Publications

June 2011
Case

Shelley Capital and the Hedge Fund Secondary Market

By: Luis Viceira, Elena Corsi and Ruth Dittrich

An advisory company has to decide how to sell their client's hedge fund holdings in the secondary market, and thinks about their future. Shelley Capital was a a European advisory company operating in the hedge fund secondary market, a market that boosted in 2008 with... View Details

Keywords: Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Investment Funds; Marketing Strategy; Financial Crisis; Sales; Leadership Development; Financial Markets; Crisis Management; Business Processes; Risk and Uncertainty; Globalized Economies and Regions; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; Europe

June 2003 (Revised September 2004)
Exercise

The Pacific Sentinel: Role for Chris Coleman

By: Kathleen L. McGinn and Dina R. Pradel

A new publishing company has just purchased the Pacific Sentinel, a fictional West Coast newspaper. The new publisher is willing to invest $1 million in the future success of the paper and has asked the executive editor and advertising manager to develop a joint plan... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Conflict of Interests; Decision Making; Publishing Industry

June 2001 (Revised December 2006)
Case

Role of Capital Market Intermediaries in the Dot-Com Crash of 2000, The

By: Krishna G. Palepu and Gillian D Elcock

Set in the context of the rise and fall of the Internet stocks in the United States. View Details

Keywords: Stocks; Price Bubble; Capital Markets; Investment Banking; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States

Research Summary

Technological Change and Competitive Strategy

Richard S. Rosenbloom continues to explore issues in the strategic management of technology and the relationship between technological change and competitive strategy. He is currently investigating the histories of radical technological innovations and their... View Details

2001
Case

Encyclopedia Britannica (C)

By: Vijay Govindarajan and Praveen Kopalle

In October of 1999, EBI offered a new Internet service at www.britannica.com. EBI provided access to the entire text and graphics of Encyclopedia Britannica absolutely free of charge. Its revenues came from on-line advertising, sponsorships, and a percentage of goods... View Details

Keywords: Online Technology; Online Advertising; Business Strategy; Information Publishing; Web Services Industry

Read Now

March 2000 (Revised April 2001)
Case

eFrenzy, Inc. (A)

By: Marco Iansiti and Nicole Tempest

Details how to design, launch, and scale a rapidly growing Internet venture. Focuses on the challenges and opportunities involved in leveraging a network of partners. View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business Growth and Maturation; Internet and the Web; Product Development; Business or Company Management; Problems and Challenges; Information Technology Industry; United States

December 2014 (Revised June 2016)
Case

Cameron Trebbi at Taylor Lowell, LLP

By: Karthik Ramanna

Cameron Trebbi is a senior executive overseeing accounting policy at a large global auditing firm. His role is to lobby the firm's position with various accounting rule-making bodies worldwide. The firm is close to acquiring as new audit clients a consortium of Chinese... View Details

Keywords: Lobbying; Thin Political Markets; Accounting; Business and Government Relations; Accounting Industry; China; United States

Kim B. Clark joined the Harvard faculty in 1978 and served as Dean of the Faculty at Harvard Business School from 1995 to 2005. He received the B.A. (1974), M.A. (1977), and Ph.D. (1978) degrees in economics from Harvard University.

Professor Clark's research has... View Details

March 2000 (Revised November 2001)
Case

Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com

Rosenbluth, the third largest U.S. travel agency, uses the Internet to serve new customers with a high-service strategy. Rosenbluth acquires Biztravel.com and integrates the customer support and logistics aspects of service delivery. View Details

Keywords: Horizontal Integration; Internet and the Web; Service Delivery; Acquisition; Travel Industry; United States

March 2008 (Revised August 2017)
Exercise

The Book Deal: Confidential Instructions for the AGENT

By: Deepak Malhotra and Max H. Bazerman

A two-party negotiation between an Agent representing a new author and an Editor at a large Publishing Firm. The exercise involves a one-issue, zero-sum negotiation concerning the advance on royalties that the publisher will pay to the author. View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Agreements and Arrangements; Negotiation Preparation; Negotiation Tactics; Negotiation Types; Publishing Industry

Together with Prof. Daniel F. Spulber (Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University), I edit the Journal of Economics & Management Strategy (JEMS), the leading academic journal on the economics of strategy. JEMS is based at Harvard Business... View Details

08 Feb 2010
HBS Case

Looking Behind Google’s Stand in China

Google, the "do no evil" company, gained entry into the Chinese search engine market last decade by agreeing to ban search results on topics deemed sensitive by the Chinese government. To Google's way of thinking, it could do more good for View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

31 Aug 2015
Research & Ideas

How Ben Franklin’s ‘Way to Wealth’ Introduced American Capitalism to the World

of wisdom and many others were made famous by Benjamin Franklin in his 1758 essay known as The Way to Wealth, first published as a sermon delivered by “Father Abraham” in Poor Richard’s Almanack. “I’m interested in how ideas reflect but... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

August 1998 (Revised June 2000)
Case

FairMarket, Inc.: Where Buyers and Sellers Connect

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Jack Wieland and Chad M. M Raube

On February 20, 1997, FairMarket, an Internet-based business-to-business auction site, was launched. CEO, founder Scott Randall, drew on his experience building Internet businesses at NECX Direct, Yahoo, and Internet Shopping Network to build his business. This case,... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Debates; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development; Growth Management; Management Style; Product Launch; Multi-Sided Platforms; Problems and Challenges; Information Technology; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry

Find at Harvard

02 Feb 2015
Research & Ideas

Disruptors Sell What Customers Want and Let Competitors Sell What They Don’t

Over the past two decades, entire industries have been disrupted by Internet competitors who "unbundled" their content and delivered it to consumers in new ways. Newspapers lost out to Google and Craigslist,... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

Ramon Casadesus-Masanell

Ramon Casadesus-Masanell is the Herman C. Krannert Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. He joined HBS in 2000 where he has taught the required MBA Strategy course, an elective course on Competing Business Models, and Ph.D. courses on... View Details

Keywords: apparel; energy; paper; semiconductor; software

23 May 2016
Research & Ideas

A Little Understanding Motivates Copyright Abusers to Pay Up

Obtaining an image from the Internet is as easy as right-clicking and downloading. We’ve all done it—or, ahem, know someone who has. We rarely think about who created these images or whether we have the rights to use them. This leaves the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Publishing; Publishing

July 2000 (Revised August 2000)
Case

AllHerb.com: Evolution of an E-tailer

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Christina L. Darwall

Serial entrepreneur Ken Hakuta, in the second year of his latest venture, reconsiders his original strategy of maintaining an independent, self-funded, self-led company. His Internet herbal remedy company, AllHerb.com, has already enjoyed considerable success with its... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Technological Innovation; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Strategic Planning; Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry