Publications

July 2022 (Revised February 2024)
Teaching Note

The DivaCup: Navigating Distribution and Growth

By: Ayelet Israeli

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 519-055. When the mother-daughter founders of DivaCup set out with a mission to disrupt the menstrual care industry with an innovative product form, they initially struggled to gain legitimacy and convince retailers to carry their unique... View Details

March 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

The DivaCup: Navigating Distribution and Growth

By: Ayelet Israeli

When the mother-daughter founders of DivaCup set out with a mission to disrupt the menstrual care industry with an innovative product form, they initially struggled to gain legitimacy and convince retailers to carry their unique product. Fifteen years later, the... View Details

May 2015
Case

Pricing in a Digital World (2015)

By: John Gourville

Dynamic pricing, especially as practiced by Uber and Lift, seems to be all the rage. In this case, we look at five interesting applications of dynamic price and price customization, each made possible by advances in digital technology. These range from the online... View Details

Keywords: Pricing; Marketing; Dynamic Pricing; Price Customization; Information Technology; Price; Entrepreneurship; Customization and Personalization; Product Marketing

March 2016
Article

To Groupon or Not to Groupon: The Profitability of Deep Discounts

By: Benjamin Edelman, Sonia Jaffe and Scott Duke Kominers

We examine the profitability and implications of online discount vouchers, a relatively new marketing tool that offers consumers large discounts when they prepay for participating firms' goods and services. Within a model of repeat experience good purchase, we examine... View Details

Keywords: Voucher Discounts; Groupon; Experience Goods; Repeat Purchase; Internet and the Web; Marketing Strategy; Marketing Communications

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March 2009
Teaching Note

Upgrading the Economy: Industrial Policy and Taiwan's Semiconductor Industry (TN)

By: Willy C. Shih

Teaching Note for [609089]. View Details

Keywords: Design; Policy; Globalization; Research and Development; Information Technology; Commercialization; Semiconductor Industry; Taiwan

June 2001
Case

Competitive Dynamics in Home Video Games (E): The Rise of 3DO and 32-bit Gaming

Describes the launch of the innovative home video game company, 3DO, which had developed a groundbreaking system featuring 32-bit processing and CD-ROM software. Examines the competitive dynamics in the home video game industry from 1970 into the new millennium. View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Competition; Product Launch; Video Game Industry

October 1984 (Revised May 1990)
Case

NIKE (A)

Describes the history of Nike, its economic strategy, and the industries in which it competes. The teaching objective is to ask the student to identify and evaluate Nike's economic/technical strategy. View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Business History; Supply and Industry; Financial Strategy; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Sports Industry

18 Oct 2011
First Look

First Look: October 18

characteristics of the waste-to-energy operation, the market characteristics for waste disposal and energy, and the mechanisms regulators use to encourage production of renewable energy, we determine the profit-maximizing operating View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

29 May 2006
Research & Ideas

Why CEOs Are Not Plug-and-Play

competitive, and yet Fresco's attention was diverted by investments in technology and Web presence, as well as by acquisitions meant to diversify the company's portfolio. After the carmaker slid into a protracted liquidity crisis, Fresco... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg, Andrew N. McLean & Nitin Nohria; Employment

September 2012
Supplement

Intraoperative Radiotherapy for Breast Cancer (B)

By: Willy Shih

The intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) business at Carl Zeiss Meditec had struggled with growth since the time of the (A) case. Though the unit had grown revenues in excess of 50% and had exceeded its EBIT target, it faced several key strategic choices. Should it... View Details

Keywords: Radiotherapy; Breast Cancer; Brachytherapy; Therapeutic Radiation; Oncology; Oncology Treatment Systems; Elekta AB; Varian Medical Systems; Xoft; Electronic Brachytherapy; Intraoperative Radiotherapy; Disruptive Innovation; Health Care and Treatment; Entrepreneurship; Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Health Industry; Germany

27 Jul 2011
Research & Ideas

Customer Loyalty Programs That Work

crowd. Technology is also a helpful factor in rewards programs, representing a vast improvement over an old, markedly creepier, and now mostly illegal strategy: dispatching an employee to the parking lot to write down license plate... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish; Retail

March 2000
Exercise

Developing Products on Internet Time: A Process Design Exercise

By: Stefan H. Thomke

This team exercise allows students to experience some of the dynamics of developing products in the fast-paced Internet environment and was inspired by the browser war between Netscape and Microsoft. Designed to be taught in a single class session, the exercise... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Internet and the Web; Problems and Challenges; Risk and Uncertainty; Design; Decisions; Management Practices and Processes; Integration; Organizations; Competition

January 1996
Case

Biogen, Inc.: rBeta Interferon Manufacturing Process Development

By: Steven C. Wheelwright

Biogen, Inc., a Cambridge, MA-based biotechnology company, is wrapping up a project to develop a new manufacturing process for a new drug product that will reposition the company from a purely research-oriented company to a fully integrated pharmaceutical manufacturing... View Details

Keywords: Learning; Technological Innovation; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Product Development; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Projects; Research and Development; Corporate Strategy; Biotechnology Industry

August 2014 (Revised March 2015)
Case

Optimization and Expansion at OpenTable

By: Benjamin Edelman and Karen Webster

OpenTable considers adjustments to increase its benefits to merchants, including a novel payments service that lets customers skip the multi-step process of using a credit card. View Details

Keywords: Payments; Pricing; Mobile; Rollout; Incrementality; Innovation Strategy; Credit Cards; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States

October 2004 (Revised May 2006)
Case

Transforming Singapore's Public Libraries (Abridged)

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Roger H. Hallowell

The Singapore Public Library system was transformed from being mediocre at best to world class using information technology, progressive human-resources management, and marketing approaches unusual for government agencies. View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Service Delivery; Marketing Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Human Resources; Information Technology; Nonprofit Organizations; Public Administration Industry; Singapore