Publications

February 2022 (Revised February 2024)
Case

Sekisui House and the In-Home Early Detection Platform

By: John D. Macomber and Akiko Kanno

To address an aging population and sales declines, a major Japanese homebuilder considers pivoting to provide and support an in-home health detection platform, in competition with tech companies. This case considers the point of view of major builders regarding how... View Details

Keywords: Voice Assistants; Architecture; Smart Home; Aging Society; Digitalization; Real Estate; Home Automation; Sensors; Strategy; Digital Platforms; Health Care and Treatment; Housing; Age; Real Estate Industry; Real Estate Industry; Real Estate Industry; Japan

21 Aug 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, August 21, 2018

2018 Boston: Harvard Business Review Press Driving Digital Strategy: A Guide to Reimagining Your Business By: Gupta, Sunil Abstract—Disruption and transformation get a lot of hype and for good reason. Digital technologies have disrupted... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

27 Jan 2015
First Look

First Look: January 27

case: https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/213078-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 815-061 Samuel Colt: An American Gun Maker Samuel Colt not only perfected and patented the technology for a gun that could fire multiple times... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 2011
Case

CA Technologies: Bringing the Cloud to Earth

By: Marco Iansiti and Kerry Herman

Adam Famularo, general manager, Cloud Computing business, CA Technologies, and David Dobson, WVP and group executive, Customer Solutions Group, were preparing for a presentation on communicating and positioning CA Technologies' new strategy for cloud computing.... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation; Product Positioning; Expansion; Internet and the Web; Technology Adoption

April 2024 (Revised December 2024)
Case

Anthropic: Building Safe AI

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai

In late 2024, Anthropic, a leading AI safety and research company, achieved a significant breakthrough with computer use capabilities that allowed AI to interact with computers like humans. Co-founded by former OpenAI employees and known for its generative AI... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business Growth and Maturation; Corporate Strategy; Technology Industry; United States

January 2024 (Revised February 2024)
Course Overview Note

Managing Customers for Growth: Course Overview for Students

By: Eva Ascarza

Managing Customers for Growth (MCG) is a 14-session elective course for second-year MBA students at Harvard Business School. It is designed for business professionals engaged in roles centered on customer-driven growth activities. The course explores the dynamics of... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Decision Making; Analytics and Data Science; Growth Management; Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Telecommunications Industry

14 Oct 2009
First Look

First Look: October 14

Working PapersCapitalizing On Innovation: The Case of Japan (revised October 2009) Authors:Robert Dujarric and Andrei Hagiu Abstract Japan's industrial landscape is characterized by hierarchical forms of View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

January 2010 (Revised August 2011)
Case

United Breaks Guitars

By: John A. Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

When social media propagate a complaint about poor customer service, an international media event ensues. How do viral videos spread and what can firms do about them? This case dissects an incident in which a disgruntled customer used YouTube and Twitter to spread a... View Details

Keywords: Communication Technology; Customer Satisfaction; Marketing Communications; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Network Effects; Service Delivery; Social and Collaborative Networks; Internet; Air Transportation Industry

October 2022 (Revised June 2024)
Case

Driving Decarbonization at BMW

By: Shirley Lu, George Serafeim and Michael W. Toffel

The case describes BMW’s electrification and decarbonization strategy, and how the company measured carbon emissions throughout the life cycle of its vehicles and used tools like carbon abatement cost curves to evaluate decarbonization opportunities. In mid-2022,... View Details

Web

Founder - Entrepreneurship

to pursue it in your EC year: Apply for the Student i-Lab Membership FALL Accelerate your venture: Apply for the Blavatnik Fellowship for commercializing technology out of Harvard research center and hospitals. Choose from 30+ EC Courses... View Details

09 Oct 2001
Research & Ideas

Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Organizations

to a well-known and admired model of industrial organization—General Motors. We will also compare the theoretical model to a much-admired high-technology firm, Hewlett-Packard. Finally we will propose a research project that would test... View Details

Keywords: by Paul Lawrence & Nitin Nohria

February 2023
Case

Roblox: Virtual Commerce in the Metaverse

By: Ayelet Israeli and Nicole Tempest Keller

In 2022, Roblox had 58.8 million daily active users, including over half of all children and teens under the age of 16 in the United States. Roblox, a free-to-use “co-experience platform”, allowed users to come together in immersive 3D experiences to socialize, work,... View Details

26 Jul 2022
Research & Ideas

Burgers with Bugs? What Happens When Restaurants Ignore Online Reviews

Farronato warns. In an industry with razor-thin margins, a few outdated but prominently displayed reviews could sink a restaurant for good. “One or two reviews can destroy their life,” she says. Plus, reviews aren’t representative of all... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin; Entertainment & Recreation; Food & Beverage; Retail

2023
Book

Deeply Responsible Business.: A Global History of Values-Driven Leadership

By: Geoffrey Jones

Corporate social responsibility has entered the mainstream, but what does it take to run a successful purpose-driven business? This book examines leaders who put values alongside profits to showcase the challenges and upside of deeply responsible business. Should... View Details

December 2022
Supplement

Freelancer, Ltd. Case Supplement

By: Christopher Stanton, Karim R. Lakhani, Jin Hyun Paik and Nina Cohodes

Over the course of the 2010s, the rapid advancement of mobile technologies and the rise of online freelancing platforms seemed to portend a radical transformation of labor markets into on-demand, flexible talent pools. Even though several Fortune 500 companies,... View Details

Keywords: Labor Markets; Freelancers; Change Management; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Globalized Firms and Management; Human Capital; Employment; Digital Platforms; Global Range; Adoption; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Growth and Development Strategy; Computer Industry; Computer Industry; Computer Industry; Computer Industry; Australia; United States; Philippines

August 2017 (Revised August 2018)
Case

Busbud: Building a Data Company

By: Srikant M. Datar, Alistair Croll and Caitlin N. Bowler

The case features the work of LP Maurice (HBS '08) as he decides to take on the fragmented bus travel industry and launch an online business that aggregates and shares bus schedules for routes around the world. His first challenge: finding that the data he needs is... View Details

Keywords: Data Science; Analytics and Data Science; Business Startups; Knowledge Acquisition; Customers; Measurement and Metrics; Transportation Industry

April 2018
Case

Miami's Tech Future (Abridged): Entrepreneurial Ecosystems and Leadership Challenges

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter

By the middle of the 1990s, Miami’s reputation was changing. An influx of Spanish-speaking immigrants and major investments in the airport and seaport had changed the image of a sleepy southern city to the de facto business center of Latin America, a center for... View Details

Keywords: Change; Leadership; Business and Community Relations; Strategic Planning; Technology Industry; Miami; Florida

April 1992 (Revised July 1992)
Case

U.S. Robotics, Inc.

U.S. Robotics (USR) is a fast-growing $80 million computer communications company with the aggressive growth target of becoming a $500 million company by 1995. It is widely accepted as the technology leader in its market, and relies strongly on its ability to bring... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Expansion; Product Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Computer Industry; Computer Industry; United States