Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is a featured research topic and an initiative at Harvard Business School
 
Our long tradition of research in Entrepreneurship goes back to the 1930's and 1940's with the “the father of venture capitalism,” General Georges Doriot, and Joseph Schumpeter’s theory of innovation as a process of “creative destruction.” Building on our intellectual roots, our scholars come from disciplines including economics, finance, sociology, strategy, business history, management, and social entrepreneurship. A number of our faculty come from practice as venture capitalists and start-up founders. We focus our research on the identification and pursuit of entrepreneurial opportunities; domestic and international funding of entrepreneurial endeavors; innovation, particularly technological innovation in international ventures; the environments in which entrepreneurs make decisions; and social entrepreneurship. As our research contributes new insights, we are advancing the world’s understanding of complex entrepreneurial issues and helping to increase the entrepreneurial success of our students and practitioners worldwide. 

Featured Works

 

  1. Article | Harvard Business Review | July–August 2018

    When Technology Gets Ahead of Society

    Tarun Khanna

    New technologies can be unsettling for industry incumbents, regulators, and consumers, because norms and institutions for dealing with them don’t yet exist. Interestingly, businesspeople in emerging economies face similar challenges: The rules are unclear and infrastructure is lacking. In this article, the author suggests that tech pioneers would do well to heed a lesson he’s gleaned from his research in the developing world: For long-term success, companies must invest in the surrounding ecosystem.
    The author presents examples of entrepreneurs who have done just that in China, Bangladesh, Africa, and Chile, benefiting the public as well as their own enterprises. He then describes how an Indian health care organization is tackling institutional voids as it expands into medical tourism in the Cayman Islands. An in-depth look at the nascent drone industry follows, with profiles of companies that are helping create the conditions for the industry’s growth by amassing knowledge about best practices, influencing the development of regulations, exploring new uses for drones, developing a professional workforce, and so forth.
    The argument is that when firms launching innovative products or services look beyond their self-interest and work to collectively build the institutional infrastructure, they—and society as a whole—are more likely to prosper.

    Keywords: Technological Innovation; Society; Situation or Environment; Infrastructure; Entrepreneurship; Performance Effectiveness; Cooperation;

    Citation:

    Khanna, Tarun. "When Technology Gets Ahead of Society." Harvard Business Review 96, no. 4 (July–August 2018): 86–95.  View Details
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  2. Case | HBS Case Collection | June 2018

    The Grommet in 2018

    Lynda M. Applegate, Karen Gordon Mills and Lena Goldberg

    The Grommet, an online product launch platform, was at the brink of scaling its business. The Grommet's daily launch and sale of innovative consumer products, using personal videos created by product makers, had led to its initial success. In 2014, the company launched The Grommet Wholesale, a similar platform targeting retailers. Was this the best way to capture more of the value the company created for makers?

    Keywords: entrepreneurship; product launch; retail; Value Capture; Online Technology; Entrepreneurship; Product Launch; Retail Industry;

    Citation:

    Applegate, Lynda M., Karen Gordon Mills, and Lena Goldberg. "The Grommet in 2018." Harvard Business School Case 818-132, June 2018.  View Details
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  3. Case | HBS Case Collection | June 2018

    Relax (Boston): Innovating and Growing an Entrepreneurial Business

    Paul Marshall and Carole Carlson

    The Relax case traces the history of a massage services company from its founding in 2007 to mid-2017, when it is considering the best strategy for growth and an acquisition. The company's owner and top managers wonder how the firm should reorganize to cope with the challenges posed by the company's transformation from a small, independent operation to a professionally managed enterprise. This case illustrates the challenges of preparing for rapid growth. It covers issues of internal management and organization, as well as brand management decisions. Relax can be used in an entrepreneurial management or small business course. Because of the emphasis the company places on its brand, it may also be applicable for some marketing or brand management classes.

    Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Acquisition; Brands and Branding; Entrepreneurship; Organizational Design;

    Citation:

    Marshall, Paul, and Carole Carlson. "Relax (Boston): Innovating and Growing an Entrepreneurial Business." Harvard Business School Brief Case 918-523, June 2018.  View Details
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  4. Case | HBS Case Collection | May 2018

    Urban Us

    Mitchell Weiss and Phoebe Peronto

    Shaun Abrahamson and Stonly Baptiste aimed to invest in what they called "urbantech superheroes." At Urban Us, the seed-stage urban technology-focussed venture capital firm the two started in 2012, they looked for startups innovating around the future of cities. By 2017, they had assessed over 700 potential deals. Each one required a go/no-go decision, and four along the way were no different in that regrad. Of Remix, SeamlessDocs, Starcity, and One Concern, which ones to back? Setting aside the question for the moment of why urbantech startups needed superpowers, which of these possessed them?

