congo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was perplexed as he reviewed annual adoption rates for the bank’s launch of Illico Cash 2.0. As the bank’s mobile money app, Illico Cash...
View Details
Keywords:
Fintech;
Inflation;
Deflation;
Rural;
Urban;
Emerging Market;
Mobile Technology;
Finance;
Money;
Inflation and Deflation;
Business Growth and Maturation;
Decision Choices and Conditions;
Demographics;
Developing Countries and Economies;
Corporate Entrepreneurship;
Behavioral Finance;
Currency;
Banks and Banking;
Commercial Banking;
Financial Strategy;
Rural Scope;
Urban Scope;
Innovation Strategy;
Emerging Markets;
Network Effects;
Consumer Behavior;
Mobile and Wireless Technology;
Technology Adoption;
Banking Industry;
Financial Services Industry;
Technology Industry;
Congo, Democratic Republic of the
- February 2021
- Case
Yellow Digital Retailers: Providing Solar Electricity to Transform Rural Africa
By: Lynda M. Applegate, Frank V. Cespedes and Michael Norris
In 2020, Mike Heyink and Maya Stewart, co-founders of the Pay-as-you-Go Solar company Yellow were considering how to grow their startup. They had achieved some success in their first market, Malawi, and had recently entered Uganda, where business was slower. What did...
View Details
- October 2020
- Case
HOPE and Transformational Lending: Netflix Invests in Black Led Banks
By: John D. Macomber and Janice Broome Brooks
Following the killing of George Floyd on Memorial Day in 2020, the large US corporation Netflix elected to make a "transformational deposit" of $10 million into Hope Credit Union (HCU), a small Black led community development finance institution (CDFI) based in...
View Details
- October 2020
- Case
PraDigi Open Learning: Transforming Rural India
By: John J-H Kim and Malini Sen
Pratham is a non-governmental organization, focusing on high-quality, low-cost and replicable interventions to address gaps in the Indian education system. Co-founder Madhav Chavan is interested in using technology for education but differed in the way it is used in...
View Details
- September 2020 (Revised November 2020)
- Case
d.light
By: Michael Chu, Krishna G. Palepu and Dilyana Karadzhova Botha
Kenyan off-grid-solar pioneer d.light can power entire homes in rural Africa but must now decide how to fund the growth of its asset-heavy business model. Ned Tozun and Sam Goldman founded d.light in 2006 to transform lives through solar solutions enabling access to...
View Details
- June 2020
- Case
gWorks
By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff
In January of 2019, Joe Heieck (HBS '14), CEO of gWorks, was deciding whether to proceed with his acquisition of Data Tech, that was a business roughly the same size of gWorks. gWorks, which provided geospatial software to small city and rural county governments, was...
View Details
- April 2020 (Revised June 2020)
- Case
Shorefast: A Strange and Familiar Way to Reimagine Capitalism
By: Brian Trelstad, Wendy Smith and Natalie Slawinski
In 2006, Zita Cobb and two of her brothers, Alan Cobb and Tony Cobb, native Newfoundlanders, launched Shorefast to help grow another leg of Fogo Island’s economy. Like so many rural communities, Fogo Island’s fate was tied directly to one primary resource—in this case...
View Details
- December 2018 (Revised January 2020)
- Case
Husk Power: Scaling the Venture
In January 2018, Manoj Sinha—founder and CEO of Husk Power—was contemplating raising $20 million to scale operations for a second time. From 2007 through 2013, Husk built 80 biomass waste plants that provided electricity to 250,000 villagers and shop owners spread...
View Details
- February 2016
- Teaching Note
Akın Öngör's Journey
By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone
The case of Akın Öngör's Journey describes a highly successful former CEO with stellar leadership skills, who transformed a bank in Turkey into one of the world's best, steered it to contribute to his country's social agenda, influenced business practices of other...
View Details
- 2015
- Working Paper
Informal Tradables and the Employment Growth of Indian Manufacturing
By: Ejaz Ghani, William R. Kerr and Alexander Segura
India's manufacturing growth from 1989 to 2010 displays two intriguing properties: 1) a substantial fraction of absolute and net employment growth is concentrated in informal tradable industries, and 2) much of this growth is connected to the development of one-person...
