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Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

    • Article

    Entrepreneurship as Experimentation

    By: William R. Kerr, Ramana Nanda and Matthew Rhodes-Kropf

    Entrepreneurship research is on the rise, but many questions about its fundamental nature still exist. We argue that entrepreneurship is about experimentation: the probabilities of success are low, extremely skewed, and unknowable until an investment is made. At a macro level, experimentation by new firms underlies the Schumpeterian notion of creative destruction. However, at a micro level, investment and continuation decisions are not always made in a competitive Darwinian contest. Instead, a few investors make decisions that are impacted by incentive, agency, and coordination problems, often before a new idea even has a chance to compete in a market. We contend that costs and constraints on the ability to experiment alter the type of organizational form surrounding innovation and influence when innovation is more likely to occur. These factors not only govern how much experimentation is undertaken in the economy, but also the trajectory of experimentation, with potentially very deep economic consequences.

    • Article

    Entrepreneurship as Experimentation

    By: William R. Kerr, Ramana Nanda and Matthew Rhodes-Kropf

    Entrepreneurship research is on the rise, but many questions about its fundamental nature still exist. We argue that entrepreneurship is about experimentation: the probabilities of success are low, extremely skewed, and unknowable until an investment is made. At a macro level, experimentation by new firms underlies the Schumpeterian notion of...

    • January 2014 (Revised October 2014)
    • Case

    Andreessen Horowitz

    By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Liz Kind

    Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), a venture capital firm launched in 2009, has quickly broken into the VC industry's top ranks, in terms of its ability to invest in Silicon Valley's most promising startups. The case recounts the firm's history; describes its co-founders' motivations and their strategy for disrupting an industry in the midst of dramatic structural change; and asks whether a16z's success to date has been due to its novel organization structure. a16z's 22 investment professionals are supported by 43 recruiting and marketing specialists—an "operating team" that is an order of magnitude larger than that of any other VC firm. Furthermore, the operating team aims to not only assist a16z portfolio companies, but also to be broadly helpful to all parties in the Silicon Valley ecosystem, including search firms, journalists, PR agencies, and Fortune 500 executives. The bet: by providing "no-strings-attached" help to ecosystem partners, the partners might someday reciprocate by steering founders seeking funding to a16z. The case closes by asking whether a16z should seek to double its scale over the next years.

    • January 2014 (Revised October 2014)
    • Case

    Andreessen Horowitz

    By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Liz Kind

    Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), a venture capital firm launched in 2009, has quickly broken into the VC industry's top ranks, in terms of its ability to invest in Silicon Valley's most promising startups. The case recounts the firm's history; describes its co-founders' motivations and their strategy for disrupting an industry in the midst of dramatic...

    • February 2014
    • Background Note

    Raising Startup Capital

    By: Jeffrey Bussgang

    Entrepreneurs typically focus their full energies on business-building. But raising capital is a core part of building a valuable business. Developing expertise in raising capital is more than a necessary evil, it is a competitive weapon. Master it and you will be in a better position to make your company a massive success. But how do you finance a new venture? In this note, I will try to help answer this question by addressing the following topics: Types of funding. The two major types of startup capital are equity funding and debt funding although there are a few hybrid flavors as well. Sources of funding. These include venture capital firms, angel investors, crowd-funding, and accelerators/incubators. What investors look for. Each source has a different funding process and set of criteria which you need to understand before seeking funding from that source. The mechanics of equity funding. Seeking and securing funding involves setting amounts, agreeing to terms, and defining relationships.

    • February 2014
    • Background Note

    Raising Startup Capital

    By: Jeffrey Bussgang

    Entrepreneurs typically focus their full energies on business-building. But raising capital is a core part of building a valuable business. Developing expertise in raising capital is more than a necessary evil, it is a competitive weapon. Master it and you will be in a better position to make your company a massive success. But how do you finance...

    • January 2014
    • Article

    The Consequences of Entrepreneurial Finance: Evidence from Angel Financings

    By: William R. Kerr, Josh Lerner and Antoinette Schoar

    This paper documents that ventures that are funded by two successful angel groups experience superior outcomes to rejected ventures: they have improved survival, exits, employment, patenting, web traffic, and financing. We use strong discontinuities in angel funding behavior over small changes in their collective interest levels to implement a regression discontinuity approach. We confirm the positive effects for venture operations, with qualitative support for a higher likelihood of successful exits. On the other hand, there is no difference in access to additional financing around the discontinuity. This might suggest that financing is not a central input of angel groups.

