Virality - Publications - Faculty & Research

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Bankruptcy | Baker Library | Bloomberg Center | Harvard Business School

leaving investment banks with worthless assets. In “How Securitization Concentrated Risk,” authors Viral V. Acharya and Matthew W. Richardson explain: “Standing behind the collapse of the investment banks . . . was the systematic failure... View Details

25 Jul 2023
Research & Ideas

Could a Business Model Help Big Pharma Save Lives and Profit?

leveraged the formula in Egypt and in more than 100 other countries. In fact, Gilead generated substantial revenues through this hybrid approach for viral hepatitis and HIV. In doing so, this method helped patients regardless of whether... View Details

Keywords: by Esther Schrader; Pharmaceutical; Health

30 Nov 2015
Research & Ideas

Donors Are Turned Off by Overhead Costs. Here’s What Charities Can Do

toward clean water projects. Still, Keenan acknowledges that many in the nonprofit sector worry that enabling overhead-free donations will perpetuate the idea that overhead is a bad thing. For example, activist Dan Pallotta argues in favor of overhead in his View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

15 Nov 2022
Op-Ed

Why TikTok Is Beating YouTube for Eyeball Time (It’s Not Just the Dance Videos)

the internet. We wrote a series of Harvard Business School case studies between 2009 and 2011 exploring viral videos—United Breaks Guitars, the JK Wedding Dance, and how Ford used influencers to launch the Fiesta car. What struck us right... View Details

Keywords: by John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

18 Sep 2017
Research & Ideas

'Likes' Lead to Nothing—and Other Hard-Learned Lessons of Social Media Marketing

(@trillballins) pic.twitter.com/ckPcOmt0nO — CNN (@CNN) April 21, 2016 Failing to understand how quickly things can go wrong One viral video on Facebook can do serious damage to a company’s reputation, as United Airlines undoubtedly... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Advertising; Technology

20 Aug 2014
Research & Ideas

Why the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is a Social Media Blockbuster

they can become incidental props in these viral stunts. The challenge that brands encounter, however, is that their involvement could come off as merely jumping on the bandwagon because spreadable stunts tend to carry no meaning beyond... View Details

Keywords: by John Deighton

11 Mar 2019
Research & Ideas

Branding Sells Cereal, Handbags, and Vacations. Can It Sell a Country?

culture, setting off a K-Drama (Korean television drama) and K-Pop (Korean pop music) craze, with music exports, for example, expanding ninefold to $277 million in 2013. Think virally and socially. When New York City sought to bring back... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Tourism

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Bibliography | Baker Library | Bloomberg Center | Harvard Business School

Library Search Search Search Lehman Brothers: 1850 - 2008 Resources Bibliography Bibliography Acharya, Viral V., and Matthew W. Richardson. “How Securitization Concentrated Risk.” In What Caused the Financial Crisis , ed. Jeffrey... View Details

25 Jan 2017
HBS Case

How Should Advertisers Respond to Consumer Demand for Whiter Skin?

Stay beautiful”—went viral on social media in 2013. (See illustration below) Campaign ad featuring Indian actress Nandita Das protesting skin-lightening creams. Source: Women of Worth, courtesy Rohit Deshpandé Fair skin part of India’s... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Beauty & Cosmetics

31 May 2023
News

Alumni Achievement Awards 2023

read that by the time Black boys turn 10, society views them as potential aggressors. I remember thinking, I have three years to solve this.” A viral moment: “I just wanted to connect with people who could understand what I was feeling:... View Details

Keywords: leadership; management; work-life balance

24 Feb 2022
Op-Ed

Want to Prevent the Next Hospital Bed Crisis? Enlist the SEC

During the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, many US hospitals could not provide enough beds to meet demand. Solving the problem of inadequate capacity is of utmost importance in the “new normal,” which requires recognizing the ongoing need for hospital-based... View Details

Keywords: by Regina Herzlinger and Richard Boxer; Health

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2022 Reunion Presentations - Alumni

Wordle seems poised to outlast its pandemic peers when the New York Times makes an unexpected bid to acquire it. Come dissect the journey of one entrepreneur and his viral product as he debates a 7-figure exit before earning his first... View Details

17 Sep 2007
Research & Ideas

Broadband: Remaking the Advertising Industry

to create viral marketing, is actually much less expensive. Say you're an advertiser and you want to reach the MySpace population segment. Do I want to be advertising on television, or do I want to somehow be advertising on MySpace?... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Advertising; Media & Broadcasting; Publishing

December 2015
Article

Introduction: New Perspectives on Corporate Capital Structure

By: Viral Acharya, Heitor Almeida and Malcolm Baker

The National Bureau of Economic Research held a symposium titled "New Perspectives on Corporate Capital Structures" on April 5–6, 2013 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In its call for the submission of theoretical and empirical papers for the symposium, the NBER noted that... View Details

Keywords: Capital Structure; Economic Growth; Financial Crisis; Corporate Finance

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01 Feb 2000
News

Filling a Vacuum

drought-relief operation, among other activities. "I'm the only CEO who flew a bush plane and rode camels for work," he said. After contracting acute viral hepatitis in 1987, he returned to the United States and enrolled at HBS. There... View Details

01 Sep 2010
News

You’ve Been YouTubed

or not we’re active users of them. A new case coauthored by HBS marketing professor John Deighton and research associate Leora Kornfeld offers an object lesson in what that means for big, recognizable companies and their brands. “United Breaks Guitars” documents the... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; social media; Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services; Professional Services; Air Transportation; Transportation

01 Mar 2012
News

Images of Occupy

viral on the Internet. According to the New York Times (November 16, 2011), Bradley wanted “to look into the protesters’ eyes, seeking the personalities behind the leaderless movement.” For Bradley, it was more like photojournalism than... View Details

Keywords: social activism; photography; Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries; Arts, Entertainment

27 Sep 2021
News

Sewn with Love

material to construction—in a YouTube video, in hopes she could rally her fashion-industry network. The video went viral with 170,000 views, from 170 countries; and just like that, medical-gown production became homegrown. As the video... View Details

01 Jun 2000
News

Going Public: Scott C. Bolick

twice the 67 days usually needed to complete the arduous battery of simulated combat missions. The ordeal left Bolick 36 pounds lighter than when he started and further weakened by viral infections that required two overnight... View Details

Keywords: Nancy O. Perry

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Timothy C. Draper | Baker Library | Bloomberg Center | Harvard Business School

network of semi-independent venture capital firms in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. The firm has funded notable technology companies including Baidu, Hotmail, and Skype. Tim’s original suggestion to use “viral marketing” in web-based email to View Details

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