Publications

01 Apr 1997
News

Critical Information: MIS Monitors the Ever-Changing World of IT

The following article is the ninth in a series on the activities and research taking place in each academic unit at HBS. The information technology (IT) industry, for which rapid change has been a constant... View Details

Keywords: Elaine Gottlieb

April 2009 (Revised May 2017)
Case

Skyhook Wireless

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Thomas R. Eisenmann

Ted Morgan, the founder of Skyhook Wireless just received a call from Steve Jobs of Apple asking for a meeting. Ted must decide how to prepare for a meeting that could finally give Skyhook an anchor customer. Ted and his team have worked for three years to build a new... View Details

Keywords: Mobile and Wireless Technology; Information Technology; Business Ventures; Business Startups; Technology Industry

October 18, 2021
Article

To Regulate Network-Based Platforms, Look at Their Data

By: Chiara Farronato and Daniel Björkegren

Historically, antitrust authorities have taken a laissez-faire approach under the assumption that it is better to err on the side of not intervening when there is uncertainty. This has allowed companies like Google and Facebook to go on a shopping spree to acquire... View Details

Keywords: Antitrust Issues And Policies; Risk and Uncertainty; Digital Platforms; Competitive Advantage; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Innovation and Invention; Information Technology Industry

Read Now

01 Jun 2010
News

Health IT at the Bedside

Sachin H. Jain (MBA ’07, MD ’08,) is a special assistant to the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology in the Obama administration.Â He was previously a resident physician at Boston’s Brigham... View Details

Keywords: Sachin H. Jain; Information; Information; Information; Information

October 2011 (Revised October 2013)
Case

Ensighten

By: Lena G. Goldberg and Michael J. Roberts

Focuses on a small start-up software company engaged in a negotiation over its software licensing agreement with a very large potential client. The entrepreneur must weight legal and business issues vs. his desire to land the key customer. View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Business Plan; Business Startups; Agreements and Arrangements; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Contracts; Information Technology Industry

September – October 2009
Article

Critical Decisions in Software Development: Updating the State of the Practice

By: Alan MacCormack, Michael A. Cusumano, Chris Kemerer and Bill Crandall

This article focuses on how to choose the "right" software development process, how to structure global software design chains, how to manage the interaction of project structure and software design, and how to balance innovation and efficiency in a software business. View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Product Development; Projects; Innovation and Management; Performance Efficiency; Information Technology Industry

Read Now

01 Sep 2003
News

Alumni Bookshelf

Authentic Leadership by William W. (“Bill”) George (MBA ’66) (Jossey-Bass) Drawing from a decade of experience as CEO and chairman of medical technology company Medtronic, George analyzes the causes of the current crisis in corporate... View Details

Keywords: Information; Information

September 2013
Case

PadFone vs. FonePad

By: Willy Shih and Sen Chai

To Jonney Shih, Chairman of ASUSTek Computer, the introduction of Apple's iPad made clear the need to transition his company to a new cloud-computing era. But the company's roots in the manufacture of Windows-powered desktop and notebook PCs bounded the creativity of... View Details

March 1999 (Revised May 1999)
Case

Network Associates: Securing the Internet

By: Debora L. Spar

Follows one company's path through the uncharted terrain of government regulation and the Internet. In March 1998, Network Associates announced it would begin selling powerful encryption software from its Dutch subsidiary. Such a move looked to the U.S. government like... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States

April 2005 (Revised June 2006)
Case

Yahoo! Messenger: Network Integration

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

Describes Yahoo!'s management of the launch of version 6.0 of its Instant Messenger (IM) product, which incorporates features from 12 other Yahoo! properties, including Search, Music, Games, Photos, Personals, News, and Shopping. The integration of features from so... View Details

Keywords: Integration; Business Units; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Competitive Advantage; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States

December 2005
Case

IBM and Eclipse (A)

IBM faces a collective action problem: It open sourced its $40 million application platform and has to convince other companies to contribute. Explores the events leading up to IBM's decision to make the Eclipse platform available as an Open Source project. In 1998,... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Open Source Distribution; Cooperation; Adoption; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry

28 Jan 2002
Research & Ideas

Read All About It! Newspapers Lose Web War

technology on the newspaper business with HBS Working Knowledge editor Sean Silverthorne in this e-mail interview. An article based on Gilbert's doctoral research in this area received the Robert Litschert Best Doctoral Student Paper... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Information; Information; Information

July 2009
Teaching Note

Microsoft's Search (TN)

By: Jan W. Rivkin and Eric J. Van den Steen

Teaching Note for [709461]. View Details

Keywords: Competition; Digital Marketing; Internet and the Web; Strategy; Markets; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry

01 Jun 2008
News

Where Are They Now?

Christian University, he was not only TCU’s first African American basketball player but also the first in the entire Southwest Conference. In 1975, about the same time a kid named Bill Gates opened a shoestring operation called Microsoft, Cash was closing in on his... View Details

Keywords: Mary Ellen Gardner; Information; Information; Information; Information; Information

21 Jul 2003
Research & Ideas

Don’t Get Buried in Customer Data—Use It

With the advent of customer relationship management (CRM) in the late 1990s, companies came to believe that by using technology to tailor their offerings to individual consumers' needs, customer loyalty—and company profits—would... View Details

Keywords: by Jean Ayers

05 Jul 2006
Working Paper Summaries

Why IT Matters in Midsized Firms

Keywords: by Marco Iansiti, George Favaloro, James Utzschneider & Greg Richards; Technology; Technology

August 2021
Teaching Note

IBM Watson at MD Anderson Cancer Center

By: Shane Greenstein and Mel Martin

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 621-022. View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Technological Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Knowledge Management; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Operations; Failure; Information Technology; Applications and Software; Health Care and Treatment; Product Development; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States; Houston; Texas

August 1994
Case

Intuit, Inc.

By: William E. Fruhan Jr.

The merger of two computer software firms with very rapidly growing non-overlapping products makes great strategic sense, but presents difficult valuation and accounting problems. How can a firm pay $225 million to acquire another firm with negligible current earnings,... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Applications and Software; Accounting; Financial Strategy; Goodwill Accounting; Corporate Finance; Information Technology Industry; United States

July 2004 (Revised September 2004)
Case

Novell: CEO-led Turnaround and Growth Strategy

By: Richard L. Nolan and Robert D. Austin

Novell CEO Jack Messman tried to return the company to its leadership position in the software industry through a strategy that embraces Linux and other open source software. This case serves as an introduction to open source software and strategies based on open... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Value Creation; Open Source Distribution; Applications and Software; Intellectual Property; Business Strategy; Information Technology Industry