Publications

October 2011 (Revised February 2012)
Case

One Game to Rule Them All: Lord of the Rings Online and the MMO Market

Keywords: Competition; Strategy; Business Model; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Video Game Industry

March 2011 (Revised March 2014)
Teaching Note

IP Intermediaries & Intellectual Ventures

By: Andrei Hagiu

Teaching Note for 710423 and 711486. View Details

Keywords: Intellectual Property; Business Model; Innovation and Invention; Revenue; Sales

March 2011 (Revised March 2014)
Teaching Note

Intellectual Ventures

By: Andrei Hagiu

Teaching Note for 710423. View Details

Keywords: Patents; Business Model; Innovation and Invention; Revenue

25 Jul 2012
News

Movie Magic

swipe of a credit card. “Automated retail sounds better,” suggests Gregg Kaplan (MBA 1997). Recruited by McDonald’s to help start new businesses within the fast-food giant, in 2002 Kaplan oversaw the installation of six kiosks in... View Details

Keywords: vending machines; Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries; Arts, Entertainment; General Merchandise Stores; Retail Trade

01 Jun 2022
News

Empowering Entrepreneurially Minded Students

and even a required course, The Entrepreneurial Manager? William Kerr is the Dimitri V. D’Arbeloff-MBA Class of 1955 Professor of Business Administration, unit head of Entrepreneurial Management, co-director of HBS’s Managing the Future... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Gillespie

February 2004
Case

Aspire Public Schools

Set in the fall of 2003, covers managerial challenges facing the CEO and COO of Aspire Public Schools, a nonprofit charter school management company. In operation since 1999 and funded by prominent national foundations and venture philanthropies, Aspire operates 10... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business or Company Management; Expansion; Social Entrepreneurship; Education; Education Industry; California

August 2022
Exercise

Joy4Home Brands: Pricing Matters

By: Elie Ofek, Oded Koenigsberg and Marco Bertini

Joy4Home Brands, the maker of novel houseware items, was gearing up for its launch. The company would be introducing two lines: kitchenware products and storage containers. The initial go-to-market plan called for a direct to consumer (DTC) channel strategy. While... View Details

Keywords: DTC; Pricing Decisions; B2B; Product Marketing; Product Launch; Marketing Strategy; Business Model; Opportunities; Consumer Products Industry

February 2000 (Revised October 2000)
Case

CarPoint in 1999

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Gillian Morris

Updates events in Microsoft CarPoint through the end of 1999, focusing on CarPoint's strategic alliance with Ford and on competitive developments. View Details

Keywords: History; Business Model; Transportation Networks; Alliances; Emerging Markets; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Auto Industry

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

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

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

January 2002
Case

Teledesic

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Daniel J. Green and Douglas R Rogers

Management of a satellite-delivered broadband data communications company sets strategy in an uncertain environment, using Michael Porter's scenario planning tools to assess likely outcomes and determine which actions to take. This case draws a distinction between... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business or Company Management; Infrastructure; Strategic Planning; Risk and Uncertainty; Strategy; Internet; Information Technology Industry

Find at Harvard

02 Mar 2023
News

Carbon's Second Act

market which is expected over the next 20 or 30 years. DM: And that business opportunity is vital, believes Brix. TB: Because if you don't have an economically sustainable business model, the environmentally... View Details

March 2009
Teaching Note

Publicis Groupe 2009: Toward a Digital Transformation (TN)

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Matthew Bird

Teaching Note for [309085]. View Details

Keywords: Transition; Mergers and Acquisitions; Problems and Challenges; Globalization; Expansion; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business Model; Advertising Industry