Publications

August 2019 (Revised March 2023)
Case

Rand Fishkin at Moz (A)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

In 2016, senior management at Moz, a venture capital–backed startup providing software tools for digital marketing professionals, must decide how to address a looming cash flow crisis precipitated by failed efforts to broaden its product line. Seattle-based Moz had... View Details

Keywords: Startups; Scaling; Entrepreneurship; Failure; Business Startups; Diversification; Growth Management; Technology Industry

2016
Case

Advanced Leadership Pathways: Harvey Freishtat and Conversations about End-of-Life Care

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ai-Ling Jamila Malone and Oludamilola Aladesanmi

Former law firm chairman/CEO Harvey Freishtat was actively involved in the formation of The Conversation Project, a national public engagement campaign to promote earlier end-of-life care discussions among loved ones and then with providers to ensure that end-of-life... View Details

Keywords: Health Care Education; Health Care Reform; Health Care Policy; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Leadership; Health Industry

May 2004 (Revised March 2005)
Case

Music Downloads

By: David B. Yoffie and Deborah Freier

Examines the competition between competing music formats. In the '90s, the MP3 format challenged the traditional means of music distribution by allowing for storage of near CD-quality recordings at 1/10th of their previous size. The threat to traditional distribution... View Details

Keywords: Disruption; Music Entertainment; Legal Liability; Distribution; Competition; Internet and the Web; Technology Adoption; Information Infrastructure; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Music Industry

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07 Jul 2019
HBS Case

Walmart's Workforce of the Future

initiative. “That requires a lot of reskilling of employees and hard choices, in an uncertain environment, in terms of how to deploy capital.” “This digital transformation creates new jobs, but, more important, it changes the nature of... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

October 2019 (Revised January 2020)
Case

Fixing Facebook: Fake News, Privacy, and Platform Governance

By: David Yoffie and Daniel Fisher

Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook based on the idea that connecting people was a fundamentally good thing—and a way to turn a handsome profit. But from the beginning, Facebook received criticism both for how it handled user privacy and how it curated user-generated... View Details

Keywords: Platform; Governance; Privacy; Internet and the Web; Corporate Governance; Ethics; Business and Government Relations; Strategy; Digital Platforms; Web Services Industry

10 Dec 2015
Blog Post

Working with Professors at HBS

that media was the right one for me. Second year I finally got to take Anita Elberse’s Strategic Marketing in Creative Industries class. And I loved it! I also pitched an idea for a case, about Shonda... View Details

November 2019 (Revised April 2020)
Case

Away: Scaling a DTC Travel Brand

By: Jill Avery and Joseph B. Fuller

Away, a direct-to-consumer, digital native e-commerce seller of travel luggage, is debating how to invest its latest round of venture funding. How quickly could and should Away scale and what were the most promising growth trajectories to maximize its potential? Three... View Details

August 2006 (Revised March 2008)
Case

iPod vs. Cell Phone: A Mobile Music Revolution?

By: David B. Yoffie, Travis D. Merrill and Michael Slind

In 2006, a nascent market for music-enabled mobile phones was emerging to challenge Apple Computer's dominant position in the digital music industry. Through its iPod line of portable digital music devices and its iTunes Music Store, Apple controlled more than half of... View Details

Keywords: Music Entertainment; Emerging Markets; Brands and Branding; Sales; Opportunities; Price; Business Model; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Digital Platforms; Service Delivery; Communications Industry; Music Industry

November 2023 (Revised April 2024)
Case

Paytm: A Payments Journey in India

By: Álvaro Rodríguez Arregui, Amram Migdal and Kanika Jain

Paytm was an Indian financial technology company. Since its launch in 2010, it had built a dominant payments system in India, comprising mobile wallets, offline payments via QR codes, and a payments bank that offered no-frills banking. However, in 2016, the Indian... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Situation or Environment; Business Ventures; Business Model; Banks and Banking; Business Strategy; Competition; Financial Services Industry; Banking Industry; Technology Industry; Asia; South Asia; India

07 Mar 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, March 7

“steeped-in-tradition” background that Willis, hired by Wimbledon in 2012 and promoted to Head of Digital and Content in 2015, had to figure out the proper role for digital and social View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 2020 (Revised July 2020)
Teaching Note

Brand Activism: Nike and Colin Kaepernick

By: Jill Avery and Koen Pauwels

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 519-046. Nike’s selection of politically polarizing Colin Kaepernick as the spokesperson for the thirtieth anniversary of its iconic “Just Do It” campaign catapulted the brand into the media spotlight and made it a political flashpoint... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Brands and Branding; Advertising; Advertising Campaigns; Marketing Strategy; Marketing Communications; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Consumer Products Industry; Sports Industry; United States; North America

12 Apr 2022
Research & Ideas

Swiping Right: How Data Helped This Online Dating Site Make More Matches

marriages began with online dates. “[Online dating platforms] are an extremely interesting application of the general question of influence and digital interactions,” he says, with lessons that can apply to other online engagement... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

April 2016 (Revised June 2019)
Case

The Walt Disney Studios

By: Anita Elberse

In December 2015, Alan Horn, chairman of The Walt Disney Studios, celebrates the world premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens—only the latest in a string of big bets that he has overseen. Disney pursues a “tentpole strategy” that revolves around at least eight... View Details

16 Feb 2024
Research & Ideas

As AI Upends Recruiting, Job Seekers Need a Waze App for Careers

postings and social media and impressions from informal conversations. “Companies invest tens of millions of dollars on user experience for customers, but don't bring any of that discipline to applicant experience.” That puts employers in... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Information Technology; Technology

Fall 2023
Article

Infringing Use as a Path to Legal Consumption: Evidence from a Field Experiment

By: Hong Luo and Julie Holland Mortimer

Digitization has transformed how users find and use copyrighted goods, but many existing legal options remain difficult to access, possibly leading to infringement. In a field experiment, we contact firms that are caught infringing on expensive digital images. Emails... View Details

Keywords: Copyright Infringement; Field Experiment; Copyright; Lawfulness

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Read Now

2013
Working Paper

NBC and the 2012 London Olympics: Unexpected Success

By: Stephen A. Greyser and Vadim Kogan

"The 2010 Vancouver Winter Games lost $223 million, astonishing for a 17-day event. Next year's London Summer Games, which cost a record Olympic rights fee of $1.18 billion, are expected to lose at least as much..." wrote Richard Sandomir in The New York Times. "NBC... View Details

Keywords: Success; Profit; Sports; Failure; Television Entertainment; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Vancouver; Beijing; London; Brazil; Russia