Publications

December 2001 (Revised January 2002)
Case

COSCO

By: F. Warren McFarlan and David Lane

Focuses on the IT challenges facing COSCO, one of the largest shipping companies in the world, as it deals with the Internet and modern information technology. The challenge is to understand what they are trying to do and understand the complexity of the task. View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Information Technology; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Technological Innovation; Complexity; Problems and Challenges; Shipping Industry; China

August 1997 (Revised March 1999)
Case

VeriFone (1997)

By: Richard L. Nolan, Anne Donnellon and Donna B. Stoddard

VeriFone, a leading manufacturer of payment systems technology, was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in June 1997. The case describes the strategic challenges that VeriFone faces as it positions itself to compete in the Internet payment systems marketplace. View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Internet; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Business Strategy; Information Technology Industry

06 Feb 2006
Research & Ideas

The Trouble Behind Livedoor

Takafumi Horie, the thirty-three-year-old CEO of Livedoor, had become Japan's anti-establishment enfant terrible: rich, hard charging, willing to take big risks such as the ultimately failed attempt to acquire a controlling interest in Nippon Broadcasting Systems.... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services; Technology

September 2000 (Revised January 2016)
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

April 1999
Case

Steve Perlman and WebTV (A)

By: James K. Sebenius and Ron Fortgang

The dynamics of a linked series of internal and external negotiations involved in launching, growing, and selling a high-tech, Internet start-up are explored. Steve Perlman unfurled an impressive new technology, recruited a top technical and management team, secured... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Agreements and Arrangements; Negotiation Tactics; Alliances; Internet; Communications Industry

February 2000 (Revised November 2000)
Case

Women.com

By: Myra M. Hart and Sarah S. Khetani

Entrepreneurs Ellen Pack and Marleen McDaniel have founded a women's online network and watched it grow from an online subscription service in 1992 to one of the best known, widely visited women's networks on the web in 1999. While the company's vision has remained... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Entrepreneurship; Internet and the Web; Partners and Partnerships; Initial Public Offering; Networks; Transition; Web Services Industry

2008
Simulation

Everest Leadership and Team Simulation

By: Michael A. Roberto and Amy C. Edmondson

This item is currently not available for purchase on this site. To order, please contact Customer Service - (800) 545-7685 or (617) 783-7600. **REVISED AUGUST 2009!** This web-based simulation uses the dramatic context of a Mount Everest expedition to reinforce student... View Details

Keywords: Cooperation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Groups and Teams; Knowledge Sharing; Leadership

23 May 2016
Research & Ideas

A Little Understanding Motivates Copyright Abusers to Pay Up

Obtaining an image from the Internet is as easy as right-clicking and downloading. We’ve all done it—or, ahem, know someone who has. We rarely think about who created these images or whether we have the rights to use them. This leaves the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Media & Broadcasting; Publishing

June 2016 (Revised January 2018)
Case

Airbnb, Etsy, Uber: Growing from One Thousand to One Million Customers

By: Thales S. Teixeira and Morgan Brown

By 2016, two-sided online platforms (or marketplaces) were pervasive among the highest growing internet startups around. These marketplaces sought to match suppliers of assets for rent, physical products or services with customers demanding them. Among the most notable... View Details

Keywords: Airbnb; Etsy; Uber; Growth Hacking; Two Sided Markets; Digital Platforms; Marketing; Digital Marketing; Growth Management; Service Industry

May 2004 (Revised May 2006)
Case

AsiaInfo: The IPO Decision

The cofounder and CEO of AsiaInfo, a Chinese system integrator that built 70% of China's Internet backbone, must decide whether to list equity in the United States to fund future growth. Describes the company and the decision. A rewritten version of a previous case. View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Initial Public Offering; Growth Management; Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Equity; Information Technology Industry; China; United States

20 Jul 2016
News

How Amazon Adapted Its Business Model to India

30 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Why Evolutionary Software Development Works

Given the importance of software, the lack of research on the best ways to manage its development is surprising. Many different models have been proposed since the much cited waterfall model emerged more than 30 years ago. Unfortunately, few studies have confirmed... View Details

Keywords: by Alan MacCormack; Technology

August 2000 (Revised February 2003)
Case

Borders Group, Inc.

By: Zeynep Ton and Ananth Raman

Describes Borders Group, a well-known retail chain, in late 1999 and its traditional strengths and rapid growth in the 1990s. By 1990, however, the company had fallen behind Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble in leveraging the Internet for book retailing, although it... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Distribution Channels; Service Operations; Business Growth and Maturation; Economic Growth; Industry Growth; Growth and Development; Internet; Business Model; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Supply and Industry; Retail Industry; Publishing Industry

11 Nov 2014
First Look

First Look: November 11

Publications November 2014 Harvard Business Review Cooks Make Tastier Food When They Can See Their Customers By: Buell, Ryan W., Tami Kim, and Chia-Jung Tsay Abstract—While existing theory suggests that increased contact between customers and employees diminishes... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

15 Apr 2013
News

Solving the Search vs. Display Advertising Quandary

November 2003 (Revised January 2004)
Case

XS, Inc.

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Joan McRobbie

XS, Inc. created a seller and buyer Internet for the $200 billion farm supply industry. How can this start-up remain the nonpartisan hub of this network, and how will it aid in the traceability of the U.S. food system? View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Food; System; Business Startups; Agribusiness; United States

08 Nov 2010
News

Web Browsing Takes a Social Turn

March 1998 (Revised October 2001)
Case

Xedia and Silicon Valley Bank (A)

By: Paul A. Gompers and Jon Biotti

Xedia, a networking equipment manufacturer that helps provide high-speed Internet service for corporate clients through access routing, wants a bridge loan to fund daily operations until it raises its next round of equity financing. View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Equity; Financing and Loans; Negotiation; Production; Internet; Banking Industry