Publications

20 May 2014
News

Mastering the Intermediaries

February 2010
Supplement

Valuing Visa? Priceless (CW)

By: Peter Tufano

Students must determine whether or not Visa, which had an IPO one month prior, is a good investment. The case provides an overview of multisided platform businesses and the payments industry in general. Visa's business model and economics are reviewed. View Details

Keywords: Credit Cards; Initial Public Offering; Valuation; Multi-Sided Platforms; Microeconomics

08 Dec 2020
Research & Ideas

Why Companies Hunt for Talent on Digital Platforms, Not in Resume Piles

field studies, researchers tend to think that workers submit resumes to open positions. In fact, scholars have learned a lot about discrimination in labor markets by sending resumes to job postings to see who gets called back and who doesn’t. As Harvard View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Employment

25 Sep 2023
Blog Post

HBS Latino Student Association Spotlight: Ana Barrera (MBA 2024)

The Latino Student Organization (LASO) proudly promotes and supports Harvard Business School’s Latino students and works alongside the Latino Alumni Association (HBSLAA). Representing a wide range of backgrounds, experiences, interests,... View Details

Strategies for Two-Sided Markets

Many blockbuster products and services that have redefined the global business landscape are built around platforms that tie together two distinct groups of users in a network. Examples include credit cards that link consumers and merchants; operating systems that... View Details

10 Feb 2023
Research & Ideas

COVID-19 Lessons: Social Media Can Nudge More People to Get Vaccinated

co-leads the Platform Lab at Harvard Business School, is continuing his collaboration with Athey, who directs the Golub Capital Social Impact Lab at Stanford, and Wernerfelt, who is leaving Meta to start a... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis; Health; Technology

September 2019 (Revised November 2019)
Case

Pinduoduo

By: Feng Zhu, Krishna G. Palepu, Bonnie Yining Cao and Dawn H. Lau

Founded in 2015 by serial entrepreneur, Colin Huang, Pinduoduo Inc. (PDD) had become China’s fastest-growing e-commerce platform in history. PDD pioneered a new approach to online shopping that allowed shoppers to share products, invite friends to form shopping teams,... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Business Model; Innovation and Invention; Competitive Advantage; Expansion; Strategy; E-commerce

January 2023 (Revised January 2024)
Case

Digital Transformation at Tata Steel

By: Krishna Palepu, Das Narayandas, Radhika Kak and Rachna Tahilyani

T.V. Narendran, CEO of Tata Steel, India’s oldest steel manufacturing firm, had taken concrete business and cultural transformation steps to future-ready the firm since taking over in 2013. He had deleveraged and instilled financial discipline, acquired new businesses,... View Details

Keywords: Digital Transformation; Digital Strategy; Change Management; Growth and Development Strategy; E-commerce; Steel Industry; Asia; India

Sara Torti is a senior product and operating executive who has focused extensively on creating and scaling technology-based businesses that require a combination of detailed execution, business insight and technical acumen. She has grown products... View Details

05 Mar 2018
Working Paper Summaries

Nowcasting Gentrification: Using Yelp Data to Quantify Neighborhood Change

Keywords: by Edward L. Glaeser, Hyunjin Kim, and Michael Luca

Price Bargaining and Competition in Online Platforms: An Empirical Analysis of the Daily Deal Market

The prevalence of online platforms opens new doors to traditional businesses for customer reach and revenue growth. This research investigates platform competition in a setting where prices are determined by negotiations between platforms and businesses. We compile a... View Details

08 May 2023
Research & Ideas

How Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric Crushed Crowdfunding for Minority Entrepreneurs

What does fearmongering about immigration have to do with crowdfunding new ideas on Kickstarter? For Black, Asian, and Hispanic entrepreneurs, such rhetoric can undermine fundraising efforts, making it even less likely that new ideas will come to fruition, argues... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis

May 2024
Case

A New Aiera for Equity Research

By: Joseph Pacelli, Charles CY Wang and James Barnett

Aiera (pronounced “era”) co-founder and CEO Ken Sena considers strategic pathways to growth for the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered platform used to source, verify, and transcribe earnings calls, company presentations, and other corporate events. View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Financial Statements; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; AI and Machine Learning; Growth and Development Strategy; Accounting Industry; Financial Services Industry; Technology Industry; United States

19 Mar 2014
Research & Ideas

A Brand Manager’s Guide to Losing Control

charge of public discussions about the brands they use. And while marketers have tried to take part, they've had to face the fact that social media platforms are primarily meant for conversations among consumers, not for one-way brand... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Advertising

16 Oct 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, October 16, 2018

Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 14 Introducing Open Platforms and Business Ecosystems By: Baldwin, Carliss Y. Abstract—The purpose of this chapter is to lay the... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

February 2017 (Revised November 2021)
Case

Digitalization at Siemens

By: David J. Collis and Tonia Junker

The case discusses the digitalization strategy of Siemens AG, a German-based company operating in manufacturing and electronics. The increasing impact of digital technologies on all of its business units had prompted CEO Joe Kaeser and his team to put digitalization at... View Details

Keywords: Company Management; Digital Technologies; Corporate Strategy; Competition; Information Technology; Information Infrastructure; Manufacturing Industry; Electronics Industry