Open Platforms - Publications - Faculty & Research

14 Aug 2012
First Look

First Look: August 14

(Dot) Com Karthik Ramanna and Rachna TahilyaniHarvard Business School Case 112-078 Anti-corruption web platform "ipaidabribe.com" leverages the transparency and anonymity of the Internet to encourage private citizens in India... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

07 May 2014
What Do You Think?

How Should Wealth Be Redistributed?

Summing Up Is Wealth Distribution a Problem Cause or Symptom? The passion and thought that went into this month's questions about wealth redistribution suggest that the topic is of more than passing interest. Some cautioned against hasty changes. Many used the... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

13 Mar 2012
First Look

First Look: March 13

census. We document a shift to smaller shops following a 1996 regulatory change that increased the costs of opening large stores. Our analysis suggests that total factor productivity (TFP) of multi-store retail chains fell after the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

29 May 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, May 29, 2018

from digital platforms have the potential to improve our understanding of gentrification and enable new measures of how neighborhoods change in close to real time. Combining data on businesses from Yelp with data on gentrification from... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

30 Mar 2018
What Do You Think?

What Should Mark Zuckerberg Do?

engineering fixes to allow users easier control over sharing information on their Facebook pages. In fact, Zuckerberg reportedly was working with engineers for several days doing just that while the world awaited follow-up to the initial disclosures. Dangers of an... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Web Services; Information Technology

15 Dec 2003
Research & Ideas

Women Leaders and Organizational Change

leadership functions? A: We believe that for this kind of organizational change to occur, people must be open to changing themselves in the service of achieving their goals. [HBS Research Fellow] Warren Bennis and others write about this... View Details

Keywords: by Mallory Stark

13 Dec 2011
First Look

First Look: Dec. 13

275,000 people. The case provides an update on TopCoder's growth and resulting changes in its platform and business model, specifically, its decision to virtualize the project management role. Issues related to the scalability,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

17 Nov 2020
Research & Ideas

Why a Blended Workforce May Be Key to Lasting Competitive Advantage

In recent years, companies have been anxious about the lack of skilled workers to fill pivotal jobs. But then came COVID-19 and a subsequent recession. The ensuing business turmoil and record-high unemployment may have temporarily distracted companies from their... View Details

Keywords: by Joseph B. Fuller

25 Aug 2003
Research & Ideas

Why IT Does Matter

stifling differentiation, provide a stable platform to build on and offer new ways of differentiating, either by cost, structure, product, or service. Just as literacy stimulated innovation, so do open... View Details

Keywords: by F. Warren McFarlan & Richard L. Nolan

05 Sep 2019
Sharpening Your Skills

Making the Right Technical Hire

started by engineers who know exactly what they’re doing, but many are biased in the areas of which they are most familiar, even if that is the suboptimal choice for their current products. I’ve seen products built with .NET simply because the seasoned engineer-founder... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin; Technology

30 Aug 2004
Research & Ideas

Real Estate: The Most Imperfect Asset

Peru, or seven years to open a bakery in Egypt? He attributes much of this to the fact that most of the world lacks a tradition of property rights (which is consistent with the imperfections matrix mentioned above), as well as courts and... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Johnston; Construction; Real Estate

25 Mar 2015
HBS Case

Tate’s Digital Makeover Transforms the Traditional Museum

"That means giving up control." As Avery explores in the new HBS case The Tate's Digital Transformation, the museum's response to that challenge was to jump in with both feet to craft an "interactive platform for engaging... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Education

02 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

Digital Initiative Summit: The Business of Crowdsourcing

platform might be too good to be true. The company was crowdsourcing creative work, inviting people to both pitch ideas and create marketing videos — and promising to pay anywhere from a few hundred for the best concepts to several... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

2012
Chapter

IP Modularity in Software Ecosystems: How SugarCRM's IP and Business Model Shape Its Product Architecture

By: Josef Waltl, Joachim Henkel and Carliss Y. Baldwin

Keywords: Business Model; Digital Platforms; Open Source Distribution; Complexity; Applications and Software; Intellectual Property

Citation

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19 Mar 2013
First Look

First Look: March 19

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nejo.12003/abstract Working PapersInvestment Incentives in Open-Source and Proprietary Two-Sided Platforms Authors:Casadesus-Masanell, Ramon, and Gaston Llanes Abstract We study incentives to... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

24 Sep 2013
First Look

First Look: September 24

invest in platform quality in open-source and proprietary two-sided platforms. Open platforms have open access, and developers invest to improve... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

05 Feb 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, February 5, 2019

working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=55572 Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 14 Introducing Open Platforms and Ecosystems By: Baldwin, Carliss Y.... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

17 Sep 2013
First Look

First Look: September 17

open-source and proprietary two-sided platforms. Open platforms have open access, and developers invest to improve the platform. Proprietary View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

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

October 2015
Case

Facebook: The First Ten Years

By: Shane Greenstein, Marco Iansiti and Christine Snively

Facebook celebrated its ten year anniversary in February 2014. Over the past decade it has grown into the largest social network in the world with one billion users. After filing an IPO in 2012 at a $104 billion valuation (the third largest IPO in U.S. history), the... View Details