Publications

09 Dec 2016
News

How Wayfair Built a Furniture Brand from Scratch

November 2016 (Revised October 2018)
Case

IguanaFix

By: Frank V. Cespedes, Thomas R. Eisenmann, Maria Fernanda Miguel and Laura Urdapilleta

IguanaFix is a rapidly scaling Latin American startup that provides an online platform connecting consumers with home improvement contractors. The founders have acquired customers through both B2C and B2B methods. But in seeking to grow and scale the business, they now... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Marketing; Home Improvement Services; Marketing Management; Scaling; Entrepreneurship; Marketing; Sales; Online Advertising; Latin America

June 2025
Supplement

Transforming a Titan (B)

By: George Serafeim and Lena Duchene

After a global search the board appoints Marcel Cobuz—ex-LafargeHolcim executive with deep innovation experience—as TITAN’s first non-family CEO. Cobuz co-creates a four-pillar roadmap: sharpen the core cement portfolio, accelerate low-carbon products and aggregates,... View Details

Keywords: AI; Artificial Intelligence; CEO Succession; CEO Role; Family Business

16 Dec 2022
Research & Ideas

Why Technology Alone Can't Solve AI's Bias Problem

human toll to letting algorithms do the work. “Maybe there is a bias from people who have been traditionally hiring men.” Searches on popular recruiting sites might seem like a neutral way to find prospective candidates, but their... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Technology

August 2019 (Revised March 2023)
Case

Rand Fishkin at Moz (A)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

In 2016, senior management at Moz, a venture capital–backed startup providing software tools for digital marketing professionals, must decide how to address a looming cash flow crisis precipitated by failed efforts to broaden its product line. Seattle-based Moz had... View Details

Keywords: Startups; Scaling; Entrepreneurship; Failure; Business Startups; Diversification; Growth Management; Technology Industry

April 2023 (Revised February 2024)
Case

AI Wars

By: Andy Wu, Matt Higgins, Miaomiao Zhang and Hang Jiang

In February 2024, the world was looking to Google to see what the search giant and long-time putative technical leader in artificial intelligence (AI) would do to compete in the massively hyped technology of generative AI. Over a year ago, OpenAI released ChatGPT, a... View Details

Keywords: AI; Artificial Intelligence; AI and Machine Learning; Technology Adoption; Competitive Strategy; Technological Innovation

15 Mar 2020
News

‘Experimentation Works’ and ‘The Power of Experiments’ Review: Test, Test and Test Again

March 2007
Article

Internet Advertising and the Generalized Second Price Auction: Selling Billions of Dollars Worth of Keywords

By: Benjamin Edelman, Michael Ostrovsky and Michael Schwarz

We investigate the "generalized second-price" auction (GSP), a new mechanism used by search engines to sell online advertising. Although GSP looks similar to the Vickrey-Clarke-Groves (VCG) mechanism, its properties are very different. Unlike the VCG mechanism, GSP... View Details

Keywords: Auctions; Search Technology; Online Advertising; Strategy; Balance and Stability

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March 2011 (Revised December 2012)
Case

Demand Media

By: John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

Google search had helped Demand Media grow to be a $1.9 billion online publisher. Then, social media and smartphone apps began to change the way people navigated the Internet. How should Demand Media respond? The business ran on a radically new model in which a stable... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Information Publishing; Consumer Behavior; Customization and Personalization; Internet and the Web; Publishing Industry

08 Nov 2018
HBS Seminar

Jun Li, University of Michigan Ross School of Business

26 May 2023
Blog Post

Bringing Space Tech Back to Earth

into engineering in the first place. While taking a technology and engineering class at her Massachusetts high school, she worked on a search-and-rescue vehicle that could help divers View Details

Cannibalization and Option Value Effects of Secondary Markets: Evidence from the US Concert Industry

We examine how reducing search frictions in secondary markets affects the value appropriated by firms in primary markets. We characterize two effects on primary-market firms caused by intermediaries entering secondary markets: the “cannibalization” and “option value”... View Details

November 2015
Article

Cannibalization and Option Value Effects of Secondary Markets: Evidence from the U.S. Concert Industry

By: Victor Manuel Bennett, Robert Seamans and Feng Zhu

We examine how reducing search frictions in secondary markets affects the value appropriated by firms in primary markets. We characterize two effects on primary market firms caused by intermediaries entering secondary markets: the "cannibalization" and "option value"... View Details

Keywords: Cannibalization Effect; Option Value Effect; Secondary Markets; Concert Industry; Craigslist; Competition; Distribution Channels; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

SSRN

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August 2009 (Revised August 2010)
Case

Slanket: Responding to Snuggie's Market Entry

By: John A. Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

How does a pioneer in a new product category deal with the runaway success of a follower? Can search engine marketing and social media help? In 2008 Slanket CEO, Gary Clegg, found that his product, a blanket with sleeves, had been eclipsed by The Snuggie, another... View Details

Keywords: Digital Marketing; Brands and Branding; Product Launch; Market Entry and Exit; Social and Collaborative Networks; Internet and the Web

October 2006 (Revised October 2007)
Case

Google Advertising

By: Youngme E. Moon and David Chen

In mid-2006, Google is the number one search engine in America with 99% of its revenues deriving from its simple, text-only advertising services. It is on track to bring in roughly $9.5 billion in advertising revenue in 2006, which would place it fourth among American... View Details

Keywords: Digital Marketing; Disruptive Innovation; Media; Expansion; Internet and the Web; Advertising Industry; United States

June 21, 2019
Article

When Tech Companies Compete on Their Own Platforms

By: Feng Zhu

One common complaint from third parties about platform businesses is that they see what succeeds on their platforms and then enter the most profitable areas themselves, often decimating third parties in the process. Studies have identified several motivations for... View Details

Keywords: Platform-based Markets; Platform-owner Entry; Digital Platforms; Market Entry and Exit; Competition

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03 Jun 2022
Blog Post

HiHome Sweet HiHome

The story of HiHome is really the story of all the resources available to students at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering (SEAS). Co-founders James Parker and Tony Shu met at a SEAS event in 2019. Parker was in his first... View Details

March 2020 (Revised May 2021)
Case

Employee Activism

By: Ethan Rouen and Akari Furukawa

Liz O’Sullivan, an employee at a fast-growing technology company called Clarifi, had a moral dilemma: She disagreed with Clarifi’s decision to sell its image-recognition technology to the U.S. Department of Defense for possible use in weaponized drones. This case... View Details

Keywords: Activism; Employees; Moral Sensibility; Personal Development and Career; Decision Choices and Conditions

July 2012
Case

Owen's Precision Machining

By: Ramana Nanda and James McQuade

For the second time in fourteen months, Christopher Owen, the second-generation owner of Owen's Precision Machining (OPM), found himself running out of cash. Owen wondered what he was doing wrong. How much additional money would he need to raise to get OPM through the... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Cash Flow; Mergers and Acquisitions; Decision Making; Problems and Challenges; Business Strategy; Corporate Finance; Manufacturing Industry; Massachusetts