Publications

16 Feb 2021
Research & Ideas

To Fight Climate Change, Should Green Investors Reconsider Big Oil?

investment or standing in the way? The results of the study have already drawn the attention of pension funds and other asset managers. Some observers have questioned whether oil producers are really using the technologies they’re... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Energy

05 Apr 2011
First Look

First Look: April 5

PublicationsThe Labor Illusion: How Operational Transparency Increases Perceived Value Authors:Ryan W. Buell and Michael I. Norton Publication:Management Science (forthcoming) Abstract A ubiquitous feature of even the fastest self-service View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

Past Projects | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

Eligibility & Criteria Awards How to Apply Past Projects New York City Urban Innovation Roadmap - "Pilot: New York City" Spring 2023 | Focus : Urban Economic Development; Technology; Ecosystem Strategy Team: Zoe Zabor Description: In... View Details

19 Feb 2019
Blog Post

The First Five Years: '30 Under 30' Edition

make the strategy stronger, and then having the buy-in that leads to execution.” Pathipati: “I constantly use takeaways from HBS. The investing, finance, and strategy classes helped me develop the pattern... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

February 2022 (Revised February 2023)
Case

TikTok in 2020: Super App or Supernova? (Abridged)

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Dan Maher and Dan O'Brien

TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, was launched in 2012 around a simple idea—helping users entertain themselves on their smartphones while on the Beijing Subway. In less than a decade, it had become one of the world’s most valuable private companies, with investors... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platform; Artificial Intelligence; AI; Mobile App; Mobile App Industry; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Market Entry and Exit; Brands and Branding; Growth and Development Strategy; China

August 2010 (Revised May 2015)
Teaching Note

Bank of America: Mobile Banking and Bank of America: Mobile Banking (Abridged)

By: Sunil Gupta

Teaching Note for 510063 and 512082 View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Strategy; Customers; Technology Adoption; Decisions; Product Launch; Mobile Technology; Banking Industry

24 Aug 2021
News

What We Still Need to Learn about AI in Marketing — and Beyond

December 2020
Case

VIA Science (A)

By: Juan Alcácer, Rembrand Koning, Annelena Lobb and Kerry Herman

Via (a) captures the early days of the data analytics startup as founders Gounden and Ravanis considered which markets offer the right opportunities for their firm and what kinds of experiments will help them narrow their choice. Supplement Via (b) reveals the... View Details

Keywords: Data Analytics; Machine Learning; Artificial Intelligence; Strategy; Business Startups; Markets; AI and Machine Learning; Telecommunications Industry; Utilities Industry; United States; Japan

April 2011
Module Note

The Boundaries of Customer Information Systems: Limiting Management Awareness of Strategic Opportunities

By: Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez

Keywords: Customers; Information Management; Boundaries; Growth and Development Strategy

June 2005
Case

CarMax

By: Rajiv Lal and David Kiron

Carmax is the largest multi-market used car dealer in the U.S., and has no format-to-format competitor in the $375 billion used car market. CarMax is trying to do what some analysts believed to be impossible: sell used cars profitably on a national scale, and at the... View Details

Keywords: Profit; Brands and Branding; Digital Platforms; Segmentation; Auto Industry

September 1998 (Revised December 1998)
Case

Palm Computing: The Pilot Organizer

Palm Computing appears to be the first to have gotten it "right" in the PDA (personal digital assistant) market. Palm Computing has designed a radically new product which will appeal to certain market segments. However, it is unclear how Palm Computing will fare... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Competition; Product Launch; Electronics Industry

27 Sep 2021
News

AI Adoption Skyrocketed Over the Last 18 Months

01 Dec 2003
News

Meg's World

It’s been hard for eBay CEO Meg Whitman (MBA ’79) to stay out of the limelight lately. Fortune put her on the cover of its August 11 edition and named eBay eighth among the magazine’s “100 Fastest-Growing Companies.” CBS MarketWatch named Whitman the recipient of its... View Details

Keywords: Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

March 2006 (Revised December 2009)
Compilation

Skype

By: Peter A. Coles and Thomas R. Eisenmann

Presents eBay's rationale for its $2.6 billion acquisition in late 2005 of Skype, a fast growing voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) provider. Describes Skype's history, technology, business model, and competition, as well as government regulation of VoIP services. View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Model; Communication Technology; Growth and Development Strategy; Network Effects; Competitive Strategy; Internet and the Web; Information Infrastructure; Telecommunications Industry

March 27, 2025
Article

How One Company Used AI to Broaden Its Customer Base

By: Sunil Gupta and Frank V. Cespedes

The software company SAP successfully leveraged AI tools to begin selling to the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) market, which had previously been uneconomical for its in-person sales approach. By mapping the customer journey and deploying over 40 AI tools, SAP... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Sales; Business Strategy; Market Entry and Exit

Read Now

01 Dec 2002
News

HBS Alumni Association Board of Directors: President's Report

upon the School to keep alumni up-to-date on its latest initiatives. Given the recent explosion of technological advances, there are many new ways to share this information. This committee will look at the mix of print and electronic... View Details

06 May 2014
First Look

First Look: May 6

http://www.palgraveconnect.com/esm/doifinder/10.1057/9781137294678.0461 August 2013 Journal of Economics & Management Strategy Delegation in Multi-Establishment Firms: Evidence from I.T. Purchasing By: McElheran, Kristina Steffenson... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

09 Feb 2018
Research & Ideas

Big Hits: The Best of the 2018 Super Bowl Ads

public’s interest and underscore its anxiety regarding artificial intelligence, playing with themes of machines with minds of their own, the loss of privacy, and the rise of false intimacy that technological advances are bringing to... View Details

Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty; Telecommunications

February 2020
Case

Intellectual Ventures Update 2020

By: David B. Yoffie and Daniel Fisher

After raising $6 billion and buying 60,000 patents, Intellectual Venture (IV) was confronted with a changing legal environment. After a number of important legal decisions, including the Supreme Court's so-called "Alice" decision, IV had to shift strategy. IV sold off... View Details

Keywords: Intellectual Property; Strategy; Innovation and Invention; Information Technology; Business Model; United States