Publications

19 Nov 2001
Research & Ideas

Alfred Chandler on the Electronic Century

public use—major new products of either consumer electronics or computer hardware with their essential software technologies. In the United States, no enterprise had the capability to commercialize new consumer electronics technologies.... View Details

Keywords: by Alfred D. Chandler, Takashi Hikino & Andrew Von Nordenflycht; Computer; Computer; Computer; Computer; Computer

11 Mar 2001
Research & Ideas

Digital Designs on the Inner City

An increasing number of inner city residents own computers and have online access, but government agencies and private companies need to do more to bridge the digital divide that still exists among income groups, according to business and... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

2010
Case

New Heritage Doll Company: Capital Budgeting: Brief Case No. 4212.

By: Timothy A. Luehrman and Heide Diener Abelli

A manufacturer and retailer of specialty doll products must decide which of two projects to fund. The decision requires the student to compute cash flows for the 2 projects, discount values to the present and compare and contrast different project performance measures. View Details

Keywords: Capital Budgeting; Projects; Decision Making; Cash Flow; Performance Evaluation; Production

February 2000 (Revised November 2002)
Case

QuickenInsurance: The Race to Click and Close (A)

By: Lynda M. Applegate

ES Technologies started in 1976 as a storefront in Tempe, Arizona selling personal computer kits to hobbyists. Twenty years later, revenues exceeded $3.5 billion, and the business had evolved from a computer store to a master reseller and full-line integrator of... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Entrepreneurship; Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Industry Structures; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Information Technology; Information Technology Industry; Arizona

Find at Harvard

2016
Chapter

Deriving an Optimally Deceptive Policy in Two-Player Iterated Games

By: Elisabeth Paulson and Christopher Griffin

We formulate the problem of determining an optimally deceptive strategy in a repeated game framework. We assume that two players are engaged in repeated play. During an initial time period, Player 1 may deceptively train his opponent to expect a specific strategy. The... View Details

Keywords: Deception; Strategy; Game Theory

Carolyn Fu is an assistant professor of business administration in the Strategy Unit. She studies innovation strategy—specifically, how firms can uncover new sources of value through their interactions with the wider innovation ecosystem. Her research explores... View Details

August 2005 (Revised August 2006)
Case

Grupo Martica

Grupo Martica commissions a computer security expert to conduct an audit of its systems, network, and processes. This audit reveals that Martica is quite vulnerable, and the company's de facto CIO must decide what steps to take to improve security. He wonders how... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Information Infrastructure; Information Technology; Information Infrastructure; Complexity

April 2004 (Revised September 2004)
Case

Hewlett-Packard-Compaq: The Merger Decision

By: Krishna G. Palepu and Jonathan Barnett

Hewlett-Packard's proposed $24 billion acquisition of rival Compaq marked the largest merger in the history of the computer industry. The merger was Hewlett-Packard's response to sweeping changes impacting the technology industry. The severity of the stock market's... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business and Shareholder Relations; Computer Industry; Computer Industry

December 2022
Article

The Rise of People Analytics and the Future of Organizational Research

By: Jeff Polzer

Organizations are transforming as they adopt new technologies and use new sources of data, changing the experiences of employees and pushing organizational researchers to respond. As employees perform their daily activities, they generate vast digital data. These data,... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Analytics and Data Science; Technology Adoption; Employees

Read Now

15 Feb 2011
News

Digital effects

February 1999 (Revised May 1999)
Case

Onsale, Inc.

By: Youngme E. Moon

Onsale has been a pioneer in electronic commerce, offering excess and refurbished goods using an online auction format. The company is now planning to become a player in the highly competitive world of first-run computer merchandise as well. However, unlike other... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Transformation; Customers; Brands and Branding; Auctions; Network Effects; Strategic Planning; Competitive Strategy; Internet and the Web; Retail Industry

February 1999 (Revised November 1999)
Case

Hewlett-Packard's Merced Decision

By: Clayton M. Christensen and Matt Verlinden

Describes managing the threat of disruptive technology at the high end of the computer industry. Many aspects of the innovator's dilemma can be explored. View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Risk Management; Disruptive Innovation; Computer Industry; United States

April 2001
Case

Technology Legend in China, A

Describes the sources of Legend's surge to dominance of the Chinese computer market and the subsequent split of distribution and manufacturing into Digital China and Legend Computing. View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Production; Distribution; Competitive Strategy; Computer Industry; China

Feng Zhu is the MBA Class of 1958 Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, where he leads the Platform Lab within the Digital, Data, and Design Institute, co-chairs the Harvard Business Analytics Program, and serves as the course head for the... View Details

Anjali M. Bhatt

Anjali... View Details

10 Jul 2014
News

How Harvard Medical School Uses Open Innovation To Solve World-Class Scientific Problems

Magie Cheng

Mengjie (Magie) Cheng is a Ph.D. student in Marketing at Harvard Business School. She received her B.S. in Finance from Chu Kochen Honors College at Zhejiang University and M.S. in Management Science and... View Details

November 2008 (Revised June 2009)
Case

Sole-Sourcing the Intel 386: A Company and Industry Transformed

By: Richard S. Tedlow and David Ruben

Intel's precedent-breaking decision not to second-source its groundbreaking 386 microprocessor in 1986 propelled Intel to new heights and fundamentally transformed the computer industry. View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Technological Innovation; Production; Information Infrastructure; Transformation; Brands and Branding; Product Development; Computer Industry; United States