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. Case | HBS Case Collection | September 2020

    Disrupting Justice at RightNow: Persevere, Pivot or Perish

    Shikhar Ghosh and Amir Reza Rezvani

    The case examines the focus of an early stage company, and how an unexpected external incidence can threaten or void the business model. It encompasses issues such as defining and pivoting a business model, organizational requirements for a pivot, investor relations, disruptive business models, as well as business conduct in continental Europe. In 2017, Dr. Torben Antretter, a former competitive tennis player and academic researcher, founded RightNow with his two co-founders. RightNow was set out to provide consumers with “Justice-as-a-Service” by purchasing their legal claims that they would not pursue otherwise. Just one year after its inception, the company had closed a €25 million financing to increase its market share and leverage further growth opportunities. Upon closing of this financing round, matters took a sudden and unexpected turn when the National Supreme Court announced a ruling that airlines were no longer required to refund flight tickets. This decision wiped out RightNow’s profit margins. Antretter and his co-founders had to decide what they should do with the business. How should the founders approach investors? Should they quit and walk away from their entrepreneurial dream or try to reinvent the business with a different focus? What would be the strategy going forward?

    Keywords: entrepreneurship; legal aspects of business; venture capital; Startup; teams; Pivot; financing; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Financing and Loans; Business Model; Legal Services Industry; Germany;

    Citation:

    Ghosh, Shikhar, and Amir Reza Rezvani. "Disrupting Justice at RightNow: Persevere, Pivot or Perish." Harvard Business School Case 821-027, September 2020.  View Details
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  2. Case | HBS Case Collection | September 2020

    Disrupting Justice at RightNow: Rich or King

    Shikhar Ghosh and Amir Reza Rezvani

    The case examines issues such as cascading problems within the organization, changing founder roles, founder success criteria, as well as company exit consideration. In 2017, Dr. Torben Antretter, a former competitive tennis player and academic researcher, founded RightNow with his two co-founders. RightNow was set out to provide consumers with “Justice-as-a-Service” by purchasing their legal claims that they would not pursue otherwise. Three years after inception and after overcoming numerous consecutive hurdles, the company was entering its next stage of its lifecycle. The selection of an investor type would be instrumental to the next few years of the company and the lives of the founders. With success, considerations around company exit and defining success criteria became inevitable. Different investors types had different investment criteria with regards to target returns, growth ambitions, decision rights, and ownership stakes. Antretter and his co-founders had to decide, jointly as well as individually, what they want to do. Discussions among the founding team showed that they needed to develop an ‘exit strategy’ in the same way that they had developed a growth strategy. When should they consider an exit and take some chips off the table? Was it more important to become rich or to remain kings of their kingdom?

    Keywords: law; entrepreneurship; venture capital; Success; exit; Startup; financing; founders; Entrepreneurship; Law; Venture Capital; Financing and Loans; Germany;

    Citation:

    Ghosh, Shikhar, and Amir Reza Rezvani. "Disrupting Justice at RightNow: Rich or King." Harvard Business School Case 821-028, September 2020.  View Details
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  3. Case | HBS Case Collection | September 2020

    Minerva 2004: Discovery

    John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

    After nearly five years in operation, Doctor Cynthia Bamdad, founder and CEO of Minerva Biotechnologies Corporation (Minerva), was reflecting on the company’s next steps. In a few short years, she and her small team had managed to develop a nanoparticle process for testing new drugs that was orders of magnitude faster than traditional approaches. Using this process, they had discovered the mechanism that caused 96% of all breast cancers and identified families of small molecule therapeutics that were effective in blocking this mechanism in live cells in the laboratory. Moreover, Bamdad did not think it would be long before the company could offer an early warning diagnostic for breast cancer, which would allow less invasive treatment of the condition. The company had filed several families of patent applications in support of these claims, but the challenge was funding. To date, Bamdad had relied on Federal Government grants and angel investors to fund the research, but the next steps would require much larger investment. Should Minerva seek to commercialize its drug development technology to help fund the riskier steps of drug development? Should it focus on a diagnostic which would make current treatments more effective? Should it license its small molecule therapeutics to one of the many well-funded companies seeking cures for cancer? Or should Bamdad raise capital to support tests in mice in order to reach the Federal Drug Administration IND (Investigational New Drug) application stage of drug discovery? This would allow clinical trials in humans, which would require more capital, but an IND would increase the value of Minerva’s intellectual capital substantially. What should Bamdad do?

    Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Biotechnology Industry;

    Citation:

    Wells, John R., and Benjamin Weinstock. "Minerva 2004: Discovery." Harvard Business School Case 721-389, September 2020.  View Details
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  4. Article | Harvard Business Review | September–October 2020

    When It's Time to Pivot, What's Your Story?: How to Sell Stakeholders on a New Strategy

    Rory McDonald and Robert Bremner

    To succeed, a new company must rally investors, staff, customers, and the media around a good story. But often that narrative turns out to be wrong, and entrepreneurs realize they need to change direction. How that shift is communicated can have a huge impact on a venture’s future. Through extensive research with founders, innovation chiefs, analysts, and journalists, the authors have identified stratagems for maintaining stakeholder support during pivots. Early on, entrepreneurs should avoid a focus on overly specific solutions and instead present the big picture. When changing course, they can then signal continuity by explaining how the new plan fits with the original vision. Once the reboot has happened, it’s critical to be conciliatory and empathetic to stakeholders who may feel abandoned. Employees and customers are far more willing to remain loyal if given guidance about how they’ll be affected and if leaders seem to genuinely care about their situation.

    Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business Model; Strategy; Change Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Communication Strategy; Business and Stakeholder Relations;

    Citation:

    McDonald, Rory, and Robert Bremner. "When It's Time to Pivot, What's Your Story?: How to Sell Stakeholders on a New Strategy." Harvard Business Review 98, no. 5 (September–October 2020): 98–105.  View Details
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  5. Case | HBS Case Collection | August 2020

    1928 Diagnostics: Fighting Antibiotics Resistance

    Ariel D. Stern and Daniela Beyersdorfer

    In 2019, the co-founders of the Swedish medical start-up 1928 Diagnostics, CEO Dr. Kristina Lagerstedt and COO Dr. Susanne Staaf, had to pick the right business model to commercialize their novel technology to hospitals and health care providers. Developed in partnership with research hospitals to help fight the global antibiotic resistance crisis, the firm’s cloud-based technology platform helped partners identify resistant genes and mutations in bacteria more quickly and accurately, allowing for easier outbreak cluster tracking in support of hospital infection control management, as well as better diagnostics and antibiotic selection. By 2019, they had raised $5 million, employed 16 people, and had their tool deployed at 24 partner sites in 10 different countries. Their decisions on which markets to focus on and with which business model would crucially impact the young firm’s chances at successfully converting existing users and attracting new clients.

    Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Entrepreneurship; Leadership; Science-Based Business; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Technology; Health Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Technology Industry; Europe; Sweden;

    Citation:

    Stern, Ariel D., and Daniela Beyersdorfer. "1928 Diagnostics: Fighting Antibiotics Resistance." Harvard Business School Case 621-025, August 2020.  View Details
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  6. Case | HBS Case Collection | August 2020

    Sangu Delle

    Leslie Perlow and Matthew Preble

    By 2020, Sangu Delle (MBA 2016) has already made significant progress towards his life-long goal of solving Africa’s myriad and diverse challenges. At 33 years old, he is the founder and chairman of the for-profit Golden Palm Investments Corporation, CEO of Africa Health Holdings Limited, author of a book on entrepreneurship in Africa, founder of a nonprofit (Cleanacwa) that brings improved fresh water infrastructure to African towns and villages, and serves in numerous other volunteer and trustee roles. He believes that he needs to work at scale and across national borders in order to solve the problems that he has identified, but he cannot help but wonder: are his efforts simply too big and too broad? Would it make more sense for him to focus on just one (or a few) industries, causes, or geographies, and perhaps grow from there? Could he reasonably expect to have meaningful impact by going for scale right away?

    Keywords: Impact; impact investing; mental health; social capitalism; Entrepreneurship; Investment; Health Care and Treatment; Personal Development and Career; Health Industry; Africa;

    Citation:

    Perlow, Leslie, and Matthew Preble. "Sangu Delle." Harvard Business School Case 421-031, August 2020.  View Details
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  7. Case | HBS Case Collection | August 2020

    Just Arrived: Integrating Refugees in Sweden

    Brian Trelstad, Emilie Billaud and Mette Fuglsang Hjortshoej

    In April 2020, Lisa Tengberg, Harvard Business School MBA Candidate, submitted a paper on Just Arrived, an online platform which matched newly-arrived immigrants with employers in Sweden. The case describes the European refugee crisis and different approaches in Sweden, Italy and Germany to integrate newcomers on the job market. By comparing three organizations with different business models, it posits whether social entrepreneurs can develop systemic solutions. Which business model (for-profit, non-profit) and organizational structure was appropriate to the direct scale of the solution? How would they scale directly or indirectly to deliver (and measure) systems change?

