Publications

December 2023 (Revised August 2024)
Case

Monsters in the Machine? Tackling the Challenge of Responsible AI

By: Paul M. Healy and Debora L. Spar

In November of 2022, the small tech company OpenAI released ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot which quickly captured the public’s imagination—becoming the world’s fastest-growing consumer application within months of its release. Though observers from across... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; AI and Machine Learning; Ethics; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Technology Adoption; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Technology Industry; United States; European Union; China

06 Feb 2019
Blog Post

7 Tips for a Successful Technology Venture Immersion

mid-sized A/B testing SaaS company—for one year, then Uber for three years. I knew that I wanted to pursue an MBA to complement my undergraduate engineering degree. However, knowing that I wanted to return to tech, I was hesitant to leave my job and View Details

June 2013 (Revised July 2017)
Case

Angus Cartwright IV

By: Kenneth J. Hatten, William J. Poorvu, Howard H. Stevenson, Arthur I Segel and John H. Vogel, Jr.

Judy and John DeRight, looking to diversify their investment portfolios, have retained Angus Cartwright, Jr. to identify prospective real estate acquisitions. Mr. Cartwright has four potential properties that he feels merit an in-depth financial analysis. The case... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Cash Flow; Investment Return; Investment Portfolio; Taxation; Balanced Scorecard; Valuation

October 2019
Case

Kaspi.kz IPO

By: Victoria Ivashina and Esel Çekin

This case follows Kaspi.kz, a private equity (Baring Vostok) co-owned retail bank in Central Asia that evolved into a fintech, payments and e-commerce company. It provides insights into private equity financing, portfolio company management, and initial public offering... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Private Equity; Initial Public Offering; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Central Asia

2014
Other Teaching and Training Material

Marketing Reading: Segmentation and Targeting

By: Sunil Gupta

This Reading introduces two of the integral parts of any marketing strategy: segmentation and targeting. It covers, first, all of the methods, techniques, and variables with which a business first uncovers the full range of its potential customers and then... View Details

Keywords: Behavioral Segmentation; Conjoint Analysis; Demographic Segmentation; Geographic Segmentation; Market Opportunities; Market Segmentation; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Psychographic Segmentation; Unethical Marketing Practices; United States

03 Oct 2007
Research & Ideas

Dealing with the ‘Irrational’ Negotiator

greater potential cost to themselves. When you use the "irrational" label, you limit your options, because there is not much you can say to someone who you truly believe is unable to reason, uninterested in fulfilling her own... View Details

Keywords: by Deepak Malhotra & Max H. Bazerman

31 Jan 2024
News

Know Your HBS Staff: June Dever

July 2011 (Revised September 2018)
Case

Nashton Partners and Its Search Fund Process

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Nashton Partners was a search fund founded by two HBS MBA's that raised $500,000 to finance a search for a company that they could purchase and then run for the next five to ten years. The case examines the search fund structure, the two-year search, and two potential... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Capital Structure; Financing and Loans; Investment Funds; Partners and Partnerships

March 2014 (Revised March 2018)
Case

Red Bull (A)

By: Eric Van den Steen and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Despite facing giants like Coke, Pepsi, and Budweiser—with obvious potential sources of competitive advantage—Red Bull had established itself as the U.S. market leader in energy drinks. By 2008, however, Red Bull's dominance was challenged as Monster drinks surpassed... View Details

Keywords: Judo Strategy; Judo Economics; Sustainable Competitive Advantage; Imitation; Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Market Entry and Exit; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

11 Jan 2021
Working Paper Summaries

The Political Effects of Immigration: Culture or Economics?

Keywords: by Alberto Alesina and Marco Tabellini

26 Jan 2024
Blog Post

HBS Alumna Fighting Cancer with a Novel Cell Therapy

originally planned to pursue a Ph.D., but instead spent four years at Catalent Pharma Solutions, a leading pharma/biotech contract manufacturing development organization. Surrounded by potential career paths in the industry, Zutshi... View Details

February 2021 (Revised April 2024)
Case

Shopify: The Conquest for Chinese E-Commerce

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Avani Patel, Samantha Lin and Ariel Yang

In mid-2020, Tobias Lütke, CEO of Shopify, faced a critical decision on how to time potential expansion into the China market. Over the prior 15 years, his Canadian software-as-a-service company had grown from a small e-commerce solutions provider to a full service... View Details

Stuti is a PhD student in Consumer Behavior at Harvard Business School. She completed her Bachelors in Economics and Psychology from Boston University in 2019 and went on to complete her MPS in Applied Economics and Management from Cornell University in 2020. She... View Details

23 Jan 2013
Research & Ideas

Three-Dimensional Strategy: Winning the Multisided Platform

When start-up thredUP launched its peer-to-peer online exchange for used children's clothes two and a half years ago, its creators were the latest generation of entrepreneurs competing online as multi-sided platforms (MSPs), alongside trailblazers such as eBay, Yelp,... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

August 1989 (Revised December 1998)
Case

Harper Chemical Co., Inc.

A company acquires the rights to a mineral with potential uses in the ceramic and paint industries. After many years, sales are still far below expectations and the company considers selling the whole operation to a potential customer. Rewritten version of an earlier... View Details

Keywords: Business Strategy; Industrial Products Industry; Chemical Industry

September 1998 (Revised May 2002)
Case

Cisco Systems, Inc.: Implementing ERP

By: Robert D. Austin, Richard L. Nolan and Mark J. Cotteleer

Reviews Cisco System's approach to implementing Oracle's Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software product. This case chronologically reviews the diverse, critical success factors and obstacles facing Cisco during its implementation. Cisco faced the need for... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Applications and Software; Technology Adoption; Complexity; Information Management

August 2023
Case

Reimagining Hindustan Unilever (A)

By: Sunil Gupta and Rachna Tahilyani

In the fall of 2019, the CEO and MD of Hindustan Unilever (HUL), India’s largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) firm, is wondering what to do about their experiments to digitize distribution. Despite three years of intense efforts, their apps to empower retailers... View Details

Keywords: Experimentation; Digital Transformation; Digital Strategy; Leading Change; Distribution; Decisions; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Consumer Behavior; E-commerce; Competition; Performance; Business Strategy; Marketing; Transformation; Consumer Products Industry; Asia; India