Publications

On May 12, 2012, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway announced an offer to buy Media General’s (MEG) newspaper division for $142 million in cash and, under a separate agreement, provide debt financing to the struggling firm. Reactions from investors and industry... View Details

02 Jun 2014
Research & Ideas

Secrets to a Successful Social Media Strategy

some social media platforms soar while others fizzle, and how business can use them to generate profit. "I have always been fascinated that humans interact online when we can interact offline as we have for thousands of years," says... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

Video

Digital Media Startup Roundtable

October 2018
Article

The Operational Value of Social Media Information

By: Ruomeng Cui, Santiago Gallino, Antonio Moreno and Dennis J. Zhang

While the value of using social media information has been established in multiple business contexts, the field of operations and supply chain management have not yet explored the possibilities it offers in improving firms' operational decisions. This study attempts to... View Details

Keywords: Machine Learning; Information; Sales; Forecasting and Prediction; Social Media

January 2008 (Revised March 2008)
Case

Glass Egg Digital Media

Glass Egg is an outsource games development firm in Vietnam. They are able to offer brand-name publishers-Microsoft EA, Atari-significant cost savings in the development of art assets for their video games. However, the firm's management find themselves at a point at... View Details

Keywords: Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Demand and Consumers; Product Development; Organizational Structure; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

07 Dec 2009
News

The Shifting Media Landscape

Keywords: Arts, Entertainment; Management

June 1994 (Revised December 1997)
Case

Safeway, Inc.'s Leveraged Buyout (C): Media Response

Focuses exclusively on the controversy by presenting the media responses to the LBO and its aftermath, including full text of Faludi's interview with Safeway CEO Peter Magowan, and her subsequent Journal article. View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Media; Retail Industry; United States

November 2015
Case

Cox Automotive Media Group

By: Robert J. Dolan

January 1978 (Revised February 1987)
Background Note

Note on Media Selection

28 Sep 2010
News

A New Media Challenge

Keywords: Broadcasting (except Internet); Information; Corporate, Subsidiary, and Regional Managing Offices; Management

06 Aug 2012
News

Social Media on Fire

Keywords: News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; Information

March 2007
Supplement

Ascent Media Group (B)

26 Oct 2016
News

Newspapers Are Social Media

2011
Article

The Causal Impact of Media in Financial Markets

By: Christopher Parsons and J. Engelberg

Disentangling the causal impact of media reporting from the impact of the events being reported is challenging. We solve this problem by comparing the behaviors of investors with access to different media coverage of the same information event. We use zip codes to... View Details

Keywords: Media; Financial Markets

28 Mar 2018
HBS Seminar

Tim O’Reilly, O’Reilly Media

June 2023 (Revised July 2023)
Case

Social Media Background Screening at Fama Technologies

By: Joseph Pacelli, Jillian Grennan and Alexis Lefort

Fama Technologies is an online screening company that uses AI to analyze job applicants' publicly available online content for signs of risk and culture fit. The case opens with Ben Mones, founder and CEO, looking to secure funding from venture firms. He is running... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Recruitment; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Organizational Culture; Talent and Talent Management; AI and Machine Learning; Social Media; Venture Capital; Entrepreneurship; United States

2016
Chapter

User-Generated Content and Social Media

By: Michael Luca

This paper documents what economists have learned about user-generated content (UGC) and social media. A growing body of evidence suggests that UGC on platforms ranging from Yelp to Facebook has a large causal impact on economic and social outcomes ranging from... View Details

Keywords: User-generated Content; Crowdsourcing; Design Economics; Internet and the Web; Marketing; Economics; Media; Social Media

Read Now

July 13, 2023
Article

Threads Foreshadows a Big—and Surprising—Shift in Social Media

By: Scott Duke Kominers and Liang Wu

Threads, Meta’s Twitter competitor, has become the fastest downloaded app in history. One of the reasons for this is because it allows users to port over their profiles and follows from the already popular social media platform Instagram, also owned by Meta—a feature... View Details

Keywords: Decentralization; Twitter; Facebook; Instagram; Crypto Economy; Blockchain; Network; Industrial Organization; Competition; Open Innovation; Open Platforms; Open Source Innovation; Social Networks; Social Media; Applications and Software; Information Technology Industry

Register to Read

May 2024
Supplement

GameStop: Social Media Finds a Cheat Code (B)

By: Joseph Pacelli and Sarah Mehta

This case accompanies “GameStop: Social Media Finds a Cheat Code (A),” no. 124-005. It provides an update on pertinent events from 2021 to 2023. View Details

Keywords: Finance; Markets; Value; Financial Services Industry; Video Game Industry; United States