Publications

21 Apr 2023
Research & Ideas

The $15 Billion Question: Have Loot Boxes Turned Video Gaming into Gambling?

in loot boxes and protect consumers, the authors suggest. The work resonates beyond entertainment to offer insights for the many industries facing regulatory pressures and weighing business models that... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis; Video Game; Media & Broadcasting

14 Nov 2011
Working Paper Summaries

The Impact of Corporate Sustainability on Organizational Process and Performance

Keywords: by Robert G. Eccles, Ioannis Ioannou & George Serafeim; Accounting

Web

Frameworks & Key Concepts - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

HBS ISC Competitiveness & Economic Development CED Competitiveness & Economic Development Frameworks & Key Concepts Research & Applications Frameworks & Key Concepts Frameworks & Key Concepts Drivers of Competitiveness The Diamond Model... View Details

2017
Working Paper

Explaining the Vertical-to-Horizontal Transition in the Computer Industry

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

This paper seeks to explain the technological forces that led to the rise of vertically integrated corporations in the late 19th century and the opposing forces that led to a vertical-to-horizontal transition in the computer industry 100 years later. I first model the... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Design; Business History; Vertical Integration; Horizontal Integration; Digital Platforms; Computer Industry

Read Now

January 2024
Supplement

Buurtzorg

By: Ethan Bernstein and Tatiana Sandino

As co-founders of home nursing company Buurtzorg, Jos de Blok and Gonnie Kronenberg prized both self-management and organizational learning. Buurtzorg’s 10,000 nurses across 950 neighborhood nursing teams in the Netherlands were empowered to manage themselves, both in... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Design; Management Style; Business Model; Knowledge Dissemination; Learning; Organizational Culture; Health Industry; Netherlands

15 Nov 2017
Research & Ideas

How Does a Social Startup Decide to Commercialize? It May Depend on the Founder's Gender

2016 Echoing Green Fellow Christine Su is co-founder and CEO of PastureMap. The for-profit software company helps sustainable ranchers record their grazing practices on mobile devices. (Photo courtesy of Echoing Green.) A division of labor has traditionally separated... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

23 Sep 2014
First Look

First Look: September 23

http://hbr.org/product/Belk--Towards-Exceptional/an/415023-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 915-002 Reinventing Retail: ShopRunner's Network Bet ShopRunner considers adjustments to improve its online shopping service, which offers... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

August 2015 (Revised June 2021)
Case

Amazon.com, 2021

By: John R. Wells, Benjamin Weinstock, Gabriel Ellsworth and Galen Danskin

In February 2021, Amazon announced 2020 operating profits of $22,899 million, up from $2,233 million in 2015, on sales of $386 billion, up from $107 billion five years earlier (see Exhibit 1). The shareholders expressed their satisfaction (see Exhibit 2), but not all... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Analysis; Retail; E-commerce; Amazon; Internet; Amazon.com; AmazonFresh; Jeff Bezos; Cloud Computing; Marketplaces; Streaming; E-reader Market; Digital Media; Mobile App; Online Retail; Shipping; Database; Tablet; Kindle; Kindle Fire; Smartphone; Delivery; Digital Platforms; Competition; Internet and the Web; Corporate Strategy; Digital Marketing; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Film Entertainment; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Music Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Profit; Revenue; Global Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Taxation; Business History; Human Resources; Resignation and Termination; Books; Human Capital; Working Conditions; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Management Practices and Processes; Industry Growth; Industry Structures; Media; Distribution; Distribution Channels; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Infrastructure; Logistics; Product Development; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Organizational Culture; Public Ownership; Work-Life Balance; Problems and Challenges; Labor and Management Relations; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Diversification; Expansion; Integration; Horizontal Integration; Vertical Integration; Information Infrastructure; Information Technology; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Price; Applications and Software; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Working Capital; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain; Retail Industry; Advertising Industry; Distribution Industry; Electronics Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Information Technology Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Music Industry; Publishing Industry; Shipping Industry; Technology Industry; Video Game Industry; Web Services Industry; United States; Washington (state, US); Seattle

April 2023 (Revised July 2023)
Case

Fermenting Accounting Problems at Vermont Kombucha Corp.

By: Tatiana Sandino and Marshal Herrmann

Founded in 2005, Vermont Kombucha Corp. (V-Ko) was an early mover in the fledgling U.S. market for kombucha, a drink brewed for its health benefits. Early on, the company captured more than 90% of market share. Under the leadership of its founder and CEO, Joe Williams,... View Details

Keywords: Going Public; Business Model; Financial Reporting; Ethics; Corporate Governance; Stock Shares; Food and Beverage Industry

17 Jul 2007
First Look

First Look: July 17, 2007

shared platform, such as Visa, DVD, or Linux, multiple firms collaborate in developing the platform's technology then compete in offering users different but compatible versions of the platform. This article examines factors that favor proprietary versus shared View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

February 1999 (Revised August 2004)
Case

Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)

By: Stephen A. Greyser

Chronicles the background of the founding of the WNBA, its basic business concept, some of the key research information used by the NBA in launching it, and other related information. Students must analyze the "basic business model" involved and compare it to that of... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Research; Outcome or Result; Sports; Gender; Sports Industry

Find at Harvard

20 Oct 2010
Research & Ideas

HBS Workshop Encourages Corporate Reporting on Environmental and Social Sustainability

The development of corporate integrated reporting (IR) standards has the promise to be one of the great business innovations of the 21st century, and could be pivotal in restoring public trust in business... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Accounting

15 May 2015
Research & Ideas

Kids Benefit From Having a Working Mom

findings are stark, and they hold true across 24 countries. "There are very few things, that we know of, that have such a clear effect on gender inequality as being raised by a working mother," says Kathleen L. McGinn, the Cahners-Rabb Professor of View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

March 2010 (Revised October 2017)
Case

Russia: Revolution and Reform

By: Rawi E. Abdelal and Sogomon Tarontsi

The collapse of central authority in the Soviet Union in 1991 ushered in a period of revolutionary transformations for the states that emerged in its wake. The leaders of Russia, the USSR's successor, since then have struggled to reestablish central authority while... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Economic Systems; Government Administration; Business and Government Relations; Public Administration Industry; Russia