Publications

December 2003 (Revised April 2004)
Case

Blockbuster Inc. & Technological Substitution (B): Confronting New Digital Formats

Investigates how the rise of digital video formats threatens to make videocassette technology obsolete; how this technological substitution might alter the economics and structure of the video rental and retail industries; and how Blockbuster Inc., the industry leader,... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Decisions; Technological Innovation; Competition; Change Management; Service Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry

01 Sep 2023
News

The Exchange: Where Ethics Meet Economics

negotiation. His latest book is Complicit: How We Enable the Unethical and How to Stop. Here, they talk about how the confluence of behavioral ethics and behavioral economics can help shape our understanding... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services; Information

09 Aug 2013
Research & Ideas

Read All About It: Digital CEO Buys Traditional Media!

the world are trying to reinvent themselves for digital success. Indeed, few strategic problems are as hard as those confronting newspapers—declining print revenues, even greater declines in advertising revenue (mostly due to the loss... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner; Journalism & News; Publishing

June 2024
Case

Growing Foodology into Latin America's Largest Platform for Virtual Restaurants

By: Jorge Tamayo, Rembrand Koning and Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago

This case delves into the expansion strategy of Foodology, a cloud kitchen startup based in Bogotá that operated across four Latin American countries (Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru). Co-founders Daniela Izquierdo and Juan Guillermo Azuero (both HBS, 2019) grappled... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Food; Digital Platforms; Product Launch; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Business Model; Business Startups; Profit; Marketing Strategy; Expansion; Diversification; Food and Beverage Industry; Latin America; South America; Colombia; Brazil; Mexico; Peru

2017
Working Paper

Nowcasting the Local Economy: Using Yelp Data to Measure Economic Activity

By: Edward L. Glaeser, Hyunjin Kim and Michael Luca

Can new data sources from online platforms help to measure local economic activity? Government datasets from agencies such as the U.S. Census Bureau provide the standard measures of economic activity at the local level. However, these statistics typically appear only... View Details

Keywords: Economy; Analytics and Data Science; Local Range; Social and Collaborative Networks

SSRN

June 2022
Case

Worten Portugal: Becoming a Digital Marketplace

By: Antonio Moreno, Pedro Amorim and Tonia Labruyere

With Amazon's entry into Portugal, Miguel Mota Freitas, CEO of Portuguese electronics chain Worten, is reflecting on their strategy of building a competitive marketplace. View Details

Keywords: Digital Transformation; Digital Strategy; Digital Platforms; Brands and Branding; E-commerce; Logistics; Service Delivery; Supply Chain; Competitive Strategy; Diversification; Consumer Products Industry; Electronics Industry; Retail Industry; Portugal; Spain

Fast Answer

Resources for Harvard Economics Students

A series of resources, tips and FAQs to support Harvard economics doctoral students, senior thesis writers and econ concentrators navigating Baker Library financial data resources. Which... View Details

2023
Working Paper

Scapegoating and Discrimination in Times of Crisis: Evidence from Airbnb

By: Michael Luca, Elizaveta Pronkina and Michelangelo Rossi

We present evidence that discrimination against Asian-American Airbnb users sharply increased at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a DiD approach, we find that hosts with distinctively Asian names experienced a 20 percent decline in guests relative to hosts... View Details

Keywords: Discrimination; Behavioral Economics; Market Design; Health Pandemics; Prejudice and Bias; Digital Platforms; Design

March 2010 (Revised May 2012)
Case

Bank of America: Mobile Banking

By: Sunil Gupta and Kerry Herman

In January 2010, Jen McDonald, head of Bank of America Corporation's (BAC) Digital Marketing group, was discussing the bank's mobile strategy with Douglas Brown, senior vice president, Mobile Product Development. BAC launched mobile banking in 2007 and within three... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Digital Marketing; Financial Services; Mobile Banking; Channels; Strategy; Banks and Banking; Marketing Strategy; Service Delivery; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Banking Industry; United States

