Publications

2018
Article

Threat of Platform-Owner Entry and Complementor Responses: Evidence from the Mobile App Market

By: Wen Wen and Feng Zhu

We examine how app developers on the Android mobile platform adjust their innovation efforts (rate and direction) and value-capture strategies in response to Google’s entry threat and actual entry into their markets. We find that, after Google’s entry threat increases,... View Details

Keywords: Platform-owner Entry; Entry Threat; Innovation; Complementors; Mobile App Industry; Digital Platforms; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Market Entry and Exit; Price; Innovation and Invention; Applications and Software

Find at Harvard

23 Nov 2010
First Look

First Look: November 23

School Case 811-014 The Ze-gen case covers the first five years in the life of a clean-tech start-up. Ze-gen had developed an innovative technology that converted solid waste into synthesis gas (called syngas). This View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

04 Jan 2022
What Do You Think?

Firing McDonald’s Easterbrook: What Could the Board Have Done Differently?

Employee, The New York Times, November 3, 2019. Your feedback to last month’s column How Will the Metaverse Affect Productivity? I’d like to think that the tentative nature of the few responses to this column suggest the early stages of... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

12 Sep 2011
Research & Ideas

The Untold Story of ‘Green’ Entrepreneurs

Jones notes. As technology industries scale up, they rely on innovation to create strategic advantage and wring out inefficiencies. But it's difficult to coax efficiencies and more productivity out of wind turbines, no matter how much... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

02 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Not All M&As Are Alike—and That Matters

and fitting the new product or technology into existing activities. Scenario 5: The Industry Convergence M&a The first four categories involve changing the relationships among a particular industry's... View Details

Keywords: by Joseph L. Bower

01 Jan 2013
News

Thai Lee, MBA 1985

& Young's New Jersey Entrepreneur Of The Year, Technology 2013 SHI International reaches $5 billion in revenue Thai Lee has an extraordinary ability to take the long view. After earning a degree in economics... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young

04 Sep 2019
Blog Post

A Guided Experience into the World of Entrepreneurship

learned about Sidewalk Labs, a unit of Alphabet (Google) with “a grand vision of developing the Toronto waterfront using advanced technology to make a better city, one with more efficient transportation and a more sustainable... View Details

August 2018
Background Note

Note on Hackathons

By: Ethan Bernstein

Organizations have often sought to meet the pressures of rapid change through novel ways of managing human capital to boost innovation and productivity. Hackathons have emerged as one of the latest approaches to do just that. How can those responsible for managing... View Details

Keywords: Hackathon; Crowdsourcing; Hack; Innovation; Productivity; Minimum Viable Product; Time; Transparency; Bootcamp; Design; Entrepreneurship; Human Resources; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Management; Organizational Structure; Performance Productivity; Technology; Technology Industry

07 Apr 2009
First Look

First Look: April 7, 2009

Working PapersSecuring Jobs or the New Protectionism? Taxing the Overseas Activities of Multinational Firms Author:Mihir A. Desai Publication:(Forthcoming in Tax Notes) Abstract Tax policy toward American multinational firms would... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

November 2017
Teaching Note

Reinventing Best Buy

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

Teaching Note for HBS No. 716-455. On March 1, 2017, Best Buy Company, Inc., North America’s largest retailer of consumer electronics and appliances, announced a third year of comparable-store sales increases and a 20.8% increase in domestic comparable online sales.... View Details

January 2017 (Revised June 2017)
Case

Chicago and the Array of Things: A Fitness Tracker for the City

By: Rajiv Lal and Scott Johnson

The city of Chicago has recently launched a project called the Array of Things. The program involves a series of sensor nodes placed around the city that capture a massive amount of data including pedestrian and vehicle flow, air quality, and cloud cover. The Array of... View Details

Keywords: Smart Connected Products; Smart Cities; Internet Of Things; Sensors; Govenment; Government Administration; Technological Innovation; Digital Platforms; Applications and Software; Information Infrastructure; Internet and the Web; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Chicago; United States

July 2002 (Revised March 2003)
Case

Avon.com (A)

Avon has always sold its products through a large independent direct-selling organization. However, it is now considering whether it should sell directly to the consumer. The company's independent representatives number 500,000 in the United States alone. Yet, there... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Marketing Strategy; Internet and the Web; Salesforce Management; Marketing Channels; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

January 2013
Supplement

Cabot Corporation: The Fuel Cell Decision (B)

By: Willy Shih and Ying Zhou

Managers at Cabot Corporation are faced with deciding the future of its fuel cell program. The (A) case recounts the view of the business manager and the technical project lead, and the (B) case describes the perspective of a senior manager who is the head of the New... View Details

08 Dec 2015
First Look

December 8, 2015

countries. The book draws on literatures and archives that have previously only been available in Spanish, while the concluding chapter makes use of Harvard Business School's new project known as “Creating Emerging Markets,” which... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2025 (Revised June 2025)
Case

Designing the Future of Work: Atlassian's Distributed Work Practices

By: Ashley Whillans and Gabriel Rondón Ichikawa

In early 2020, the software company Atlassian made a bold commitment: employees could work from anywhere—forever. While many tech peers reversed course on remote work, Atlassian worked to optimize their fully distributed model across 13 countries. This case follows... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Working Conditions; Management Practices and Processes; Product Development; Organizational Culture; Business Strategy; Employees; Technology Industry

15 May 2017
Sharpening Your Skills

The Promises and Limitations of Big Data

services firms are using digital information about their customers to offer them a whole new range of customized products under the category of fintech. Cities are using data from Google Street View to guide economic development. And... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services; Utilities; Public Administration; Health

October–December 2023
Article

A Practical Guide to Conversation Research: How to Study What People Say to Each Other

By: Michael Yeomans, Katelynn Boland, Hanne K. Collins, Nicole Abi-Esber and Alison Wood Brooks

Conversation—a verbal interaction between two or more people—is a complex, pervasive, and consequential human behavior. Conversations have been studied across many academic disciplines. However, advances in recording and analysis techniques over the last decade have... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Analytics and Data Science; Research