Publications

30 Mar 2018
What Do You Think?

What Should Mark Zuckerberg Do?

most memorably: “I find myself in a Claude Rains Casablanca moment here: ‘I’m shocked, shocked to find that FB and others are making money off my data when they give me their services for free.’” But “shocked” or not, reality probably... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Web Services; Web Services

01 Sep 2009
First Look

First Look: September 1

649-651 Abstract In my second week of medical internship, I received a "friend request" on Facebook, the popular social-networking Web site. The name of the requester was familiar: Erica Baxter. Three years earlier, as a medical... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

2012
Book

Sleeping with Your Smartphone: How to Break the 24-7 Habit and Change the Way you Work

By: Leslie A. Perlow

Does it have to be this way? Can't resist checking your smartphone or mobile device? Sure, all this connectivity keeps you in touch with your team and the office—but at what cost? In "Sleeping with Your Smartphone," Leslie Perlow reveals how you can disconnect and... View Details

Keywords: Time Management; Internet and the Web; Groups and Teams; Performance Productivity; Globalized Firms and Management; Service Industry

06 Dec 2017
What Do You Think?

Is It Time To Break Up Amazon, Apple, Facebook, or Google?

to break up illustrious companies like Standard Oil and AT&T to reduce their market power and thereby encourage competition. While not successful in similar efforts to prosecute IBM and Microsoft, the Government’s action may well have encouraged IBM’s decision to... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Web Services; Web Services

July 2014 (Revised August 2014)
Case

AmazonFresh: Rekindling the Online Grocery Market

By: Rory McDonald, Clayton Christensen, Robin Yang and Ty Hollingsworth

More than a decade after the high-profile failures of several early online grocers, grocery remains the largest single U.S. retail category and one of the few that has not yet migrated online. Amazon began testing its grocery-delivery service, AmazonFresh, in Seattle,... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; New Markets; Grocery; Operations Strategy; Innovation and Invention; Strategy; Emerging Markets; Learning; Service Operations; Internet and the Web; Business Model; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

February 2011
Case

oDesk: Changing How the World Works

By: Boris Groysberg, David A. Thomas and Jennifer M. Tydlaska

It is 2010, and Gary Swart, CEO of oDesk, is contemplating the next steps for his organization. Founded in 2004 in California, oDesk operates an online marketplace which matches Employers with Contractors. oDesk provides fact-based information on Contractors, including... View Details

Keywords: Recruitment; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Digital Platforms; Marketplace Matching; Corporate Strategy; Internet and the Web; Consulting Industry

November 2003 (Revised January 2004)
Case

eBay Inc.: Internet Success or Fairy Tale?

By: David F. Hawkins and Jacob Cohen

A well-known financial analyst claims that eBay has never been profitable and currently does not generate any "unfettered" cash flow. View Details

Keywords: Cash Flow; Accounting; Web Services Industry

09 Jun 2008
Lessons from the Classroom

Monetizing IP: The Executive’s Challenge

Model-Linker to the open source community to help the Linux community write software to connect Linux with Hewlett-Packard's RISC computer architecture. This strategy is similar to giving away the razor (the released code) to sell more razor blades (the related... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Web Services; Web Services

19 Mar 2014
Research & Ideas

A Brand Manager’s Guide to Losing Control

chips, now sold by the company. This year's submissions include Smoky Brisket and Tzaziki. The glut of easily accessible information on the Web has birthed The Age of Transparency, turning millions of consumers into amateur journalists.... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Advertising

31 Jan 2023
Cold Call Podcast

Addressing Racial Discrimination on Airbnb

Keywords: Web Services

February 2020
Case

Seso Global: Building a Blockchain-enabled Property Marketplace in Nigeria

By: Boris Vallee and Yang (Dolly) Yu

The mutual aspiration of addressing the housing shortage and improving real estate market efficiency led Daniel and Phillip to co-found Seso Global in 2017. Seso Global developed a unique integrated platform to streamline and rationalize the process of acquiring and... View Details

Keywords: Fintech; Blockchain; Developing Markets; Entrepreneurial Management; Financing and Loans; Internet and the Web; Business Model; Property; Growth and Development Strategy; Developing Countries and Economies; Real Estate Industry; Africa; Nigeria

19 Nov 2013
First Look

First Look: November 19

"codification" with a focus on IT applications. More recently, with Web 2.0, there is an increasing emphasis on collaboration so that individuals are interacting with each other, not simply documents. This note, based on... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2011 (Revised July 2013)
Case

Delta/Signal Corp.

By: V.G. Narayanan, Lisa Brem and Matthew Packard

This auto parts company has just ousted its longtime CEO and founder, and the new, professional CEO is badly in need of a coherent strategy, clear objectives and metrics, and initiatives that are aligned with the strategy and objectives. Will the balanced scorecard... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Business Strategy; Financial Reporting; Leading Change; Performance Evaluation; Growth and Development Strategy; Web Services Industry; Web Services Industry

01 Jun 2002
News

Up to the Challenge: Ipsita Dasgupta - Global Perspective, Local Results

provide microfinance to entrepreneurs. “People in developing countries grasp technology very quickly, but the big battle is literacy,” she remarks. Creating Web sites that use images and numbers instead of text is one tactic for crossing... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; development; leadership; social issues; management; technology; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services

Web

Alternative Investments Course | HBS Online

taken a lot of paid online courses, but the HBS Online experience was close to that of the classroom and highly immersive." Swaminathan Aiyer Head of Private Equity at Amazon Web Services Learn to speak the... View Details

October 2009 (Revised June 2011)
Case

Zappos.com 2009: Clothing, Customer Service, and Company Culture

By: Frances X. Frei, Robin J. Ely and Laura Winig

On July 17, 2009, Zappos.com, a privately held online retailer of shoes, clothing, and other soft line retail categories, learned that Amazon.com, a $19 billion multinational online retailer, had won its board of directors' approval to offer to merge the two companies.... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Choices and Conditions; Governing and Advisory Boards; Service Delivery; Organizational Culture; Internet and the Web; Valuation; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail Industry