Publications

April 2015
Teaching Plan

Codecademy: Monetizing a Movement?

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Lisa Mazzanti

This is a Teaching Plan for the case on Codecademy, an open-platform, online community for learning computer programming, launched in 2011. By 2014, the company had raised a total of $12.5 million in funding and was, on many fronts, an overwhelming success. However,... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Internet and the Web; Open Source Distribution; Social Entrepreneurship; Education

Web

General Management - Faculty & Research

"How to Build a Life: The Ciceronian Secret to Happiness." The Atlantic (July 3, 2025). SWEN Blue Ocean: Impact Investing Goes to Sea By: Vikram S Gandhi and David Allen June 2025 | Teaching Plan | Faculty Research Teaching View Details

September 2022
Case

AllSpice: GitHub for Hardware Engineers

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Mel Martin

AllSpice, a software-as-a-service company that built a GitHub-like revision control tool for hardware engineers, was in the midst of preparing for rapid scale when the 2022 market downturn left them with big decisions to make. Cofounder and CEO Valentina Ratner had to... View Details

Keywords: Scaling; SaaS; Strategy; Marketing; Growth and Development Strategy; Resource Allocation; Customer Focus and Relationships; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United States

December 2015 (Revised May 2016)
Case

Jibo: A Social Robot for the Home

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Christine Snively

In January 2015, Jibo Inc. had completed a raise of $25.3 million in Series A financing after a successful 2014 crowdfunding campaign for preorders of Jibo, the first social robot for the home. Over 4,800 Jibo units were preordered, generating $2.6 million in sales. On... View Details

Keywords: Business Development; Entrepreneurship; Applications and Software; Information Infrastructure; Business Startups; Technology Industry

13 May 2014
News

Arianna Huffington's Tips on How to Feel Better and Get More Done

February 2017
Case

Dick's Sporting Goods

By: Rajiv Lal, Jose B. Alvarez and Matthew G. Preble

Edward Stack, chairman and CEO of Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS), faced a rapidly changing sporting goods landscape in October 2016. Two large competitors—The Sports Authority and Sport Chalet—had folded earlier that year, and DKS had to contend with increasingly robust... View Details

04 Apr 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, April 4

Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=51635 forthcoming Journal of Financial Economics Cost of Experimentation and the Evolution of Venture Capital By: Ewens, Michael, Ramana Nanda, and Matthew Rhodes-Kropf Abstract—We study how View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2011 (Revised November 2013)
Case

The Cheezburger Network

By: John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

Cheezburger Network was a Web publisher of humorous, user-contributed content, using social media for dissemination, and selling advertising against the traffic of 1 billion page views per quarter. In January 2011, it raised $30 million in venture capital for the... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Digital Marketing; Customer Relationship Management; Venture Capital; Emerging Markets; Strategic Planning; Sales; Internet and the Web; Publishing Industry; Web Services Industry

Web

Research - Global

Research September 2025 Article Journal of Development Economics Using Satellites and Phones to Evaluate and Promote Agricultural Technology Adoption: Evidence from Smallholder Farms in India By: Shawn Cole , Tomoko Harigaya, Grady... View Details

July 2024 (Revised May 2025)
Teaching Note

Leading Culture Change at Microsoft Western Europe

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Catherine Huang

This teaching plan is designed to be used in conjunction with the case study “Leading Culture Change at Microsoft Western Europe,” HBS No. 624-096, to help faculty deepen student understanding of psychological safety and organizational culture transformation through... View Details

Keywords: Culture Change; General Management; Psychological Safety; Leadership; Transformation; Organizational Culture; Problems and Challenges; Groups and Teams; Business or Company Management; Technology Industry; Europe

March 2021
Supplement

Facebook's Libra (B): The Privatization of Money?

By: Marco Di Maggio, Ethan Rouen, George Serafeim and Amy Klopfenstein

This case addresses the events that took place following the conclusion of the case “Facebook’s Libra (A): The Privatization of Money?” In October 2019, several months after the conclusion of the A case, multiple members of the Libra Association announced that they... View Details

22 Aug 2006
First Look

First Look: August 22, 2006

technological development, corporate strategy, and organizational change. Viewing cartels only as a "conspiracy against the public" short-circuits many important questions and obscures the great variations in objectives, type,... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

20 Apr 2017
Blog Post

Why I Love My Job: Ching Ching Chen On Her Passion For the Music Industry

music, as major players make significant changes to their business model in an effort to adapt to technological changes. We are at a critical inflection point, and the opportunity to shape the direction of the industry inspires me... View Details

Keywords: Entertainment / Media / Sports

Web

Asia Pacific - Global

refraining from expropriation. Additional predictions of the framework are tested and supported by the data. June 2025 Case TagHive: Edtech Pricing and Distributor Decisions By: Isamar Troncoso , Frank V. Cespedes and Stacy Straaberg Education View Details

23 May 2017
First Look

First Look at New Ideas and Research: May 23, 2017

technology firms, we show that founders who received advice from other founders with more “hands-on” management styles were more likely to reorient their own management activity and, subsequently, experience lower employee attrition and... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

October 2011 (Revised September 2014)
Case

Paddle8: Painting a New Picture of the Art Market

By: Mukti Khaire

The Paddle8 case is a short case that presents the idea for a new business in the global art market and asks students to evaluate whether it will work, given the structure and unique workings of the art market. Paddle8 is a New York-based startup that partners with... View Details

Keywords: Arts; Business Plan; Business Startups; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Internet and the Web; Trade; Fine Arts Industry; New York (city, NY)