Publications

October 2018
Case

Shield AI

By: Mitchell Weiss and A.J. Steinlage

Shield AI’s quadcopter – with no pilot and no flight plan – could clear a building and outpace human warfighters by almost five minutes. This was not to say that it was better than the warfighters or would replace their jobs, but it was evidence that autonomous robots... View Details

September 2009
Teaching Note

iZumi (TN)

By: Robert F. Higgins

Teaching Note for [809105]. View Details

Keywords: Perspective; Intellectual Property; Venture Capital; Innovation and Invention; Investment; Financing and Loans; Information Technology; Mergers and Acquisitions; Commercialization; Biotechnology Industry

22 Jun 2009
Research & Ideas

“Too Big To Fail”: Reining In Large Financial Firms

Council of Life Insurers, and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. The problem is, no one yet has shown how to measure systemic risk. "There are a number of people trying to develop the metrics right now," says Moss.... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson; Banking; Financial Services

October 2020 (Revised November 2023)
Case

COVID-19 Testing at Everlywell

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Olivia Hull

In March 2020, as COVID-19 spreads rapidly across the U.S., Everlywell founder Julia Cheek considers how to respond as a small start-up specializing in at-home lab testing. After making dramatic budget cuts, she decides to pivot the organization to address the... View Details

April 2021
Teaching Note

Drinkworks: Home Bar by Keurig

By: Sunil Gupta and Jonathan Levav

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 521-010. In the summer of 2018, Drinkworks CEO Nathaniel Davis needed to make a number of go-to-market decisions ahead of his company’s upcoming product launch. Formed through a joint venture between Keurig Dr. Pepper and Anheuser-Busch... View Details

26 Jun 2007
First Look

First Look: June 26, 2007

http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=707451 CircleLending, Inc. 2006 Harvard Business School Case 206-137 CircleLending, an innovative start-up, offered individuals the ability to set up and manage informal loans... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

04 Aug 2014
Op-Ed

Why Small-Business Lending Is Not Recovering

or more for the funds to actually be approved and made available. Some banks are even refusing to lend to businesses within particular industries (for example, restaurants) or below revenue thresholds of $2 million. Perhaps most... View Details

Keywords: by Karen Mills; Banking; Financial Services

January 2013
Case

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

By: Frances X. Frei and Robin J. Ely

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: Customer Relationship Management; Internet and the Web; Mergers and Acquisitions; Organizational Culture; Growth and Development Strategy; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry

September 2022 (Revised November 2022)
Teaching Note

PittaRosso: Artificial Intelligence-Driven Pricing and Promotion

By: Ayelet Israeli

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 522-046. View Details

September 2020 (Revised June 2023)
Supplement

Spreadsheet Supplement to Artea Teaching Note

By: Eva Ascarza and Ayelet Israeli

Spreadsheet Supplement to Artea Teaching Note 521-041. This collection of exercises aims to teach students about 1)Targeting Policies; and 2)Algorithmic bias in marketing—implications, causes, and possible solutions. Part (A) focuses on A/B testing analysis and... View Details

Keywords: Targeted Advertising; Algorithmic Data; Bias; Advertising; Race; Gender; Diversity; Marketing; Customer Relationship Management; Prejudice and Bias; Analytics and Data Science; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; United States

September 2020 (Revised July 2022)
Exercise

Artea (D): Discrimination through Algorithmic Bias in Targeting

By: Eva Ascarza and Ayelet Israeli

This collection of exercises aims to teach students about 1)Targeting Policies; and 2)Algorithmic bias in marketing—implications, causes, and possible solutions. Part (A) focuses on A/B testing analysis and targeting. Parts (B),(C),(D) Introduce algorithmic bias. The... View Details

Keywords: Targeted Advertising; Discrimination; Algorithmic Data; Bias; Advertising; Race; Gender; Marketing; Diversity; Customer Relationship Management; Prejudice and Bias; Analytics and Data Science; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; United States

May 1996 (Revised May 1997)
Case

Colliers International Property Consultants, Inc.: Managing a Virtual Organization

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Carin-Isabel Knoop

In less than 20 years, the real estate firm Colliers International expanded into a federation of 180 offices with close to 4,500 professionals in over 30 countries. Because Colliers expanded by signing up existing firms strong in their local markets, its leaders had to... View Details

Keywords: Demand and Consumers; Globalized Firms and Management; Management Practices and Processes; Service Operations; Information Technology; Organizational Structure; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Strategy; Budgets and Budgeting; Real Estate Industry

27 Aug 2013
First Look

First Look: August 27

outcomes while controlling for the endogenous matching of projects and organizational forms. Solo firm leases are less profitable than alliance leases because alliance members combine their information and expertise. Publisher's link:... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

06 Jun 2005
Research & Ideas

Microsoft vs. Open Source: Who Will Win?

cost-related reasons, governments back Linux because having access to the source code allows them to verify that sensitive data is treated securely. Binary code makes it hard to figure out who has access to information flowing in a... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

08 Apr 2008
First Look

First Look: April 8, 2008

http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=608080 Bidding on Martha's Vineyard (A) Harvard Business School Case 908-044 To buy a desirable Martha's Vineyard property, Robert and Sally Franklin must craft a bidding strategy View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

28 Oct 2008
First Look

First Look: October 28, 2008

important predictor of product performance, product variety, process flexibility and industry evolution. We explore this relationship in the software industry by use of a technique called Design Structure... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

November 2000 (Revised July 2001)
Case

Intuit QuickBooks

By: Rajiv Lal and Punima P Kochikar

Internet QuickBooks, a successful product with a strong brand and an 85% share of retail sales, was faced with the challenge of meeting market growth expectations in a mature, slowing market segment. Generating recurring revenues by providing value-added online... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Decisions; Growth and Development; Brands and Branding; Market Participation; Problems and Challenges; Internet and the Web; Value; Web Services Industry

2013
Working Paper

Where do the Most Active Customers Originate and How Can Firms Keep Them Engaged?

By: Clarence Lee, E. Ofek and Thomas Steenburgh

In this paper, we study how firms offering Web services can acquire and develop an active customer base. We focus on two basic questions. First, how does the method of customer acquisition affect the way customers use the service to meet their own needs and to interact... View Details

Keywords: Customer Engagement; Adoption Routes; Hidden Markov Models; Search; Word-of-Mouth; Digital Media; Customer Relationship Management; Internet and the Web; Mathematical Methods; Consumer Behavior; Entrepreneurship; Marketing Reference Programs; Web Services Industry

July 2017 (Revised November 2017)
Case

Propel

By: Mitchell Weiss and Sarah McAra

In 2014, Jimmy Chen, a former product manager at Facebook, founded the start-up Propel to build software for low-income Americans. After conducting in-depth behavioral research, Chen and his small team in New York City began to develop technology to address the... View Details