Publications

02 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Stuck in Gear: Why Managers Don’t Act

future. He also offers suggestions for avoiding the worst mistakes and gives advice for reviving your own company. For most companies, a big jolt in the industry landscape is a pretty rare event, Sull says. The View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

May 2010 (Revised September 2023)
Case

Qingdao Sea View Garden Hotel

By: Robert G. Eccles, Das Narayandas and Cheng-Hua Tzeng

Keywords: Travel Industry; Travel Industry; China

July 2005 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Carnival Cruise Lines

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Robert Kwortnik and Gabriele Piccoli

Highlights the potential value of customer data and the choices and challenges the firm faces when attempting to capture this value. Carnival collects a significant amount of individual-level behavioral and demographic customer data. Senior management must now decide... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Demographics; Customer Relationship Management; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Performance Improvement; Business Strategy; Travel Industry; Travel Industry

October 2016 (Revised March 2017)
Case

Airbnb in Amsterdam (A)

By: Mitchell Weiss, Emer Moloney and Vincent Dessain

In February 2014, Amsterdam became the first city to issue new regulations specifically to allow home sharing. Airbnb's Molly Turner, global head of civic partnerships; her colleagues at the San Francisco–based home sharing platform; and her counterparts in Amsterdam's... View Details

18 Jul 2005
Research & Ideas

Identify Emerging Market Opportunities

closed economy because of the lukewarm reception the Indian government gives multinationals. However, India has been open to ideas from the West, and people have always been able to travel freely in and out of the country, whereas for... View Details

Keywords: by Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu & Jayant Sinha

February 2022 (Revised September 2022)
Case

Lilium: Preparing for Takeoff

By: Navid Mojir, Vincent Dessain, Mette Fuglsang Hjortshoej and Emer Moloney

Lilium is a German company focused on developing electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles (eVTOLs) that can be used to offer air taxi services. The company went public in September 2021 through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) deal, raising more than... View Details

05 Feb 2001
Research & Ideas

The Ten Deadly Mistakes of Wanna-Dots

burn cash faster than they make it. But already successful pioneers such as eBay, Amazon, and Yahoo! have transformed industry dynamics, opened new career aspirations, and become emblematic of a new workplace style. The wanna-dots are... View Details

Keywords: by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

June 17, 2016
Comment

Companies Need to Start Marketing Security to Customers

By: John A. Quelch

Recent events in Orlando underscore an important marketing truth: consumer safety and security are mission critical. A popular nightclub, Pulse, known as a safe place for the LGBT community, is put out of business at least temporarily by a terrorist act. Not far away... View Details

Read Now

June 2025
Case

Vail Resorts: Responding to Activist Pressure (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Edward A. Meyer

On January 27, 2025, the head of a relatively small hedge fund named Late Apex Partners sent a highly critical letter to the board of directors of Vail Resorts, the world’s largest ski resort operator. In his letter, and the 88-slide presentation that accompanied his... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Finance; Capital Budgeting; Corporate Governance; Competitive Advantage; Competitive Strategy; Leading Change; Valuation; Investment Activism; Climate Change; Management Succession; Financial Management; Risk Management; Business and Shareholder Relations; Sports Industry; Sports Industry; Sports Industry; United States; Australia; Canada

30 Apr 2013
First Look

First Look: April 30

and its implied elasticities are in the ballpark of a range of micro estimates. We find industrial policy subsidizing either the R&D or the continued operation of incumbents reduces growth and welfare. For example, a subsidy to... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

02 Feb 2015
Research & Ideas

Disruptors Sell What Customers Want and Let Competitors Sell What They Don’t

Over the past two decades, entire industries have been disrupted by Internet competitors who "unbundled" their content and delivered it to consumers in new ways. Newspapers lost out to Google and Craigslist, record companies to iTunes and... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

02 Sep 2008
Research & Ideas

Indulgence vs. Regret: Investing in Future Memories

We all know the moral of Aesop's fable about the industrious ant and the fun-loving grasshopper: Work now and save for the future, or else regret the consequences. And who hasn't been confronted with a similar dilemma? You know you should... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

March 2025
Supplement

Fostering Community at Airbnb (B)

By: Jeffrey T. Polzer, Heather Whiteman and Sarah Mehta

This case provides updates to “Fostering Community at Airbnb (A),” case no. 425-045. View Details

Keywords: Change; Communication; Competency and Skills; Human Resources; Information; Information Technology; Accommodations Industry; Accommodations Industry; Accommodations Industry; United States; California

March 2025
Case

Fostering Community at Airbnb (A)

By: Jeffrey T. Polzer, Heather Whiteman and Sarah Mehta

Set in November 2020, this case explores Airbnb’s efforts to foster a culture of belonging, particularly given the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the company’s workforce. It details how Airbnb used employee surveys and organizational network analysis (ONA)—a... View Details

Keywords: Change; Communication; Competency and Skills; Human Resources; Surveys; Information Technology; Health Pandemics; Organizational Culture; Networks; Accommodations Industry; Accommodations Industry; Accommodations Industry; United States; California

June 2010
Case

Playa Dorada Tennis Club: Expansion Strategy

By: W. Earl Sasser Jr. and Brent Kazan

Playa Dorada Beach & Resort in Boca Raton, Florida, faces a growing seasonal demand for tennis services. The number of guests is expected to double in the next few years, and while the tennis facilities are a popular and well-promoted amenity at the resort, court space... View Details

Keywords: Service Operations; Planning; Price; Expansion; Tourism Industry; Tourism Industry; Tourism Industry; Florida

January 2014 (Revised March 2015)
Technical Note

The Market Power of Platform-Mediated Networks

By: Benjamin Edelman

This note provides criteria to evaluate the power of a platform-mediated network. For a company considering building such a network or an investor considering funding such an effort, this analysis reveals the scope and desirability of the opportunity. Meanwhile, for a... View Details

Keywords: Intermediaries; Platforms; Platform Strategy; Business Model; Agreements and Arrangements; Distribution Channels; Networks; Technology Platform; Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry

December 2012
Case

Blink Booking

By: William R. Kerr, Magnus Thor Torfason and Alexis Brownell

Rebeca Minguela hopes to create an arbitrage platform, similar to Rocket Internet, that can bring start-up ideas and opportunities to Spain. However, Blink Booking, her first venture and proof of concept, is rocked by a co-founder's breach of confidence and departure.... View Details

Keywords: Clones; Cloning; Rocket Internet; Start-up; Equity Split; Arbitrage; Incubator; Mobile App; Expansion; Spain; Europe; Entrepreneurship; Ethics; Internet and the Web; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; Spain; Europe

October 2024
Case

Edizione

By: Cynthia A. Montgomery, Dante Roscini, Elena Corsi and Hugo Etchegoyhen

This case study examines the diversification and transformation of Edizione, the Benetton family's holding company originally established to reinvest dividends from the Benetton clothing brand. Edizione expanded significantly in the late 1990s and early 2000s,... View Details