Publications

June 2016
Supplement

Duff & Phelps: Scaling an Entrepreneurial Venture (B)

By: Lynda M. Applegate and David Lane

In September 2005, Duff & Phelps closed on a deal to acquire a much larger firm that quadrupled its size to 500 employees. Almost immediately, the company faced challenging integration issues. Gottdiener and Silverman realize that they must now turn away from the... View Details

Keywords: Duff ＆ Phelps; Entrepreneurial Management; Mergers ＆ Acquisitions; Entrepreneurial Financing; Entrepreneurship; Mergers and Acquisitions; Integration; Business Model; Organizational Structure; Management

01 Dec 2018
News

Ready, Set, Launch

learning-bydoing approach to build skills required to succeed as an early stage entrepreneur. Topics include problem and solution finding, business model design and validation, marketing and sales, and seed... View Details

08 May 2015
News

Ubiquitous digital connectivity is now essential to competitiveness

rethink their business models to identify new opportunities for creating and capturing value. The fundamental properties of digital technology (exact replication infinite times at zero marginal costs), along... View Details

May 2018
Case

Environmental Platform LEEDership at USGBC

By: Michael W. Toffel, Timothy S. Simcoe and Aldo Sesia

By 2018, it was clear that U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) had significantly contributed to the growth of green building and over its 25-year history had become a powerful brand in the construction sector with its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Standards; Business Model; Leadership; Problems and Challenges; Construction Industry; Green Technology Industry

January 2010 (Revised March 2013)
Teaching Note

Western Union: Our World, Our Family® (TN)

By: Christopher Marquis and Bobbi Thomason

Teaching Note for [410050]. View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Financial Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Diversity; Financial Services Industry

February 2000 (Revised December 2000)
Case

Staples.com

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Joanna M. Jacobson and Gillian Morris

Staples.com, the online unit of the U.S. office supplies retailing chain Staples, faces a range of strategic and organizational issues as it accelerates its growth. Should it pursue only existing Staples customers or consumers who do not shop in Staples stores? How... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain; Business Units; Business Model; Growth and Development; Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Business Strategy; Service Industry; United States

Keywords: Keith Larson; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training

01 Sep 2007
News

Last Look - September 2007

Our thanks to MBA 1976 classmates John Adams, Dottie Stephenson (both Section C), Sam Yates (Section D), and many others who provided details about this model rocket launch in Harvard Stadium. Yates wrote: “We had a first-year Marketing... View Details

01 Sep 2011
News

Charged Up

each faces a distinct set of business and strategy challenges. In the case “A123 Systems,” HBS professor Richard Vietor presents the issues confronting a manufacturer of the complex, evolving technology of lithium-ion batteries. Based in... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; batteries; Electrical Equipment, Appliance, and Component Manufacturing; Manufacturing

01 Sep 2008
News

Reality to News Biz: Drop Dead

media analyst with Bernstein Research. “A high-cost business model like journalism can’t compete with ‘free.’ ” Blogospheric musing might well thrive in the interim, but only as long as it can crib from a... View Details

Keywords: Roben Farzad; journalism; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

01 Dec 2014
News

Ask the Expert: A Fair Share

learn how to support these sorts of shared business models? If you were the CEO of an insurance company, how would you address the conflicts between this model (splitting ownership and usage) and the... View Details

September 2011 (Revised August 2015)
Case

ScoreBig

By: William A. Sahlman, Jeffrey Glass and Evan W. Richardson

The founding team at ScoreBig, an event ticketing company, is on the verge of a public launch of their product. The company has made great progress in negotiating access to tickets, designing its interface, and building a proprietary architecture. For consumers,... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Business Startups; Business Strategy; Corporate Finance; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

July 2001
Teaching Note

Virtualis Systems (A) TN

By: Michael J. Roberts

Teaching Note for (9-800-003). View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Business Model; Financing and Loans; Entrepreneurship; Mergers and Acquisitions

August 2007
Case

Manila Water Company

By: V. Kasturi Rangan, David Wheeler and Jane Comeault

In 1997, the Philippines government privatized its water utility in the metropolitan Manila area. The East Zone concession was won by Manila Water Company and the West Zone concession by Maynilad Water Services. Over the next decade, Manila Water turned in an... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Framework; Business or Company Management; Bids and Bidding; Privatization; Performance Improvement; Utilities Industry

September 2009 (Revised August 2011)
Case

Root Capital

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Katharine Lee

Founded in 1999, Root Capital had loaned $150 million to nearly 250 small and growing businesses, mainly in Latin America. In 2009, as the organization launched a five-year, $55 million capital campaign, it had to determine a strategic path going forward in keeping... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Social Entrepreneurship; Capital; Financing and Loans; Growth and Development Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Latin America

Keywords: Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training

01 Jun 2008
News

Faculty Books

The Oxford Handbook of Business History edited by Geoffrey Jones and Jonathan Zeitlin (Oxford University Press) This handbook surveys research in business history, a broad area of study generating empirical... View Details

May 2017
Supplement

Betfair (C)

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, John Heilbron and Neil Campbell

Prompted by a takeover bid from CVC, Betfair reassesses the strengths and weaknesses of the exchange model. View Details

Keywords: Betfair; Exchange; Betting; Betting Markets; Diversification; Market Design; Business Model; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Europe

May 2024
Case

Net Protections (A)

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Nobuo Sato and Akiko Kanno

In Case A, set in early 2017, Net Protections (NP) is the largest Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) fintech service in Japan and is experiencing a slowdown in growth of its core product, NP Atobarai. Launched in 2002 as non-membership service, the NP Atobarai product has given... View Details

Keywords: Product Positioning; Demand and Consumers; E-commerce; Customers; Business Model; Financial Services Industry; Japan

July 2014 (Revised December 2016)
Case

EcoMotors International

By: John D. Macomber and Hermes Alvarez

Eco-Motors, funded in part by Khosla Ventures, has to decide how to go to market with a new technology for internal combustion engines for automotive and industrial use. The OPOC engine has opposed pistons and is a two-stroke engine, as compared to a more traditional... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Business Model; Customer Value and Value Chain; Engineering; Manufacturing Industry; Green Technology Industry; Auto Industry