    • January 2014
    • Article

    The Consequences of Entrepreneurial Finance: Evidence from Angel Financings

    By: William R. Kerr, Josh Lerner and Antoinette Schoar

    This paper documents that ventures that are funded by two successful angel groups experience superior outcomes to rejected ventures: they have improved survival, exits, employment, patenting, web traffic, and financing. We use strong discontinuities in angel funding behavior over small changes in their collective interest levels to implement a...

    • September 2014 (Revised December 2014)
    • Case

    The Ullens Center for Contemporary Art

    By: Mukti Khaire and Nancy Hua Dai

    Since its opening in Beijing in November 2007 as the first non-profit art center in China, UCCA had been operating with the mission to "promote the continued development of the Chinese art scene, foster international exchange, and showcase the latest in art and culture to hundreds of thousands of visitors each year." For the past six years, UCCA had worked with more than 100 artists and designers to present 87 art exhibitions and 1,826 public programs to over 1.8 million visitors, including many important leaders from all over the world. Given the context of the economic and political environment in the rapidly changing Chinese art market, the founders and senior management of UCCA wondered what they could do to achieve growth and financial viability while continuing to realize their mission.

    • September 2014 (Revised December 2014)
    • Case

    The Ullens Center for Contemporary Art

    By: Mukti Khaire and Nancy Hua Dai

    Since its opening in Beijing in November 2007 as the first non-profit art center in China, UCCA had been operating with the mission to "promote the continued development of the Chinese art scene, foster international exchange, and showcase the latest in art and culture to hundreds of thousands of visitors each year." For the past six years, UCCA...

    • 2014
    • Discussion Paper

    The Promise of Microfinance and Women's Empowerment: What Does the Evidence Say?

    By: Dina D. Pomeranz

    The microfinance revolution has transformed access to financial services for low-income populations worldwide. As a result, it has become one of the most talked-about innovations in global development in recent decades. However, its expansion has not been without controversy. While many hailed it as a way to end world poverty and promote female empowerment, others condemned it as a disaster for the poor. Female empowerment has often been seen as one of the key promises of the industry. In part, this is based on the fact that more than 80% of its poorest clients, i.e., those who live on less than $1.25/day, are women. This paper discusses what we have learned so far about the potential and limits of microfinance and how insights from research and practice can help inform the industry's current products, policies and future developments.

    • 2014
    • Discussion Paper

    The Promise of Microfinance and Women's Empowerment: What Does the Evidence Say?

    By: Dina D. Pomeranz

    The microfinance revolution has transformed access to financial services for low-income populations worldwide. As a result, it has become one of the most talked-about innovations in global development in recent decades. However, its expansion has not been without controversy. While many hailed it as a way to end world poverty and promote female...

Initiatives & Projects

The Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship and the Social Enterprise Initiative encourage innovation to address the large-scale issues that beset society.
Entrepreneurship
Social Enterprise

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.

Initiatives & Projects

The Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship and the Social Enterprise Initiative encourage innovation to address the large-scale issues that beset society.

Entrepreneurship
Social Enterprise

Recent Publications

Proday: Calling the Right Play

By: Lindsay N. Hyde, Thomas R. Eisenmann and Tom Quinn
  • January 2023 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
Sarah Kunst knew the elements of a successful startup from her tenure at venture capital firms. In April 2018, however, her own app – Proday, a home fitness platform featuring exercises filmed by professional sports stars – was floundering. Kunst theorized that Facebook algorithm changes had ruined her marketing plan, but needed to be confident in her diagnosis before allocating resources to a solution. She thought back to Proday’s launch two years earlier to see if she could pinpoint where it all went wrong.
Keywords: Social Media; Entrepreneurship; Advertising; Digital Marketing; Product Launch; Social Marketing; Failure; Sports; Applications and Software; Technology Industry; United States
Citation
Educators
Related
Hyde, Lindsay N., Thomas R. Eisenmann, and Tom Quinn. "Proday: Calling the Right Play." Harvard Business School Case 823-005, January 2023.

