Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(1,567)
- Faculty Publications (549)
- September 2022 (Revised January 2025)
- Case
The Pokémon Company: Evolving into an Everlasting Brand
By: Tomomichi Amano and Masaki Nomura
Super Bowl 50, the fiftieth annual championship game of the American National Football League played in February 2016, featured 52 commercials, and brands spent more than six million dollars each for a 30-second commercial slot. Surprisingly, the commercial that... View Details
- September 2022 (Revised November 2023)
- Case
Wordle
After sourdough bread, countertop chive gardens, and vaccine selfies came a pandemic-era trend that everyone seemed to be in on: one daily chance to guess a five-letter word and crow about your success on social media via little green and yellow squares. From a... View Details
- September 2022 (Revised January 2023)
- Case
Bear to Bull: An Analyst’s Journey with Netflix
By: Aiyesha Dey, Joseph Pacelli, Jennifer G. Lawson and Tom Quinn
Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said “hell freezing over” was more likely than him upgrading the “sell” rating he had maintained on movie and television streaming giant Netflix since 2011, despite meteoric subscriber and share price growth. In 2022, however,... View Details
- August 2022
- Course Overview Note
Arts and Cultural Entrepreneurship
By: Rohit Deshpandé
- August 2022 (Revised June 2024)
- Exercise
How Should Netflix Add an Ad-Supported Tier?
By: Elie Ofek and Olivier Toubia
In the summer of 2022, it became clear that Netflix would introduce an ad-supported tier alongside its existing subscription plans in the near future. Speculation abounded as to the details of the new tier: How many minutes of advertising would it include? What picture... View Details
- August 2022 (Revised March 2023)
- Case
Pricing at Netflix: The Sequel
By: Elie Ofek and Amy Klopfenstein
This case continues the themes discussed in "Pricing at Netflix" (Case 521-004). Following the conclusion of the original case, Netflix developed new, high-profile original content, added millions of subscribers, and introduced another price increase in January 2022.... View Details
Keywords: Marketing; Advertising; Marketing Strategy; Entertainment; Film Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Finance; Strategy; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Business Strategy; Adaptation; Internet and the Web; Customers; Customer Satisfaction; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; North and Central America; United States
- July 2022 (Revised January 2025)
- Case
Call of Fiduciary Duty: Microsoft Acquires Activision Blizzard
By: Jonas Heese, Joseph Pacelli and James Barnett
In January 2022, Microsoft announces its acquisition of the video game company Activision Blizzard, in a deal valued at $68.7 billion, which would make Microsoft the world’s third largest video game company. The deal came as Activision Blizzard faced gender pay... View Details
Keywords: Accounting; Goodwill Accounting; Analysis; Decision Making; Talent and Talent Management; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Ethics; Leadership; Risk and Uncertainty; Mergers and Acquisitions; Lawsuits and Litigation; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; North America; California
- July 2022
- Teaching Note
Netflix: A Creative Approach to Culture and Agility
By: Ranjay Gulati, Matt Higgins and Allison Ciechanover
Teaching Note for HBS Case Nos. 420-055 and 423-026. View Details
Keywords: Netflix; Corporate Culture; Streaming; Media; Technology; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Innovation Leadership; Innovation Strategy; Leadership Style; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; California
- July 2022
- Supplement
Netflix: A Creative Approach to Culture and Agility (B)
By: Ranjay Gulati and Matt Higgins
This (B) case, set in summer 2022, was designed as a companion to "Netflix: A Creative Approach to Culture and Agility," a case set in 2018. The purpose of this brief document is to unlock a discussion around how the Netflix culture can be used to weather new... View Details
Keywords: Netflix; Corporate Culture; Streaming; Media; Technology; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Innovation Leadership; Innovation Strategy; Leadership Style; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; California
- July 2022 (Revised March 2023)
- Case
The LEGO Group: Builders of a More Diverse and Inclusive Tomorrow
By: Elie Ofek and Sarah Mehta
This case explores how the LEGO Group’s diversity and inclusion efforts from 2008 to 2022. View Details
Keywords: Race; Inclusion; Equity; Demographics; Age; Diversity; Ethnicity; Gender; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Europe; Denmark; United States
- June 2022 (Revised March 2024)
- Case
Netflix's Culture: Binge or Cringe?
