MBA/Executive

In addition to teaching core courses and sessions on business strategy, corporate strategy and organization design, I have taught MBA electives on the entertainment industry, entrepreneurial finance, entrepreneurial venture initiation, and venture capital. You can download syllabi for the most recent versions of these courses here:

Entertainment Industry Strategy (2007)
Entrepreneurial Finance (2014)
Venture Capital (2019)
Entrepreneurship & Venture Initiation (2021)
Venture Capital Strategy (2021)

The usual suspects have produced relatively few relevant cases, particularly on companies in the entertainment industry. I have therefore written several cases myself. Feel free to download them. You may also use them for your classes as long as you provide them to students free of charge. (Instructors: If you do wish to teach one of these cases, feel free to e-mail me. I only have written formal teaching notes for a couple of them but I have discussion outlines and some supplementary materials for most of them.)

Venture capital/entrepreneurial finance:

Agora: Investing with Impact: Set in 2010 (in Nicaragua), this case can facilitate discussions of venture capital in developing countries, for-profit/non-profit hybrid organizations and impact investing.

Agora: Impact Accelerator: A B-side update on Agora, this case further explores impact investing and the shift from a venture capital to an accelerator model.

Entertainment industry:

Investing in Motion Pictures: A case designed to help students understand the difficulty of choosing projects in environments governed by extreme value distributions.

Introducing The Matrix: Reloaded: A case that I use to introduce students to the idea of following cash flows as a means of understanding incentives, agency issues and contract design.

Fox Entertainment Group (A): Vertical Integration in the Television Industry: Should Fox television integrate backwards into the production of television programs? (NOTE: B-side also available upon request.)

Broadening the Field: The NFL’s Option to Acquire Arena Football: Should the National Football League acquire the fledging but rapidly expanding Arena Football League?

Netflix: I used this case in conjunction with some materials on Blockbuster to discuss who would win in the DVD rental space. Though interesting a decade ago, it has become somewhat dated due to the rapid shift to digital distribution.

PhD Courses

I have also taught a number of PhD courses over the years. You can find syllabi for the most recent versions of each course here:

Alliances and Networks (2007)
Strategy and Organization (2009)
Theory Construction (2014)
Organizations and the Environment (2018)
Applied Empirical Methods (2019)