The Overlooked Key to a Successful Scale-Up

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Davide Sola and Martin Kupp
  • January–February 2023 |
  • Article |
  • Harvard Business Review
Many start-ups experience enormous popularity and runaway growth, but only a few go on to become stable giants. What separates them from the pack? They all go through a developmental stage called extrapolation, say three business school professors.

This stage isn’t part of traditional organizational theory, which holds that businesses begin in exploration mode (testing out hypotheses about how they’ll solve problems and learning whether people will pay for their solutions) and then move into exploitation mode (as growth slows and they fine-tune their business models to sharpen their advantage). But between those two well-known stages is the crucial extrapolation stage. During it, a company both explores and exploits. And most significantly, it works to ensure that each new customer brings in additional revenue while incurring only marginal cost—the secret to lasting, profitable growth.

A new enterprise needs multiple strengths to navigate this phase—such as a proven monetization approach, a strong go-to-market strategy, network and density effects, and capital. It also must systematically identify and remove internal business-model constraints on growth that could prevent it from achieving scale.
Keywords: Entrepreneurship And Strategy; Scalability; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Entrepreneurship
Citation
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Rayport, Jeffrey F., Davide Sola, and Martin Kupp. "The Overlooked Key to a Successful Scale-Up." Harvard Business Review (January–February 2023): 56–65.

Social Networks, Ethnicity, and Entrepreneurship

By: William R. Kerr and Martin Mandorff
  • January 2023 |
  • Article |
  • Journal of Human Resources
We study the relationship between ethnicity, occupational choice, and entrepreneurship. Immigrant groups in the United States cluster in specific business sectors. For example, Koreans are 34 times more concentrated in self-employment for dry cleaning than other immigrant groups, and Gujarati-speaking Indians are 84 times more concentrated in managing motels. We quantify that smaller and more socially isolated ethnic groups display higher rates of entrepreneurial concentration. This is consistent with a model of social interactions where non-work relationships facilitate the acquisition of sector-specific skills and result in occupational stratification along ethnic lines via concentrated entrepreneurship.
Keywords: Self-employed; Occupation; Entrepreneurship; Ethnicity; Immigration; Networks
Citation
Read Now
Related
Kerr, William R., and Martin Mandorff. "Social Networks, Ethnicity, and Entrepreneurship." Journal of Human Resources 58, no. 1 (January 2023): 183–220.

Shaping Nascent Industries: Innovation Strategy and Regulatory Uncertainty in Personal Genomics

By: Cheng Gao and Rory McDonald
  • December 2022 |
  • Article |
  • Administrative Science Quarterly
In nascent industries—whose new technologies are often poorly understood by regulators—contending with regulatory uncertainty can be crucial to organizational survival and growth. Prior research on nonmarket strategy has largely focused on established firms in mature industries, but such strategies are apt to differ for new ventures, which generally have limited resources and market power and operate in novel domains in which the rules of the game are underdeveloped. How do new ventures navigate regulatory uncertainty? To explore this question, we conduct an inductive, multi-case research study of five ventures that pioneered the nascent personal-genomics industry. Drawing on extensive qualitative data, we develop an emergent theoretical framework that elucidates how ventures navigate evolving regulatory uncertainty. Grounded in a power versus industry-evolution logic, this framework illuminates how ventures’ strategies for doing so vary and theorizes why certain strategies appear more effective than others. In doing so, we also introduce a novel logic of interaction—regulatory co-creation—that ventures can employ to shape emerging regulations. Taken together, our theory and findings challenge existing perspectives on strategy in nascent industries, shed light on the dynamic interplay between market and nonmarket strategy, and recast the relationship between ventures and regulators during the emergence of new technology industries.
Keywords: Technological Change; Innovation; Qualitative Methods; New Categories; Entrepreneurship; Technological Innovation; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Risk and Uncertainty; Strategy
Citation
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Related
Gao, Cheng, and Rory McDonald. "Shaping Nascent Industries: Innovation Strategy and Regulatory Uncertainty in Personal Genomics." Administrative Science Quarterly 67, no. 4 (December 2022): 915–967.

Freelancer, Ltd.