By: Hubert Joly, Leonard A. Schlesinger, James Barnett and Stacy Straaberg
In May 2022, streaming entertainment company Netflix lost customers for the first time in more than 10 years. Once a first mover in the streaming landscape, Netflix was facing competition from Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, HBO Max, and others. A key component of... View Details
Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Employees; Recruitment; Resignation and Termination; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Leadership Style; Business or Company Management; Management Style; Media; Business Processes; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Performance Expectations; Performance Productivity; Creativity; Business Strategy; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; North America; California; Canada; Europe; Middle East; Africa; Asia; Latin America
- May 2022
- Case
From GOP to NFT: Anthony Scaramucci and the Launch of Flatter NFT
By: Lauren Cohen, Richard Ryffel and Grace Headinger
Anthony Scaramucci, Managing Director of SkyBridge Capital, considered whether he should officially greenlight the launch of SkyBridge’s own NFT platform — Flatter NFT. He had led the investment firm to push first into Bitcoin and then Ethereum to make SkyBridge a... View Details
Keywords: Business Startup; Fintech; Technology; Cryptocurrency; Web3; Business Startups; Volatility; Decision Making; Entertainment; Entrepreneurship; Investment; Strategic Planning; Adoption; Competitive Advantage; Technology Adoption; Finance; Currency; Banking Industry; Banking Industry; Banking Industry; New York (city, NY)
- May 2022
- Case
The NFL’s $110-Billion Media Rights Deals
By: Anita Elberse and Elizabeth Warner
On March 18, 2021, Brian Rolapp, chief media and business officer at the National Football League (NFL) presented the results of a months-long effort to renegotiate rights deals with the NFL’s current partners in television—the media conglomerates behind the networks... View Details
- May 2022
- Case
Executive Decision-Making at Zola
By: Amy C. Edmondson and Michael Roberto
In April 2020, Rachel Jarrett, President and COO of wedding technology company Zola, called a meeting with the organization’s key decision-makers. The company had previously launched three business expansions: a vendor marketplace, a wedding apparel division, and a... View Details
- February 2022 (Revised February 2023)
- Case
TikTok in 2020: Super App or Supernova? (Abridged)
By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Dan Maher and Dan O'Brien
TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, was launched in 2012 around a simple idea—helping users entertain themselves on their smartphones while on the Beijing Subway. In less than a decade, it had become one of the world’s most valuable private companies, with investors... View Details
- 2022
- Working Paper
E-commerce During COVID: Stylized Facts from 47 Economies
By: Joel Alcedo, Alberto Cavallo, Bricklin Dwyer, Prachi Mishra and Antonio Spilimbergo
We study e-commerce across 47 economies and 26 industries during the COVID-19 pandemic using aggregated and anonymized transaction-level data from Mastercard, scaled to represent total consumer spending. The share of online transactions in total consumption increased... View Details
- February 2022 (Revised October 2022)
- Case
P.T. Barnum: Changing the World
By: Robert Simons and Shirley Sun
This case describes the life of P.T. Barnum, widely considered to the be the father of modern advertising and marketing. Barnum showed his genius for business early, selling lottery tickets and confections from his father’s store. He went on to found a famous museum of... View Details
- February 2022
- Case
Toto Wolff and the Mercedes Formula One Team
By: Anita Elberse and David Moreno Vicente
In December 2021, Toto Wolff, team principal and chief executive officer of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One team (the ‘Mercedes team’) is preparing for the start of the 2021 Formula One (‘F1’) season’s last Grand Prix, in the United Arab Emirates. Everything the... View Details
- January 2022 (Revised February 2022)
- Teaching Note
Universal During COVID: The Future of Theatrical Windows
By: Hong Luo, Henry McGee and Carol Lin
The COVID-19 pandemic brought enormous disruption to the movie industry, closing theaters indefinitely by mid-March 2020, halting television and film production, and throwing theatrical release schedules into disarray. Shell had assumed the CEO position at NBC... View Details
- January 2022
- Case
FIFA and The World Cup: The Future of Football
By: Anita Elberse, Oliver Band and Howard Johnson
Should FIFA host its biggest event—the FIFA World Cup—every two years instead of every four, as it has been doing since the event’s inception in the 1930s? In September 2021, Gianni Infantino, the president of the International Federation of Association Football... View Details