    Keywords: Immigration; Employment; Integration; Business Model; Social Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Employment Industry; Sweden; Italy; Germany;

    Citation:

    Trelstad, Brian, Emilie Billaud, and Mette Fuglsang Hjortshoej. "Just Arrived: Integrating Refugees in Sweden." Harvard Business School Case 321-040, August 2020.  View Details
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  8. Case | HBS Case Collection | August 2020

    PayPal: The Next Chapter

    Michael Porter, Mark Kramer and Annelena Lobb

    Can a social purpose and stakeholder capitalism confer a powerful competitive advantage in the age of COVID-19? For PayPal, the answer is yes. After spinning off from eBay in a 2015 IPO, the company declared its purpose as "democratizing financial services" by ensuring that low-income consumers and small businesses can efficiently and inexpensively manage their money. The company fully lives into this purpose, sending employees out into communities to experience firsthand the indignities and high fees imposed on the unbanked, dramatically lowering the cost of international remittances, enabling small businesses to access working capital without credit checks, and facilitating cross-border purchases for small merchants. The company takes the welfare of each stakeholder group seriously: achieving racial and gender pay equity, raising hourly worker pay and benefits to ensure a living wage, and building a diverse and inclusive culture; working closely with regulators and law enforcement to unearth signs of sex trafficking and terrorism; aggressively removing hate-group transactions; providing $4 billion in credit to hundreds of thousands of small businesses that would never have qualified for bank loans, especially those owned by women and people of color. Together these actions have built a high degree of trust that creates a competitive moat in the otherwise commodity business of online payments. During the pandemic, the company was able to get stimulus funds to individuals and small businesses far faster and less expensively than banks or the SBA, and committed $500 million to investments in black-owned businesses. In the 5 years since its IPO, despite intense competition from major banks and credit card companies, Google, Apple, and countless VC-backed fintech players, the company has more than doubled its users, increased profits and boosted the stock price 500%.

    Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Finance; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Social Entrepreneurship; Competitive Advantage; Financial Services Industry;

    Citation:

    Porter, Michael, Mark Kramer, and Annelena Lobb. "PayPal: The Next Chapter." Harvard Business School Case 721-378, August 2020.  View Details
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  9. Case | HBS Case Collection | August 2020

    Gogoro: From Electric Scooter to Energy Platform

    Tarun Khanna and Billy Chan

    The founder of Gogoro had always wanted to revolutionize the energy market from day one since he started the electric scooter business that featured an innovative battery swapping technology. Over the course of five years, he had developed a premium line of electric scooters, gained market share to about 90 percent, and turned his startup into a “unicorn” with a valuation reaching $1 billion. With its battery swapping infrastructure built out across the island of Taiwan, Gogoro sensed the opportunity to become something bigger – most probably a smart energy platform that could complement the main grid. But as a sudden change in government subsidies and the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic took a toll on the scooter sales, how should Gogoro position itself going forward?

    Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Technology; Energy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategy; Taiwan;

    Citation:

    Khanna, Tarun, and Billy Chan. "Gogoro: From Electric Scooter to Energy Platform." Harvard Business School Case 721-379, August 2020.  View Details
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  10. Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2020

    The Targeting and Impact of Paycheck Protection Program Loans to Small Businesses

    Alexander Bartik, Zoë B. Cullen, Edward L. Glaeser, Michael Luca, Christopher Stanton and Adi Sunderam

    The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) aimed to quickly deliver hundreds of billions of dollars of loans to small businesses, with the loans administered via private banks. In this paper, we use firm-level data to document the demand and supply of PPP funds. Using an instrumental variables approach, we find that PPP loans led to a 14 to 30 percentage point increase in a business’s expected survival, and a positive but imprecise effect on employment. Moreover, the effects on survival were heterogeneous and highlight an important tradeoff faced by policymakers: while administering the loans via private banks allowed for rapid delivery of funds, it also limited the government’s ability to target the funding—instead allowing pre-existing connections between businesses and banks to determine which firms would benefit from the program.

    Keywords: Paycheck Protection Program; targeting; Impact; Entrepreneurship; Health Pandemics; Small Business; Financing and Loans; Outcome or Result; United States;

    Citation:

    Bartik, Alexander, Zoë B. Cullen, Edward L. Glaeser, Michael Luca, Christopher Stanton, and Adi Sunderam. "The Targeting and Impact of Paycheck Protection Program Loans to Small Businesses." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 21-021, August 2020.  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

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HBS Working Knowledge

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re P. Maria Roche
Research by Maria Roche looks at how past economic downturns forced job-insecure, high-tech entrepreneurs to rush their ventures to market. Will COVID-19 do the same?
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re Josh Lerner
Case studies about The Conservation Fund and Sonen Capital highlight three broad lessons about fresh approaches to the ownership and management of forestland.
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re Ramana Nanda and T. Christopher Stanton
Resolving uncertainty related to market demand—so called “product-market” fit—marks a key inflection point in the compensation contract for CEOs of venture-capital backed firms.

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Harvard Business Publishing

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by Deepak Malhotra
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by John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock
Press Book
by Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

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