Publications

2007
Working Paper

Digital Interactivity: Unanticipated Consequences for Markets, Marketing, and Consumers

By: John A. Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

The digital interactive transformation in marketing is not unfolding, as many thought it would, on the model of direct marketing. That model anticipated that digital media using rich profiling data would intrude marketing messaging more deeply and more precisely into... View Details

Keywords: Communication Intention and Meaning; Interactive Communication; Marketing Communications; Consumer Behavior; Social and Collaborative Networks; Internet and the Web

Read Now

29 Feb 2016
HBS Case

Bigbelly's Big Bet on the Digital Trash Can

strategy is selling cities on something citizens need. In Bigbelly’s case, the company aims to leverage the power and connectivity already embedded in the waste stations for a public increasingly hungry for data. Not only are Wi-Fi hotspots in demand by those who can’t... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Energy

02 Jun 2014
Research & Ideas

Excerpt: ‘A Social Strategy’

acquisition costs. These results suggest that eBay's foray into leveraging the social Internet for profit reveals a replicable strategy that benefits both the company and the consumer and can be succinctly summarized as: eBay increases... View Details

01 Dec 2005
News

A Matter of Opinion

come to us through our Web site,” he says. “In the way that paperbacks turned out to be an extension of the market for hardcover books, I think the Internet is an extension of the print audience rather than a replacement.” As for his own... View Details

Keywords: Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

22 Mar 2016
First Look

March 22, 2016

Information Systems Research Open Content, Linus' Law, and Neutral Point of View By: Greenstein, Shane, and Feng Zhu Abstract—The diffusion of the Internet and digital technologies has enabled many organizations to use the open-content... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

19 May 2014
Research & Ideas

Why Companies Should Compete for Your Privacy

information to provide." “Focusing on a single revenue source is the most profitable strategy when firms compete for consumer information” It's clear from their research that the marketplace has plenty of room for two types of Internet... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Consumer Products

15 Jun 2021
News

Alumni Achievement Awards 2021

AACE Foods I have always been passionate about creating change through building businesses on the African continent. A defining moment for me was partnering with friends in 1999 to start an internet café in the neighborhood I grew up in... View Details

01 Oct 1999
News

The Class of 1974: Timed for a Change

world-class performance in racehorses? Section F is not unique in its achievements. Who on the B-School Blades could have predicted that when Barry Allardice stopped living out of his car he would become an investment banker? How about Larry Kramer's View Details

Keywords: Charles B. ("Chuck") Mercer

16 Feb 2016
First Look

February 16, 2016

we are going to start with payments." Cook then invited Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet software and services, to the stage to explain how Apple Pay would transform the mobile payments industry. He explained how... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

18 Aug 2009
First Look

First Look: August 18

Start-up's Midlife Crisis: 99Sushe.com Harvard Business School Case 309-060 Now into their third year at the helm of an Internet start-up in China, Ken Pao and Bill Li were managing a totally different company (with a new name) from the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

01 Dec 2015
News

Golden State of Mind

alone. They’re doing it to make an impact.” And sometimes, they’re doing it because they see an opportunity that their employer doesn’t. Draper followed the development of peer-to-peer file-sharing technology and tracked down the founders of Kazaa who had left to start... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna

July 2022 (Revised February 2024)
Teaching Note

The DivaCup: Navigating Distribution and Growth

By: Ayelet Israeli

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 519-055. When the mother-daughter founders of DivaCup set out with a mission to disrupt the menstrual care industry with an innovative product form, they initially struggled to gain legitimacy and convince retailers to carry their unique... View Details

March 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

The DivaCup: Navigating Distribution and Growth

By: Ayelet Israeli

When the mother-daughter founders of DivaCup set out with a mission to disrupt the menstrual care industry with an innovative product form, they initially struggled to gain legitimacy and convince retailers to carry their unique product. Fifteen years later, the... View Details

April 2021
Case

Codecademy: Where to Next?

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Max Mailman and Sarah Ascherman

In March 2020, Zach Sims, co-founder and CEO of online education platform Codecademy, prepared for a meeting with his Chief of Staff Kunal Ahuja to discuss the company’s goals. Codecademy billed itself as the largest online resource for computer science literacy and... View Details

Keywords: Monetization Strategy; Business Model; Change Management; Venture Capital; Leading Change; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Management Teams; Marketing Channels; Product Marketing; Network Effects; Product Development; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategic Planning; Internet and the Web; Digital Platforms; United States

July 2024
Case

Freelancer, Ltd.

By: Christopher Stanton, Karim R. Lakhani, Jin Hyun Paik and Nina Cohodes

Over the course of the 2010s, the rapid advancement of mobile technologies and the rise of online freelancing platforms seemed to portend a radical transformation of labor markets into on-demand, flexible talent pools. Even though several Fortune 500... View Details

Keywords: Freelancers; Labor Markets; Internet and the Web; Digital Platforms; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Human Capital; Change Management; Globalized Firms and Management; Employment; Global Range; Employment Industry

August 1998 (Revised December 1998)
Case

Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B)

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Nicole Tempest

Describes how the Balanced Scorecard built by the Online Financial Services (OFS) group is used to select the highest-priority initiatives for the organization. Currently, initiatives arise continually throughout the organization, and management spends considerable... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Internet and the Web; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Corporate Strategy; Performance Evaluation; Finance; Change; Situation or Environment; Measurement and Metrics; Financial Services Industry; Banking Industry

July 2008 (Revised June 2011)
Case

mixi (A)

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, Masaru Nomura and Kanako Miyoshi

Kasahara, the founder and CEO of mixi, the most successful Japanese on-line social network, is deciding between two strategic options: (i) B2C or (ii) C2C to leverage the power of the social network. In the B2C option, mixi would become a portal for on-line shopping... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Digital Platforms; Social and Collaborative Networks; Business Strategy; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Internet and the Web; Japan

March 2008 (Revised June 2011)
Case

MySpace

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, David T. Chen and Carin-Isabel Knoop

The case, set in late 2007, examines what MySpace—the largest online social network—should do to respond to its agile competitor, Facebook. Since its inception MySpace had experienced phenomenal growth, acquiring 20 million members in its first 20 months of operation,... View Details

Keywords: Open Source Distribution; Partners and Partnerships; Social and Collaborative Networks; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Internet and the Web; Digital Platforms; Information Technology Industry

January 2003 (Revised March 2004)
Case

Silverado (A)

By: Jan W. Rivkin and Charles J. Woodard

Silverado has raised $50 million and launched its first product: an Internet-based trivia game with innovative software. In a highly uncertain environment, the young management team must decide whether to continue developing the product and whether to branch out into... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Technological Innovation; Strategic Planning; Internet and the Web; Decision Choices and Conditions; Product Launch; Business Strategy; Entertainment and Recreation Industry