Publications

29 Feb 2016
HBS Case

Bigbelly's Big Bet on the Digital Trash Can

self-compacting solution to keep streets clean. Last year, however, the Massachusetts-based company’s CEO shared plans to change its business model from selling a product—waste and recycling stations—to selling a subscription-based service that could include Wi-Fi... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Energy

November 2018 (Revised April 2019)
Case

Nike: Changing the Sneakers Game

By: Anita Elberse, Bryce Aiken and Howard Johnson

“Our goal is to be the kind of start-up that would terrify Nike—if Nike didn’t already own us.” Ron Faris, general manager of S23NYC, a Manhattan-based digital studio owned by sports apparel giant Nike, is on the phone with Adam Sussman, Nike’s chief digital officer.... View Details

Keywords: Digital Technology; Apparel; Fashion; Superstar; Innovation; General Management; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Innovation and Invention; Management; Sports; Entertainment; Digital Strategy; Apparel and Accessories Industry

June 2023
Case

Launching Egypt’s First Digital Banking Platform: QNB Bebasata

By: Mark Egan, Billy Chan and Ahmed Dahawy

The leadership team at QNB Alahli, Egypt's second biggest private bank, looked back on their efforts to create a brand-new, fully digital banking platform since 2019. A digital-only banking service was unprecedented in Egypt, a country where over 90% of financial... View Details

Keywords: Digital Transformation; Banks and Banking; Innovation and Invention; Competitive Strategy; Business Model; Product Launch; Finance; Banking Industry; Egypt

23 Sep 2022
Research & Ideas

8 Strategies to Sustain Business Innovation

Sooner or later, every company runs into challenges that force them to make tough trade-offs during the innovation process. Harvard Business School associate professor Rory McDonald calls these moments “tensions.” The streaming service... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

01 Dec 2020
News

Digital Health Care: Empowering Consumers

July 2018
Article

Does Copyright Affect Reuse? Evidence from Google Books and Wikipedia

By: Abhishek Nagaraj

While digitization has greatly increased the reuse of knowledge, this study shows how these benefits might be mitigated by copyright restrictions. I use the digitization of in-copyright and out-of-copyright issues of Baseball Digest magazine by Google Books to... View Details

Keywords: Digitization; Economics Of Innovation; Wikipedia; Intellectual Property; Copyright

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Digital Exhibits | Baker Library

Digital Exhibits All Exhibits From Concept to Product: Meroë Morse and Polaroid’s Culture of Art and Innovation, 1945–1969 Explores the extraordinary career of Meroë Morse—a key contributor to the development of instant photography,... View Details

September 2016 (Revised September 2016)
Case

Spectio: A Digital Lighting Company

By: Rajiv Lal and Sarah McAra

Spectio Tech, founded in 2005, developed and implemented intelligent LED lighting solutions for the industrial market. Sensors and wireless connectivity embedded in its LED fixtures not only significantly reduced lighting-related energy use—by up to 90% in some... View Details

Keywords: Internet Of Things; IoT; LED Lighting; Start-up; Energy Efficiency; Information Technology; Technology Adoption; Technological Innovation; Business Startups; Internet and the Web

Program

Competing in the Age of Digital Platforms

Summary The vast majority of the world's most valuable companies today are platforms: Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook, and many other firms have built their fortunes by facilitating innovation across global ecosystems or... View Details

October 2017 (Revised April 2019)
Case

Eastern Bank: Innovating Through Eastern Labs

By: Karen Mills, Dennis Campbell and Aaron Mukerjee

Eastern Bank is a 200-year-old New England mutual bank with a community focus. Eastern specializes in small business lending, having made strategic investments to become the top SBA lender in New England in the midst of the Great Recession, when other banks were... View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Technological Innovation; Entrepreneurship; Management

16 Apr 2020
Video

Wala Digital Health: Finalist in 2020 New Venture Competition Student Social Enterprise Track

Web

Digital Transformation - HBS Online

Certificate Courses (2) AI Essentials for Business Professors Karim Lakhani and Marco Iansiti Compete in the age of AI with a comprehensive approach to building, leading, and operating AI-powered organizations. 4 weeks, 5-6 hrs/week Enroll by January 16 $1,850... View Details

March 2018
Case

Sandra Brown Goes Digital (A): The Promise and Perils of Social Movements in a Healthcare Company

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jonathan Cohen

As a middle manager at a biotechnology company, Sandra Brown harnessed digital tools and social media to engage others and build campaigns for change in the company. This case follows her career at the company and describes the challenges she faced as a change agent,... View Details

Keywords: Digital; Engagement; Stakeholder Engagement; Grassroots Movement; Organization Change And Adaptation; Quality; Health Care; Health Care Industry; Career Path; Leading Change; Management; Innovation and Management; Personal Development and Career; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Biotechnology Industry; Health Industry

October 2023
Case

CornerUp: Digitizing the Corner Store

By: Álvaro Rodríguez Arregui, Stacy Straaberg and Diego Zainos De La Sota Riva

In July 2023, Jason Diaz, co-founder and CEO of CornerUp, assessed the progress of his business-to-business e-procurement software application (app) startup, founded in January 2022. CornerUp began as a fast-moving consumer packaged goods (FMCG) distributor in New York... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Small Business; Transition; Decisions; Social Entrepreneurship; Geographic Location; Disruptive Innovation; Market Participation; Digital Platforms; Trust; Business Strategy; Expansion; Information Infrastructure; Internet and the Web; Technology Adoption; Value Creation; Technology Industry; United States

06 Jan 2015
News

Digital Business Models Should Have to Follow the Law, Too

November 1990 (Revised March 1994)
Case

Digital Equipment Corp.: The Kodak Outsourcing Agreement (A)

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Herminia M. Ibarra

Describes grassroots effort which culminated in Digital's winning a competitive bid for the outsourcing of Kodak's internal telecommunications business. Describes the "Telstar" project, from the initial identification of the business opportunity to the process of... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Partners and Partnerships; Leading Change; Agreements and Arrangements; Business or Company Management; Bids and Bidding; Decision Making; Management Teams; Telecommunications Industry

Web

Entrepreneurship & Innovation - MBA

Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship Fuel Your Entrepreneurial Passion The HBS community is a place where students are encouraged and inspired to pursue their entrepreneurial passions. There is a vast ecosystem of resources that supports the unique needs of View Details

June 2000 (Revised September 2000)
Case

Amazon.com: Exploiting the Value of Digital Business Infrastructure

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Meredith Collura

Enables a thorough analysis of Amazon.com and the company's value proposition, in terms of its business concept, digital business capabilities, and community and shareholder value. Examines the company's complex set of business models and web of business relationships,... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Asset Pricing; Capital; Financial Management; Technological Innovation; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Relationships; Competitive Strategy; Information Technology Industry; Web Services Industry

February 23, 2022
Article

Can WEB3 Bring Back Competition to Digital Platforms?

By: Christian Catalini and Scott Duke Kominers

Like the early Internet, blockchain and Web3 applications promise a new wave of decentralization and competition—yet at the same time, it is unclear which of the dynamics that drove concentration in online platforms and services will remain in force under the Web3... View Details

Keywords: Web3; Blockchain; Interoperability; Internet and the Web; Technological Innovation; Competition; Digital Platforms