    Keywords: public entrepreneurship; govtech; urbantech; seed investing; venture capital; Urban Us; Shaun Abrahamson; Stonly Baptiste; Remix; One Concern; Starcity; SeamlessDocs; Venture Capital; Public Sector; City; Urban Development; Entrepreneurship; Miami; San Francisco; New York (city, NY);

    Citation:

    Weiss, Mitchell, and Phoebe Peronto. "Urban Us." Harvard Business School Case 818-115, May 2018.  View Details
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  5. Case | HBS Case Collection | April 2018

    Coco Chanel: From Fashion Icon to Nazi Agent

    Geoffrey Jones and Emily Grandjean

    This case describes the career of the iconic French fashion designer Coco Chanel who created a transformational business during the first half of the twentieth century. Beginning in her early adulthood, Chanel leveraged relationships with acquaintances, friends, and romantic partners to build her fashion business and legendary luxury brand based on understated elegance. Chanel’s famous “little black dress” was accompanied by many other innovations including the use of jersey as material for daytime clothing and her development of the Chanel No. 5 perfume. The case pays close attention to the importance of Chanel’s networks among the cultural elite and European high society. It explores how she embraced the rise of Anti-Semitism among many members of the upper class at that time. During World War II, Chanel lived in the Ritz Hotel in Paris in occupied France, where she entered into a romantic relationship with a high-ranking German intelligence officer. Subsequently, Chanel herself became an intelligence operative for the Nazis. The case ends with Chanel in Switzerland in 1945 after she departed France following the Liberation of Paris by Allied forces. This case can be used to explore multiple issues including creating and building an iconic fashion brand; entrepreneurship; and ethical responsibility of business.

    Keywords: Business History; Biography; Entrepreneurship; Relationships; Brands and Branding; Ethics; Fashion Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry;

    Citation:

    Jones, Geoffrey, and Emily Grandjean. "Coco Chanel: From Fashion Icon to Nazi Agent." Harvard Business School Case 318-139, April 2018.  View Details
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  6. Case | HBS Case Collection | April 2018

    Cisco Systems and OpenDNS: Strategic Integration

    Andy Wu, George Gonzalez and David Wang

    With more than 72,000 employees and revenues approaching the $50B mark, Cisco Systems is one of the largest information technology and networking firms globally. As the company grew and expanded into different lines of businesses, Cisco consistently looked outwards for acquisition targets that could supplement its considerable size and reach. As a follow-up to its well-received $2.7B acquisition of SourceFire in 2013, which seamlessly integrated new cybersecurity offerings into the Security business group, Cisco began conversations with OpenDNS. OpenDNS was a fast-growing start-up with credibility in the cloud security space, but there were also concerns about how its Silicon Valley culture and flat organizational culture would mesh with Cisco’s more staid corporate environment. This case considers the dilemmas that two Cisco executives, Karen Ashley and Dianne Nakanishi, face as they make a final decision about whether and how to acquire and integrate OpenDNS.

    Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Corporate Strategy; Change Management; Entrepreneurship; Organizational Culture; Information Technology Industry;

    Citation:

    Wu, Andy, George Gonzalez, and David Wang. "Cisco Systems and OpenDNS: Strategic Integration." Harvard Business School Case 718-489, April 2018.  View Details
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  7. Case | HBS Case Collection | April 2018

    Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship

    James E. Austin, Megan Epler Wood and Herman B. "Dutch" Leonard

    Wilderness Safaris sees itself as a conservation company that is built on a business model of providing high-end, premium-priced wildlife safaris in various locations in Africa. Dependent on functioning, healthy ecosystems for its long-term survivability as a business, it invests heavily in conservation efforts, both directly, with communities and governments, and with partners and competitors. It may be reaching saturation of the high-cost, high-priced, low-volume, luxury travel product in its existing locations; so to continue its growth, it is now trying to expand into East Africa, where the traditional safari approach by most providers has been a high-volume, low-cost, low-priced product. As a publicly listed company, can Wilderness Safaris find a sustainable growth path that will allow it to profitably expand its business and meet its shareholders’ interests while still achieving its priority purposes of protecting and investing in the ecosystems and communities on which its services are based?

    Keywords: strategy; social enterprise; sustainability; social entrepreneurship; conservation planning; corporate social responsibility; ecotourism; Strategy; Social Enterprise; Social Entrepreneurship; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Expansion; Growth and Development Strategy; Tourism Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Travel Industry; Africa; Botswana;

    Citation:

    Austin, James E., Megan Epler Wood, and Herman B. "Dutch" Leonard. "Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship." Harvard Business School Case 318-040, April 2018.  View Details
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  8. Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2018

    Immigrant Entrepreneurship in America: Evidence from the Survey of Business Owners 2007 & 2012

    Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr

    We study immigrant entrepreneurship and firm ownership in 2007 and 2012 using the Survey of Business Owners (SBO). The survival and growth of immigrant-owned businesses over time relative to native-founded companies is evaluated by linking the 2007 SBO to the Longitudinal Business Database (LBD). We quantify the dependency of the United States as a whole, as well as individual states, on the contributions of immigrant entrepreneurs in terms of firm formation and job creation. We describe differences in the types of businesses started by immigrants and the quality of jobs created by their firms. First-generation immigrants create about 25% of new firms in the United States, but this share exceeds 40% in some states. In addition, Asian and Hispanic second-generation immigrants start about 6% of new firms. Immigrant-owned firms, on average, create fewer jobs than native-owned firms, but much of this is explained by the industry and geographic location of the firms. Immigrant-owned firms pay comparable wages, conditional on firm traits, to native-owned firms, but are less likely to offer benefits.

