Publications

SSRN

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09 Apr 2007
Research & Ideas

Industry Self-Regulation: What’s Working (and What’s Not)?

trillion hedge fund industry to police itself with voluntary standards and codes. Codes of conduct and self-regulation programs are growing in popularity, but are these initiatives just window dressing to appease critics and deter... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

November 1999 (Revised May 2001)
Case

AGENCY.COM (A): Launching an Interactive Service Agency

By: Ashish Nanda, Thomas J. DeLong and Scot H. Landry

Having recently launched one of Silicon Valley's first start-ups, cofounders Chan Suh and Kyle Shannon ponder whether their interactive consulting firm is prepared to bid for work from a very large client. View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Internet and the Web; Problems and Challenges; Business Strategy; Decision Making; Entrepreneurship; Consulting Industry; Consulting Industry

July 2025
Case

Greenwood Online: A Fin-Tech Service for Culture and Community (A)

By: James Riley and Bernal Cortés

In 2020, Ryan Glover and Paul Judge launched Greenwood, a fintech startup designed to counter systemic racial discrimination in the American banking ecosystem by offering accessible financial services tailored to Black and Brown communities, but available to all.... View Details

Keywords: Purpose; Identity; Cultural Branding; Impression Management; Organization Behavior; Strategic Alignment; Start-up; Mission and Purpose; Decisions; Marketing Strategy; Organizational Structure; Banking Industry; United States

July 2008 (Revised December 2011)
Supplement

ghSMART(-er) & Co., 2008: Pioneering in Professional Services

By: Noam T. Wasserman and Ashraf Haque

Geoff Smart, founder and CEO of ghSMART & Co., wanted to build ghSMART into the #1 management-assessment firm for CEOs and investors. However, he had just received two pieces of very bad news: the demise of an existing project and the loss of a $1 million engagement he... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Managerial Roles; Organizational Structure; Problems and Challenges; Loss; Motivation and Incentives; Service Industry

January/February 2004
Article

Cheaper, Faster, Easier: Disruption in the Service Sector

By: Clayton M. Christensen and Scott D. Anthony

Keywords: Disruption; Service Industry

Article

Build It, Buy It, or Both? Rethinking the Sourcing of Advertising Services

By: Alvin J. Silk and Marta M. Stiglin

This paper provides an update on the current state of in-house agencies. Whereas traditional consideration of internalizing advertising services was framed as a binary choice of build or buy, today's advertisers frequently pursue hybrid policies of build and buy to... View Details

Keywords: Operations; Advertising; Advertising Industry

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January 2002
Case

Intrinsix: Managing Growth at an Electronic Design Service Company

By: H. Kent Bowen and Courtney Purrington

Intrinsix is a 15-year-old semiconductor design services company that wants to continue its growth and market reach and appears to be ready for an initial public offering (IPO). This case leads up to this strategic decision point by tracing the growth of Intrinsix from... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Initial Public Offering; Growth Management; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Management Style; Marketing Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Competitive Strategy; Electronics Industry

Find at Harvard

18 Dec 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Concentration Levels in the U.S. Advertising and Marketing Services Industry: Myth vs. Reality

Keywords: by Alvin J. Silk & Charles King III; Advertising

12 Jul 2022
Cold Call Podcast

Can the Foodservice Distribution Industry Recover from the Pandemic?

Keywords: Re: David E. Bell; Service; Service

2008
Working Paper

Concentration Levels in the U.S. Advertising and Marketing Services Industry: Myth vs. Reality

By: Alvin J. Silk and Charles King III

This paper analyzes changes in concentration levels in the U.S. Advertising and Marketing Services (A&MS) industry using publicly released data that have been largely ignored in past discussions of the industrial organization of this industry, namely those available... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Mergers and Acquisitions; Revenue; Analytics and Data Science; Surveys; Marketing; Measurement and Metrics; Rank and Position; Competition; Advertising Industry; Advertising Industry; United States

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August 1995
Teaching Note

Crown Equipment Corporation: Design Services Strategy TN

By: Gary P. Pisano

Teaching Note for (9-991-031) and (9-991-032). View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Design; Product Design; Service Industry; Service Industry

01 Oct 1996
News

"Service-Profit Chain" Links Members of Service Management Unit

the newest member of the Service Management unit, joined the faculty last year. In research that covers human resources and operations management, she has studied the impact of processes on organizations. Gittell is currently using the... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young

March 2013 (Revised October 2013)
Supplement

Growing Integrated Services at Jones Lang LaSalle (2008) (C)

By: Ranjay Gulati and Luciana Silvestri

This case describes the strategic and organizational challenges that Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) faced between 2005 and 2008. Having dismantled its long-standing service-line-oriented structure, JLL created two interdependent groups: Accounts and Markets. Accounts housed... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Structure; Strategy; Integration; Real Estate Industry; North America; South America; Central America

November 2002 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Keane's Acquisition of Metro Information Services (A)

By: Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez

On August 21, 2001, Keane, Inc. announced the acquisition of Metro Information Services, Inc. This case analyzes the challenges facing firms and examines transactions whose major source of value creation hinges on intangible assets (e.g., people or knowledge). View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Value Creation; Goodwill Accounting; Problems and Challenges; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry

January 2009 (Revised February 2009)
Case

F-Secure Corporation: Software as a Service (SaaS) in the Security Solutions Market

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Robert D. Austin, Kalle Lyytinen, Esko Penttinen and Timo Saarinen

Describes the development of a business model based on "software as a service" (SaaS) for security solution distributed through Internet Service Providers (ISPs). F-Secure disruptively entered a mature business with dominant players by executing an innovative new... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Disruptive Innovation; Service Delivery; Internet; Information Technology Industry

22 Jul 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Reputation and Competition: Evidence from the Credit Rating Industry

Keywords: by Bo Becker & Todd Milbourn; Financial Services

18 Mar 2022
Blog Post

Career Advice: Transforming the Energy Industry

Tell us about what you were doing before HBS and what brought you to HBS. Prior to HBS, I spent six years in the oil and gas industry working primarily on taking technologies in the energy space from the lab to the field. Being exposed to... View Details

August 1986 (Revised February 1991)
Supplement

Population Services International: The Social Marketing Project in Bangladesh, Video

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

Population Services International, a not-for-profit agency founded to promote family planning information and to market birth control products, had an agreement with the government of Bangladesh to conduct a social marketing program using modern marketing techniques to... View Details

Keywords: Social Marketing; Health; Advertising; Marketing; Nonprofit Organizations; Government and Politics; Agreements and Arrangements; Health Industry; Bangladesh