Publications

November 2017
Case

The Digital Factory – Siemens: Electronic Works Amberg

By: Rajiv Lal and Scott F. Johnson

The Electronic Works Amberg (EWA) was Siemens' most advanced factory. The plant built industrial automation equipment using state-of-the-art manufacturing techniques. Siemens was considering creating a consulting business for its manufacturing clients. Given the EWA's... View Details

Keywords: Siemens; Internet Of Things; Industrie 4.0; Manufacturing; Consulting; Digital Factory; Ewa; Amberg; Electronic Works Amberg; Information Technology; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Applications and Software; Internet and the Web; Production; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Germany

September 2020 (Revised December 2020)
Case

Hot Wheels at Mattel: Reinventing the Wheel

By: Elie Ofek, Andres Terech and Nicole Tempest Keller

In 2017, Chris Down, Global Brand General Manager for Hot Wheels, and his team from the Advanced Play Group within Mattel, Inc., were considering which innovation path to pursue in order to "future proof" the Hot Wheels franchise going forward. Hot Wheels was the... View Details

Keywords: Toys; Industry Evolution; Innovation Strategy; Product Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Technological Innovation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Decision Making; Digital Transformation

January 2021 (Revised June 2023)
Case

Biobot Analytics

By: Raymond Kluender, Joshua Krieger and Mitchell Weiss

In 2017, Newsha Ghaeli and Mariana Matus were deciding whether to leave their labs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, put other job opportunities aside, and dive full-time into founding a wastewater analysis start-up, Biobot. Ghaeli, an architect, and Matus,... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Information Technology; City; Analytics and Data Science; Personal Development and Career; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United States; Kuwait; Korean Peninsula

06 Jul 2011
Research & Ideas

Are You a Level-Six Leader?

percent of revenue, down from 6 percent during the 1990s, the Carly Fiorina/Mark Hurd team "saved" HP about $4 billion—about the equivalent of half the profits earned during Hurd's last year. HP's once formidable technological... View Details

Keywords: by Mitch Maidique

Web

Industry Information - Alumni

current picture of the CPG business. CGT Consumer Goods Technology A collection of news, articles, featured content, sponsored events. A mission of being the intersection of business and technology in the... View Details

Web

What You Can Support - Alumni

and should be a force for good and is developing new insights and tools to address key societal challenges. Digital Innovation HBS is harnessing the latest technology to educate students, conduct real-world research, and provide lifelong... View Details

14 Jul 2016
Blog Post

Dating at HBS

discussion group, I came to respect him greatly. We always ended up on the same side of the arguments, and whereas I could teach him Finance he excelled in Technology and Operations Management, so we complemented each other’s skillset. We... View Details

Web

Harvard Environmental Centers - Business & Environment

Kennedy School Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs is the hub of Harvard Kennedy School's research, teaching, and training in international security and diplomacy, environmental and resource... View Details

2023
Working Paper

Beyond the Hype: Unveiling the Marginal Benefits of 3D Virtual Tours in Real Estate

By: Mengxia Zhang and Isamar Troncoso

3D virtual tours (VTs) have become a popular digital tool in real estate platforms, enabling potential buyers to virtually walk through the houses they search for online. In this paper, we study home sellers’ adoption of VTs and the VTs’ relative benefits compared to... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; AI and Machine Learning; Technology Adoption; Real Estate Industry

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January 2022 (Revised February 2022)
Case

Envision Group

By: Gunnar Trumbull, Bonnie Yining Cao and Dawn H. Lau

Based in China, Envision was one of the world’s leading Greentech companies. Chief Executive Officer Lei Zhang had set the goal of achieving carbon neutrality across the company’s global operations and supply chain by 2022 and 2028 respectively. As part of its... View Details

Keywords: Green Technology; Climate Change; Emerging Markets; Information Technology; Strategy; Management; Renewable Energy; Energy Policy; Environmental Sustainability; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; Green Technology Industry; Battery Industry; China; United States; Japan; United Kingdom; France

Web

The Challenge of Color - The High Art of Photographic Advertising - Baker Library | Bloomberg Center

Muray Photo Archives. olvwork490166 Alfred Cheney Johnston. A Study in Color, ca. 1934. olvwork490098 Color photography made its appearance in magazine advertising in the 1890s through the process of chromolithography. Advances in the 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

Web

General Management Awards & Honors - Faculty & Research

years by the Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) School of Business and Management. Regina E. Herzlinger : Named one of Healthcare Management International 's "100 Most Influential People in Healthcare--World Edition" in the... View Details

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; Technology; Technology

Web

A Chronicle of the China Trade. The Papers of Augustine Heard & Co., 1840-1877

personal perspectives of the life and trajectory of a nineteenth—century firm—a firm that prospered at the height of the China trade and met its decline with the advent of new technologies and the emergence of the Chinese as mainstream... View Details

June 2014
Case

Financial Policy at Apple, 2013 (A)

By: Mihir A. Desai and Elizabeth A. Meyer

By the end of 2013, Apple had $137 billion dollars in cash and marketable securities. This case explores how companies can generate such large amounts of cash and how and if they should distribute it to shareholders, especially in the face of shareholder pressure. In... View Details

Keywords: Apple; Steve Jobs; Forecast; Forecasting; Forecasting And Prediction; Shareholder Activism; Share Repurchase; Dividends; Financial Ratios; Preferred Shares; Cash Distribution; Corporate Finance; Borrowing and Debt; Financial Management; Financial Strategy; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United States; Republic of Ireland

December 2018
Case

DraftKings and the Future of Fantasy Sports

By: Robert F. Higgins and Julia Kelley

Founded in 2012, DraftKings helped change the fantasy sports landscape by popularizing daily fantasy sports (DFS), or short-term fantasy sports tournaments that offered big cash prizes to winners. The company’s valuation exceeded $1 billion by 2015, but DraftKings soon... View Details

September 2019 (Revised November 2019)
Case

Pinduoduo

By: Feng Zhu, Krishna G. Palepu, Bonnie Yining Cao and Dawn H. Lau

Founded in 2015 by serial entrepreneur, Colin Huang, Pinduoduo Inc. (PDD) had become China’s fastest-growing e-commerce platform in history. PDD pioneered a new approach to online shopping that allowed shoppers to share products, invite friends to form shopping teams,... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Business Model; Innovation and Invention; Competitive Advantage; Expansion; Strategy; E-commerce