Publications

31 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

The Most Powerful Workplace Motivator

academic paper repository, with more than 100,000 authors and 500,000 registered users who have the opportunity to view or download every paper on the site. For each paper, SSRN creates a web page that includes statistics on how many... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

April 2012 (Revised February 2017)
Case

Dovernet

By: Robert Simons and Natalie Kindred

This case illustrates the implications of using stringent performance measurement systems to create performance pressure, motivate employee achievement, and sharpen a firm's competitiveness. It opens by describing the downsides of the ruthlessly competitive culture at... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Information Technology; Competitive Advantage; Decision Choices and Conditions; Organizational Culture; Performance Evaluation; Compensation and Benefits; Web Services Industry; Web Services Industry; Vancouver

September 2014 (Revised June 2017)
Case

Google Inc. in 2014

By: Benjamin Edelman and Thomas R. Eisenmann

Describes Google's history, business model, governance structure, corporate culture, and processes for managing innovation. Reviews Google's recent strategic initiatives and the threats they pose to selected competitors. Asks what Google should do next. View Details

Keywords: Search Engines; Google; Online Advertising; Internet and the Web; Network Effects; Business Model; Competition; Digital Marketing; Information Technology Industry; Advertising Industry

September 2021 (Revised December 2023)
Case

On the Bubble: Startup Bootstrapping

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Tom Quinn and Annelena Lobb

Bubble was a software company in the low-code/no-code market, making tools that allowed users without traditional programming backgrounds or technical skills to build software. The case covers cofounder Joshua Haas’s engineering background, as he experienced a high... View Details

August 2013 (Revised September 2015)
Case

Coursera

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Hyunjin Kim

By providing free and open-access online courses at a large scale, Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platforms seek to innovate the business models of the traditional higher education industry. In a little over a year, Coursera had grown at a rapid rate to emerge as a... View Details

Keywords: Business Models; Strategy; Competition; Business Model; Internet and the Web; Higher Education; Competitive Advantage; Education Industry

Web

Technology & Operations Management Awards & Honors - Faculty & Research

: Winner of the 2016 Schumpeter Prize for How the Internet Became Commercial (Princeton University Press, 2015). Robert S. Huckman : Received the 2016 Robert F. Greenhill Award. Himabindu Lakkaraju : Recipient of the Outstanding Reviewer Award at the 2016 World Wide... View Details

December 2020 (Revised December 2021)
Case

Komatsu and Smart Construction

By: Rajiv Lal, David J. Collis and Akiko Saito

Komatsu, Japan's leading construction equipment manufacturer, is considering investing in a digital platform "Smart Construction" that will digitise the entire work process on a construction site, allowing for substantial reductions in cost and time while improving... View Details

Keywords: Platform; Digital Business; Construction; Business Model; Strategy; Technology Adoption; Internet and the Web; Digital Platforms; Construction Industry; Japan

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

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

03 Jul 2013
What Do You Think?

What Are the Limits of Transparency?

presentations and record them for our internal Web site. We open that for review to a 360-degree workshop. What happened? You cannot lie You are going to put your best work into it ." This policy may not be appropriate for all... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

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

02 Aug 2020
What Do You Think?

Is the 'Experimentation Organization' Becoming the Competitive Gold Standard?

Korrawin SUMMING UP Will Digital Experimentation Take Hold in Industies Outside High Tech? The several responses to this month’s column generally were favorable to the notion that experimentation is gaining momentum as an everyday habit in many organizations,... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Technology

June 2014
Case

Going Social: Durex in China

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski and Aaron Smith

When Reckitt Benckiser (RB), a leading consumer goods company, first entered China, it encountered significant challenges. RB's strategy relied on selling high margin products supported by cost-effective advertising and distribution, but the highly competitive Chinese... View Details

Keywords: Distribution; Multinational Firms and Management; Internet and the Web; Marketing Communications; Brands and Branding; Consumer Products Industry; China

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

June 1998 (Revised August 2001)
Case

Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (A)

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Nicole Tempest

Wells Fargo, the industry leader in electronic banking, has implemented a Balanced Scorecard in its online financial services group (OFS) to track and measure performance. The OFS group develops and supports services that allow existing and future banking customers to... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Internet and the Web; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Corporate Strategy; Performance Evaluation; Finance; Change; Situation or Environment; Measurement and Metrics; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry

25 Mar 2015
HBS Case

Tate’s Digital Makeover Transforms the Traditional Museum

Twitter' but when asked why or to what end, often there isn't a lot of strategic thinking behind their decision to be in social media." As apps, blogs, and social media have transformed the Internet in the past decade from the static content environment of View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Education

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