Publications

March 2006 (Revised April 2009)
Case

Tecsis: A Global Cleantech Venture Based in Brazil

Bento Koike, founder and CEO of Tecsis Ltda., is facing a number of important decisions. With ups and downs typical of self-funded start-ups, Tecsis has grown to about 1,500 people and over $50 million in revenues with one major customer. Tecsis, located in Brazil, is... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Cost vs Benefits; Diversification; Emerging Markets; Entrepreneurship; Environmental Sustainability; Volatility; Green Technology Industry; Brazil; United States

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March 2018 (Revised July 2018)
Case

Cadre

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Scott Duke Kominers and David Lane

Late in 2017, CEO Ryan Williams and his team debated whether Cadre should become not only a technology-enabled investment manager, but also an online trading exchange providing high levels of liquidity for investors in commercial real estate (CRE) equity. Cadre was a... View Details

Keywords: ＂Cadre,＂; Entrepreneurship; Market Design; Digital Platforms; Strategy; Internet and the Web; Private Equity; Financial Services Industry; Real Estate Industry; United States

November 1999 (Revised June 2000)
Case

VerticalNet (www.verticalnet.com)

By: Das Narayandas

VerticalNet, a leading creator of targeted business-to-business vertical trade communities on the Internet, is trying to expand its model to facilitate e-commerce. Mark Walsh, the CEO of VerticalNet, has to decide how far he can extend the firm's business model without... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Decisions; Digital Platforms; Expansion; Internet and the Web

01 Jun 2001
News

Point, Click, Give: Internet Fuels Philanthropic Fundraising Revolution

to “The e-Philanthropy Revolution,” a recent working paper by HBS professor James E. Austin. His study of more than 150 WEBSEs illuminates the dynamics, challenges, and strategies of this nascent industry that links potential donors to... View Details

Keywords: Anne Kavanagh; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; Information

August 2004 (Revised September 2005)
Case

Canyon Ranch

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Gabriele Piccoli

How should Canyon Ranch leverage its uniqueness in the face of increasing competition and an entrenched customer definition of the firm? The firm is attempting to create demand for return visits and foster the customization and personalization of the Canyon Ranch... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Information Technology; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Experience and Expertise; Analytics and Data Science; Customization and Personalization

October 2004 (Revised December 2005)
Case

Rakuten

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Andrew P. McAfee, Thomas R. Eisenmann and Masako Egawa

Rakuten, a native Japanese, e-commerce start-up and highly successful company, is expanding into new categories and new countries. It must figure out how to continue its trajectory of growth and profitability. A rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Global Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Japan

September–October 2017
Article

Managing Our Hub Economy: Strategy, Ethics, and Network Competition in the Age of Digital Superpowers

By: Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani

A small number of digital superpowers—Alibaba, Amazon, Microsoft, and others—have become “hub firms” because they control access to billions of mobile customers coveted by all kinds of product and service providers. These hubs drive increasing returns to scale and... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Strategic Planning; Technology Industry; Technology Industry

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July 1991 (Revised September 1995)
Case

Eastman Kodak Co.: Managing Information Systems Through Strategic Alliances

By: Lynda M. Applegate

In January 1988, Colby Chandler, Kodak CEO, created the Corporate Information Systems (CIS) and appointed Katherine Hudson head. She at once became the first head of IT and first woman corporate vice president in the company. Throughout 1989, Hudson inaugurated a... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Information Technology; Partners and Partnerships; Organizational Structure; Success; Trends; Information Management; Service Operations; Manufacturing Industry

27 Apr 2021
Research & Ideas

New Research: Surviving Bankruptcy, Useful Economics, and Retirement

Technological Eclecticism Could Help Journal of Applied Corporate Finance Amar Bhidé “Keynes thought it would be ‘splendid’ if economists became more like dentists. Disciplinary economics has instead become more like physics in focusing... View Details

01 Dec 2000
News

Latin America's Decade

In One Hundred Years of Solitude, his epic allegory of Latin American history and sensibility, novelist Gabriel García Márquez describes how a revolutionary technology from the outside world is brought to the sleepy, archetypal hamlet of... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons and Julia Hanna; Latin America; research; infrastructure; Hospitality; Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments; Finance; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

April 1993 (Revised May 1994)
Case

General Dynamics and Computer Sciences Corporation: Outsourcing the IS Function (A)

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Katherine Seger

Designed to generate discussion on the issues of outsourcing from the perspective of a firm thinking about turning over its IS activities to a third-party vendor. View Details

Keywords: Management Systems; Management Style; Information Technology; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Business Strategy; Economic Systems; Business or Company Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business Processes; Employment; Emerging Markets; Activity Based Costing and Management; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry

April 2005 (Revised March 2007)
Case

eAccess, Ltd.

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Masako Egawa and Ariko Ota

The managers of eAccess, Japan's third largest provider of digital subscriber line (DSL) service, must decide whether to enter the mobile communications business. Japan's mobile services are among the world's most expensive, and incumbent carriers' profits are high. To... View Details

Keywords: Information Infrastructure; Diversification; Policy; Business Startups; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Communications Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Japan

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15 Nov 2016
News

Uncovering The Secrets of Mittelstand Success

corporations—is a clear focus on longevity and the future. As an example, Shih cites ARRI, the world’s largest manufacturer of professional motion picture equipment, which weathered a difficult transition from film to digital technology... View Details

July 2020
Teaching Plan

Girls Who Code

By: Brian Trelstad and Amy Klopfenstein

This teaching plan serves as a supplement to HBS Case No. 320-055, “Girls Who Code.” Founded 2012 by former lawyer Reshma Saujani, Girls Who Code (GWC) offered coding education programs to middle- and high school-aged girls. The organization also sought to alter... View Details

24 Apr 2014
News

Crowdfunding capital for small business

like the idea of the crowd vetting ideas, and determining winners and losers by voting with their capital.” Although the partners had been friends for four decades, they had never worked together before iCrowd. McGee, a US Navy veteran, previously served as executive... View Details

December 1999
Case

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (A): An Enterprise of Change

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Jane Roessner

In 1999, Sun Microsystems, Inc., was claiming a leadership position in the burgeoning world of e-commerce and networking computers. Its goal: "to dot-com the world." What was it about Sun's culture that made it so conducive to innovation and entrepreneurship? And how... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Leading Change; Innovation Leadership; Information Infrastructure; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business Growth and Maturation; Growth and Development Strategy; Global Strategy; Experience and Expertise; Technology Industry; Technology Industry