Publications

February 2010
Article

Friend or Foe? Cooperation and Learning in High-Stakes Games

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Joel Waldfogel and Matthew White

Keywords: Cooperation; Learning; Games, Gaming, and Gambling

August 1998 (Revised October 1998)
Case

Disney's "The Lion King" (A): The $2 Billion Movie

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Cate Reavis

In 1994, just 10 years after its filmed entertainment division lost $33 million, Disney's animated creation "The Lion King" became the second highest grossing film ever. In addition to drawing $740 million in worldwide box office sales, its merchandise sales exceeded... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Marketing Strategy; Expansion; Creativity; Film Entertainment; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Product Development; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

Educators

05 Feb 2013
News

Pistachios beat Blackberry in Super Bowl's advertising match

12 Feb 2015
Video

Make Big Bets: How Blockbuster Strategies Work

10 Feb 2016
HBS Seminar

Hong Luo of Harvard Business School and Julie Mortimer of Boston College, Department of Economics

27 Feb 2019
Working Paper Summaries

Judgment Aggregation in Creative Production: Evidence from the Movie Industry

Keywords: by Hong Luo, Jeffrey T. Macher, and Michael Wahlen; Motion Pictures & Video

Article

Scandal, Social Movement, and Change: Evidence from #MeToo in Hollywood

By: Hong Luo and Laurina Zhang

Social movements have the potential to effect change in firm decision-making. In this paper, we examine whether the #MeToo movement, spurred by the Harvey Weinstein scandal, led to changes in the likelihood of Hollywood producers working with female writers on new... View Details

Keywords: Gender Inequality; Social Movement; Scandal; Creative Industries; Project Selection; Gender; Equality and Inequality; Social Issues; Film Entertainment; Projects; Change

Read Now

25 Mar 2016
Video

Sharon Peyer, Co-founder, & VP Business Development, HitBliss

Career Coach

Sarah Zia

Sarah is a veteran of the media & entertainment / tech industry (corporate and content strategy) and a career switcher (finance). She is particularly well-equipped to help... View Details

June 2010 (Revised January 2012)
Case

Blue Man Group: Creativity, Life and Surviving an Economic Meltdown

In 2008, Blue Man Group's three co-founders are facing the prospect of losing not just a business but a way of life they have built together. The case follows the story of Chris Wink, Matt Goldman, and Phil Stanton as they pursue their creative passion and build the... View Details

Keywords: Arts; Financial Crisis; Entrepreneurship; Crisis Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Brands and Branding; Personal Development and Career; Creativity; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

Educators

1998
Working Paper

Diversification and Risk Taking in the U.S. Cable Television Industry

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

Keywords: Risk Management; Diversification; Television Entertainment; Media and Broadcasting Industry; United States

01 Dec 1999
News

The Message and the Media: Advertising's Brave New World

companies strengthening themselves across several media activities. Thus Disney, which began as an entertainment provider before adding network and cable television companies, now owns a 43 percent stake in... View Details

Keywords: Peter K. Jacobs

July– September 2002
Article

Predictive Value and the Usefulness of Game Theoretic Models

By: Ido Erev, Alvin E. Roth, Robert L. Slonim and Greg Barron

Keywords: Value; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Theory

December 2014
Article

When to Sell Your Idea: Theory and Evidence from the Movie Industry

By: Hong Luo

I study a model of investment and sale of ideas and test its empirical implications using a novel data set from the market for original movie ideas. Consistent with the theoretical results, I find that buyers are reluctant to meet unproven sellers for early-stage... View Details

Keywords: Market For Ideas; Information Asymmetry; Expropriation Risk; Intermediary; Intellectual Property Protection; Strategy; Intellectual Property; Film Entertainment; Sales; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

Read Now

1998
Working Paper

Organizational Form and Risk Taking in the U.S. Cable Television Industry

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

Keywords: Risk Management; Organizational Design; Television Entertainment; Media and Broadcasting Industry; United States

April 1978
Article

Equilibrium Behavior and Repeated Play of the Prisoners' Dilemma

By: A. E. Roth and J. K. Murnighan

Keywords: Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Behavior

10 Dec 2015
Blog Post

Working with Professors at HBS

college to intern at Broadcast Music Inc. for four summers and through EBF I got to know and learn from network and studio executives about all facets of the industry. When I... View Details

2005
Chapter

Beyond 'Fun and Games': Outdoor Activities for Meaningful Leadership Development

Many managers and academics today view outdoor exercises as simply "fun and games." However, framed correctly, outdoor leadership activities provide a uniquely effective method for leadership development. They allow participants to access and explore the deeper... View Details

Keywords: Learning; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Leadership Development; Personal Development and Career; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Groups and Teams; Behavior; Emotions; Personal Characteristics; Alignment

Read Now

November 2018 (Revised February 2019)
Teaching Plan

Gimlet Media: A Podcasting Startup

By: John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

When digital distribution becomes an option for an analog industry, the effects on the incumbents can be devastating. Is podcasting the beginning of the end of radio? Can it do what streaming video did to television and websites did to print? Two former public radio... View Details

Keywords: Platforms And Ecosystems; Startup; Creative Industries; Digital Marketing; Podcasting; Business Startups; Media; Entertainment; Growth and Development Strategy; Digital Platforms; United States