Publications

Forthcoming
Article

Confronting the Limits of Symbolic Actions: How Entrepreneurs Narrow the Presentation-Performance Gap

By: Rebecca Karp and Siobhan O'Mahony

Entrepreneurs often skillfully leverage symbolic actions to manage impressions and gain acceptance for their innovations. Impression management can generate interest, but also heighten expectations beyond an innovation’s capabilities, creating a gap between... View Details

Keywords: Digital Innovation; Integration Strategy; Impression Management; Innovation Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Health Industry; Technology Industry

May 2019 (Revised July 2019)
Case

Walmart's Workforce of the Future

By: William R. Kerr and Jordan Bach-Lombardo

Faced with intense competition from Amazon, Walmart began a transformation of its operations and workforce in 2015. The goal was to create an omnichannel retail experience for customers that seamlessly joined online and offline shopping. This case explores Walmart's... View Details

Keywords: Walmart; Managing The Future Of Work; Workforce; Automation; Ecommerce; Omnichannel Retail; Operations; Transformation; Employees; Training; Information Technology; Infrastructure; Disruption; Competitive Strategy; E-commerce; Information Infrastructure; Retail Industry

01 Jun 2020
News

Post-Office

more traditional in top-down organizations. What are the experiences that are hard to replace in remote work? And how can companies replace those with digital experiences? Associate Professor Prithwiraj Choudhury on the lasting lessons... View Details

Keywords: Dan Morrell; Remote work; COVID-19; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management

Web

A Rewarding Work Life - Edwin H. Land & Polaroid | Harvard Business School

Social Enterprise Initiative HBS Working Knoweldge Harvard Business School Executive Education More HBS YouTube: Executive Education Harvard Business Review Harvard Business School Contact Related Links Resources View Details

10 Dec 2014
News

Front-Row Seat

$10 million, knew that the web represented an opportunity to build and expand a well-established brand. Founded in 1857 by a group of Bostonians with triple-decker names (James Russell Lowell and Ralph Waldo Emerson among them), the Atlantic had the foresight to... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; digital media; Corporate, Subsidiary, and Regional Managing Offices; Management

Web

Classroom and Field Work - Business Education For Women At Harvard University | Harvard Business School

Enterprise Initiative HBS Working Knoweldge Harvard Business School Executive Education More HBS YouTube: Executive Education Harvard Business Review Harvard Business School Contact Related Links Resources View Details

February 2024
Case

Adventures Inc: 21st Century Brand Building

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott

Founded in 2020, Adventures worked with celebrities in Brazil to create and launch digitally native brands. The idea was to match the celebrity’s skill in creating content and entertaining fans with Adventures’ skill in consumer packaged goods marketing and operations.... View Details

Keywords: Digital Brand; Influencer Marketing; Growth And Scaling; Capital Constraints; Brand Portfolio Strategy; CPG; Start-up; Celebrity Endorsement; Digital Marketing; Growth and Development Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Advertising; Social Media; Business Startups; Joint Ventures; Brands and Branding; Brazil

December 2024
Case

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM): The AI Journey

By: Shikhar Ghosh

In early 2024, Bill Fandrich, Executive VP and CIO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM), faced a critical decision about AI adoption within the organization. Fandrich had championed AI implementation at BCBSM. After successfully developing three AI... View Details

March–April 2017
Article

What's the Value of a Like?: Social Media Endorsements Don't Work the Way You Might Think

By: Leslie John, Daniel Mochon, Oliver Emrich and Janet Schwartz

Brands spend billions of dollars a year on lavish efforts to establish and maintain a social media presence. But do those campaigns actually increase revenue? New research provides an answer to this question, which has vexed marketers ever since social media burst upon... View Details

Keywords: Social and Collaborative Networks; Consumer Behavior; Marketing Strategy; Digital Marketing; Social Media

Find at Harvard

Register to Read

January 2017 (Revised April 2017)
Supplement

Bridj and the Business of Urban Mobility (B): A New Model in Kansas City

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jonathan Cohen

In late 2016, Bridj was expanding its digital platform to help address urban mobility problems faced by cities across the country and the world. Its founder and CEO, Matt George, weighed up several possible strategies for growth as he aimed to responsibly build the... View Details

06 Dec 2021
News

3-Minute Briefing: Bonnie Kintzer (MBA 1987)

I had worked at a consulting firm where Reader’s Digest was my client, so I got to learn a lot about the business and the people prior to joining the first time. Thankfully, I was not there during either of the company’s two bankruptcies.... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Gillespie; publishing; digital transformation; change management; leadership; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

01 Dec 2020
News

New News

Edited by Julia Hanna Courtesy Michael Aft Courtesy Snigdha Sur Courtesy Michael Aft Courtesy Snigdha Sur Michael Aft (MBA 2019) and Snigdha Sur (MBA 2017) would be the first to acknowledge that launching a digital media startup out of... View Details

Keywords: entrepreneuship; digital media; startups; news; business models; young alumni; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; Information

01 Jun 2024
News

3-Minute Briefing: David Perpich (MBA 2007)

I interned at a lot of different places in high school and college—a hospital, a retail store, a magazine, an ad agency. At Duke, I was part owner of a student-run food-delivery service. In Clay Christensen–speak, it was the “emergent strategy,” exploring as I went and... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; sports reporting; digital media; strategy; management

2013
Working Paper

Where do the Most Active Customers Originate and How Can Firms Keep Them Engaged?

By: Clarence Lee, E. Ofek and Thomas Steenburgh

In this paper, we study how firms offering Web services can acquire and develop an active customer base. We focus on two basic questions. First, how does the method of customer acquisition affect the way customers use the service to meet their own needs and to interact... View Details

Keywords: Customer Engagement; Adoption Routes; Hidden Markov Models; Search; Word-of-Mouth; Digital Media; Customer Relationship Management; Internet and the Web; Mathematical Methods; Consumer Behavior; Entrepreneurship; Marketing Reference Programs; Web Services Industry

November 2016 (Revised April 2018)
Case

reMarkable: e-Writing the Future

By: Elie Ofek and Curtis Hsu

Magnus Wanberg is the creator of reMarkable, a breakthrough e-writer device set apart from similar products on the market by having solved the frustrating “slow ink” problem typically experienced on pen-based electronic devices, thus providing a “pen and paper” like... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Marketing; Innovation Management; Go To Market Strategy; Marketing Plan; Target Market; Digital Devices; Consumer Electronics; Forecasting; Information Technology; Marketing Strategy; Innovation and Management; Marketing Channels; Entrepreneurship; Forecasting and Prediction; Product Marketing; Product Development; Electronics Industry