Publications

February 2021 (Revised March 2022)
Case

TikTok in 2020: Super App or Supernova?

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Dan Maher and Dan O'Brien

TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, was launched in 2012 around a simple idea – helping users entertain themselves on their smartphones while on the Beijing Subway. In less than a decade, it had become one of the world’s most valuable private companies, with investors... View Details

17 Oct 2023
HBS Case

With Subscription Fatigue Setting In, Companies Need to Think Hard About Fees

over the past decade, according to coauthor Amy Konary, senior vice president of the Subscribed Institute & Marketing Strategy at Zuora. Consider companies like the cloud storage provider Dropbox; Apple, which charges monthly for cloud storage, music, and more; and... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald; Consumer Products; Information; Information Technology

September 2020
Case

Chip and Joanna Gaines' Magnolia Network

By: Anita Elberse and Julia McNicholas

Chip and Joanna Gaines, who have shot to fame as stars of the hit television show Fixer Upper, are preparing to launch their own television network. It is April 2019, a year since the home-renovation show Fixer Upper’s fifth season on cable channel HGTV ended, and more... View Details

Keywords: Entertainment; Television; Superstars; Innovation; Creative Industries; Talent; General Management; Celebrities; Television Entertainment; Entrepreneurship; Joint Ventures; Innovation and Invention; Marketing; Strategy; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry

October 2018 (Revised July 2019)
Case

Sidewalk Labs: Privacy in a City Built from the Internet Up

By: Leslie K. John, Mitchell Weiss and Julia Kelley

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

By the time Dan Doctoroff, CEO of Sidewalk Labs, began hosting a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” session in January 2018, he had only nine months remaining to convince the people... View Details

15 Aug 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, August 15, 2017

817-068 Swagbucks In early 2016, Chuck Davis, chairman and CEO of Prodege LLC, parent company of the brand promotion business Swagbucks, and Josef Gorowitz, Prodege’s founder and president, must decide whether to acquire MyPoints, a... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

16 Jan 2006
Research & Ideas

What Customers Want from Your Products

milk shake to do. The job, not the customer, is the fundamental unit of analysis. The researcher observed that at other times of the day parents often bought milk shakes, in addition to complete meals, for their children. What job were... View Details

Keywords: by Clayton M. Christensen, Scott Cook & Taddy Hall; Consumer Products

24 Jul 2023
Research & Ideas

Part-Time Employees Want More Hours. Can Companies Tap This ‘Hidden’ Talent Pool?

61 percent of part-time employees caring for parents or an elderly family member were women. Three steps toward a new path for caregivers What can change? Plenty. Fuller’s team found that, in all cases, increased flexibility and robust... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

June 2025
Case

TagHive: Edtech Pricing and Distributor Decisions

By: Isamar Troncoso, Frank V. Cespedes and Stacy Straaberg

Education technology (edtech) company TagHive, founded in 2017, used a direct sales team and third-party distributors to sell its Class Saathi hardware and software solution to 300 clients, mainly primary and secondary schools in India. The product aimed to improve... View Details

July 2017 (Revised September 2017)
Case

Donald Trump Calls Carrier Corporation

By: Andy Zelleke and Brian Tilley

This case examines the influence of political pressure on corporate decision-making. It questions whether fidelity to domestic operations ought to be a corporate social responsibility, and thus it challenges the limits of “social responsibility” as a corporate ideal.... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility; Board Decisions; Political Influence; Layoffs; Offshoring And Outsourcing; Manufacturing; United States; Mexico; Governing and Advisory Boards; Decision Making; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Political Elections; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Corporate Governance; Technology Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Connecticut; Indiana; Mexico

May 2022
Case

Thinking Outside the Wine Box (A): Mekanism and the Franz for Life Campaign

By: Tomomichi Amano, Elie Ofek, Mengjie Cheng and Amy Klopfenstein

This case provides an overview of “Franz for Life,” an advertising campaign that independent advertising agency Mekanism created and executed to revitalize the brand image of Franzia, a low-cost boxed wine. For several years, Franzia’s popularity declined among... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Digital Marketing; Social Marketing; Marketing Communications; Product Positioning; Food and Beverage Industry; Advertising Industry; United States

06 Jun 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas: June 6, 2017

question using a unique dataset of the gender of venture capital partners’ children. First, we find strong evidence that parenting more daughters leads to an increased propensity to hire female partners by venture capital firms. Second,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

08 Jul 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Surviving the Global Financial Crisis: Foreign Direct Investment and Establishment Performance

Keywords: by Laura Alfaro & Maggie Chen

09 Dec 2002
Research & Ideas

Unilever—A Case Study

States in the twentieth century. After 1945 Unilever's once successful business in the United States began to decline, yet the parent company maintained an arms-length relationship with its U.S. affiliates, refusing to intervene in their... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones; Consumer Products; Entertainment & Recreation; Food & Beverage; Manufacturing; Retail

07 Jun 2023
HBS Case

3 Ways to Gain a Competitive Advantage Now: Lessons from Amazon, Chipotle, and Facebook

fees that other brands pay department stores and other distributors. While it doesn’t charge the premium prices of competitors, its lower costs help it maintain an advantage. Perhaps recognizing that threat, Estee Lauder acquired The Ordinary’s View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

June 2025
Case

Assessing the Offers for Seven & i Holdings

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Nobuo Sato and Akiko Kanno

In the fall of 2024, the board of Seven and i Holdings Company (7&i, the parent company of 7-Eleven convenience stores in the US, Japan, and other countries) received multiple offers to buy the company. Two successive (and unsolicited) offers came from Alimentation... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Valuation; Value Creation; Bids and Bidding; Financial Strategy; Negotiation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Corporate Finance; Business Conglomerates; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Japan; Canada