Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(369)
- Faculty Publications (86)
- October 2013
- Case
Rhythm & Blues
By: Willy Shih
The bankruptcy filing of Rhythm & Hues, who received an Oscar for the arresting visual effects in Life of Pi, raised questions about the challenges faced by the firms like it as well as the broader post-production industry. The rapid pace of technology certainly... View Details
Keywords: Post-production; Visual Effects; Digital; Entertainment; Animation Entertainment; Film Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Theater Entertainment; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Information Technology; Internet and the Web; Applications and Software; Information Infrastructure; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Los Angeles
- 2013
- Book
Blockbusters: Hit-making, Risk-taking, and the Big Business of Entertainment
By: Anita Elberse
What's behind the phenomenal success of entertainment businesses such as Warner Bros., Marvel Enterprises, and the NFL—along with such stars as Jay-Z, Lady Gaga, and LeBron James? Which strategies give leaders in film, television, music, publishing, and sports an edge... View Details
Keywords: Entertainment; Business; Strategy; Media; Digital Technology; Blockbuster; Superstar; Film; Television; Music; Publishing; Performing Arts; Nightlife; Risk and Uncertainty; Information Technology; Marketing Strategy; Music Entertainment; Success; Sports; Business Strategy; Film Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Music Industry; Music Industry; Music Industry; Music Industry
- September 2012 (Revised August 2013)
- Background Note
A Brief History of the U.S. Tobacco Industry Controversy
By: Sandra J. Sucher and Henry McGee
This history of the U.S. tobacco controversy is a reading for a class on "The Insider," a film about whistleblowing in the U.S. tobacco industry, taught in the course, The Moral Leader. View Details
- 2012
- Working Paper
Risky Business: The Impact of Property Rights on Investment and Revenue in the Film Industry
By: Venkat Kuppuswamy and Carliss Y. Baldwin
Our paper tests a key prediction of property rights theory, specifically, that agents will respond to marginal incentives embedded in property rights when making non-contractible, revenue-enhancing investments (Grossman and Hart, 1986; Hart and Moore, 1990). Using rich... View Details
- August 2012 (Revised August 2013)
- Background Note
Competency-Destroying Technology Transitions: Why the Transition to Digital Is Particularly Challenging
By: Willy Shih
Some technology transitions are exceedingly difficult for incumbent firms to execute. The bankruptcy filing by the Eastman Kodak Company highlighted the difficulty companies faced when their core business transitioned from an analog to a digital world. Kodak's business... View Details
Keywords: Technology Transitions; Competency-destroying; Digital; Analog; Digital Transition; Modular; Modularity; Technological Change; Radical Innovation; Incremental Innovation; Architectural Innovation; Modular Innovation; Sustaining Innovation; Competency-enhancing; Noise Propagation; Perfect Copying; Digital Music; Digital Media; Consumer Electronics; Kodak; Sony; Panasonic; Disruptive Innovation; Technology Adoption; Transition; Change Management; Consumer Products Industry; United States
- Apr 2011 - 2011
- Keynote Speech
Digital Technology and Its Impact on the Film Industry
By: Anita Elberse
- August 2010 (Revised January 2020)
- Case
Rupert Murdoch: The Last Tycoon
By: Geoffrey Jones and Hari Balkrishna
The case examines the entrepreneurial career of Rupert Murdoch and the growth of News Corporation from a small Australian newspaper to a global media giant. It shows how he expanded geographically to Europe, the United States, and Asia and from newspapers to the film... View Details
- July 2010
- Teaching Note
Xanadu on Broadway
By: Anita Elberse
Teaching Note for 508062. View Details
- November 2009 (Revised August 2011)
- Case
Warner Bros. Entertainment
By: Gary P. Pisano and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld
Examines the process used by a major motion picture studio to develop and select movie projects. Warner Bros.' strategy is to focus its efforts on a small number of major "event" films (i.e., films with the potential to generate gross box office receipts of $300... View Details
- June 2009
- Article
Highbrow Films Gather Dust: Time-inconsistent Preferences and Online DVD Rentals
By: Katherine L. Milkman, Todd Rogers and Max H. Bazerman
We report on a field study demonstrating systematic differences between the preferences people anticipate they will have over a series of options in the future and their subsequent revealed preferences over those options. Using a novel panel data set, we analyze the... View Details
- March 2009 (Revised January 2010)
- Case
DreamWorks SKG Inc.: To Distribute or Not to Distribute?
By: Juan Alcacer, David J. Collis and Mary Furey
- March 2009 (Revised November 2021)
- Case
The Walt Disney Company and Pixar Inc.: To Acquire or Not to Acquire?
By: Juan Alcacer, David J. Collis and Mary Furey
Soon after Robert Iger took over as CEO of the Walt Disney Company in late 2005, he turned his attention toward Pixar, the animation studio with which Disney had worked since 1991 and was responsible for producing hits such as Toy Story and Finding Nemo. Disney's own... View Details
- Nov 2008
- Conference Presentation
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), United Artists, and Tom Cruise: A Case Study.
By: Anita Elberse
- March 2008 (Revised November 2008)
- Case
Sony Digital Entertainment, Japan
By: Anita Elberse
It is late 2007. So-called cell phone ("keitai") novels have turned into an extremely popular form of entertainment-on-the- go in Japan, in particular among young, female readers. In fact, consisting mostly of love stories written by amateurs in short sentences and... View Details
- December 2007 (Revised August 2014)
- Case
Xanadu on Broadway
By: Anita Elberse
Can one of Hollywood's biggest flops magically turn into a Broadway hit? Xanadu, an adaptation of a 1980 Olivia Newton-John roller-disco film described by one critic as "the epic failure to end all epic failures," opened on Broadway in July 2007. Producer Rob Ahrens,... View Details
- November 2007 (Revised March 2010)
- Case
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and Tom Cruise
By: Anita Elberse and Peter Stone
In November 2006, Harry Sloan, chairman and CEO of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. (MGM) offers movie star Tom Cruise and his business partner Paula Wagner a chance to run United Artists (UA), a dormant studio within MGM's portfolio. Just over two months earlier, Viacom... View Details
- October 2007
- Article
The Power of Stars: Do Star Actors Drive the Success of Movies?
By: Anita Elberse
Is the involvement of star actors critical to the success of motion pictures? Film studios, which they regularly pay multimillion-dollar fees to star actors, seem driven by that belief. I shed light on the returns on this investment using an event study that considers... View Details
- 2007
- Working Paper
Highbrow Films Gather Dust: Time-inconsistent Preferences and Online DVD Rentals
By: Katherine L. Milkman, Todd Rogers and Max H. Bazerman
We report on a field study demonstrating systematic differences between the preferences people anticipate they will have over a series of options in the future and their subsequent revealed preferences over those options. Using a novel panel data set, we analyze the... View Details
- May 2007 (Revised April 2009)
- Case
Netflix
By: Willy C. Shih, Stephen P. Kaufman and David Spinola
Reed Hastings founded Netflix with a vision to provide a home movie service that would do a better job satisfying customers than the traditional retail rental model. But as it encouraged challenges it underwent several major strategy shifts, ultimately developing a... View Details
- October 2006 (Revised March 2007)
- Case
Production I.G: Challenging the Status Quo
By: Andrei Hagiu, Tarun Khanna, Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Masako Egawa and Chisato Toyama
In July 2006, Mitsuhisa Ishikawa wondered how he could further enhance the success and visibility of his animation production company headquartered in Tokyo, Production I.G. For the year ended May 2006, Production I.G. had sales of 5,439 million yen ($47.3 million),... View Details