Anita Elberse is the Lincoln Filene Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. An award-winning teacher and scholar, 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.” 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. Professor Elberse has conducted case studies on dozens of entertainment companies and personalities, including The Walt Disney Studios, Live Nation, NBCUniversal, the NFL, Nike, and Spotify.

Several of these are described in her first book, Blockbusters: Hit-making, Risk-taking, and the Big Business of Entertainment. Professor Elberse is one of the youngest female professors to have been promoted to full professor with tenure in Harvard Business School’s history.