    Keywords: entrepreneurship; immigration; job creation; employee benefits; owner demographics; Exports; outsourcing; Entrepreneurship; Ownership; Demographics; Jobs and Positions; Compensation and Benefits; United States;

    Citation:

    Kerr, Sari Pekkala, and William R. Kerr. "Immigrant Entrepreneurship in America: Evidence from the Survey of Business Owners 2007 & 2012." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 18-098, April 2018.  View Details
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  9. Case | HBS Case Collection | March 2018 (Revised June 2018)

    City Year at 30: Toward Long-Term Impact

    Rosabeth Moss Kanter and James Weber

    In 2018, City Year was a 30 year old nonprofit that recruited and organized teams of young-adult “volunteers” (corps teams) to provide a year of citizen service. It had 3,100 corps members serving in 327 schools located in 28 U.S. cities. In its early decades, City Year provided a variety of services to a variety of organizations in need. Over its most recent decade, City Year had pivoted to having all corps members serve in low-income public schools to keep students on track to graduation in an effort to reduce the nation’s high school dropout rate. City Year also worked with partners to help schools transform themselves to better meet the needs of low-income students, and worked with policy makers and elected officials to promote the value of national citizen service. In 2012, City Year launched a Long Term Impact strategy (LTI) aimed at making a substantial improvement in high school graduation rates. The LTI required City Year to transform itself over time to create an organization capable of delivering its ambitious impact strategy. The case explores City Year’s history and its efforts to align its organization with its strategy. In March 2018, City Year CEO Michael Brown must examine the state of his organization and its strategy to determine next steps to achieving its LTI goals.

    Keywords: Education; Service Operations; Nonprofit Organizations; Growth and Development Strategy; Performance Efficiency; Resource Allocation; Change Management; Social Entrepreneurship; Middle School Education; Secondary Education; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Human Capital; Growth Management; Service Delivery; Organizational Design; Social Enterprise; Poverty; United States;

    Citation:

    Kanter, Rosabeth Moss, and James Weber. "City Year at 30: Toward Long-Term Impact." Harvard Business School Case 318-089, March 2018. (Revised June 2018.)  View Details
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  10. Case | HBS Case Collection | March 2018

    Chaudhary Group: Rebuilding Nepal

    Christopher J. Malloy, Lauren H. Cohen and Inakshi Sobti

    After the 2015 Nepal earthquake, the Chaudhary Group, a billion-dollar conglomerate in Nepal decides to play a pivotal role in re-building the country. The Group's philanthropic arm (Chaudhary Foundation) works with stakeholders and develops a blue print for short- and long-term relief measures. The management needs to address several questions as they navigate the foundation's course. What element of relief work should the foundation focus on? Should they go beyond addressing the immediate need for shelters and adopt a more holistic development plan? How should they acquire technical expertise and organize themselves to successfully execute this effort? The case focuses on how businesses can drive entrepreneurship and disaster management efforts and be agents for social change in the emerging markets grappling with institutional voids. How should they work with the government in this endeavor? How do they ensure an alignment of these efforts to the group and foundation's long-term focus areas and objectives?

    Keywords: Leadership; Family Business; Decision Choices and Conditions; Developing Countries and Economies; Social Entrepreneurship; Values and Beliefs; Venture Capital; Microfinance; Geographic Location; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Management; Crisis Management; Management Teams; Resource Allocation; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Natural Disasters; Social and Collaborative Networks; Social Issues; Business Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Banking Industry; Auto Industry; Real Estate Industry; Travel Industry; Nepal;

    Citation:

    Malloy, Christopher J., Lauren H. Cohen, and Inakshi Sobti. "Chaudhary Group: Rebuilding Nepal." Harvard Business School Case 218-100, March 2018.  View Details
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    11.  
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Initiatives & Projects

  • Entrepreneurship

    The Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship supports Harvard Business School's mission to "educate leaders who make a difference in the world" by infusing this leadership perspective with an entrepreneurial point of view.

  • Social Enterprise

    The Social Enterprise Initiative at HBS applies innovative business practices and managerial disciplines to drive sustained, high-impact social change.

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Faculty

HBS Working Knowledge

Pic
re Rohit Deshpande
Like many American symphony orchestras, the Los Angeles Philharmonic seemed dying on the vine, unable to attract younger audiences or new sponsors. Then new CEO Deborah Borda came aboard with a plan
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re William R. Kerr
Far from being a drain on the US economy, William Kerr’s research finds immigrants are a driver of innovation and entrepreneurship.
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re Shikhar Ghosh
Doubling in size every two-and-a-half months, ride-hailing service Careem was experiencing growing pains operationally and culturally. Shikhar Ghosh discusses how the founders struggled to keep its 4

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Harvard Business Publishing

Article
by Deepak Malhotra
Case
by Paul Marshall and Carole Carlson
Press Book
by Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

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