Entrepreneurial Management

- May 2025
- Case
Grand Rounds

By: William A. Sahlman and Lauren Barley
- May 2025
- Case
Grand Rounds

By: William A. Sahlman and Lauren Barley
- May 2025
- Case
The Future of the BBC: Public Ownership vs. Privatization

By: Henry McGee

With viewership of the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) in decline, the country’s Culture Minister must recommend a new funding model for the venerated public institution which will allow the broadcaster to succeed in an increasingly competitive media environment.
- May 2025
- Case
The Future of the BBC: Public Ownership vs. Privatization

By: Henry McGee

With viewership of the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) in decline, the country’s Culture Minister must recommend a new funding model for the venerated public institution which will allow the broadcaster to succeed in an increasingly competitive media environment.
- Working Paper
Shifting Work Patterns with Generative AI

By: Eleanor W. Dillon, Sonia Jaffe, Nicole Immorlica and Christopher Stanton

We present evidence on how generative AI changes the work patterns of knowledge workers using data from a 6-month-long, cross-industry, randomized field experiment. Half of the 7,137 workers in the study received access to a generative AI tool integrated into the applications they already used for emails, document creation, and meetings. We find that access to the AI tool during the first year of its release primarily impacted behaviors that workers could change independently and not behaviors that require coordination to change: workers who used the tool in more than half of the sample weeks spent 3.6 fewer hours, or 31% less time on email each week (intent to treat estimate is 1.3 hours) and completed documents moderately faster, but did not significantly change time spent in meetings.
- Working Paper
Shifting Work Patterns with Generative AI

By: Eleanor W. Dillon, Sonia Jaffe, Nicole Immorlica and Christopher Stanton

We present evidence on how generative AI changes the work patterns of knowledge workers using data from a 6-month-long, cross-industry, randomized field experiment. Half of the 7,137 workers in the study received access to a generative AI tool integrated into the applications they already used for emails, document creation, and meetings. We find...

About the Unit

The Entrepreneurial Management Unit strives to raise the level of academic work in the field of entrepreneurship, in methodological rigor, conceptual depth, and managerial applicability. We also strive to improve the odds of entrepreneurial success for our students and for practitioners worldwide.

Because it is such a complex phenomenon, entrepreneurship must be studied through multiple lenses. We use three.

The process of entrepreneurship - We seek to understand the processes of entrepreneurial activity in start-ups and established firms by examining the antecedents and consequences of various forms of entrepreneurial opportunity identification and opportunity pursuit for individuals, organizations, and industries. We see experimentation and innovation in products, services, processes, and business models as central to entrepreneurial activity.
The finance of entrepreneurship - We seek to understand the financing of entrepreneurial ventures by studying the antecedents and consequences of entrepreneurial funding decisions both domestically and internationally.
The context of entrepreneurship - We seek to understand the ways in which entrepreneurs both respond to and shape the context in which they operate, by examining the history of entrepreneurship across time and national borders and by analyzing the legal and cultural contexts for managerial action.

Please also visit the Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship.

Recent Publications

Grand Rounds

By: William A. Sahlman and Lauren Barley

May 2025 |
Case |
Faculty Research

Citation

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The Future of the BBC: Public Ownership vs. Privatization

By: Henry McGee

May 2025 |
Case |
Faculty Research

With viewership of the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) in decline, the country’s Culture Minister must recommend a new funding model for the venerated public institution which will allow the broadcaster to succeed in an increasingly competitive media environment.

Keywords: Television Entertainment; Cooperative Ownership; State Ownership; Privatization; Public Ownership; Media and Broadcasting Industry; United Kingdom

Citation

Educators

Shifting Work Patterns with Generative AI

By: Eleanor W. Dillon, Sonia Jaffe, Nicole Immorlica and Christopher Stanton

Working Paper |
Faculty Research

We present evidence on how generative AI changes the work patterns of knowledge workers using data from a 6-month-long, cross-industry, randomized field experiment. Half of the 7,137 workers in the study received access to a generative AI tool integrated into the applications they already used for emails, document creation, and meetings. We find that access to the AI tool during the first year of its release primarily impacted behaviors that workers could change independently and not behaviors that require coordination to change: workers who used the tool in more than half of the sample weeks spent 3.6 fewer hours, or 31% less time on email each week (intent to treat estimate is 1.3 hours) and completed documents moderately faster, but did not significantly change time spent in meetings.

Citation

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Influencer-led brand building: Hairitage and the McKnights

By: William R. Kerr and James Palano

April 2025 |
Supplement |
Faculty Research

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The CHIPS Program Office (Abridged)

By: Mitch Weiss and Sebastian Negron-Reichard

April 2025 |
Case |
Faculty Research

In February 2023, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo weighed signing off on a Notice of Funding Opportunity (“NOFO”) with at least one unconventional provision: a pre-application (“pre-app”) to the actual application for parts of $39 billion in direct semiconductor manufacturing incentives. The funding had been made available through the U.S. Department of Commerce by the CHIPS and Science Act (“CHIPS”) passed a few months earlier. Her team had also proposed additional measures for the NOFO. They’d added upside sharing provisions to align incentives. They’d included funding milestones so that only awardees making progress would receive additional funds. And they’d drafted a rolling process, so apps didn’t have to be evaluated all at once. Each mechanism, along with the pre-apps, they hoped, would help regain U.S. technological leadership while protecting taxpayer funds. Raimondo would have to decide whether the NOFO as conceived set the stage to do precisely that.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Public Sector; Government Administration; Government Legislation; Motivation and Incentives; Semiconductor Industry; Public Administration Industry; United States

Citation

Educators

Sharon Goldberg and BastionZero

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, James Barnett and Maxim Pike Harrell

April 2025 |
Case |
Faculty Research

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Duolingo: On a 'Streak'

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Nicole Tempest Keller

April 2025 |
Teaching Note |
Faculty Research

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 825-097.

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Navigating Choppy Waters: How U.S. Trade Policy Uncertainty Affects Small Businesses

By: David Atkin, Zoë Cullen and Ebehi Iyoha

2025 |
Working Paper |
Faculty Research

This paper explores the impact of recent changes in the US trade policy environment on small businesses. Drawing on a survey of more than 4,000 small businesses conducted between March 22 and 31, 2025, we examine firms’ knowledge, expectations, and decisions during a period of substantial trade policy uncertainty. Our findings reveal widespread knowledge gaps about current tariffs, even among internationally exposed firms. Most businesses expect continued policy uncertainty throughout 2025, anticipate reduced sales and increased costs, face limited options for mitigating tariff-induced cost increases, and do not expect government assistance in facilitating adaptation. These results highlight the vulnerability of small businesses, which represent a significant share of US economic activity, to rapid trade policy changes and suggest the need for clear policy communication and targeted support mechanisms.

Keywords: Trade; Risk and Uncertainty; Government Legislation; Globalization; International Relations; Small Business

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