Publications

November 2023 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Infarm: Betting the (Indoor) Farm on Food Security

By: Elie Ofek

In the summer of 2023, the co-founders of Infarm, a controlled environment agriculture (CEA) company, were contemplating a major pivot going forward. While Infarm had successfully shown it could grow over 75 products—mainly herbs, leafy greens and mushrooms—in modular... View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Business Model; Market Entry and Exit; Science-Based Business; Business Strategy; Transition; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Europe; North America; Toronto; Northeastern United States

01 Jan 2014
News

To Spot Financial Trouble Early, Use Three Circles: A conversation with Blythe McGarvie of Harvard Business School

12 Jun 2012
First Look

First Look: June 12

Anand Piramal and his team sought to "democratize healthcare" in India through the development of a new service delivery model. If Henry Ford could build and deliver cars to everyone in the United States, Piramal thought, then... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

July 2008 (Revised January 2013)
Teaching Note

eHarmony (TN)

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski and Hanna Halaburda

Teaching Note for eHarmony [709424]. View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Strategy; Valuation; Industry Structures; Competitive Advantage; Web Services Industry

spring 1999
Article

Building a Company on Internet Time: Lessons from Netscape

By: D. B. Yoffie and M. A. Cusumano

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Business Ventures; Web Services Industry

Find at Harvard

Web

Site Credits - Photography Collections - Historical Collections

HBS Quick Links MBA Executive Education Doctoral Programs Faculty and Research Alumni HBS Publishing Site Index HBS Home Contact Us Map/Directions Photography Collections Introduction Large Collections Automobile Industry Caterpillar... View Details

January 2012 (Revised April 2012)
Case

Killing Craigslist: Entrepreneurship in the Online Apartment Rental Market

Keywords: Business Model; Internet and the Web; Renting or Rental; Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Web Services Industry

July 2001 (Revised February 2002)
Case

Enspire Learning

An MBA student founds an e-education business and must decide which customers to target and which products/services to produce. View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Internet and the Web; Service Delivery; Education; Business Startups; Planning; Web Services Industry; Web Services Industry

July 1999 (Revised January 2000)
Case

Yahoo!: Business on Internet Time

By: Jan W. Rivkin and Jay R. Girotto

In the wake of major competitive moves, CEO Tim Koogle and his senior team at Yahoo!, an Internet portal, must decide whether and how to adjust their strategy. Following deals between AOL and Netscape, Excite and @Home, Infoseek and Disney, and Snap and NBS, Yahoo!... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Organizational Structure; Industry Structures; Internet and the Web; Risk Management; Technological Innovation; Business or Company Management; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry

April 2011
Case

Online Portals: Searching and Shaping Opportunities

The case illustrates the strategic history of the internet portal business. View Details

Keywords: Business History; Opportunities; Strategy; Internet and the Web; Web Services Industry

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January 2014
Case

Social Strategy at Cisco Systems

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, Daniel Malter and Aaron Smith

In April 2013, Jeanne Beliveau-Dunn, vice president and general manager for Learning@Cisco Systems, was planning the future of the Cisco Learning Network, an online platform hosted at Cisco.com. Since its launch in 2008, the Cisco Learning Network provided content to... View Details

Keywords: Networks; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Competency and Skills; Learning; Web Services Industry

December 2001
Case

Cisco China

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Guoqing Chen and David Kiron

Designed to show how Cisco has taken its U.S.-based infrastructure and applied it to China. It is stunning in its impact as one notes how so much of what is being done in the United States in terms of the intranet has been transferred to China. View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Web Services Industry; Web Services Industry; China; United States

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

April 1999
Article

Software Development Strategy for the Internet Age: Lessons from Netscape's Cross-platform Development Strategy

By: M. A. Cusumano and D. B. Yoffie

Keywords: Applications and Software; Research and Development; Strategy; Internet and the Web; Learning; Web Services Industry

Find at Harvard

01 Sep 2007
News

Faculty Research Online

HBS Working Knowledge is an online forum for innovation in business practice, offering a first look at new thinking from HBS faculty. Read the complete articles summarized below by visiting their Web links. Behavioral Finance — Benefiting... View Details

Keywords: Educational Services; Educational Services

May 2015
Case

Venture Republic, 2011

By: W. Carl Kester and Mayuka Yamazaki

In December 2011, the founders of Venture Republic, a Japanese developer and operator of on-line search engines for shopping and travel, faced a decison about whether or not to take the company private in a management buyout transaction just three years after an... View Details

Keywords: Management Buyout; MBO; Valuation Methodologies; Financing Decisions; Conflicts Of Interest; Governance; Japan; Search Engines; Going Private; Conflict of Interests; Internet and the Web; Valuation; Privatization; Financing and Loans; Corporate Governance; Web Services Industry; Japan

March 2011 (Revised September 2011)
Background Note

Everyone and Everything is Online

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Nancy Bartlett

The twenty-first century digital world enabled mobile, empowered, content-hungry individuals to capture the value of enabling technologies and applications to manage, create, share, and influence content across the creation and delivery spectrum. Users were online in... View Details

Keywords: Communication Technology; Learning; Entertainment; Power and Influence; Internet and the Web; Value; Web Services Industry