Publications

Web

Strategy & IT - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

resource planning. See below for “How Information Gives You Competitive Advantage.” The rise of the internet unleashed the second wave of IT-driven transformation in the 1980s and 1990s. The internet enabled... View Details

09 Jan 2020
Book

Rethinking Business Strategy in the Age of AI

cybersecurity threats. During the past 10 years, Iansiti and Lakhani have researched AI’s impact on businesses and have helped several companies transform their strategies, including internet pioneers like Amazon, Microsoft, Mozilla, and... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

07 Mar 2022
Research & Ideas

Effective Leaders Share the Spotlight with Their Teams

returns than firms with less inclusive leaders, the researchers say, providing “economically meaningful evidence that investors value inclusive CEOs.” When a company exchanged a less inclusive CEO for one who brings others into... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

2018
Working Paper

Need for Speed: The Impact of Website Performance on Online Retail

By: Santiago Gallino, Nil Karacaoglu and Antonio Moreno

The share of e-commerce sales is rapidly increasing and so are the associated losses generated by website outages and slow websites. We leverage novel retail and website performance data to investigate the impact of website performance on online sales. This question is... View Details

Keywords: Online Retail; Quasi-experiments; Abandonment; Synthetic Control; Internet and the Web; Performance; Service Operations

SSRN

04 Jun 2001
What Do You Think?

What’s the Future of the Subscription Model?

Richard Feder maintains that the subscription model will gain momentum on the Internet as the memory of free service fades and the utility of new service increases. The response gives hope for those hoping to utilize the subscription... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

09 Mar 2003
Research & Ideas

Six Keys to Building New Markets by Unleashing Disruptive Innovation

profitable market provided the motivation to solve the technological hurdles preventing them from producing higher-quality steel. The integrated mills were happy to leave these markets because the lower tiers in their product mix were... View Details

Keywords: by Clayton M. Christensen, Michael E. Raynor & Scott D. Anthony

June 1998 (Revised August 2000)
Case

Microsoft CarPoint

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport

CarPoint.com was Microsoft's Web-based entry into on-line automobile retailing. While it could not, in fact, "sell" or deliver any cars, it could shift much of consumer search, comparison, and decision-making, including pricing, the traditional car dealer to the Web.... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Service Operations; Market Entry and Exit; Consumer Behavior; Auto Industry; Retail Industry

21 May 2024
News

A New Chapter

Joe Wolf (MBA 1999), cofounder and co-CEO of Imagine Worldwide, wants to provide educational opportunity where it is needed most. “In the next 30 years, half of the world’s youth will be sub-Saharan African,” says Wolf. “Right now, the... View Details

Keywords: Catherine O’Neill Grace; photo by Cayce Clifford

04 Mar 2019
What Do You Think?

What’s the Antidote to Surveillance Capitalism?

provided by us willingly.” George Yurieff put it this way: “If you are concerned about your privacy and want to somehow protect yourself to some extent, start paying for services which you want to use stop posting (send directly to your... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Advertising; Consumer Products

22 Aug 2022
Research & Ideas

Can Amazon Remake Health Care?

At a time when health care providers have gone all in on telemedicine, Amazon, the world’s biggest online retailer, surprised Wall Street in late July when it announced it would acquire 1Life Healthcare Inc., which runs the... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette; Health

19 Apr 2004
Research & Ideas

Birth of the American Salesman

provided political and religious groups with a way to compete against their rivals for followers. Moreover, with more fluid class boundaries than in European countries, the skills of salesmanship, especially beginning in the late... View Details

Keywords: by Laura Linard

October 2004 (Revised November 2004)
Case

Mavens & Moguls: Creating a New Business Model

By: Myra M. Hart, Victoria Winston and Kristin Lieb

Mavens & Moguls is a "virtual" marketing-consulting firm of approximately 40 professionals. Examines the processes by which its founder, Paige Arnof-Fenn, learns the business, builds a power network of industry experts and potential customers, and uses this expertise... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Values and Beliefs; Work-Life Balance; Organizational Structure; Organizational Culture; Operations; Networks; Business Model; Growth Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Consulting Industry

June 2025
Case

TagHive: Edtech Pricing and Distributor Decisions

By: Isamar Troncoso, Frank V. Cespedes and Stacy Straaberg

Education technology (edtech) company TagHive, founded in 2017, used a direct sales team and third-party distributors to sell its Class Saathi hardware and software solution to 300 clients, mainly primary and secondary schools in India. The product aimed to improve... View Details

23 Mar 2022
Blog Post

Learning Curve: The Brother-and-Sister Team Behind a New Edtech Nonprofit

children and parents alike. “Our interests really aligned on early childhood education,” Mahajan says. Recognizing that more than 50 percent of Indians have smartphones—and that mobile internet penetration is high, even among low-income... View Details

November 2016 (Revised December 2016)
Case

Anthology: Pivoting the Business Model

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Christopher Payton

In July 2014, after 18 months and eight unsuccessful product launches, the CEO of Yabbly has agreed to sell his company to a larger, well-funded startup, providing a return of capital for his investors and a home for his team. Two weeks prior to the scheduled closing,... View Details

Keywords: Mergers ＆ Acquisitions; Business Model; Business Plan; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Innovation Strategy; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Internet and the Web; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Exit or Shutdown; Fairness; Valuation; Technology Industry; Consumer Products Industry; North America; United States; Seattle

November 1997 (Revised May 2002)
Case

MicroAge, Inc.: Orchestrating the Information Technology Value Chain

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Kirk A. Goldman

MicroAge, Inc. started as a storefront in Tempe, AZ in 1976 selling personal computer kits to hobbyists. During their first year of operation, founders Jeff McKeever and Alan Hald sold $1.5 million worth of computer kits, priced at under $1,000 each. Twenty years... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Growth Management; Risk Management; Product; Opportunities; Horizontal Integration; Information Infrastructure; Information Technology; Internet and the Web; Technology Industry; Arizona