Blockbuster Innovation
Drawing on a wealth of quantitative data and in-depth case studies, PROFESSOR ANITA ELBERSE breaks down why a blockbuster innovation mindset – a portfolio strategy that involving large bets on the most likely winners in any context – is a highly effective strategy, and how companies can best organize for success around such an approach.
Managing and Marketing (Superstar) Talent
Drawing on insights from her field research on some of the biggest stars and most successful companies in entertainment, PROFESSOR ANITA ELBERSE provides valuable lessons for executives and talent managers alike. The power of individual superstars is greater than ever before. What does that mean for the companies who rely on their performances? How can they best develop, attract, invest in, and retain talent?
The Promise of Digital Technology
Advances in digital technology have the power to completely reshape the business landscape, prompting business leaders to rethink their strategies. Diving into implications for markets, channels, and individuals, Professor Elberse answers some of the most critical questions about the ongoing transformation and the implications for effective management and marketing approaches.
The Business of Entertainment, Media, and Sports
Drawing on two decades of pioneering research on entertainment, media, and sports, PROFESSOR ANITA ELBERSE breaks down what it takes to thrive in these sectors, and what the future of entertainment will look like.
Leading and Managing Teams
Using her ground-breaking case studies as a starting point, PROFESSOR ANITA ELBERSE facilitates an interactive exploration of the formula for success in managing people and teams.
Harvard Professor Anita Elberse empowers athletes, delights sports fans with “Crossover Into Business” course
With two decades of pioneering research on entertainment, media, and sports, ANITA ELBERSE uses her knowledge for good by inviting professional athletes to participate in her Harvard Business School mentoring program, "Crossover Into Business." Notable figures such as Francis Ngannou, a UFC Heavyweight Champion, often publicly reflect on their positive experiences in the program. Ngannou posted celebratory photos of himself and Professor Elberse to his public social media profiles alongside the caption, “Thank you Professor @anitaelberse for an amazing experience in BEMS @harvardhbs. I’ll never forget it.”
Watch Professor Anita Elberse’s HBS Program Profile >>
Watch Professor Anita Elberse interview Alex Ferguson at Harvard >>
Women Making History: Harvard Professor Anita Elberse leads conversations for women in sports media
A foremost academic expert on entertainment, media, and sports, ANITA ELBERSE is paving the way for women in male-dominated spaces. Professor Elberse is one of the youngest female professors to have been promoted to full professor with tenure in Harvard Business School's history.
Professor Elberse’s early and profound success is in no small part due to the impact of her research. She elucidates how firms effectively manage products and talent in sports media and other creative industries, communicated via case studies on dozens of entertainment companies, personalities, and other entities. Professor Elberse was praised by the Wall Street Journal for providing her scholarship with the same “statistically rigorous approach to entertainment and cultural industries that sabermetricians do to baseball.”
Watch Professor Anita Elberse’s HBS Program Profile >>
Watch Professor Anita Elberse interview Alex Ferguson at Harvard >>
Harvard Professor Anita Elberse headlines with keynote at Momentum’s Women Who Make Moves in Sports Summit
Harvard Business School professor ANITA ELBERSE’s voice was a pivotal tentpole at Momentum’s Women Who Make Moves in Sports Summit, intended to educate woman in elite athletic careers on best business practices for “leveraging their sporting talents to better position themselves for sponsorship opportunities.” Professor Elberse’s is the perfect mentor to women in sports looking to build a media career, as she quite literally teaches the Harvard Business School MBA course on the subject: "Businesses of Entertainment, Media, and Sports.” Not only a cutting-edge academic examining media-industry problems, Professor Elberse is also a beloved member of the sports community dedicated to uplifting others.
Watch Professor Anita Elberse’s HBS Program Profile >>
Watch Professor Anita Elberse interview Alex Ferguson at Harvard >>
Anita Elberse is the Lincoln Filene Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.
Professor Elberse develops and teaches an MBA course covering the "Businesses of Entertainment, Media, and Sports," which ranks among the most sought-after courses in the School’s curriculum, and chairs a short executive education program, also named "The Business of Entertainment, Media, and Sports." She chairs a semester-long mentoring program, "Crossover Into Business," that is specifically designed for professional athletes. She further leads the Summer Venture in Management Program for college students from minority backgrounds. Poets & Quants named her one of the "World's Best Business School Professors Under the Age of 40," and she has received teaching awards on multiple occasions from both the Harvard Business School and its students, including the Charles M. Williams Award for excellence in teaching, "Best of EC Year" honors (for top faculty teaching in the Elective Curriculum), and the Faculty Teaching Award. In 2016, she won the "Outstanding Case Teacher" award in The Case Centre's worldwide competition, also known as "business education's Oscars."
In her research, Professor Elberse primarily aims to understand what drives the success of products in the entertainment, media, sports, and other creative industries, and how firms can effectively manage products and talent in such sectors. She is acclaimed for her work on digital-media strategies, and frequently uses econometric modeling techniques to examine media-industry problems. Her work has been published in the Harvard Business Review, Marketing Science, the Journal of Marketing, and several other journals. She was named a Marketing Science Institute Young Scholar, and served on the editorial board of Marketing Science.
Professor Elberse has conducted case studies on dozens of entertainment companies, personalities, and other entities. These include record label A&M/Octone Records, cable operator Comcast, book publisher Grand Central Publishing, Broadway show Hamilton, online video provider Hulu, music streaming service Spotify, the campaign for Jay-Z's book Decoded by advertising agency Droga5, entertainment companies Marvel Enterprises, NBCUniversal and The Walt Disney Studios, nightlife business Marquee, the Metropolitan Opera, sports leagues MLB and the NFL, MRC's television series House of Cards, Shonda Rhimes' production company ShondaLand and Jason Blum's Blumhouse Productions, soccer clubs FC Barcelona, Boca Juniors, and Real Madrid, the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, World Wrestling Entertainment, soccer coach Sir Alex Ferguson, Vogue magazine, fashion house Burberry, sports apparel brand Nike, and superstars Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, LeBron James, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, Maria Sharapova, and Dwyane Wade. Several of these case studies are described in her bestselling first book, Blockbusters: Hit-making, Risk-taking, and the Big Business of Entertainment, which Amazon named one of its Best Books of 2013.
Prior to joining Harvard Business School, professor Elberse was a Visiting Fellow at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. She holds a PhD from London Business School, an MA in Communication from the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California, and an MA in Communication Science from the University of Amsterdam (cum laude). A native of The Netherlands but now an American citizen, she was awarded a Netherland-America Foundation/Fulbright Fellowship.
Professor Elberse is one of the youngest female professors to have been promoted to full professor with tenure in Harvard Business School's history.
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