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 | Journal of Financial Economics | January 2020

    How Do Venture Capitalists Make Decisions?

    Paul A. Gompers, William Gornall, Steven N. Kaplan and Ilya A. Strebulaev

    We survey 885 institutional venture capitalists (VCs) at 681 firms to learn how they make decisions across eight areas: deal sourcing, investment selection, valuation, deal structure, post-investment value-added, exits, internal firm organization, and relationships with limited partners. In selecting investments, VCs see the management team as more important than business-related characteristics such as product or technology. They also attribute more of the likelihood of ultimate investment success or failure to the team than to the business. While deal sourcing, deal selection, and post-investment value-added all contribute to value creation, the VCs rate deal selection as the most important of the three. We also explore (and find) differences in practices across industry, stage, geography, and past success. We compare our results to those for CFOs (Graham and Harvey 2001) and private equity investors (Gompers, Kaplan, and Mukharlyamov forthcoming).

    Keywords: Venture Capital; Value Creation; Capital Structure; Entrepreneurship; Decision Making;

    Citation:

    Gompers, Paul A., William Gornall, Steven N. Kaplan, and Ilya A. Strebulaev. "How Do Venture Capitalists Make Decisions?" Journal of Financial Economics 135, no. 1 (January 2020): 169–190.  View Details
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  2. Case | HBS Case Collection | December 2019

    Ray White

    Boris Groysberg and Tricia Gregg

    Ray White is an Australian real estate business that has been owned and operated by the White family for four generations. The business has expanded and prospered. However, as the industry faces new challenges and opportunities, how should the White family respond?

    Keywords: Family Business; Entrepreneurship; Leadership; Disruption; Technology; Real Estate Industry; Australia;

    Citation:

    Groysberg, Boris, and Tricia Gregg. "Ray White." Harvard Business School Case 420-082, December 2019.  View Details
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  3. Working Paper | 2019

    Impact Investing: A Theory of Financing Social Entrepreneurship

    Benjamin N. Roth

    I present a model of financing social enterprises to delineate the role of impact investors relative to “pure” philanthropists. I characterize the optimal scale and structure of a social enterprise when financed by grants, and when financed by investments. The analysis yields two heuristics to guide impact investors. First, investments allow a financier to discipline inefficient spending. Second, investments may enable a social enterprise to exploit new opportunities for profit, and may increase the enterprise’s scale relative to when grant financed. I quantify these heuristics for the case of Husk Power, a social enterprise that has received impact investment.

    Keywords: impact investing; Social Entrepreneurship; Finance; Investment; Mathematical Methods;

    Citation:

    Roth, Benjamin N. "Impact Investing: A Theory of Financing Social Entrepreneurship." Working Paper, December 2019.  View Details
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  4. Case | HBS Case Collection | November 2019

    Collibra

    Lynda M. Applegate, Jeffrey F. Rayport and Julia Kelley

    Founded in 2008 at Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Collibra was a data intelligence company that found product-market fit in the years after the global financial crisis, when many companies were under pressure from consumers and governments to improve their data management efforts. Over the years, Collibra expanded its product offering from a Semantic Data Integration tool to a Data Governance Platform with a range of data management and governance tools, and also expanded geographically from Belgium to the U.S. and other countries. In 2019, with more than 350 clients, Collibra became a unicorn with a valuation of more than $1 billion. Now, co-founders Felix Van de Maele, Stijn Christiaens, and Pieter De Leenheer needed to decide how to move from “data governance” to “data intelligence.

    Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Governance; Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Markets; Technology; Information Technology; Software; Technology Adoption; Technology Platform; Semantic Web; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Expansion; Information Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Europe; Belgium; Brussels; North and Central America; United States; New York (city, NY); New York (state, US);

    Citation:

    Applegate, Lynda M., Jeffrey F. Rayport, and Julia Kelley. "Collibra." Harvard Business School Case 820-013, November 2019.  View Details
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  5. Case | HBS Case Collection | November 2019 (Revised December 2019)

    Marcus by Goldman Sachs

    Rory McDonald, Samir Junnarkar and David Lane

    Five years on from the 2008 financial crisis, Goldman Sachs remained wounded. Revenues at the global investment bank had stagnated below pre-crisis levels, and the firm had yet to rebound from a substantial decline in securities-trading revenues. Marcus by Goldman Sachs was one response—an effort that operated as a start-up but was sponsored by senior Goldman executives—to grow the firm’s revenues by entering consumer banking with digital-only offerings. The moved marked a dramatic cultural as well as product shift: the 150 year-old institution historically served only businesses and the wealthiest of individuals. In 2016, Marcus launched unsecured personal loans for the mass market; it rolled out high-yield deposits in 2017 and a credit card in partnership with Apple in 2019. By autumn of that year, Marcus had $5 billion in loans outstanding and $55 billion in deposits. It also faced a dilemma—ceaseless and rapid expansion had strained its people and infrastructure, yet Goldman expected Marcus to generate $1 billion in revenues in 2020. What now was the better bet, to pause to allow performance to catch up with growth, or to seize the additional opportunities that beckoned for Marcus to diversify into consumer finance products?

    Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Banks and Banking; Innovation Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Organizational Culture; Financial Services Industry; United Kingdom;

    Citation:

    McDonald, Rory, Samir Junnarkar, and David Lane. "Marcus by Goldman Sachs." Harvard Business School Case 620-005, November 2019. (Revised December 2019.)  View Details
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  6. Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2019

    Tech Clusters

    William R. Kerr and Frederic Robert-Nicoud

    Tech clusters like Silicon Valley play a central role for modern innovation, business competitiveness, and economic performance. This paper reviews what constitutes a tech cluster, how they function internally, and the degree to which policy makers can purposefully foster them. We describe the growing influence of advanced technologies for businesses outside of traditional tech fields, the strains and backlash that tech clusters are experiencing, and emerging research questions for theory and empirical work.

    Keywords: clusters; agglomeration; innovation; Industry Clusters; Innovation and Invention; Entrepreneurship; Patents;

    Citation:

    Kerr, William R., and Frederic Robert-Nicoud. "Tech Clusters." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-063, November 2019.  View Details
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  7. Case | HBS Case Collection | November 2019

    Away: Scaling a DTC Travel Brand

    Jill Avery and Joseph B. Fuller

    Away, a direct-to-consumer, digital native e-commerce seller of travel luggage, is debating how to invest its latest round of venture funding. How quickly could and should Away scale and what were the most promising growth trajectories to maximize its potential? Three decisions face the founders. Should Away continue to invest in driving growth in suitcases and other travel bags or was it time to begin to expand into other adjacent travel categories? How should they use the results of the company’s first customer segmentation study to select target segments and quantify their growth aspirations? What were the right distribution strategies moving forward following a series of pilots that included company-owned stores, temporary airport kiosks, and pop-up experiences with retailer partners?

    Keywords: brand management; DTC; e-commerce; brand extension; lifestyle brand; customer segmentation; retailing; Scaling and Growth; Startup; Brands and Branding; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Marketing Channels; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Consumer Behavior; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Startups; Consumer Products Industry; Travel Industry; United States; North America;

    Citation:

    Avery, Jill, and Joseph B. Fuller. "Away: Scaling a DTC Travel Brand." Harvard Business School Case 520-051, November 2019.  View Details
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  8. Case | HBS Case Collection | November 2019

    DeepGreen and Polymetallic Nodules

    Richard H.K. Vietor

    The world has begun a “green transition” – a move to reduce carbon emissions. Part of this will entail a growing shift to electric vehicles. Huge amounts of metals – cobalt, nickel, copper – will be needed to supply electric vehicles. Mining these on land, however, is carbon intensive and immensely destructive of the natural environment. DeepGreen, in conjunction with Nauru, has been developing a mining system for polymetallic nodules that cover the ocean floor in the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture zone. This huge mineral resource – approximately 34 billion tons of metallic nodules – is regulated by the International Seabed Authority (of the United Nations). DeepGreen, perhaps the most advanced of several competitors, will eventually need more than $4 billion to develop the commercial mining system and specialized smelting facilities. The question is, can an entrepreneurial firm raise the necessary capital, succeed with the regulation and surmount the technical challenges that nodules impose?

