Publications

September 1999 (Revised June 2001)
Case

eBay, Inc.

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Kelley Porter

eBay was the world's largest and most popular person-to-person trading community on the Internet. In early 1999, the company was doing very well and seemed to have solved many of its early problems. However, on March 30, 1999, Amazon.com announced that it was entering... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Planning; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Web Services Industry; Web Services Industry

04 Dec 2007
First Look

First Look: December 4, 2007

shape standards, and promoting modularity. An Empirical Study of System Improvement by Frontline Employees in Hospital Units Author:A. L. Tucker Periodical:Manufacturing & Service Operations Management 9, no. 4 (fall 2007): 492-505... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

November 1997 (Revised December 1999)
Case

Cinemex

By: James L. Heskett

The founders of Cinemex, the largest capitalized venture start-up in Mexican history, are debating several issues concerning the operations of their new chain of motion picture theatres in Mexico City. The first concerns whether some seats should be left unsold to... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Service Operations; Debates; Venture Capital; Customer Satisfaction; Advertising; Investment; Theater Entertainment; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Mexico City

May 2021 (Revised August 2021)
Case

Airbnb During the Pandemic: Stakeholder Capitalism Faces a Critical Test

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Allison Ciechanover

As the COVID pandemic spread in early 2020, global travel ground to a halt. For Airbnb, the San Francisco-based platform for renting accommodations, the impact was both swift and severe as revenues plummeted more than 70% over the prior year. Responding to the sudden... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Corporate Governance; Crisis Management; Leadership; Digital Platforms; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Value Creation; Decision Making; Goals and Objectives; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Service Industry; Service Industry; Service Industry; United States

25 Nov 2008
First Look

First Look: November 25, 2008

about the benefits of the privatization of water services amongst low and middle-income groups immediately after the 2006 nationalization. Negative opinions about the privatization prevail. These are particularly strong amongst households... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

January 1995 (Revised April 1996)
Case

Wildfire

The company Wildfire offers a product that is a virtual secretary--embedded in the phone system. Students can call 1-800-WILDFIRE and hear a product demonstration. All the commands, from calling, to setting up meetings, to providing reminders, are verbal--told to the... View Details

Keywords: Communication Technology; Market Entry and Exit; Product Marketing; Communications Industry; Communications Industry

Find at Harvard

April 2009 (Revised September 2011)
Case

Before the Fall: Lehman Brothers 2008

By: Clayton S. Rose and Anand Ahuja

This case examines Lehman Brothers in the months preceding its collapse. Following the announcement of a huge and unexpected second quarter loss, the CFO was removed from her post after only seven months in the job. This case explores the challenges faced by a firm... View Details

Keywords: Communication Strategy; Financial Crisis; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Financial Management; Financial Markets; Crisis Management; Trust; Financial Services Industry

October 1998
Case

Farallon Capital Management: Risk Arbitrage (C)

By: Andre F. Perold and Robert Howard

Farallon Capital Management, an investment firm that specializes in risk arbitrage, has taken significant long and short positions in MCI Communications and British Telecommunications, respectively, in the belief that the proposed merger of these firms will be... View Details

Keywords: Capital Markets; Equity; Mergers and Acquisitions; Financial Institutions; Risk Management; Investment Funds; Financial Services Industry

March 2023
Supplement

Innovation at Google Ads: The Sales Acceleration and Innovation Labs (SAIL) (B)

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Tedards

In 2018, Ana Owczarzak was appointed to lead Google Ads' new innovation and accelerator team - the Sales Acceleration and Innovation Labs (SAIL). The purpose of SAIL was to offer testing and incubation services for individuals within Google Ads who were developing new... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Leadership; Organizational Culture; Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; Advertising Industry; United States

22 Feb 2010
Research & Ideas

Manager Visibility No Guarantee of Fixing Problems

Motions: An Empirical Test of Management Involvement in Process Improvement," HBS professor Anita L. Tucker and Harvard School of Public Health professor Sara J. Singer show that communicating with frontline workers can backfire if... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Health

19 Dec 2023
Research & Ideas

$15 Billion in Five Years: What Data Tells Us About MacKenzie Scott’s Philanthropy

Over the last five years, MacKenzie Scott has gone from relatively unknown in the US philanthropic community to arguably its single most influential figure. When she signed the Giving Pledge in 2019 following her divorce with Amazon... View Details

Keywords: by Matthew Lee, Brian Trelstad, and Ethan Tran

13 Sep 2010
Research & Ideas

The Consumer Appeal of Underdog Branding

meaning of their lives, and they remain hopeful about achieving them, even when faced with obstacles. Many contemporary brand biographies contain underdog narratives. Product packaging, corporate Web sites, blogs, and marketing View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

04 Dec 2012
First Look

First Look: December 4

and quasi-formal structures. This leads us to expect to find a higher proportion of homophilous interactions within these organizational structures than across their boundaries. We test our theory in an analysis of the rate of dyadic View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

06 Feb 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas: February 6, 2018

budgets. These include affirmative budgeting (full influence), consultative budgeting (moderate influence), and authoritative budgeting (low influence). When organizations communicate that employees will be involved in budgeting,... View Details

17 Sep 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Secrets of the Academy: The Drivers of University Endowment Success

Keywords: by Josh Lerner, Antoinette Schoar & Jialan Wang; Education

January 2010 (Revised March 2011)
Case

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: Network Strategy

By: Michael E. Porter, Carolyn Daly and Andrew Peter Dervan

In 2009 Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) had been recognized as the best children's hospital in the country for six years in a row; but leadership saw CHOP as more than the large main campus in western Philadelphia. Beginning in the 1990s, CHOP had created a... View Details

Keywords: Communication; Health Care and Treatment; Service Delivery; Organizational Structure; Networks; Integration; Health Industry; Philadelphia

22 Apr 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Audit Quality and Auditor Reputation: Evidence from Japan

Keywords: by Douglas J. Skinner & Suraj Srinivasan

December 2010 (Revised November 2014)
Case

Steven Carpenter at Cake Financial

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

After investing $9 million of venture capital, Cake Financial had failed to reach critical mass. In early 2010 Cake's assets were sold and the company was dissolved. Founded in 2006, the San Francisco-based Internet company allowed users to monitor their investments... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business or Company Management; Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Internet; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry

February 2007 (Revised February 2007)
Case

Wikipedia (A)

By: Karim R. Lakhani and Andrew P. McAfee

Wikipedia has emerged as a robust model for content production by volunteers working asynchronously on the Internet with a unconventional model for distributed decision making. The "Articles for Deletion" process in Wikipedia provides unique insight into the inner... View Details

Keywords: Information Publishing; Information Management; Internet and the Web; Information Technology; Globalization; Service Delivery; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Management; Information Industry; Information Technology Industry