Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(1,955)
- Faculty Publications (423)
- August 2014
- Case
Netflix in 2011
By: Willy Shih and Stephen Kaufman
Reed Hastings founded Netflix to provide a home movie service that would do a better job satisfying customers than the traditional retail rental model. But as it encountered challenges it underwent several major strategy shifts, ultimately developing a business model... View Details
Keywords: Netflix; DVD; DVD-by-mail; Streaming; Online Entertainment; Online Video; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Business Model; Disruption; Operations; Service Operations; Entertainment; Film Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Media; Strategy; Business or Company Management; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Technology; Technology Adoption; Technology Platform; Web; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States
- July 2014
- Article
Diasporas and Outsourcing: Evidence from oDesk and India
By: Ejaz Ghani, William R. Kerr and Christopher Stanton
This study examines the role of the Indian diaspora in the outsourcing of work to India. Our data are taken from oDesk, the world's largest online platform for outsourced contracts, where India is the largest country in terms of contract volume. We use an ethnic name... View Details
- June 2014
- Teaching Note
Google Glass
By: Thomas Eisenmann
In early 2014, business development executives at Google were formulating a distribution strategy for Glass, a wearable computer that projected information on a display viewable with an upward glance. Options, which were not mutually exclusive, included 1) continuing... View Details
- April 2014 (Revised June 2014)
- Case
Google Glass
By: Thomas Eisenmann, Lauren Barley and Liz Kind
In early 2014, business development executives at Google were formulating a distribution strategy for Glass, a wearable computer that projected information on a display viewable with an upward glance. Options, which were not mutually exclusive, included 1) continuing... View Details
- March 2014 (Revised January 2015)
- Case
Prodigy Network: Democratizing Real Estate Design and Financing
By: Karim R. Lakhani, Katja Hutter and Greta Friar
This case follows Rodrigo Nino, founder and CEO of commercial real estate development company Prodigy Network, as he develops an equity-based crowdfunding model for small investors to access commercial real estate in Colombia, then tries out the model in the U.S. U.S.... View Details
Keywords: Innovation; Real Estate; Crowdfunding; Crowdsourcing; Digital Innovation; Commercial Real Estate; Online Platforms; Disruption; Transformation; Design; Assets; Equity; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Internet and the Web; Digital Platforms; Real Estate Industry; Latin America; New York (state, US); United States
- January 2014 (Revised January 2017)
- Case
Nivea (A)
By: Karim R. Lakhani, Johann Fuller, Volker Bilgram and Greta Friar
The case describes the efforts of Beiersdorf, a worldwide leader in the cosmetics and skin care industries, to generate and commercialize new R&D through open innovation using external crowds and "netnographic" analysis. Beiersdorf, best known for its consumer brand... View Details
Keywords: Innovation; Innovation Management; Crowdsourcing; Big Data; Innovation Strategy; Innovation and Management; Knowledge Management; Knowledge Sharing; Research and Development; Social and Collaborative Networks; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Analytics and Data Science; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Consumer Products Industry
- January 2014 (Revised May 2015)
- Case
Open English
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Lisa Mazzanti
Open English, a Miami-based startup offering online English language learning services, had more than 30,000 active students across Latin America in 2012. The company had just closed a $43 million financing round in order to rapidly scale its service to the next level.... View Details
- January 2014 (Revised December 2014)
- Case
GenapSys: Business Models for the Genome
By: Richard G. Hamermesh, Joseph B. Fuller and Matthew Preble
GenapSys, a California-based startup, was soon to release a new DNA sequencer that the company's founder, Hesaam Esfandyarpour, believed was truly revolutionary. The sequencer would be substantially less expensive—potentially costing just a few thousand dollars—and... View Details
- November 2013
- Teaching Note
Barnes & Noble: Managing the E-Book Revolution
By: Alan MacCormack, Brian Kimball Dunn and Chris F. Kemerer
In 2012, Barnes & Noble found itself in a difficult position. While the company had weathered the advent of online retailing relatively well, the arrival of electronic books (e-books) threatened the company's viability. Primary competitor Borders had already fallen by... View Details
- October 2013 (Revised July 2024)
- Teaching Note
Amazon in 2024
By: Sunil Gupta
Amazon launched its website in July 1995 to sell books online and by 2020 it has grown to become a digital giant with over $280 billion in annual sales. A large part of its growth came from expanding into a variety of businesses that some see as unrelated. Has it... View Details
- September 2013
- Case
Advanced Leadership Pathways: David Weinstein and Write the World
By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Juliane Calingo Schwetz and Patricia Bissett Higgins
David Weinstein, a lawyer and former Chief Administrative Officer of mutual fund giant Fidelity Investments, launched Write the World, a proprietary online platform that included a writing curriculum, essay prompts in distinct subject matter, and access to expert... View Details
- 2013
- Case
Advanced Leadership Pathways: David Weinstein and Write the World
By: Rosabeth M. Kanter, Juliane Calingo Schwetz and Patricia Bissett Higgins
David Weinstein, a lawyer and former Chief Administrative Officer of mutual fund giant Fidelity Investments, launched Write the World, a proprietary online platform that included a writing curriculum, essay prompts in distinct subject matter, and access to expert... View Details
- August 2013 (Revised July 2024)
- Case
Amazon in 2024
By: Sunil Gupta and Margaret L. Rodriguez
Amazon launched its website in July 1995 to sell books online and by 2020 it has grown to become a digital giant with over $280 billion in annual sales. A large part of its growth came from expanding into a variety of businesses that some see as unrelated. Has it... View Details
- August 2013 (Revised September 2015)
- Case
Coursera
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Hyunjin Kim
By providing free and open-access online courses at a large scale, Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platforms seek to innovate the business models of the traditional higher education industry. In a little over a year, Coursera had grown at a rapid rate to emerge as a... View Details
- June 2013 (Revised November 2013)
- Case
Bluefin Labs: The Acquisition by Twitter
By: John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld
What is the value of Bluefin Labs's social listening data to Twitter? Acquired by Twitter in 2013, Bluefin had built a system that gathered millions of online comments in an effort to develop new metrics for TV programs and brand advertising. With data from Twitter... View Details
- June 2013 (Revised March 2015)
- Case
Open Innovation at Siemens
By: Karim R. Lakhani, Katja Hutter, Stephanie Healy Pokrywa and Johann Fuller
The case describes Siemens, a worldwide innovator in the Energy, Healthcare, Industry, and Infrastructure & Cities sectors, and its efforts to develop and commercialize new R&D through open innovation, including internal and external crowdsourcing contests. Emphasis is... View Details
Keywords: Innovation; Innovation Management; Crowdsourcing; Innovation Strategy; Innovation and Management; Knowledge Management; Knowledge Sharing; Research and Development; Information Technology; Green Technology Industry; Green Technology Industry; Green Technology Industry; Green Technology Industry
- June 2013 (Revised August 2013)
- Case
AVA.ph: Growing a Filipino E-Commerce Company
By: William R. Kerr and Henry Motte-Munoz
AVA is a three-year old e-commerce company in the Philippines. From its early start mimicking the Gilt Groupe concept of online flash sales, the company has grown into a broader e-commerce platform for local fashion commerce. Oliver Segovia needs to evaluate where AVA... View Details
- April 2013 (Revised June 2018)
- Teaching Note
Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google 2018
By: John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld
Keywords: Amazon; Apple; Facebook; Google; Online Platforms; Marketing; E-commerce; Digital Platforms; Digital Marketing
- February 2013
- Case
18 Months in a Startup: Zaggora.com
By: Tom Nicholas
The founders of Zaggora reflected back on a tumultuous year-and-a-half in which they had generated, from just $40,000 in personal savings, a multi-million dollar sportswear enterprise selling Hotpants to women. These were hotpants not of the 1960s hipster variety, but... View Details
- 2013
- Working Paper
Do Display Ads Influence Search?: Attribution and Dynamics in Online Advertising
By: Sunil Gupta
As firms increasingly rely on online media to acquire consumers, marketing managers feel comfortable justifying higher online marketing spend by referring to online metrics such as click-through rate (CTR) and cost per acquisition (CPA). However, these standard online... View Details