Publications

May 2022
Supplement

Maestro Pizza (B): The Competition Awakens

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Fares Khrais

Maestro pizza opened its first store in 2013 after its founder, Khalid Al Omran, recognized an opportunity in Saudi Arabia to offer high quality pizza at affordable prices. The business grew rapidly and under the radar at first, but soon enough caught the attention of... View Details

May 2022
Supplement

Maestro Pizza (C): Taking the Fight Outside

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Fares Khrais

Maestro pizza opened its first store in 2013 after its founder, Khalid Al Omran, recognized an opportunity in Saudi Arabia to offer high quality pizza at affordable prices. The business grew rapidly and under the radar at first, but soon enough caught the attention of... View Details

May 2022
Case

Maestro Pizza: Coming in Hot!

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Fares Khrais

Maestro Pizza opened its first store in 2013 after its founder, Khalid Al Omran, recognized an opportunity in Saudi Arabia to offer high quality pizza at affordable prices. The business grew rapidly and under the radar at first, but soon enough caught the attention of... View Details

2022
Working Paper

Are Experts Blinded by Feasibility?: Experimental Evidence from a NASA Robotics Challenge

By: Jacqueline N. Lane, Zoe Szajnfarber, Jason Crusan, Michael Menietti and Karim R. Lakhani

Resource allocation decisions play a dominant role in shaping a firm’s technological trajectory and competitive advantage. Recent work indicates that innovative firms and scientific institutions tend to exhibit an anti-novelty bias when evaluating new projects and... View Details

Keywords: Evaluations; Novelty; Feasibility; Field Experiment; Resource Allocation; Technological Innovation; Competitive Advantage; Decision Making

SSRN

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Article

Why Build in Web3

By: Jad Esber and Scott Duke Kominers

A major change is coming to the internet. While today’s dominant platforms have guarded their troves of user data and maintained an advantage through network effects, new companies—working in what they're calling a “Web3” model—are proposing a new value proposition to... View Details

Keywords: Blockchain; User Experience; Digital Platforms; Network Effects; Internet and the Web; Competition; Web Services Industry

Read Now

May 2022 (Revised December 2023)
Case

Founder Collective

By: Jo Tango and Alys Ferragamo

Founder Collective ("FC") launched in 2009 with a clear mission: to be the most aligned fund for founders at the seed stage. In keeping with its mission, FC maintained smaller fund sizes and was not a lifecycle investor. By November of 2021, the seed market had become... View Details

Keywords: Seed Investing; Business Startups; Mission and Purpose; Investment; Competitive Strategy; Venture Capital

May 2022
Case

From GOP to NFT: Anthony Scaramucci and the Launch of Flatter NFT

By: Lauren Cohen, Richard Ryffel and Grace Headinger

Anthony Scaramucci, Managing Director of SkyBridge Capital, considered whether he should officially greenlight the launch of SkyBridge’s own NFT platform — Flatter NFT. He had led the investment firm to push first into Bitcoin and then Ethereum to make SkyBridge a... View Details

May 2022 (Revised June 2022)
Case

Proposing to Redesign a Global Investment Bank

By: David G. Fubini

A major, NYC-based, global investment bank is looking to rethink its Systems strategy amid a rapidly evolving digital landscape. Your firm has served the client across most of its major geographies on a range of substantial Systems and IT efforts, but is facing... View Details

Keywords: Consulting; Professional Services; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Digital Strategy; Presentations; Competitive Strategy; Consulting Industry; New York (city, NY)

May 2022
Case

The NFL’s $110-Billion Media Rights Deals

By: Anita Elberse and Elizabeth Warner

On March 18, 2021, Brian Rolapp, chief media and business officer at the National Football League (NFL) presented the results of a months-long effort to renegotiate rights deals with the NFL’s current partners in television—the media conglomerates behind the networks... View Details

Keywords: Sports; Entertainment; Media; Marketing; Strategy; General Management; Negotiation; Partners and Partnerships; Competition; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Sports Industry

May 2022 (Revised July 2022)
Case

The Voice War Continues: Hey Google vs. Alexa vs. Siri in 2022

By: David B. Yoffie and Daniel Fisher

In 2022, after five years of pursuing a new "AI-first" strategy, Google had captured a sizeable share of the American and global markets for voice assistants. Google Assistant was used by hundreds of millions of users around the world, but Amazon retained the largest... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Artificial Intelligence; Deep Learning; Voice Assistants; Smart Home; Market Share; Globalized Markets and Industries; Competitive Strategy; Digital Platforms; AI and Machine Learning; Technology Industry; United States

