Publications

October 2021 (Revised February 2023)
Case

Ant Group (A)

By: Krishna G. Palepu, Feng Zhu, Susie L. Ma and Kerry Herman

In 2004, Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba created Alipay, an app to facilitate payments on its e-commerce sites. As Alibaba grew, so did Alipay, until Alipay spawned its own ecosystem of financial technology products and services under the name of Ant Group. By 2020,... View Details

Keywords: Payment Systems; Information Technology; Value Creation; Network Effects; Strategy; Disruptive Innovation; Initial Public Offering; Technology Industry; Financial Services Industry; China

March 2020
Article

The Politics of M&A Antitrust

By: Mihir N. Mehta, Suraj Srinivasan and Wanli Zhao

Antitrust regulators play a critical role in protecting market competition. We examine whether firms can use the political process to opportunistically influence antitrust reviews of corporate merger transactions. We exploit the fact that in some mergers, acquirers... View Details

Keywords: Political Economy; Antitrust; FTC; DOJ; Mergers and Acquisitions; Government and Politics; Power and Influence

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September 2003 (Revised June 2007)
Case

Virgin Mobile USA: Pricing for the Very First Time

Dan Schulman, the CEO of Virgin Mobile USA, must develop a pricing strategy for a new wireless phone service targeted toward consumers in their teens and twenties, many of whom are believed to have poor credit quality and uneven usage patterns. Contrary to conventional... View Details

Keywords: Price; Market Entry and Exit; Wireless Technology; Telecommunications Industry; United States

21 May 2007
Research & Ideas

Fixing the Marketing-CEO Disconnect

susceptibility to competition. How to repair the rift? Two HBS faculty developed a CD-based program called Measuring Marketing Performance targeted at senior executives—namely CEOs, COOs, and CMOs. The... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

October 2013 (Revised August 2015)
Supplement

Outotec (B): Action Plan

By: Robert J. Dolan and Doug J. Chung

Outotec was a market leader in providing mining solutions to large mining companies. The company’s specialization and proprietary technology created value for its customers and helped the firm differentiate from its competitors. Yet, Outotec was not pricing or... View Details

Keywords: Value-based Pricing; Bargaining Power Of Buyers; Marketing; Segmentation; Price; Policy; Sales; Management; Value Creation; Mining Industry

October 2013 (Revised August 2015)
Case

Outotec (A): Project Capture

By: Robert J. Dolan and Doug J. Chung

Outotec was a market leader in providing mining solutions to large mining companies. The company’s specialization and proprietary technology created value for its customers and helped the firm differentiate from its competitors. Yet, Outotec was not pricing or... View Details

Keywords: Value-based Pricing; Bargaining Power Of Buyers; Marketing; Segmentation; Price; Policy; Sales; Management; Value Creation; Mining Industry

October 1993 (Revised February 1995)
Case

MCI Vision (A) (Condensed)

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Concerns the development, introduction, and first-year sales performance of Vision, a telecommunications service aimed at small- and medium-sized businesses. Introduced in 1990, Vision surpassed goals in that year, but was significantly below target in the first... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Cost vs Benefits; Decision Choices and Conditions; Goals and Objectives; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Marketing Strategy; Product; Sales; Competitive Strategy; Valuation

May 2002 (Revised September 2002)
Teaching Note

Creating New Services, Module Overview Note TN

By: Frances X. Frei

Taught in Managing Service Operations, an elective course in the Harvard Business School MBA program. Appropriate for any service course or service module within an operations or new product development course that targets MBA or executive education students.... View Details

Keywords: Service Operations; Product Development; Business Education; Product Positioning

Research Summary

Antecedents and Consequences of Trust in Interorganizational Relations: An International Comparison

The objective of this research project is to build from the conceptual development described above and test the sources and effects of trust in a different empirical setting. The level of analysis is also interorganizational but narrowed to the level of a specific... View Details

March 2018 (Revised July 2020)
Case

Nectar (A)

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Thomas O. Jones

In late 2017, Nectar was a rapidly emerging player in the “bed-in-a-box” online market for direct-to-consumer foam memory mattresses. Barely a year old, it had achieved a revenue run rate of $85M and looked ahead to another year of blistering growth. The founding team... View Details

Keywords: Direct-to-consumer; Growth and Development Strategy; Product; Diversification; Decision Making; Growth Management; Entrepreneurship

16 Jan 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, January 16, 2018

and Kate Barasz Abstract—Data gathered on the web has vastly enhanced the capabilities of marketers. With people regularly sharing personal details online and internet cookies tracking every click, companies can now gain unprecedented insight into individual consumers... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 2005 (Revised September 2007)
Case

Beijing Hualian

By: David E. Bell and Mary L. Shelman

China's fifth largest domestic retailer faced intensifying competition from Wal-Mart and Carrefour with the opening of China's fast-growing retail market in January 2005. In response, Beijing Hualian developed a new "Family Store" format targeted at the nation's... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Product Positioning; Consumer Behavior; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Retail Industry; China

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February 1997
Case

Advent of Venture Capital in Latin America, The

By: Debora L. Spar

Widely regarded as the leader in international private equity, Advent International is considering the establishment of a private equity fund in Latin America in 1996. Typically, Advent entered new private equity markets through the creation of multicountry regional... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Joint Ventures; Market Entry and Exit; Globalized Markets and Industries; Financial Services Industry; Boston; Latin America

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February 2023
Case

Roblox: Virtual Commerce in the Metaverse

By: Ayelet Israeli and Nicole Tempest Keller

In 2022, Roblox had 58.8 million daily active users, including over half of all children and teens under the age of 16 in the United States. Roblox, a free-to-use “co-experience platform”, allowed users to come together in immersive 3D experiences to socialize, work,... View Details

2024
Working Paper

Does the Case for Private Equity Still Hold?

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Philipp Chvanov

Private Equity (“PE”) received a 10-fold increase in capital flows since the Great Financial Crisis (“GFC”) Investors sought higher nominal returns relative to those they could obtain in the public capital markets. This paper questions the fundamental assumptions... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Investment Return; Investment Portfolio; Financial Markets

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2022
Article

Dynamic Pricing Algorithms, Consumer Harm, and Regulatory Response

By: Alexander MacKay and Samuel N. Weinstein

Pricing algorithms are rapidly transforming markets, from ride-sharing apps, to air travel, to online retail. Regulators and scholars have watched this development with a wary eye. Their focus so far has been on the potential for pricing algorithms to facilitate... View Details

Keywords: Competition Policy; Regulation; Algorithmic Pricing; Dynamic Pricing; Economics; Law And Economics; Law And Regulation; Consumer Protection; Antitrust Law; Industrial Organization; Antitrust Issues And Policies; Technological Change: Choices And Consequences; Competition; Policy; Price; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Microeconomics; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Law