Publications

August 2010 (Revised August 2011)
Case

Developing an App for That

By: Hanna Halaburda, Joshua Gans and Nathaniel Burbank

At a time when ever-rising smartphone sales are driven as much by demand for devices that run must-have third-party "apps" as by the quality of traditional voice and data services, there is a myriad of challenges facing the software developer who is looking to choose... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Competitive Strategy; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Applications and Software; Digital Platforms; Banking Industry; Information Technology Industry

14 Dec 2016
HBS Seminar

Siobhan O'Mahony and Rebecca Karp, Boston University

23 Jul 2007
Research & Ideas

HBS Cases: How Wikipedia Works (or Doesn’t)

Lakhani, an expert on distributed innovation. "We had these completely overlapping interests, and we were kicking around the idea of how we were going to write a case on Wikipedia, what research could we do: What's the right way in on... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Publishing

2019
Working Paper

Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 13 Platform Systems vs. Step Processes—The Value of Options and the Power of Modularity

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

This is the first chapter in Part 3. Its purpose is to contrast the value structure of platform systems with step processes from a technological perspective. I first review the basic technical architecture of computers and argue that every computer is inherently a... View Details

Keywords: Platform Systems; Step Processes; Computer Architecture; Modularity; Information Technology; Digital Platforms

SSRN

Read Now

February 2023
Supplement

Astyanax Kanakakis at norbloc: A Founder's Experience with the DIFC Fintech Hive

By: Linda A. Hill and Lydia Begag

norbloc was founded in 2016 in Stockholm, Sweden, by Astyanax Kanakakis and his co-founders, Vitalii Demianets and Sam Saatchi. Kanakakis and Demianets got to work to address a key gap in the industry: Know Your Customer (KYC) data sharing. As the first distributed KYC... View Details

16 Apr 2013
First Look

First Look: April 16

for distributing E-Books? The case allows students to probe the dynamics of platform-based industries, as well as what happens in traditional industries when attacked by new competitors adopting new digital... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

HBS - The year in Review

2023 Annual Report From The Dean Key Metrics Financials PDF Downloads The Year in Review Notable progress was made during FY23 in advancing the School’s priorities. Accelerating research on how digital and data are transforming management... View Details

September 2023
Case

The Meteoric Rise of Skims

By: Ayelet Israeli, Jill Avery and Leonard A. Schlesinger

Since its founding in 2019 by Kim Kardashian and Jens Grede, Skims, a solutions-oriented brand creating the next generation of underwear, loungewear, and shapewear with an eye toward body-type and skin-tone inclusivity, has experienced a meteoric rise. Kardashian, who... View Details

February 2021
Case

Threadless: The Renewal of an Online Community

By: Shane Greenstein, Karim Lakhani and Christian Godwin

Threadless, an online apparel company and artist community which Jake Nickell founded in 2000, continued to maintain its status as a top company in the online apparel industry during its second decade. From 2010 to 2020, Threadless continued to operate its... View Details

Web

Technology & Innovation - Faculty & Research

humans who are perceived as more versus less robotic. These results have theoretical implications for understanding social cognition about both humans and nonhumans and practical implications for the increasingly botsourced and outsourced economy. Article View Details

08 Mar 2021
In Practice

COVID Killed the Traditional Workplace. What Should Companies Do Now?

A year ago, COVID-19 forced many companies to send employees home—often with a laptop and a prayer. Now, with COVID cases subsiding and vaccinations rising, the prospect of returning to old office routines appears more possible. But will employees want to flock back to... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

15 Sep 2015
First Look

September 15, 2015

an associated 90% confidence interval of (2.3%, 17.8%). Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=49523 2015 The Changing Frontier: Rethinking Science and Innovation Policy Information Technology and the View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

14 May 2018
Research & Ideas

Amazon vs. Whole Foods: When Cultures Collide

Walmart, which had entered the organic space. By 2017, Whole Foods had started closing stores. Turning data into customer value Amazon, by contrast, had always been about low costs and efficiency, pursuing a frugal focus and rigorous performance measurement in its... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Food & Beverage

29 Nov 2022
Research & Ideas

How Much More Would Holiday Shoppers Pay to Wear Something Rare?

it.” You Might Also Like: How Paid Promos Take the Shine Off YouTube Stars (and Tips for Better Influencer Marketing) Burgers with Bugs? What Happens When Restaurants Ignore Online Reviews Dog Eat Dog: Measuring Network Effects Using a View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Retail

11 Apr 2023
Research & Ideas

Is Amazon a Retailer, a Tech Firm, or a Media Company? How AI Can Help Investors Decide

Traditional investing classifications consider Walmart a consumer staples retailer, but the company owns more than 6,000 retail and distribution properties around the world—the portfolio dwarfs those of many commercial real estate firms.... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Consumer Products; Real Estate; Financial Services; Retail

21 Jan 2014
First Look

First Look: January 21

been engaged in a large-scale, centrally coordinated national anti-Malaria campaign, which has become a model in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper aims at quantifying the individual and macro-level benefits of this campaign, which involved mass View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2023
Case

Ransomware Attack at Colonial Pipeline Company

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan Ni

On the morning of May 7, 2021, Colonial Pipeline Company became aware that the company had been the victim of a malicious ransomware attack that had stolen and locked up company data. The extortionists demanded 75 bitcoins (worth about $4.4 million at the time) in... View Details