Publications

August 2022
Case

SuperRare: Turning an NFT Marketplace into a DAO

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Scott Duke Kominers and Amy Klopfenstein

In June 2021, John Crain and Jonathan Perkins, the founders of SuperRare, a marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), contemplate whether to transform their company into a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Crain and Perkins founded SuperRare in 2018 to... View Details

24 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: Jan. 24

that priming relevant networks (e.g., family or friends) makes products associated with those networks more attractive. Read the paper: http://www.people.hbs.edu/mnorton/anik norton.pdf The Influence of Prior Industry Affiliation on Framing in Nascent Industries: The... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

21 Aug 2017
Lessons from the Classroom

Companies Love Big Data But Lack the Strategy To Use It Effectively

Source: peterhowell Big data has shifted the ground under every business, enough so that many managers are waking up to the fact that they are already behind in developing a smart data strategy. Data has always been important in business, of course. But with the... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

03 May 2023
Research & Ideas

Why Confronting Racism in AI 'Creates a Better Future for All of Us'

share research on the intersection of race and capitalism—specifically, on race and technology since we live in the age of the digital transition and race is inherently embedded in algorithms and code simply because of who created the... View Details

Keywords: by Barbara DeLollis

27 Feb 2017
Research & Ideas

Reputation is Vital to Survival in Turbulent Markets

Organizations with great reputations can draw large and loyal followings. Source: iStock In developed countries, the best friends of businesses are the legal, political, and social institutions—banks, courts, intellectual property... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

January 2019 (Revised October 2019)
Case

Rural Taobao: Alibaba's Expansion into Rural E-Commerce

By: Tarun Khanna, Ryan Allen, Adam Frost and Wesley Koo

Alibaba's Rural Taobao initiative had been launched in 2014 as a public service initiative to increase e-commerce adoption in China’s remote rural areas. In the first two iterations of the initiative, dubbed “1.0” and “2.0,” Alibaba had partnered with local businesses... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Business Growth; Ecommerce; Corporate Social Responsibility; Business And Government; Emerging Market; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Emerging Markets; Rural Scope; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Government Relations; Decision Making; E-commerce; China

28 Jan 2020
Book

Advanced Leadership Requires More Than Outside-The-Box Thinking

Sometimes, thinking outside the box isn’t ambitious enough to get real innovation flowing. In her new book, Rosabeth Moss Kanter encourages organization leaders to think much more broadly at what restricts creativity and how to overcome... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

January 2022
Case

Bee-ing Better at Bombas

By: Elizabeth A. Keenan, Youngme Moon and John Masko

David Heath and Randy Goldberg founded Bombas in 2013 to serve two missions: to deliver the “best socks in the history of feet,” and to donate socks (the most requested item in homeless shelters) to Americans experiencing homelessness. Eight years later, Bombas had... View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Values and Beliefs; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Digital Marketing; Distribution; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Quality; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Human Needs; Poverty; Growth and Development Strategy; Apparel and Accessories Industry; New York (city, NY)

08 Mar 2022
Research & Ideas

Representation Matters: Building Case Studies That Empower Women Leaders

opportunities for women to lead. At HBS, we create case studies to help teach students to become future leaders. Each case generally focuses on one organization and features a protagonist, often an executive facing a difficult decision or... View Details

Keywords: by Colleen Ammerman and Boris Groysberg

August 2018 (Revised October 2019)
Case

C3.ai—Driven to Succeed

By: Robert Simons and George Gonzalez

CEO Tom Siebel navigates his artificial intelligence (ai) startup through a series of pivots, market expansions, and even an elephant attack to become a leading platform ad service provider. The case describes his unusual management approach emphasizing employee... View Details