Publications

September 2003 (Revised February 2004)
Case

Electronic Arts: The Blockbuster Strategy

Describes the process that the firm employs to allocate resources to new product development projects. Examines whether the firm can sustain its competitive advantage given its existing game design process. View Details

Keywords: Resource Allocation; Competitive Advantage; Decision Making; Product Development; Video Game Industry

March 2000 (Revised February 2002)
Case

Stainless Steel Studios, Inc.

Stainless Steel Studios is the latest entrepreneurial venture of renowned computer game designer Rick Goodman. Goodman must now decide the role of customer feedback in crafting the next generation of computer games. This case addresses how operations systems can be... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Video Game Industry

January 2016
Teaching Note

Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.

By: Sunil Gupta and Margaret Rodriguez

In September 2010, Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (T2) reported an unexpectedly high third quarter profit of $5.92 million, driven largely by the success of its video game, Red Dead Redemption (which sold over 6.9 million copies since launching in May). Red Dead... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Model; Leadership Style; Marketing; Competitive Strategy; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

29 Jan 2014
Research & Ideas

Super Bowl Ads for Multitaskers

plays with which to form their overall strategy—both during the big game and afterward in the marketplace. What's In An Ad? Thales and his fellow researchers divided advertisements into four types. Here are examples of each, using actual... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Advertising; Sports

Research Summary

The Power of Paradox: Some Recent Developments in Interactive Epistemology

This survey describes a central paradox of game theory, viz. the Paradox of Backward Induction (BI). The paradox is that the BI outcome is often said to follow from basic game-theoretic principles--specifically, from the assumption that the players are rational. Yet,... View Details

April 1995
Case

Minnetonka Corporation: From Softsoap to Eternity

Minnetonka Corp. which was founded in 1964, began as a niche player in the gift soap and novelty toiletries markets. In 1980, it entered--and managed to capture a piece of--the mass bar-soap market with pump-dispensed Softsoap liquid soap. In 1984, the company took on... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Strategy; Consumer Products Industry

09 Mar 2016
Lessons from the Classroom

In This Classroom, Beer Can Improve Your Grade

simulations, but Strategic Brew stands alone in scope. All 940 first-year students play the game simultaneously as part of the required Strategy course. Roughly 40 faculty and project members manage and supervise the events. “It’s a... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Education; Food & Beverage

January 2009 (Revised January 2010)
Case

Responding to the Wii?

By: Andrei Hagiu and Hanna Halaburda

After years of gaming console industry leadership, how should Sony respond to the overwhelming success of competitor Nintendo's user-friendly Wii over Sony's high-tech PlayStation 3? It was August 2008 and Kazuo Hirai, chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment... View Details

Keywords: Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Two-Sided Platforms; Industry Structures; Competitive Strategy; Video Game Industry; Video Game Industry

September 2007
Case

Nonverbal Communication: Distinguishing Truth and Lies

By: Michael A. Wheeler

This video-based coursework illuminates the importance--and difficulty--of judging whether people are trustworthy. Students can test their skills at assessing whether contestants in a high-stakes game show will cooperate or defect. View Details

Keywords: Nonverbal Communication; Competency and Skills; Moral Sensibility; Emotions; Trust

11 Aug 2016
Cold Call Podcast

Why College Rankings Keep Deans Awake at Night

universities. Brian: Can you game the system? Is there a way to acquire the pieces that you need to elevate yourself in the rankings? Bill: Well you would know this better than me, maybe. The very sad thing that I see happening (and these... View Details

Keywords: Re: William C. Kirby; Education

December 2009 (Revised June 2011)
Case

Curt Schilling's Next Pitch

By: Noam T. Wasserman, Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Rachel Gordon

As his major-league pitching career was starting to wind down in 2006, baseball all-star Curt Schilling decided to become an entrepreneur. Looking to focus his tenacity and his passion for online role-playing games on a new challenge, he founded an online gaming... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Startups; Decision Choices and Conditions; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Leadership; Personal Development and Career; Groups and Teams; Video Game Industry

July 2008 (Revised January 2009)
Case

Londolozi: Towards a Sustainable Business Model and Ecological Integrity in Southern Africa

By: Rawi E. Abdelal and Thomas Koelble

The Londolozi game viewing reserve in South Africa became a defining icon of ecotourism during the 1990s and early 2000s-that is, a tourist business promoting ecological land management and, at the same time, local economic development. The reserve was in a region in... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Environmental Sustainability; Tourism Industry; South Africa

10 May 2018
Cold Call Podcast

'Candy Crush' Was a Blockbuster; Can King Digital Capitalize?

Keywords: Re: Jeffrey F. Rayport; Video Game; Video Game

March 2006 (Revised February 2007)
Case

Massive Incorporated (A)

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III, Clark Gilbert and Victoria Winston

How do you go to market with a brand new product in a new industry? How does a business develop an opportunity and then adapt its strategy to ensure success? Who are the early adopters and how does a business work with them? Katherine Hays, chief operating office at... View Details

Keywords: Emerging Markets; Product Launch; Digital Marketing; Business Startups; Advertising Industry

September 1998 (Revised October 1998)
Case

Adventurous Computer Games, Inc. (Abridged)

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

A new company that manufactures computer games must begin to capitalize computer software development costs. Issues that must be addressed include the effects of capitalization and decisions about how to match costs with future revenues. View Details

Keywords: Cost; Applications and Software; Accounting; Revenue

2003
Book

The Slow Pace of Fast Change: Bringing Innovations to Market in a Connected World

By: Bhaskar Chakravorti

Innovation's encounter with the market results in a game of both high risk and high stakes. Often its outcome defies common sense: Superior new products flop, unlikely ideas become runaway hits, and—despite rapid technological advances and intense... View Details

Keywords: Game Theory; Network Effects; Innovation and Invention; Product Marketing; Economics

Article

A Choice Prediction Competition for Market Entry Games: An Introduction

By: Ido Erev, Eyal Ert and Alvin E. Roth

A choice prediction competition is organized that focuses on decisions from experience in market entry games (http://sites.google.com/site/gpredcomp/ and http://www.mdpi.com/si/games/predict-behavior/). The competition is based on two experiments: An estimation... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Decision Choices and Conditions; Forecasting and Prediction; Learning; Market Entry and Exit; Game Theory; Behavior; Competition

Read Now

October 1991
Supplement

Philips' Compact Disc Introduction (B)

Updates students to 1982. Asks students to consider Philips' best strategy for investing in disc-pressing capacity dedicated to the United States market. The analysis draws on game theoretic techniques (in normal form with subgame perfection as the governing... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Competition; Game Theory; Technology Industry