Publications

October 2011
Supplement

An Interview with Jack Hughes, Founder and Chairman of TopCoder

By: David A. Garvin

TopCoder's crowdsourcing-based business model, in which software is developed through online tournaments, is presented. The case highlights how TopCoder has created a unique two-sided innovation platform consisting of a global community of over 225,0000 developers who... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development; Technological Innovation; Problems and Challenges; Motivation and Incentives; Competition; Online Technology; Information Technology Industry

16 Oct 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, October 16, 2018

DSMC holds as a consistent pattern in a dynamic equilibrium. Given DSMC, clusters of firms making different complementary goods, including open platforms with surrounding ecosystems, can survive and compete effectively against integrated... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

13 Jan 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Recognition Incentives for Internal Crowdsourcing: A Field Experiment at NASA

Keywords: by Jana Gallus, Olivia S. Jung, and Karim R. Lakhani; Aerospace

October 2011
Supplement

Jack Hughes, Founder and Chairman of TopCoder, In-class comments 4/8/11

By: David A. Garvin

TopCoder's crowdsourcing-based business model, in which software is developed through online tournaments, is presented. The case highlights how TopCoder has created a unique two-sided innovation platform consisting of a global community of over 225,000 developers who... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Growth and Development; Technological Innovation; Problems and Challenges; Motivation and Incentives; Competition; Online Technology; Information Technology Industry

February 2002 (Revised May 2002)
Background Note

That's a Wrap: The Dynamics of the Video Rental Industry

By: V.G. Narayanan and Lisa Brem

The history, current dynamics, and future trends of the $10 billion home video rental industry provides a platform to discuss revenue-sharing contracts between suppliers of home videocassettes and retailers. View Details

Keywords: Contracts; Motivation and Incentives; Supply Chain Management; Revenue; Financial Strategy; Motion Pictures and Video Industry

February 2011 (Revised November 2012)
Case

PatientsLikeMe: An Online Community of Patients

By: Sunil Gupta and Jason Riis

PatientsLikeMe (PLM) is an online community where patients share their personal experiences with a disease, find other patients like them, and learn from each other. The company was founded by Jamie and Ben Heywood when their 29-year-old brother was diagnosed with ALS... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Health Disorders; Knowledge Sharing; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Launch; Digital Platforms; Social and Collaborative Networks; Health Industry

2010
Working Paper

The Job Market for New Economists: A Market Design Perspective

By: Peter A. Coles, John Cawley, Phillip B. Levine, Muriel Niederle, Alvin E. Roth and John J. Siegfried

This paper provides an overview of the market for new Ph.D. economists. It describes the role of the American Economic Association (AEA) in the market and focuses in particular on two mechanisms adopted in recent years at the suggestion of our committee. First, job... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Information; Surveys; Jobs and Positions; Job Interviews; Job Search; Emerging Markets; Digital Platforms; Service Operations; Internet and the Web

Read Now

July 2022
Teaching Plan

Wellthy: The Economics of Caring

By: Brian Trelstad

Teaching Plan for HBS Case No. 320-028. In 2014, Lindsay Jurist-Rosner (MBA ’09) founded Wellthy, a B2C business that coordinates care for working professionals seeking help to support loved ones with chronic diseases or aging parents. With personal experience as a... View Details

Keywords: B2B Vs. B2C; Future Of Work; Health; Social Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Health Care and Treatment; Recruitment; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Health Industry; United States

08 Sep 2015
First Look

September 8, 2015

complaints per year. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=49555 The Value of Corporate Citizenship: Protection By: Minor, Dylan Abstract—We explore the notion that corporate citizenship, as obtained through Corporate View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

February 2021 (Revised April 2024)
Case

Shopify: The Conquest for Chinese E-Commerce

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Avani Patel, Samantha Lin and Ariel Yang

In mid-2020, Tobias Lütke, CEO of Shopify, faced a critical decision on how to time potential expansion into the China market. Over the prior 15 years, his Canadian software-as-a-service company had grown from a small e-commerce solutions provider to a full service... View Details

2019
Chapter

Interorganizational Collaboration and Start-Up Innovation

By: Vikas A. Aggarwal and Andy Wu

This chapter presents an overview of the literature on collaborative relationships between start-ups and incumbent firms, focusing on the implications of these relationships for start-up innovation and performance. Value creation in such relationships occurs when... View Details

Keywords: Alliance; Corporate Venture Capital; Complementary Assets; Appropriability; Business Startups; Joint Ventures; Knowledge; Innovation and Invention; Value Creation; Entrepreneurship

Find at Harvard

Read Now

One of the leading business thinkers in the world offers a bold, new theory of advanced leadership for tackling the world's complex, messy, and recalcitrant social and environmental problems.

Over a decade ago, renowned innovation... View Details

Deborah M. Winshel

Deborah Winshel is a Senior Lecturer in the General Management Unit of Harvard Business School. She teaches several MBA required courses: Leadership and Organizational Behavior (LEAD), Leadership and Corporate Accountability and the Field Immersion course (2025 in... View Details

26 Mar 2020
Blog Post

The Road Untraveled: VC Perspectives on COVID-19

Brian Hollins (MBA 2021) spent six years at Goldman Sachs prior to HBS focused on venture capital and growth equity investing for the firm. He will be joining Lightspeed Venture Partners this summer, and is a co-Founder of BLCKVC, a View Details

August 2019
Case

Preserving Trust at Care.com (A)

By: Krishna G. Palepu and Julia Kelley

Care.com was an online platform designed to match caregivers with individuals seeking care for themselves, others, and pets, through job postings, caregiver profiles, and directories of local day care centers. In March 2019, the Wall Street Journal had just published a... View Details

Keywords: Business Strategy; Corporate Governance; Digital Platforms; Market Design; Emerging Markets; Trust; Technology Industry; United States

28 Apr 2020
Blog Post

HBS African American Student Union

extra-curricular activities. Clubs also sponsor a variety of events such as workshops, speakers, and conferences that provide distinct opportunities for learning, networking, and socializing outside of the classroom. As part of our MBA... View Details

October 2023 (Revised November 2023)
Case

Rheaply: Circularity For Every Business

By: Rembrand Koning and Alicia Dadlani

In March 2023, Garry Cooper, cofounder and CEO of Chicago-based Rheaply, needed to demonstrate that Rheaply’s expanded vision could translate into building cash flows and metrics needed to raise a Series B and turn the business into a model for financial and... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Social Entrepreneurship; Technological Innovation; Environmental Sustainability; Entrepreneurial Finance; Technology Industry; Green Technology Industry; United States; Illinois; Chicago

April 2009 (Revised November 2012)
Case

Sermo, Inc.

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Lars Peter Christian Nielsen

Sermo operates the leading online professional network for physicians in the United States. Doctors use Sermo free of charge to post surveys regarding diagnostic and treatment concerns and to discuss these concerns, as well as challenges with managing their practices.... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Health Care and Treatment; Knowledge Sharing; Two-Sided Platforms; Conflict and Resolution; Social and Collaborative Networks; United States

March 2019 (Revised June 2021)
Case

HelloSelf: Foundation

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

On January 6, 2019, HelloSelf, a London-based “BrainTech” company, founded a year earlier by Charles Wells, soft launched. The proposition was simply to help its members “Be your Best Self.” The company provided its registered members with access to a clinical... View Details