April 2022 (Revised August 2022)
Case

Antler

By: Dennis Campbell and Iuliana Mogosanu

The case describes the founding, development, and scaling of Antler, an early-stage investment platform that invests in entrepreneurs pre-team and, in many cases, even pre-idea. The case explores the economics of venture capital investing at such an early stage and the... View Details

Keywords: Platform; Technology; Analytics; Venture Capital; Entrepreneurship; Information Technology; Expansion; Financial Services Industry

01 Sep 2013
News

HBS's Unique Economic Model

Rick Melnick Harvard Business School is renowned for educating leaders who make a difference in the world. Less well known is the economic model that enables HBS to do this—model that is unique in higher education. HBS is a living example... View Details

Keywords: Melnick, Richard; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

July 2011 (Revised January 2013)
Case

Digital Microscopy Is Making Me Crazy!

By: Willy Shih

For Carl Zeiss Microimaging, modular hardware and software enabled customers to tailor Zeiss's broad range of microscopy systems hardware and software to meet a wide range of needs from basic scientific research in the biological and medical sciences to clinical... View Details

Keywords: Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software; Corporate Strategy; Disruptive Innovation; Science-Based Business; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Business Conglomerates; Digital Platforms; Opportunities; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Computer Industry

25 Aug 2003
Research & Ideas

Should You Sell Your Digital Privacy?

regulatory approach? Isn't the telemarketing hotline working? Deighton: Regulation solution routinely disappoints. Rules lag behind the cunning of those who want to exploit the limitations of the rules,... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls & Sean Silverthorne; Advertising

2021
Working Paper

The Value of Data and Its Impact on Competition

By: Marco Iansiti

Common regulatory perspective on the relationship between data, value, and competition in online platforms has increasingly centered on the volume of data accumulated by incumbent firms. This view posits the existence of "data network effects," where more data leads to... View Details

Keywords: Online Platforms; Data Network Effects; Analytics and Data Science; Value; Competition; Digital Platforms

SSRN

June 2007
Article

Merchant or Two-Sided Platform?

By: Andrei Hagiu

This paper provides a first pass at clarifying the economic tradeoffs between two polar strategies for market intermediation: the "merchant" mode, in which the intermediary buys from sellers and resells to buyers; and the "two-sided platform" mode, under which the... View Details

Keywords: Merchants; Two-sided Platforms; Intermediaries; Two-Sided Markets; Digital Platforms

Find at Harvard

Winter 2019
Article

From the Digital to the Physical: Federal Limitations on Regulating Online Marketplaces

By: Benjamin Edelman and Abbey Stemler

Online marketplaces have transformed how we shop, travel, and interact with the world. Yet, their unique innovations also present a panoply of challenges for communities and states. Surprisingly, federal laws are chief among those challenges despite the fact that... View Details

Keywords: Marketplaces; Peer To Peer; Sharing Economy; Decentralized; Regulation; Preemption; Markets; Internet; Government Legislation; Laws and Statutes; United States

Find at Harvard

September 2012 (Revised April 2013)
Case

Digital Microscopy at Carl Zeiss: Managing Disruption

By: Willy Shih

Ulrich Simon, the head of the Microscopy business group at Carl Zeiss AG knew that his unit was facing a disruptive threat, so he chartered a special team to tackle the industrial segment. Given a high degree of autonomy, the project team developed an understanding of... View Details

Keywords: Modularity; High Technology Products; Emergent Strategy; Product Lines; Corporate Strategy; Digital Platforms; Disruptive Innovation; Technology Industry; Germany

July 2017 (Revised July 2018)
Case

Upwork: Creating the Human Cloud

By: Dylan Minor and David Yoffie

Stephane Kasriel, the new CEO of Upwork, the leading platform for freelance labor, needs to decide on how to redesign its business model. While the firm has been growing rapidly since the merger of Odesk and eLance, the newly combined firm continues to face problems of... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Platform; Platform Businesses; Technology; Business Model; Digital Platforms; Growth and Development Strategy; Internet and the Web; Labor