Publications

April 2014
Case

Ford Motor Company: Blueprint for Mobility

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Marco Iansiti and Noah Fisher

Mark Fields, Ford Motor Company's COO, had to ensure the company's current business model of building cars and trucks remained strong, while concurrently navigating the company into the rapidly expanding industry of personal mobility. Personal mobility required new... View Details

Keywords: Automobiles; Automobile Manufacturing; Ford Motor Company; Mark Fields; Blueprint For Mobility; Dearborn; Michigan; Car Sharing; Parking; On-demand Ride Sharing; Strategy; Business Model; Auto Industry; Michigan; United States

17 Aug 2015
Research & Ideas

Who is Boss in the Sharing Economy?

than traditional businesses that employ their workers. And so it seemed until June, when the California Labor Commission disrupted the sharing economy when it declared that an Uber driver was an employee, not an independent contractor.... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Service; Technology

17 Apr 2017
Research Event

The Most Pressing Issues for Platform Providers in the Sharing Economy

The so-called chicken-and-egg problem is arguably the most discussed and most obvious business dilemma in the sharing economy. Platform providers–like Uber, Airbnb, or Etsy–rely on both consumers and producers to create and sustain a... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Service

January 2005 (Revised June 2005)
Case

Zipcar: Influencing Customer Behavior

By: Frances X. Frei and Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar

At Zipcar, customers share the use of cars and, as a result, rely on each other for their service experience. Customers are required to keep the car clean and the gas tank full and to return the car on time. Told from the perspective of two customers: Sal Fishman, who... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Governance Controls; Behavior; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Consumer Behavior; Leasing; Transportation Industry; Service Industry; United States

15 May 2024
Research & Ideas

A Major Roadblock for Autonomous Cars: Motorists Believe They Drive Better

Think you’re a better driver than most people? You’re not alone. And you may be one reason self-driving cars haven’t taken off. About 77 percent of participants surveyed in a new study rated themselves superior to automated vehicles,... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Transportation; Auto

Article

The Electrified Future Is Shared: Mobility Services and Electrification's Pace, Shape

By: Jurgen Weiss

The article examines the potential impacts of new mobility services such as ride sharing and ride hailing on the speed and depth of electrification of personal transportation. The article explores how a shift of transportation towards shared mobility services might... View Details

Keywords: Mobility; Electric Vehicle; Autonomous Vehicles; Electricity Demand; Energy; Transportation Industry; Auto Industry; Energy Industry

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October 22, 2012
Article

Interest Rate Pass-Through: Mortgage Rates, Household Consumption, and Voluntary Deleveraging

By: Marco Di Maggio, Amir Kermani, Benjamin Keys, Tomasz Piskorski, Rodney Ramcharan, Amit Seru and Vincent Yao

Exploiting variation in the timing of resets of adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), we find that a sizable decline in mortgage payments (up to 50%) induces a significant increase in car purchases (up to 35%). This effect is attenuated by voluntary deleveraging. Borrowers... View Details

Keywords: Monetary Policy; Household Finance; Refinancing; Contract Rigidities; Debt Rigidity; MPC; Deleveraging; Personal Finance; Household; Policy; Borrowing and Debt; Macroeconomics

Find at Harvard

21 Mar 2019
HBS Case

The Ferrari Way

comfortable car on the market, but the best combination of the two...” When Thomke, who teaches and writes about the management of innovation, received an email from Ferrari out of the blue asking if he wanted to study the company, he... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Auto

February 2022 (Revised March 2022)
Case

National Electric Vehicles Sweden (NEVS): Materializing a Vision

By: Shane Greenstein and Elena Corsi

In 2021, the car manufacturer National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS) faced the challenge of securing funding from its investor to launch an innovative mobility solution based on fleets of shared autonomous driving (AD) cars. The system was complex as it required the... View Details

Keywords: Autonomous Vehicles; Product Design; Sustainable Cities; Transportation Networks; Auto Industry; Sweden; Europe

September 2015
Technical Note

The On-Demand Economy

By: Cynthia A. Montgomery, James Weber and Elizabeth Anne Watkins

This note describes the emerging on-demand economy, also referred to as the sharing economy. The note highlights several companies including Uber and Airbnb that exemplify this new mode of competition, a model that threatens to disrupt traditional firms. Uber provides... View Details

Keywords: Regulation; Reform; Disruption; Disruptive Innovation; Strategy; Technological Innovation; Labor; Employment; Working Conditions; Human Capital; Rights; Organizational Design; Social and Collaborative Networks; Service Industry

17 Aug 2021
Research & Ideas

Can Autonomous Vehicles Drive with Common Sense?

Human error causes at least 90 percent of the 5.25 million accidents in the United States annually. Could driverless cars save lives? Yes, but it may take a long road to get there. “Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are never drunk or tired or... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Auto

November 2009 (Revised September 2010)
Case

Personal Rapid Transport at Vectus, Ltd.

By: Benjamin Edelman

Personal Rapid Transport (PRT) vehicles—often called "driverless taxis"—sought to combine the best characteristics of cars, taxis, and trains, while adding features unavailable in any existing transportation system. Like cars and taxis, PRT vehicles carried small... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Network Effects; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Transportation Networks; Transportation Industry

2009
Other Teaching and Training Material

Personal Rapid Transport at Vectus, Inc.

By: Benjamin Edelman

PRT vehicles—often called "driverless taxis"—sought to combine the best characteristics of cars, taxis, and trains, while adding features unavailable in any existing transportation system. Like cars and taxis, PRT vehicles carried small groups—often just a single... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Network Effects; Transportation Networks; Transportation Industry

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December 2017 (Revised November 2018)
Case

Tesla Motors (A): Financing Growth

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Sarah L. Abbott

The case analyzes the equity market value of Tesla Motors, the electric car company founded and led by Elon Musk. Wall Street analysts are wildly divided on the future growth prospects for this company, and analysts’ one year share price targets range from $160 to... View Details

Keywords: Valuation Methodologies; Investing; Equities; Public Equity; Finance; Valuation; Equity; Auto Industry; Energy Industry; United States