By: Christopher Stanton, Karim R. Lakhani, Jin Hyun Paik and Nina Cohodes
  • December 2022 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
Over the course of the 2010s, the rapid advancement of mobile technologies and the rise of online freelancing platforms seemed to portend a radical transformation of labor markets into on-demand, flexible talent pools. Even though several Fortune 500 companies-including Microsoft, Samsung, and General Electric-embraced digital labor solutions, enterprise adoption lagged far behind smaller businesses and startups. Despite the promising potential benefits, concerns persisted about navigating labor regulations, ensuring appropriate vetting, and guaranteeing the quality of work. Sarah Tang, the newly appointed Vice President of Enterprise at Freelancer, Ltd., took on the challenge of crafting the growth strategy, operations, and sales of Freelancer's services to Fortune 500 companies. What it would take to convince more enterprises of the potential of on-demand freelance labor that could help them hire skilled freelancers in volume or in multiple countries simultaneously? What did the future hold for open work practices between enterprises and digital labor markets?
Keywords: Freelancers; Labor Markets; Internet and the Web; Digital Platforms; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Human Capital; Change Management; Globalized Firms and Management; Employment; Global Range; Employment Industry
Citation
Educators
Related
Stanton, Christopher, Karim R. Lakhani, Jin Hyun Paik, and Nina Cohodes. "Freelancer, Ltd." Harvard Business School Multimedia/Video Case 823-706, December 2022.

Goonj: Growing in the Face of a Pandemic

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Priyank Narayan
  • November 2022 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
Founded by the husband and wife team of Anshu and Meenakshi Gupta in 1999, Goonj had quickly emerged as one of the leading disaster relief and rural development organizations in India. Their main mode of development was through providing a clothing kit to the village families in return for development work (Cloth for Work). As Covid-19 struck India in March 2020, the organization pivoted its operational model to considerably broaden its set of activities in the field. In 2022 after nearly 70% of the country had been vaccinated against Covid-19, and with a semblance of normalcy returning, Anshu Gupta had to consider the future of the organization and its strategy, having raised twice the amount of funds ($20 million) as in the previous years.
Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Management; Family Business; Natural Disasters; Social Issues; Entrepreneurship; Operations; Business and Community Relations; Strategy; India
Citation
Educators
Related
Rangan, V. Kasturi, and Priyank Narayan. "Goonj: Growing in the Face of a Pandemic." Harvard Business School Case 523-051, November 2022.

Wendy Estrella: Scaling Multiple Businesses

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Sarah Mehta
  • November 2022 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
Entrepreneur Wendy Estrella, a self-made, Latina millionaire based in Lawrence, Massachusetts, is attempting to simultaneously scale her law practice as well as her property management and development company. What path should she take for each and can she do it all, particularly in light of a recent resignation in the law practice?
Keywords: Business Ventures; Change; Competency and Skills; Decision Making; Demographics; Entrepreneurship; Personal Development and Career; Legal Services Industry; Real Estate Industry; Massachusetts
Citation
Educators
Related
Bussgang, Jeffrey J., and Sarah Mehta. "Wendy Estrella: Scaling Multiple Businesses." Harvard Business School Case 823-016, November 2022.

Ajax Health: A New Model for Medical Technology Innovation

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Ben Creo
  • November 2022 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
This case teaches key success factors for both startups and established medtech firms. It examines how to structure a firm to maximize financial returns. Medtech entrepreneur Duke Rohlen is proposing a new model for innovation and business growth. From 2007 to 2019, Rohlen sold four medical technology (medtech) companies, all of which were acquired at significant multiples of the capital invested. While the average medtech startup exited 8.6 years after starting, Rohlen’s companies had an average time to exit of 40 months. Rohlen then saw that the companies acquiring his startups were sold to larger firms, in short time spans after the initial sale, at prices significantly higher than their pre-acquisition value. Rohlen observed how much value his companies had created for others after he sold them: $1.5 billion for Covidien (after sale of FoxHollow to ev3), $1.1 billion for Philips (after sale of CVI’s Stellarex from Covidien to Spectranetics), and $280 million for Stryker (after sale of Spirox to Entellus), for a total of about $2.9 billion. Rohlen wondered how he could still create innovative new products yet capture a higher portion of the financial returns. He proposed a new model for innovation and business growth, called the Chassis and Growth Drivers model.
Partnering with major private equity firms Hellman & Friedman and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company (KKR), Rohlen's firm Ajax Health plans to invest $1.3 billion to prove the model's viability. For $1 billion, they're submitting a bid to buy Cordis, a maker of medical devices for cardiovascular and endovascular procedures. Cordis was formerly a standalone business before it was bought by Johnson & Johnson and then its current owner and seller, Cardinal Health. If their bid is successful, they will invest an additional $300 million to fund an off-balance sheet accelerator, which will develop innovative new products that will drive revenue growth for Cordis. Should Rohlen and his partners invest the $1.3 billion to implement this model, and why or why not? Was Cordis the right opportunity for Rohlen and his team?
This case is suitable both as a general business case for MBA students of any level and as a case for courses focused on the healthcare industry, entrepreneurship, and private equity. Ajax Health is headquartered in California, and Cordis is a worldwide company with headquarters in Florida. Rohlen's previous startups included FoxHollow Technologies, CV Ingenuity, Spirox, and EPIX Therapeutics.
Keywords: Business Startups; Success; Innovation Strategy; Mergers and Acquisitions; Market Entry and Exit; Financial Strategy; Business Model; Partners and Partnerships; Entrepreneurship; Private Equity; Technology Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry
Citation
Educators
Related
Herzlinger, Regina E., and Ben Creo. "Ajax Health: A New Model for Medical Technology Innovation." Harvard Business School Case 323-043, November 2022.

