Publications

June 2020
Article

Frenemies in Platform Markets: Heterogeneous Profit Foci as Drivers of Compatibility Decisions

By: Ron Adner, Jianqing Chen and Feng Zhu

We study compatibility decisions of two competing platform owners that generate profits through both hardware sales and royalties from content sales. We consider a game-theoretic model in which two platforms offer different standalone utilities to users. We find that... View Details

Keywords: Compatibility; Platform Competition; Profit Foci; Digital Platforms; Competition; Profit; Decision Making

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September 2000 (Revised February 2025)
Case

Netflix (2000)

By: E. Scott Mayfield

The CEO of a successful Internet start-up must decide whether to delay the company's initial public offering following a significant decline in the NASDAQ market during the spring of 2000. The company's CFO is asked to reevaluate the company's projected cash flow needs... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Contracts; Initial Public Offering; Cash Flow; Service Delivery; Financial Strategy; Web Services Industry

30 May 2016
Blog Post

Meet the HBS Sound Society

wanted to do something about it. After thinking about ways they could bring more music to HBS, they decided that setting up an official student club was the best option. They collaborated closely with Student Academic Services to get The... View Details

February 1998 (Revised August 2006)
Case

House of Tata, 1995: The Next Generation (A)

By: Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu and Danielle Melito Wu

The Tata Group began the 1990s as a confederation of loosely coupled firms. This case considers the rise to prominence of the new CEO of Tata Group, Ratan Tata, and his attempts to strengthen the inter-relationships among the group companies at a time when critics... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Business Conglomerates; Organizations; Corporate Strategy; Consolidation; Business Strategy; Alignment; Service Industry; Service Industry

15 Aug 2011
Research & Ideas

A New Model for Business: The Museum

curation—showing competitors' prices—than would a company whose products and services are easier to evaluate. Call it enlightened self-interest. I don't think we can expect manufacturers View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

05 Jul 2011
First Look

First Look: July 5

taking considerable initiative to deliver the highest quality personalized service in the hospitality industry. The case also highlights Aman's strategy and operations which... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

11 Apr 2007
Research & Ideas

Adding Time to Activity-Based Costing

Jane Gilbert: What inspired you to develop the concept of time-driven activity-based costing? Robert Kaplan: When Robin Cooper and I introduced ABC in the mid-1980s, we were strongly influenced by the approach taken by View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

January 2019 (Revised March 2020)
Case

Blackstone Alternative Asset Management in 2018

By: Emil Siriwardane, Luis M. Viceira and Shawn O'Brien

In early 2018, Blackstone announced that John McCormick would succeed Tom Hill as President and Chief Executive Officer of Blackstone Alternative Asset Management (BAAM), the largest fund-of-hedge funds in the world by a sizeable margin. As new CEO, McCormick must... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Expansion; Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Services Industry

August 2010 (Revised February 2011)
Case

Highland Capital Partners: Investing in Cleantech

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and David Kiron

One day during the summer of 2008, Paul Maeder, co-founder and general partner of Highland Capital Partners (HCP), was walking with his wife around Reykjavik, Iceland, marveling at how clean the city felt and at the widespread use of naturally occurring geothermal... View Details

Keywords: Renewable Energy; Entrepreneurship; Investment; Global Strategy; Environmental Sustainability; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry

14 Apr 2003
Research & Ideas

Andy Grove on the Confident Leader

digital form, stored in this platform, and therefore ready to be transported in digital form. WK: Journeying from one business model to another is a formidable leadership... View Details

Keywords: by Walter Kiechel; Technology

16 Jun 2020
Blog Post

Delivering Solutions During a Crisis: an Interview with Hans Kristian Furuseth

learn more about leadership, managing human capital, and strategy to complement my analytical background,” Furuseth notes. “While at HBS I took as many courses as I could on leadership View Details

04 Mar 2014
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Managing Innovation

Should managers lead innovation or get out of the way? It's not an either/or decision. Executives of some great innovative companies—Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg—are active participants in creation, getting their hands dusty in the View Details

Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty

October 2016 (Revised March 2017)
Case

uberPOOL

By: Marco Iansiti, Michael W. Toffel and Amram Migdal

This case describes Uber's uberPOOL service, which let multiple Uber users who were headed in the same direction share a ride and pay substantially lower fares. View Details

Keywords: Uber; uberPOOL; Innovation and Invention; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Digital Platforms; Transportation; Transportation Networks; Information Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Transportation Industry

December 2016 (Revised April 2017)
Case

BASF: Co-Creating Innovation (A)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Emilie Billaud and Vincent Dessain

In 2016, BASF's chief executive officer and chief technology officer reflected on the co-creation innovation program started almost 18 months ago as part of BASF's 150th anniversary celebration. Five hundred project ideas had been created, of which 100 had already... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Knowledge Sharing; Innovation Strategy; Innovation and Management; Chemicals; Environmental Sustainability; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Consumer Products Industry; Europe

November 2002 (Revised May 2007)
Case

Charles Schwab in 2002

By: Lynda M. Applegate, F. Warren McFarlan and Jamie Ladge

Details the evolution of the Charles Schwab business model, from its founding in 1975 to October 2002. The protagonist, David Pottruck, is faced with re-inventing the firm as a full-service brokerage at a time of tremendous industry instability as the industry reels... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Business Model; Business or Company Management; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Financial Services Industry

September 2024
Case

Open Door Legal: Universal Legal Access

By: Brian Trelstad, Taylor Greenthal and Sarah Mehta

This case is about Open Door Legal (ODL), a San Francisco-based civil legal aid nonprofit. CEO Adrian Tirtanadi founded the organization in 2012 with a mission to achieve universal access to legal representation for all city residents. By 2024, ODL had opened four... View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Law; Growth Management; Nonprofit Organizations; Civil Society or Community; Business Model; Expansion; Legal Services Industry; United States; California; Los Angeles; San Francisco

March 2001 (Revised February 2009)
Case

HDFC (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Suma Raju

The top management team at India's leading home finance company must decide how to deal with the emergence of intense competition at the end of the 1990s. Having founded the industry and dominated it for nearly 20 years, the well-respected company faces a bevy of new... View Details

Keywords: Values and Beliefs; Management Style; Management Teams; Competition; Financial Services Industry; India