Publications

Antonio (Toni) Moreno is the Sicupira Family Associate Professor in the Technology and Operations Management Unit. He teaches courses related to technology and operations management in the MBA, executive, and doctoral programs. Before joining HBS, he was an... View Details

Keywords: retailing; internet; e-commerce industry

Henry W. McGee

Henry McGee joined the HBS faculty in 2013 after retiring as President of HBO Home Entertainment, the digital and DVD program distribution division of Home Box Office, the pioneering premium television company. A member of the Entrepreneurial Management Unit,... View Details

Keywords: media; media; media; media; media; media; media; media; media; media; media; media

November 2019 (Revised April 2020)
Case

Purple Innovation, Inc.: The Online to Offline Marketing Challenge

By: Elie Ofek and Nakisha Williams

This case focuses on Purple Innovation Inc. (Purple), a company that started out in the Direct to Consumer (DTC) mattress space. In late 2018, after a successful launch and IPO with sales predominantly originating from its website, Purple was looking to sustain its... View Details

Keywords: Offline Sales; Marketing Strategy; Digital Marketing; Growth and Development Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Retail Industry

29 Nov 2022
Research & Ideas

Is There a Method to Musk’s Madness on Twitter?

Prior to the acquisition, Twitter as a company was much weaker than most people realize. They’ve struggled with profitability for many years, and they’ve been quite slow at innovating on new features and growth opportunities. By doing this deal and having the View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette; Technology

Elie Ofek

Elie Ofek is a Professor in the Marketing unit at the Harvard Business School. Professor Ofek's research focuses on new product strategies in technology-driven business environments as well as in consumer-oriented companies in general. He explores interactions... View Details

Keywords: media; media; media; media

November 2018 (Revised August 2020)
Case

The Reinvention of Kodak

By: Ryan Raffaelli and Christine Snively

The Eastman Kodak Company (Kodak) was a name familiar to most Americans. The company had dominated the film and photography industry through most of the 20th Century and was known for making affordable cameras (and the “Kodak Moment”) and supplying the movie industry... View Details

Keywords: CEO; Leadership; Asset Management; Transformation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Competitive Strategy

November 2017
Teaching Note

Facebook Fake News in the Post-Truth World

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

Teaching Note for HBS No. 717-473. In January 2017, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, was surrounded by controversy. The election of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States in November 2016 had triggered a national storm of protests, and... View Details

October 2004
Case

World Wide Licenses Ltd.: From Disney to Polaroid

World Wide Licenses (WWL) was a low-technology firm that licensed famous brands, which it then applied to timepieces, stationery, and back-to-school products. It transformed into a digital imaging company and landed worldwide rights to the Polaroid brand name. Explores... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership Development; Brands and Branding; Technology Adoption; Technological Innovation; Transformation

Find at Harvard

10 Oct 2023
Research & Ideas

In Empowering Black Voters, Did a Landmark Law Stir White Angst?

the Voting Rights Act, we see that areas where the effects of the law were stronger displayed more negative racial attitudes.” The 1965 passage of the Voting Rights Act, a federal law that cracked down on... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

August 2015
Case

Building an e-Commerce Brand at Wayfair

By: Thales Teixeira and Elizabeth Anne Watkins

Wayfair, Inc. comprised five home goods, furniture, and décor e-commerce brands. Wayfair.com, the main brand, which was responsible for the majority of sales, targeted the mass-middle home-goods market. AllModern, DwellStudio, Joss & Main, and Birch Lane were niche... View Details

November 2016 (Revised May 2017)
Case

The Black List

By: Henry McGee and Sarah McAra

Franklin Leonard founded The Black List in 2005 as an innovative approach to identifying potential hit movie scripts via crowdsourcing. As the annual Black List proved to hold the scripts of some of Hollywood’s most successful films, from “Slumdog Millionaire” to... View Details

Keywords: Screenwriting; Independent Production; Hollywood; Film Development; Film Distribution; Film Financing; Manging Uncertainty; Barriers To Entry; Globalization; Digitalization; Film Entertainment; Entrepreneurship; Marketing; Media; Strategy; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; United States

Feng Zhu is the MBA Class of 1958 Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, where he leads the Platform Lab within the Digital, Data, and Design Institute, co-chairs the Harvard Business Analytics Program, and serves as the course head for the... View Details

20 Oct 2020
News

Rethinking the On-Demand Workforce

29 Nov 2010
HBS Case

United Breaks Guitars

Tweets are in the air we breathe. Most of us know that "friend" can also be a verb. Social media are part of the public discourse now, whether or not we're active users of them. A new case coauthored by HBS marketing professor... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

Career Coach

Jim Warner

Television Network. He joined Avenue A, a pioneering digital media start-up, in 2000 and led the company’s East coast operations through the ups and downs and ups of the decade. Avenue A acquired Razorfish... View Details

Keywords: Entertainment / Media; Entertainment / Media; Entertainment / Media

October 2010 (Revised January 2012)
Background Note

Book Publishing in 2010

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Nancy Bartlett

Legacy book publishers wrangled with ebook retailers over royalty rates, release strategy, and distribution rights as customer demand for cheaper ebooks eroded publishers' profitable print formats. E-readers like Kindle, as well as Apple's iPad that invigorated the... View Details

Keywords: Price; Information Publishing; Books; Disruptive Innovation; Demand and Consumers; Distribution; Strategy; Information Technology; Internet and the Web; Publishing Industry

“Thales Teixeira brings a brilliant and incisive intellect—blending fundamental insights with practical guidance—to the urgent question of digital transformation. In the book, he gives us a roadmap for winning the right customers, and for keeping them, amidst... View Details

December 2018
Case

Formula E Championship Racing (A)

By: Robert F. Higgins and James Weber

Formula E founder and CEO Alejandro Agag obtained the rights to develop a new electric car racing series from the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Agag needed to develop the series from scratch—developing a race car and finding teams willing to race,... View Details

Keywords: Electric Car Racing; Entrepreneurship; Global Range; Strategy