Para: Pay Transparency and Gig Drivers’ Rights

By: Christopher Stanton and George Gonzalez
  • November 2022 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
The case presents the founding vision and early days of a young startup that seeks to empower delivery drivers with tools and transparency. The company's flagship mobile app has been taken up by tens of thousands of delivery drivers across major U.S. cities who use it as a single-point to accept or reject gigs from multiple sources and map their routes. At the same time, the app has sparked the ire of major delivery services, who are concerned Para disintermediates drivers from their platforms. Para's founders look to the future and believe that there is a win-win outcome.
Keywords: Gig Workers; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Applications and Software; Disruptive Innovation; Compensation and Benefits; Technology Industry; San Francisco
Citation
Educators
Related
Stanton, Christopher, and George Gonzalez. "Para: Pay Transparency and Gig Drivers’ Rights." Harvard Business School Case 823-072, November 2022.

5 Ways Startups Can Prepare for a Recession

By: Lou Shipley
  • November 10, 2022 |
  • Article |
  • Harvard Business Review Digital Articles
Startups face unique challenges during economic downturns. They typically aren’t yet profitable and so are reliant on outside funding—and therefore are especially exposed when macroeconomic conditions change. To make it through a recession, startup CEOs should hit the road and talk to customers. They should also focus on preserving their company culture and retaining top employees. And they need to do whatever they can to extend their runways—including taking on a line of credit.
Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Organizational Culture; Sales; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decisions; Inflation and Deflation; Financial Crisis; Employee Relationship Management; Business Startups; Credit
Citation
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Shipley, Lou. "5 Ways Startups Can Prepare for a Recession." Harvard Business Review Digital Articles (November 10, 2022).
More Publications

Faculty

William R. Kerr
Lynda M. Applegate
William A. Sahlman
Geoffrey G. Jones
Thomas R. Eisenmann
Ramana Nanda
Myra M. Hart
Rosabeth M. Kanter
Joseph B. Lassiter
Howard H. Stevenson
Richard G. Hamermesh
Josh Lerner
→See All

Seminars & Conferences

Apr 05
  • 05 Apr 2023
Entrepreneurial Management Seminar
Yael Hochberg, Jones Graduate School of Business, Rice University
Apr 12
  • 12 Apr 2023
Entrepreneurial Management Seminar
Ruixue Jia, University of California, San Diego
→Seminars & Conferences

HBS Working Knowlege

    • 17 Jan 2023

    8 Trends to Watch in 2023

    by Avery Forman
    • 10 Jan 2023

    Time to Move On? Career Advice for Entrepreneurs Preparing for the Next Stage

    Re: Julia B. Austin
    • 03 Jan 2023

    Wordle: Can a Pandemic Phenomenon Sustain in the Long Term?

    Re: Christina M. Wallace
→More Articles

Harvard Business Publishing

    • May 2013
    • Article

    How to Negotiate with VCs

    By: Deepak Malhotra
    • October 2022
    • Case

    Cost Plus Drugs

    By: Alexander MacKay and James Barnett
    • 2017
    • Book

    HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business: Think Big, Buy Small, Own Your Own Company

    By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff
→More Harvard Business Publishing
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