View Details
- August 2014 (Revised May 2016)
- Case
Husk Power
By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and Sid Misra
In late 2013, Husk Power Systems found itself falling further and further behind plan. The founding CEO had decided to resign. His co-founder is faced with the decision of quitting his corporate job in the US to head to India and help form a new management team. Husk...
View Details
Keywords:
Plant-Based Agribusiness;
Business Model;
Business Startups;
Energy Generation;
Renewable Energy;
Social Entrepreneurship;
Foreign Direct Investment;
International Finance;
Globalized Markets and Industries;
Crime and Corruption;
Employee Relationship Management;
Independent Innovation and Invention;
Employment;
Leadership Style;
Leading Change;
Management Practices and Processes;
Management Style;
Management Succession;
Management Skills;
Emerging Markets;
Social Psychology;
Culture;
Business Strategy;
Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry;
Energy Industry;
Green Technology Industry;
Utilities Industry;
Africa;
India;
United States
- March 2014 (Revised October 2015)
- Case
Teach For China and the Chinese Nonprofit Sector
By: William C. Kirby and Erica M. Zendell
Teach For China was founded in 2008 with the mission of expanding educational opportunity across China. By 2013, Andrea Pasinetti's lofty dream had taken flight: over 300 graduates from top American and Chinese universities were participating in its 2-year teaching...
View Details
Keywords:
Nonprofit;
China;
Business And Government Relations;
Business And Poverty;
Business And Society;
Emerging Market Entrepreneurship;
Emerging Market;
NGO;
Education;
Entrepreneurship;
Social Enterprise;
Emerging Markets;
Non-Governmental Organizations;
Nonprofit Organizations;
Education Industry;
China
- 2014
- Case
Microfinance Services in Rural Areas--Farmers' Self-reliance Branch of CFPA Microfinance in Shangyi County
By: F. Warren McFarlan, Siqun Yang and Meihua Shen
Microfinance is introduced into China in the 1990s. It had gone through 3 phases since the beginning, namely the pilot phase when all Microfinance practices are sponsored by charity funds based on projects, the promotion phase when the government subsidized some...
View Details
- 2014
- Teaching Note
Microfinance Services in Rural Areas--Farmers' Self-reliance Branch of CFPA Microfinance in Shangyi County (TN)
By: F. Warren McFarlan, Yang Siqun and Shen Meihua
Microfinance is introduced into China in the 1990s. It had gone through 3 phases since the beginning, namely the pilot phase when all Microfinance practices are sponsored by charity funds based on projects, the promotion phase when the government subsidized some...
View Details
- January 2013
- Case
Omidyar Network: Pioneering Impact Investment
By: Michael Chu and Lauren Barley
Omidyar Network, having deployed to date over $500 million in ways ranging from donations to commercial equity capital, must decide whether to back Anudip, an Indian organization dedicated to providing the rural unemployed and marginalized with livelihoods linked to...
View Details
- February 2011 (Revised September 2013)
- Case
Sarvajal: Water for All
By: John D. Macomber and Mona Sinha
Entrepreneur wrestles with business model using SMS and RFID technology, franchising, and leasing to rapidly grow off-the-grid water purification business without subsidies. The company seeks to provide potable water services to rural and urban India where the public...
View Details
- February 2010 (Revised June 2011)
- Case
SEWA Trade Facilitation Center: Changing the Spool
By: Mukti Khaire and Kathleen L. McGinn
The case is about the decision to convert a not-for-profit organization into a for-profit company. SEWA Trade Facilitation Center (STFC), which is part of a larger non-profit organization—the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA)—works to improve the livelihoods of...
View Details
- 2008
- Book
Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India Are Reshaping Their Futures and Yours
By: Tarun Khanna
China and India are home to one-third of the world's population. And they're undergoing social and economic revolutions that are capturing the best minds--and money--of Western business. In "Billions of Entrepreneurs," Tarun Khanna examines the entrepreneurial forces...
View Details
- June 2005 (Revised August 2011)
- Case
Narayana Hrudayalaya Heart Hospital: Cardiac Care for the Poor (A)
By: Tarun Khanna, V. Kasturi Rangan and Merlina Manocaran
Describes the mission, vision, and strategy of a team of entrepreneurs headed by a charismatic heart surgeon who founded a heart hospital in Bangalore, India. The purpose of the hospital was to offer health care for the masses. This tertiary care hospital performed...
View Details