April 2022
Case

NIO: A Chinese EV Company's Global Strategy

By: William C. Kirby, Shu Lin and Noah B. Truwit

Founded in November 2014 and based in Shanghai, NIO designed, jointly manufactured, and sold premium “smart” EVs. Its mission was to “shape a joyful lifestyle by offering high-performance smart electric vehicles and being the best user enterprise. At NIO Day 2021,... View Details

Keywords: Electric Vehicles; Expansion; Technological Innovation; Market Entry and Exit; Competitive Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Green Technology; Auto Industry; China; Europe; Norway

April 2022
Case

Mastercard: Creating a World Beyond Cash

By: Sunil Gupta, Linda A. Hill, Julia Kelley and Emily Tedards

In late 2021, Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach and Chairman and former CEO Ajaypal “Ajay” Banga considered how Mastercard could best position itself for continued success in the years to come. Since Mastercard’s initial public offering in 2006, the company had grown and... View Details

April 2022
Teaching Note

Tempur Sealy International (A, B & C)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

Teaching Note for HBS Case Nos. 718-422, 718-423, and 718-424. The cases explore the long-term relationship between Tempur Sealy (TPX, a mattress manufacturer) and Mattress Firm (MFRM, a bedding retailer and TPX's largest customer). For almost 20 years, the firms... View Details

April 2022 (Revised May 2022)
Case

Mastercard Labs (A)

By: Linda A. Hill, Sunil Gupta, Emily Tedards and Julia Kelley

When Ajaypal (Ajay) Banga became the CEO of Mastercard in 2010, he shifted the company’s competitive focus from card networks to cash itself. Mastercard’s new vision of a “World Beyond Cash” distilled into a three-pronged framework: Grow the core business, Diversify... View Details

April 2022 (Revised May 2022)
Case

Mastercard Labs (A) (Abridged)

By: Linda A. Hill, Sunil Gupta, Emily Tedards and Julia Kelley

When Ajaypal (Ajay) Banga became the CEO of Mastercard in 2010, he shifted the company’s competitive focus from card networks to cash itself. Mastercard’s new vision of a “World Beyond Cash” distilled into a three-pronged framework: Grow the core business, Diversify... View Details

April 2022 (Revised August 2022)
Case

Restaurant Brands International: Version 2.0

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott

In 2010, 3G Capital acquired Burger King, the second largest burger chain globally. 3G expanded Burger King’s operations via acquisitions into a multi-brand business, renamed Restaurant Brands International. The acquisition had been a financial success story for 3G.... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Growth and Development; Performance Evaluation; Private Equity; Franchise Ownership; Culture; Change Management; Strategy; Human Resources; Information Technology; Competition; Retail Industry; United States

April 2022
Article

Going Out or Opting Out? Capital, Political Vulnerability, and the State in China's Outward Investment

By: Meg Rithmire

How do state-business relations interact with outward investment in authoritarian regimes? This paper examines this question in the context of China’s rapid transformation into a major capital exporter. While most political economy scholarship focuses on firms’... View Details

Keywords: Outward Investment; Capital Controls; Corruption; Foreign Direct Investment; Political Economy; State-owned Enterprises; Investment; Global Range; Capital; Globalization; Policy; Government and Politics; China

Find at Harvard

March 2022 (Revised June 2023)
Background Note

Climate Issues on the Ground: Snapshots of Diverse American Cities

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Coelin Scibetta and Ryan Barr

This compilation provides brief snapshots of climate action and its geographic and institutional context in 13 U.S. cities that send diverse participants to the Harvard Business School Young American Leaders Program to learn about cross-sector collaboration to address... View Details

Keywords: Cities; Ecosystems; Cross-sector Collaboration; Green Business; U.S. Competitiveness; Economic Sectors; City; Climate Change; Leadership; Change; Boston; Detroit; Minneapolis; Pittsburgh; San Jose; Seattle

March 2022 (Revised October 2022)
Case

Transforming Kimball International, Inc. (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

Kimball International, Inc. (KII), led by CEO Kristie Juster, and its board of directors, chaired by Kim Ryan, faced critical questions about KII’s future in the spring of 2021. Two years earlier, the board had appointed Juster as the new CEO of KII, a publicly traded,... View Details