    Keywords: polymetallic nodules; seabed mining; entrepreneurial finance; Metals and Minerals; Mining; Entrepreneurship; Finance; Problems and Challenges;

    Citation:

    Vietor, Richard H.K. "DeepGreen and Polymetallic Nodules." Harvard Business School Case 720-016, November 2019.  View Details
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  9. Case | HBS Case Collection | November 2019

    Scaling at Chief

    Katherine B. Coffman, Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Kathleen L. McGinn, Julia Kelley and Katherine Chen

    Chief is a New York-based peer network that provides mentorship, support, networking opportunities, and a sense of community to women executives. Co-founders Carolyn Childers and Lindsay Kaplan launched the company in January 2019, and just two months later, Chief has 400 members and a growing waiting list. Now, Childers and Kaplan must determine how aggressively to scale Chief’s model to other cities. How much money should they raise in Chief’s Series A, and when? Which cities should they expand to first? What are the potential risks of moving too fast, and how can they best mitigate them?
    For more background on Childers and Kaplan’s decision to found Chief, please see “Chief: Role for Carolyn Childers” (HBS No. 920-019) and “Chief: Role for Lindsay Kaplan” (HBS No. 920-020).

    Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Leadership Development; Expansion; Growth Management; Customer Satisfaction; North and Central America; United States; New York (state, US); New York (city, NY);

    Citation:

    Coffman, Katherine B., Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Kathleen L. McGinn, Julia Kelley, and Katherine Chen. "Scaling at Chief." Harvard Business School Case 920-021, November 2019.  View Details
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  10. Case | HBS Case Collection | November 2019

    Chief: Role for Lindsay Kaplan

    Katherine B. Coffman, Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Kathleen L. McGinn, Julia Kelley and Katherine Chen

    In 2018, Lindsay Kaplan is preparing to meet with Carolyn Childers about the possibility of co-founding Chief, a New York-based peer network for women executives. Kaplan is currently the vice president of communications and brand engagement at a successful mattress company, and she is happy in her current role. However, she is excited by Childers’s vision for a community of women executives and believes she could bring valuable expertise as Chief builds its brand experience. Should Kaplan join Chief as a co-founder? What do they need to discuss before teaming up?

    Keywords: Negotiation; Entrepreneurship; Leadership; North and Central America; United States; New York (state, US); New York (city, NY);

    Citation:

    Coffman, Katherine B., Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Kathleen L. McGinn, Julia Kelley, and Katherine Chen. "Chief: Role for Lindsay Kaplan." Harvard Business School Case 920-020, November 2019.  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

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re William R. Kerr
We are witnessing a major transformation of business to achieve strategic positions in powerful tech hubs, but most workers and consumers will always be far away. The authors describe the spatial con
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re Susanna Gallani
Over just a few years, volunteer-based Robin Hood Army had served meals to more than 9 million people around the world. Susanna Gallani discusses with founder Neel Ghose the challenges of growing whi
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re Thomas R. Eisenmann
It’s hard to call it quits on a business venture, but entrepreneurs can wind down a struggling startup while keeping their reputations and sanity intact, says Tom Eisenmann. The first step is knowing

More »

Harvard Business Publishing

Article
by Deepak Malhotra
Case
by Katherine B. Coffman, Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Kathleen L. McGinn, Katherine Chen and Julia Kelley
Press Book
by Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

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