Publications

Jorge Tamayo is an assistant professor of business administration in the Strategy Unit. He teaches the Strategy course in the MBA required curriculum.

Professor Tamayo is an applied microeconomist primarily interested in industrial organization and... View Details

November 2010 (Revised December 2012)
Case

ABB: 'In China, for China'

By: J. Gunnar Trumbull, Elena Corsi and Elisa Farri

ABB, a power and automation Swiss engineering company had to decide if they wanted to be even more integrated into the Chinese economy, ABB's biggest market, or if they should instead increase their presence in other emerging markets such as India and Brazil. View Details

Keywords: History; Multinational Firms and Management; Engineering; Problems and Challenges; Competitive Strategy; Emerging Markets; Global Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Industrial Products Industry; China; India; Brazil

March 1987 (Revised April 1987)
Background Note

Specialties vs. Commodities: The Battle for Profit Margins

By: Benson P. Shapiro

Explains the differences between commodities and specialties and defines four different types of specialty products. The analysis is customer oriented. Special attention is given to the distinctions between functions (product- ) and relationship (vendor-oriented)... View Details

Keywords: Goods and Commodities

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Aticus Peterson (apeterson@hbs.edu) is a PhD candidate in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School. His research focuses on how entrepreneurs and investors can... View Details

April 2010 (Revised July 2014)
Case

Apple Inc. in 2010

By: David B. Yoffie and Renee Kim

On April 4, 2010, Apple Inc. launched the iPad, the company's third major innovation released over the last decade under its iconic CEO Steve Jobs. Apple's strategy of shifting its business into non-PC products had thrived so far, driven by the smashing success of the... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Computer Industry; Electronics Industry

Joshua Coval, Professor of Business Administration in the Finance Area, joined HBS in July 2001. Prior to joining HBS, Joshua was an Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Michigan Business School where he was on the faculty since 1996.... View Details

February 2022 (Revised March 2022)
Case

MicroStrategy's Investment in Bitcoin

By: C. Fritz Foley

At the end of the second quarter of 2020, MicroStrategy, a Virginia based provider of analytics software and services, announced plans to acquire and hold bitcoin as a part of the firm’s treasury reserve policy and corporate strategy. Within a year, the firm purchased... View Details

Keywords: Bitcoin; Corporate Strategy; Acquisition; Investment Portfolio; Capital Structure; Equity

March 1994
Case

Materials Technology Corp.

By: Clayton M. Christensen

Materials Technology Corp. (MTC) is an MIT-based start-up company that identified an initial product market for its advanced materials-processing technology using conventional market research techniques. While pursuing that market--advanced microelectronic... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Technology; Markets; Product Development; Innovation and Management; Electronics Industry; Computer Industry; United States

May 2016 (Revised March 2020)
Case

Fasten: Challenging Uber and Lyft with a New Business Model

By: Feng Zhu and Angela Acocella

Fasten, a new ridesharing start-up in Boston, entered the scene in September 2015 hoping its unique vision of transparency for both driver and passenger and strategy to keep riders' fares low and charge drivers a flat $0.99 fee per ride as opposed to the 20-30%... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Transportation; Business Startups; Business Model; Transportation Industry; Boston

July 2022
Case

boAt Lifestyle

By: Rajiv Lal and Kairavi Dey

boAt began as a lifestyle brand in the consumer electronics category in 2016 with the aim of bringing affordable, durable, and fashionable audio products and accessories to millennials and Gen-Z customers in India. Born in 2016 with Amazon India as its only sales... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Brands and Branding; Initial Public Offering; Digital Marketing; Product Development; Product Marketing; Business or Company Management; Electronics Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Web Services Industry; Asia; India

August 2020 (Revised November 2020)
Case

Gogoro: From Electric Scooter to Energy Platform

By: Tarun Khanna and Billy Chan

The founder of Gogoro had always wanted to revolutionize the energy market from day one since he started the electric scooter business that featured an innovative battery swapping technology. Over the course of five years, he had developed a premium line of electric... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Information Technology; Energy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategy; Taiwan

2019
Chapter

Network Effects

By: Andrei Hagiu and David B. Yoffie

Network effects are a key economic and strategic phenomenon in 'new economy' industries. They can, but do not necessarily, lead to market tipping, unless they outweigh customers' benefits from differentiation and are accompanied by high switching and multi-homing... View Details

Keywords: Network Effects

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24 May 2021
News

White Airbnb Hosts Earn More. Can AI Shrink the Racial Gap?

25 Oct 2023
News

Behind the Research: Tomomichi Amano

March 2011 (Revised April 2011)
Case

State Bank of India: Transforming a State Owned Giant

By: Rajiv Lal and Rachna Tahilyani

February 2011: O.P. Bhatt reflected contentedly on his five-year term as Chairman of State Bank of India (SBI), India's largest commercial bank. He had led SBI on a journey of transformation from an old, hierarchical, transaction oriented, government bank to a modern,... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Customer Relationship Management; Commercial Banking; Leading Change; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Banking Industry; India

07 Jun 2016
Op-Ed

Can Brand Trump Win a Presidency?

lifestyle, these other products can add brand value and, being produced by others under license, they deliver some extra profit to the Trump organization. "In the world of representative democracy, you have to be the market share... View Details

Keywords: by John A. Quelch; Advertising; Media & Broadcasting

June 2018 (Revised October 2020)
Case

Global Brand Management of Anheuser Busch InBev's Budweiser

By: Jill Avery

Brian Perkins, chief architect of the $6 billion Budweiser brand, was excited about 2018, in which the company would launch Budweiser into several new markets in Africa and Latin America. He was feeling the pressure to finalize a global brand strategy that would define... View Details

Joseph Pacelli is the Gerald Schuster Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Accounting and Management Unit. He currently teaches Business Analysis and Valuation (BAV) in the MBA elective curriculum.

Professor Pacelli’s research covers topics... View Details

September 2010 (Revised September 2013)
Case

Accounting for the iPhone at Apple Inc.

By: Francois Brochet, Krishna G. Palepu and Lauren Barley

Apple initially recognized revenue associated with its iPhone product using subscription accounting. However, in 2008, the company started providing non-GAAP supplemental numbers where substantially all of the revenue was recognized upfront. Market participants'... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Disclosure; Revenue Recognition; Standards; Technology Industry; United States