Publications

September 1996 (Revised June 1997)
Case

QVC, Inc.

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport

Illustrates the "Service Profit Chain" in action. QVC, whose initials stand for Quality, Value,, and Convenience, demonstrates clearly how a strong customer focus can lead to establishing a strong franchise in the retail sector and a highly profitable business whose... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Service Delivery; Retail Industry; United States

October 2000 (Revised November 2005)
Case

Li & Fung (A): Internet Issues

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Fred Young

This case looks at the issues facing a Hong Kong-based trading company, which links hundreds of factories in India and Asia with major customers like Gap and the Limited in Europe and in the United States. The company has recently launched a dot-com operation to allow... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Internet and the Web; Multinational Firms and Management; Distribution Channels; Logistics; Networks; Markets; Supply Chain; Retail Industry; Hong Kong; India; Europe; United States

February 2023
Case

Success Academy Charter Schools

By: Robin Greenwood, Joshua D. Coval, Denise Han, Ruth Page and Dave Habeeb

This stand-alone multimedia case follows the story of Eva Moskowitz and Success Academy, a network of high-performing charter schools in New York City. As a New York City councilor between 1999 and 2006, Moskowitz became frustrated over the inertia and dysfunction in... View Details

Keywords: Business and Government Relations; Performance Effectiveness; Equality and Inequality; Private Sector; Education Industry; New York (city, NY)

September 2018
Article

Aggregation of Consumer Ratings: An Application to Yelp.com

By: Weijia Dai, Ginger Jin, Jungmin Lee and Michael Luca

Because consumer reviews leverage the wisdom of the crowd, the way in which they are aggregated is a central decision faced by platforms. We explore this "rating aggregation problem" and offer a structural approach to solving it, allowing for (1) reviewers to vary in... View Details

Keywords: User Generated Content; Crowdsourcing; Yelp; Social and Collaborative Networks; Information; Internet and the Web; Learning; Mathematical Methods; E-commerce

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15 Dec 2009
First Look

First Look: Dec. 15, 2009

Working PapersThe Global Networks of Multinational Firms Authors:Laura Alfaro and Maggie Chen Abstract In this paper we characterize the topology of global multinational networks and examine the macro and... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

November 2021 (Revised January 2022)
Case

Scott Tucker (A): Race to the Top

By: Aiyesha Dey and Amram Migdal

The case tells the story of the rise and fall of Scott Tucker, an entrepreneur, businessman, passionate race car driver, competitor, and owner of a professional racing team. From 1997 to 2012, Tucker built a nationwide network of payday lending businesses, becoming a... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Fairness; Financing and Loans; Personal Finance; Governance; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Governance Compliance; Governance Controls; Financial Services Industry; United States

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

August 2019
Case

Walmart's Omnichannel Strategy: Revolution or Miscalculation?

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Karen Elterman

This case describes Walmart's omnichannel strategy in 2018 as it battled Amazon for online retail market share. The case discusses Walmart's early forays into online retail, as well as its 2018 strategy, which aimed to integrate Walmart's enormous brick and mortar... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Strategy; Internet and the Web; Distribution; Distribution Channels; Competition; Retail Industry; Bentonville; Arkansas; New Jersey; Seattle; United States

November 2020
Case

Guild Education: Unlocking Opportunity for America's Workforce

By: William A. Sahlman, Michael D. Smith, Nicole Tempest Keller and Alpana Thapar

Founded in 2015, Guild Education is an education marketplace that connects employers and universities to provide employees with ‘education as a benefit.’ The Denver-based company is transforming traditional tuition assistance programs by facilitating direct payment by... View Details

Keywords: Education; Digital Platforms; Information Technology; Employees; Social Enterprise; Education Industry; Technology Industry; Colorado

29 Feb 2000
Research & Ideas

Whence IT Value?

This fits pretty well with what we've observed about IT. While the percolation argument makes sense and is appealing, I believe there's something else going on. The jumps in inventory turns and output line up very nicely with the era of View Details

Keywords: by Andrew McAfee

June 2022 (Revised January 2023)
Case

Buurtzorg

By: Ethan Bernstein, Tatiana Sandino, Joost Minnaar and Annelena Lobb

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

October 2003
Case

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company: Building a Platform for Distributed Innovation

By: Marco Iansiti and Marcin Strojwas

Surging costs of building a state-of-the-art fabrication facility were pushing firms to outsource manufacturing while advanced technologies were requiring a tighter coupling between design and manufacturing. Explores the development of strategy in this environment.... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Business Model; Networks; Product Design; Production; Decisions; Customer Relationship Management; Supply Chain Management

February 2015 (Revised June 2016)
Case

AltSchool: School Reimagined

By: John J-H Kim, Kyla Wilkes and Christine S. An

Max Ventilla and his team launches in 2013 AltSchool, a new network of tech-savvy independent K-8 "micro-schools." AltSchool is born out of Ventilla's frustration with the education options available for his young daughter. During his search, Ventilla comes to the... View Details

Keywords: Education Technology; School Models; Product Development; Entrepreneurship; Talent Development And Retention; Social Impact Investment; Information Technology; Business Model; Education; Business Startups; Customization and Personalization; Growth and Development Strategy; Education Industry; United States

October 2023 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Fortinet: Cybersecurity Pioneer Ken Xie Considers the Long Game

By: Tsedal Neeley, Jeff Huizinga and Emily Grandjean

Ken Xie, cofounder of cybersecurity giant Fortinet, faced a critical decision that would validate his leadership. Fortinet became the industry’s second-largest pureplay cybersecurity firm by developing differentiated hardware and investing in R&D. However, after a... View Details

Keywords: Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Marketing Strategy; Communication Strategy; Cybersecurity; Competitive Advantage; Information Technology Industry; United States; Sunnyvale

2007
Working Paper

Innovation through Global Collaboration: A New Source of Competitive Advantage

By: Alan MacCormack, Theodore Forbath, Peter Brooks and Patrick Kalaher

Many recent studies highlight the need to rethink the way we manage innovation. Traditional approaches, based on the assumption that the creation and pursuit of new ideas is best accomplished by a centralized and collocated R&D team, are rapidly becoming outdated.... View Details

Keywords: Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Groups and Teams; Research and Development; Performance Improvement; Management Practices and Processes; Partners and Partnerships; Competency and Skills; Framework; Competitive Advantage; Global Strategy; Opportunities; Cost

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December 2021
Article

Primary Care Access During the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Simulated Patient Study

By: Michael Anne Kyle, Renuka Tipirneni, Nitya Thakore, Sneha Dave and Ishani Ganguli

Background
Primary care practices have experienced major strains during the COVID-19 pandemic, such that patients newly seeking care may face potential barriers to timely visits.
Objective
To quantify availability and wait times for new patient... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Ambulatory Care; Policy/economics; Access; Telemedicine; Health Pandemics; Health Care and Treatment

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April 2021
Case

ClearChoice Dental Implant Centers

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Ashiana Jivraj and Jane Barrow

The case illustrates the application of value-based health care to dental medicine. ClearChoice Dental Implant Centers was a rapidly-growing network of dentist-owned independent implant clinics. The targeted market included 23 million people, 15% of the US adult... View Details

Keywords: Value-based Health Care; Dental Medicine; Growth and Development Strategy; Expansion; Business Strategy; Customer Value and Value Chain; Customer Focus and Relationships; Health Industry; United States