Publications

April 2020 (Revised February 2023)
Case

GitLab and the Future of All-Remote Work (A)

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury and Emma Salomon

GitLab is arguably one of the world’s largest “all-remote” companies. Started in 2011 and with more than 1,000 employees at present, it has no physical offices and all employees, including the entire C-Suite, work remotely from all parts of the world. The case... View Details

Keywords: Remote Work; Internet and the Web; Technology Adoption; Value Creation; Business Model; Organizational Structure

06 Dec 2017
What Do You Think?

Is It Time To Break Up Amazon, Apple, Facebook, or Google?

Can a Platform-Based Tech Giant Be Broken Up? The answer to this month’s question of whether platform-based tech giants Amazon, Apple, Facebook, or Google should be broken up was a resounding “no.” “TD in FL” put it succinctly with one of the age-old defenses of... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Web Services; Web Services

01 Jun 2002
News

Up to the Challenge: Ipsita Dasgupta - Global Perspective, Local Results

provide microfinance to entrepreneurs. “People in developing countries grasp technology very quickly, but the big battle is literacy,” she remarks. Creating Web sites that use images and numbers instead of text is one tactic for crossing... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; development; leadership; social issues; management; technology; Finance; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

April 2014 (Revised June 2015)
Case

Making stickK Stick: The Business of Behavioral Economics

By: Leslie John, Michael Norton and Michael Norris

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

stickK.com, a website that uses behavioral economics to help users achieve their goals, must choose between a direct-to-consumer or business-to-business model. The case... View Details

Keywords: Behavioral Economics; Behavior Change; B2B Vs. B2C; Human Resource Management; Marketing Of Innovations; Health ＆ Wellness; Weight Loss; Charitable Giving; Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Entrepreneurship; Internet and the Web; Health; Business Model; Sales; Human Resources; Health Industry; United States

Person Page

Press / Media

By: Karim R. Lakhani

Can America Invent Its Way Back?

BusinessWeek, by Michael Mandel, 12 Sept. 2008

Today, researchers are focusing on ways to make those... View Details

November 2002 (Revised February 2010)
Case

Intel Corporation: 1968-2003

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, David B. Yoffie and Sasha Mattu

Describes three stages in Intel's history: the initial success and then collapse in DRAMs and EPROMs, its transition to and dominance in microprocessors, and its move to become the main supplier of the building blocks for the Internet economy. Allows a rich discussion... View Details

Keywords: History; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Internet and the Web; Information Technology; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Industry Structures; Information Technology Industry; Technology Industry

09 Jun 2008
Lessons from the Classroom

Monetizing IP: The Executive’s Challenge

According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, intellectual property in this country is worth more than $5 trillion—about twice the amount of the current federal budget. The question: Are companies taking advantage of this value? Not as much as they could be, is... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Web Services; Web Services

04 Feb 2021
News

Andy Jassy Named Amazon’s New CEO

Amazon announced this week that Andy Jassy (MBA 1997) will take over the role of CEO from founder Jeff Bezos later this year. Jassy has been with Amazon since 1997 and currently runs Amazon Web Services, which the Wall Street Journal... View Details

October 2009 (Revised June 2011)
Case

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

By: Frances X. Frei, Robin J. Ely and Laura Winig

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: Mergers and Acquisitions; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Choices and Conditions; Governing and Advisory Boards; Service Delivery; Organizational Culture; Internet and the Web; Valuation; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail Industry

11 Mar 2024
News

In Harmony

Encyclopedia Brown series, and kept going. Charlotte’s Web was the first book in English to make him cry. Kim fell in love with books, later majoring in English literature at Haverford College and imagining what it would be like when he... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; photograph by Jun Michael Park

22 Dec 2020
Blog Post

The Forward Fellowship Convinced Me That I Belong at HBS

graduation, I’ll be moving to Seattle and starting as a Sr. Product Manager at Amazon Web Services, but no matter where I head off to next, I will always be extremely proud to tout the fact that no, I was never supposed to make it to... View Details

October 2021 (Revised February 2022)
Case

Newsweek: Driving a Digital First Strategy

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Suraj Srinivasan

The case describes the transformation at Newsweek, the storied news magazine that had fallen from its commanding position as a premier print publication unable to find its footing in the fast changing digital media landscape. After buying Newsweek and taking over as... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Strategy; Internet and the Web; Analytics and Data Science; Performance Evaluation; Partners and Partnerships

Fast Answer

Capital IQ: Introduction, Help, Etc.

qualitative items such as education (i.e., HBS alumni), job functions, transaction history, corporate actions, etc. "Six Degrees of Separation" - Find common bonds and generate potential "warm" call leads by mapping a person's View Details

January 2020 (Revised May 2020)
Case

Direct to Consumer Brands

By: Sunil Gupta

Recent years have seen the dramatic rise of direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands by several startups. Many of these brands, such as Dollar Shave Club, Harry’s, Glossier, and Allbirds, entered mature markets dominated by established companies, and yet they grew rapidly to... View Details

Keywords: Direct-to-consumer; Digital Marketing; Industry Evolution; Business Startups; Internet and the Web; Brands and Branding; Marketing; Change

2014
Working Paper

Digital Discrimination: The Case of Airbnb.com

By: Benjamin Edelman and Michael Luca

Online marketplaces often contain information not only about products, but also about the people selling the products. In an effort to facilitate trust, many platforms encourage sellers to provide personal profiles and even to post pictures of themselves. However,... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Internet and the Web; Race; Trust; Renting or Rental; Accommodations Industry; Real Estate Industry

SSRN

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Web

Marketing Awards & Honors - Faculty & Research

Case Centre Award in the Marketing Category for her case with Thomas Steenburgh and Naseem Dahod, “HubSpot: Inbound Marketing and Web 2.0” (HBS Case No. 509-049). Anita Elberse : Awarded Amazon’s "Best Books of 2013," Business and... View Details

August 2023
Case

WayCool: Reimagining the Food Supply Chain

By: Paul Gompers and Kairavi Dey

Founded in 2015, WayCool, is an Indian agri-tech start-up that built a B2B operation acquiring fruits and vegetables from product-specific agriculture companies and small-holding farmers. It sold them to business customers, such as local retail stores, restaurants, and... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Digital Transformation; Operations; Business Strategy; Supply Chain; Performance; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Technology Industry; Web Services Industry; Asia; South Asia

30 Mar 2018
What Do You Think?

What Should Mark Zuckerberg Do?

amesy SUMMING UP: Should Facebook Change Its Business Model? Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, received a great deal of advice from respondents to this month’s column. It included ideas that haven’t gained much attention in the press. Along with the advice came comments... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Web Services; Web Services

February 2002 (Revised October 2005)
Case

BMWFilms

By: Youngme E. Moon and Kerry Herman

Jim McDowell, VP of marketing at BMW North America, is debating how to follow up the success of his latest marketing campaign, "BMWFilms." This campaign features five short films for the Internet, directed by some of the hottest young directors in Hollywood. By all... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Internet and the Web; Marketing Strategy; Film Entertainment; Innovation and Invention; Auto Industry; North and Central America