Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(3,008)
- Faculty Publications (329)
- December 2000
- Background Note
Online Retailers
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Alastair Brown
Describes online retailers, companies that use the Internet to sell physical goods. Defines online retailers and describes different ways to categorize them. Explores their economic model and value proposition for consumers in comparison with offline retailers. Next,... View Details
- November 2000 (Revised December 2000)
- Background Note
Online Content Providers
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Alastair Brown
Describes the business model for online content providers, companies that distribute copyright content via the Internet. Focuses on their revenue and cost drivers and on the ways that online content providers create value for consumers. Also investigates the benefits... View Details
- November 2000 (Revised December 2001)
- Case
iSteelAsia (A)
By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Pamela A. Yatsko
The chairman of a Hong Kong-based steel distributor starts an online Asian steel trading portal and contemplates different paths to profitability and growth. Barriers include industrial culture, weakened markets in the spring of 2000, and vulnerability to takeover by... View Details
- November 2000 (Revised May 2002)
- Case
FleetBoston Financial: Online Banking
By: Frances X. Frei and Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar
As the ninth largest bank holding company in the United States in 2000, FleetBoston Financial Corp. provided a myriad of financial services, including retail banking, loan origination, and brokerage accounts. This case explores how FleetBoston responded to the Internet... View Details
- November 2000 (Revised June 2001)
- Case
Ventro: Builder of B2B Businesses
By: Lynda M. Applegate and Meredith Collura
Enables a thorough analysis of Ventro (formerly known as Chemdex), which builds and operates multiple B2B marketplace companies. Examines Ventro's business model and strategy as well as the company's operating, technical, and management expertise. Part of the... View Details
- October 2000 (Revised April 2001)
- Case
Cost of Capital at Ameritrade
By: Mark L. Mitchell and Erik Stafford
Ameritrade Holding Corp. is planning large marketing and technology investments to improve the company's competitive position in deep-discount brokerage by taking advantage of emerging economies of scale. In order to evaluate whether the strategy would generate... View Details
- October 2000 (Revised March 2001)
- Case
eLance.com: Building a Professional Services Marketplace
By: Lynda M. Applegate and Kristin Kohler
Launched as an eBay for services, eLance promises to leverage the capabilities of the Internet to not only change the way services are bought and sold, but change the fundamental dynamics of the global economy. Building on theories posited in the HBR article by Tim... View Details
- October 2000 (Revised November 2000)
- Case
New Economy Ethics: YouKnowIt.com
By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. and Kim Slack
Entrepreneur Janice Schwartz is hoping to grow her start-up company by creating a technical advisory board and compensating members with discounted company stock. Schwartz is considering six candidates that can help her online education company in a variety of ways: as... View Details
- October 2000 (Revised October 2001)
- Case
adM@rt(A)
By: F. Warren McFarlan, Carin-Isabel Knoop and David Lane
Describes the complex policy alternatives facing an online Hong Kong grocery company as it tries to apply Webvan-type concepts in the Hong Kong marketplace. Captures the extraordinary process of adaptation the company is going through as it tries to find the right... View Details
- September 2000 (Revised July 2001)
- Case
Chapters.ca
By: Michael J. Roberts, Rajiv Lal and Walter J. Salmon
Describes the challenges facing the online site associated with Canada's largest bricks-and-mortar bookseller. Presents a variety of lenses for examining the economic model of the online versus traditional book-selling business, and asks students to identify the... View Details
- July 2000 (Revised October 2000)
- Case
Petstore.com
Petstore.com is one of four contenders for leadership in the highly competitive online pet supply business. Petstore.com faces decisions regarding potential merger partners and how to brand its service within the website managed by its ultimate merger partner,... View Details
- February 2000 (Revised May 2001)
- Case
eBricks.com
eBricks.com is developing an online marketplace for construction materials. The start-up company faces two decisions: 1) whether to merge with BluelineOnline.com, a firm providing project management solutions for the construction industry; and 2) whether to develop an... View Details
- February 2000 (Revised August 2000)
- Case
Boston.com
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Jon K Rust
How aggressively should an incumbent move when developing an online business that threatens its core product? With Internet competitors taking direct aim at the traditional print newspaper business model, the Boston Globe fought back with its own web initiative,... View Details
- February 2000 (Revised December 2000)
- Case
Staples.com
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Joanna M. Jacobson and Gillian Morris
Staples.com, the online unit of the U.S. office supplies retailing chain Staples, faces a range of strategic and organizational issues as it accelerates its growth. Should it pursue only existing Staples customers or consumers who do not shop in Staples stores? How... View Details
- February 2000 (Revised April 2001)
- Case
CNET 2000
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Pauline M Fischer
CNET's managers explain the strategic analysis that led to their decision to increase their annual marketing budget from $1 million to $100 million. CNET is an online information intermediary that helps consumers make purchase decisions about PC hardware and software,... View Details
- February 2000 (Revised November 2002)
- Case
QuickenInsurance: The Race to Click and Close (A)
ES Technologies started in 1976 as a storefront in Tempe, Arizona selling personal computer kits to hobbyists. Twenty years later, revenues exceeded $3.5 billion, and the business had evolved from a computer store to a master reseller and full-line integrator of... View Details
- February 2000 (Revised November 2000)
- Case
Women.com
By: Myra M. Hart and Sarah S. Khetani
Entrepreneurs Ellen Pack and Marleen McDaniel have founded a women's online network and watched it grow from an online subscription service in 1992 to one of the best known, widely visited women's networks on the web in 1999. While the company's vision has remained... View Details
- February 2000 (Revised April 2003)
- Case
InSite Marketing Technology (A)
By: Lynda M. Applegate, Genevieve J.S. Feraud and Sheila L Marcelo
Introduces students to products and services that improve customers' online shopping experience. Also discusses the challenges of marketing new product concepts and finding funding for start-up ventures. View Details
- December 1999 (Revised September 2000)
- Case
Excite@Home: Betting on a Broadband Revolution
By: Stephen P. Bradley and Matthew Sandoval
In January 1999, @Home, a high-speed Internet access provider, announced the $6.7 billion purchase of Excite, the second largest of the major Internet "portals." This purchase marked a continuing consolidation of companies in the Internet "content" and "access"... View Details
- December 1999 (Revised February 2001)
- Case
CVS: The Web Strategy
By: John A. Deighton and Anjali C. Shah
How should America's second-largest pharmacy chain respond to the challenge from online drugstores? What threat does the web pose to bricks and mortar distribution of prescription drugs and the other items that make up 50% of a drugstore's sales? This case describes... View Details