Publications

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July 2012 (Revised April 2014)
Case

Research In Motion: The Mobile OS Platform War

By: Alan MacCormack, Brian Dunn and Chris F. Kemerer

The case describes competition in the market for smart phones in the US, and the position of one player, Research In Motion (RIM) who manufacture the popular Blackberry line of products. Early in 2011, RIM is in trouble. Its stock price has plummeted, amidst poor... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Product Development; Technology Strategy; Platform Strategy; Software; Hardware; Technological Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Information Infrastructure; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Digital Platforms; Applications and Software; Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Canada; United States

January 2025 (Revised April 2025)
Case

Mercado Libre: The Best Is Yet to Come

By: Krishna G. Palepu, Fernando Fragueiro, Carla Larangeira and Mariana Cal

In 2024, Marcos Galperín, CEO and co-founder of Mercado Libre, reflected on its 25-year rise as Latin America’s largest marketplace, fintech leader, and most valuable public company. With operations spanning 18 countries and a robust ecosystem combining e-commerce,... View Details

January 2021 (Revised March 2021)
Case

Jumia's Path to Profitability

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Pippa Tubman Armerding and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in September 2019 as Sacha Poignonnec and Jeremy Hodara, co-founders and co-CEOs of Jumia, the leading Pan-African e-commerce platform, are contemplating the company’s path to profitability in the aftermath of a fragile investor sentiment, as the company... View Details

2013
Working Paper

Visualizing and Measuring Enterprise Architecture: An Exploratory BioPharma Case

By: Robert Lagerstrom, Carliss Baldwin, Alan MacCormack and David Dreyfus

We test a method that was designed and used previously to reveal the hidden internal architectural structure of software systems. The focus of this paper is to test if it can also uncover new facts about the components and their relationships in an enterprise... View Details

Keywords: Complexity; Applications and Software; Product Design; Pharmaceutical Industry

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Summer 2023
Article

(Un)principled Agents: Monitoring Loyalty after the End of the Royal African Company Monopoly

By: Anne Ruderman and Marlous van Waijenburg

The revocation of the Royal African Company's monopoly in 1698 inaugurated a transformation of the transatlantic slave trade. While the RAC’s exit from the slave trade has received scholarly attention, little is known about the company’s response to the loss of its... View Details

Keywords: Slavery; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business History; Monopoly; History; Business and Government Relations

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September 2004 (Revised August 2007)
Case

Enterprise IT at Cisco (2004)

By: Andrew P. McAfee, F. Warren McFarlan and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

Illustrates the challenges associated with centralizing IT decisions at Cisco after a decade of decentralized planning and project funding. When Brad Boston became Cisco's new CIO in 2001, he found that managers were starting to get frustrated with the results of their... View Details

Keywords: Management; Resource Allocation; Information Technology; Problems and Challenges; Business Ventures; Change Management; Entrepreneurship; Projects; Planning; Corporate Finance; Information Technology Industry

Web

Business & Environment

geospatial AI infrastructure and tools to support natural disaster response by the National Guard. Sarah also shares how emerging foundational geospatial models will transform adaptation, and she offers career advice for those in climate... View Details

November 1991 (Revised June 1997)
Case

Micom Caribe (A)

By: David M. Upton and Joshua D. Margolis

Describes the Puerto Rican manufacturing plant of a transnational company. The award-winning plant has dramatically improved the quality of flexibility of its operations, by taking a radical approach to manufacturing. The methods center on the use of specific... View Details

Keywords: Business Plan; Multinational Firms and Management; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Product Launch; Production; Performance Improvement; Quality; Strategy; Manufacturing Industry

03 Feb 2021
Blog Post

Faculty Spotlight: Professor Jurgen Weiss

course. His research and consulting work focus on the fundamental transformation of the energy industry in light of rapid technological change and climate change-related pressures. Professor Weiss is a faculty affiliate of BEI. In this... View Details

2012
Article

Demand and Capacity Management in Air Transportation

This paper summarizes research trends and opportunities in the area of managing air transportation demand and capacity. Capacity constraints and resulting congestion and low schedule reliability currently impose large costs on airlines and their passengers. Significant... View Details

Keywords: Demand Management; Capacity Management; Mathematical Modeling; Congestion And Delays; Trends And Opportunities; Demand and Consumers; Air Transportation; Mathematical Methods; Performance Capacity; Air Transportation Industry

Web

Hiring Organizations

Partners AllWin Alpaca Real Estate Alphabroder Alpine Investors Alterra Capital Partners Altitude AI Altos Ventures Alumni Ventures Amazon Amazon Web Services - AWS Ambit Partners American Express American Industrial Partners Amex... View Details

21 Jun 2010
Research & Ideas

Strategy and Execution for Emerging Markets

company created within the last five years that produces the number one flat-panel TV brand in the U.S., beating Sony, Samsung, and Panasonic. It created a brand and financed itself to grow fast despite a limited number of staff—because of the institutional View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

21 Dec 2016
Blog Post

Why We Recruit: CPP Investment Board

infrastructure and fixed-income instruments, and currently has offices in Toronto, Hong Kong, London, New York, São Paulo, Luxembourg and Mumbai. How long has your organization been recruiting at Harvard Business School and what roles do... View Details

September 2019 (Revised September 2019)
Case

Facebook Fake News in the Post-Truth World

By: John R. Wells, Carole A. Winkler and Benjamin Weinstock

In August 2019, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, was surrounded by controversy. The first major storm of protest followed the surprise election of Donald Trump as President of the United States on November 8, 2016; many put the blame at the door of fake... View Details

Article

The Information Technology Ecosystem: Structure, Health, and Performance

By: Marco Iansiti and Gregory L. Richards

A number of modern industries are organized as complex networks of firms whose integrated efforts are necessary to deliver value to end customers. The complexity of these networks, or business ecosystems, and the associated interdependencies among firms, make... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Networks; Value; Customers; Performance Productivity; Product; Applications and Software; Innovation and Invention; Competition; Business Model; Information Infrastructure; Information Technology Industry

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05 Jun 2012
First Look

First Look: June 5

characteristics. However, most industries with a significant presence of multi-location firms are oligopolistic in nature, which suggests that strategic interaction among firms plays an important role in firms' decision-making processes.... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 1997 (Revised April 1998)
Case

first direct (A)

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport

Describes the operations and strategy of the world's largest, fastest growing branchless bank. Using a person-to-person interface over conventional phone lines, First Direct provides standard banking and related financial products to nearly 700,000 customers throughout... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Customer Satisfaction; Banks and Banking; Innovation and Invention; Banking Industry; United Kingdom