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Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(535)
- People (1)
- News (147)
- Research (316)
- Events (2)
- Multimedia (1)
- Faculty Publications (94)
- January 2015 (Revised May 2018)
- Case
$19B 4 txt app WhatsApp...omg!
By: David Collis, Ashley Hartman and Aakash Mehta
In February 2014, Facebook announced the acquisition of WhatsApp for $19 billion. WhatsApp, founded in 2009, was a relatively young company that employed only 50 people and earned merely $10 million in revenue in 2013. It was one of many mobile messaging services that... View Details
Keywords: WhatsApp; Facebook; Mobile Messaging; Social Network; Acquisitions; Value Added; Strategy Alignment; Monetization; Social Platforms; Technology; Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Acquisition; Communication Technology; Social and Collaborative Networks; Value Creation; Social Media; Applications and Software; Digital Platforms; Communications Industry; Communications Industry
Collis, David, Ashley Hartman, and Aakash Mehta. "$19B 4 txt app WhatsApp...omg!" Harvard Business School Case 715-441, January 2015. (Revised May 2018.)
New Twitter Research: Men Follow Men and Nobody Tweets
Twitter has attracted tremendous attention from the media and celebrities, but there is much uncertainty about Twitter's purpose. Is Twitter a communications service for friends and groups, a means of expressing yourself freely, or simply a marketing... View Details
- December 2010 (Revised November 2014)
- Case
Steven Carpenter at Cake Financial
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld
After investing $9 million of venture capital, Cake Financial had failed to reach critical mass. In early 2010 Cake's assets were sold and the company was dissolved. Founded in 2006, the San Francisco-based Internet company allowed users to monitor their investments... View Details
Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business or Company Management; Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Internet; Financial Services Industry; Web Services Industry
Eisenmann, Thomas R., and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld. "Steven Carpenter at Cake Financial." Harvard Business School Case 811-041, December 2010. (Revised November 2014.)
- 2010
- Working Paper
Advertising Disclosures: Measuring Labeling Alternatives in Internet Search Engines
By: Benjamin Edelman and Duncan S. Gilchrist
In an online experiment, we measure users' interactions with search engines, both in standard configurations and in modified versions with clearer labels identifying search engine advertisements. In particular, for a random subset of users, we change "Sponsored links"... View Details
Keywords: Online Advertising; Interactive Communication; Corporate Disclosure; Labels; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Internet; Search Technology
Edelman, Benjamin, and Duncan S. Gilchrist. "Advertising Disclosures: Measuring Labeling Alternatives in Internet Search Engines." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 11-048, November 2010. (Revised January 2011, January 2012.)
- 2015
- Chapter
Innovating without Information Constraints: Organization, Communities, and Innovation when Information Costs Approach Zero
By: Elizabeth J. Altman, Frank Nagle and Michael Tushman
Innovation has traditionally taken place within an organization's boundaries and/or with selected partners. This Chandlerian approach to innovation has been rooted in transaction costs, organizational boundaries, and information processing challenges associated with... View Details
Keywords: Knowledge Sharing; Cost; Innovation and Management; Collaborative Innovation and Invention
Altman, Elizabeth J., Frank Nagle, and Michael Tushman. "Innovating without Information Constraints: Organization, Communities, and Innovation when Information Costs Approach Zero." In The Oxford Handbook of Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship, edited by Christina E. Shalley, Michael A. Hitt, and Jing Zhou, 353–379. Oxford University Press, 2015.
- July 2004 (Revised March 2006)
- Case
RosettaNet and ebXML: Betting on the Right eBusiness Standard
By: F. Warren McFarlan and Veronika Belokhvostova
A major enterprise software company must select which technologies to support, based on their long-term and short-term viability and benefits. The protagonist is involved in the release of the B2B integration component of major enterprise software whose purpose is to... View Details
Keywords: Communication Technology; Customer Focus and Relationships; Markets; Standards; Science-Based Business; Situation or Environment; Applications and Software; Technology Adoption; Information Technology Industry
McFarlan, F. Warren, and Veronika Belokhvostova. "RosettaNet and ebXML: Betting on the Right eBusiness Standard." Harvard Business School Case 305-006, July 2004. (Revised March 2006.)
- February 2020
- Case
Drift: The First Sales Hire
By: Mark Roberge
David Cancel and Elias Torres, the co-founders of Drift, scaled their business to thousands of users and hundreds of thousands in revenue. However, they were falling short of the annual revenue target they communicated to the board of directors. Having scaled the... View Details
Roberge, Mark. "Drift: The First Sales Hire." Harvard Business School Case 820-103, February 2020.
- Article
How to Launch Your Digital Platform: A Playbook for Strategists
By: Benjamin Edelman
The ubiquity of Internet access has caused a sharp rise in the number of businesses offering platforms that connect users for communication or commerce. Entrepreneurs are particularly drawn to these platforms because they create significant value and have modest... View Details
Keywords: Platforms; Launch; Mobilization Strategy; Two-Sided Platforms; Network Effects; Adoption; Entrepreneurship; Information Technology Industry; Advertising Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Transportation Industry; Financial Services Industry
Edelman, Benjamin. "How to Launch Your Digital Platform: A Playbook for Strategists." Harvard Business Review 93, no. 4 (April 2015): 90–97. (Reprinted in Launch a Start-Up That Lasts, Harvard Business Review OnPoint, Winter 2016.)
- December 2019
- Case
Steemit: A New Social Media?
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Alexander White and Karen Elterman
This case discusses the alternative social media site Steemit, including the principles it was founded on in 2016 and the challenges it faced in 2019. Steemit was a blockchain-based platform that aimed to differentiate itself from other social media companies by... View Details
Keywords: Decision Making; Decisions; Voting; Economic Systems; Money; Fairness; Values and Beliefs; Goals and Objectives; Digital Platforms; Product Design; Design; Problems and Challenges; Network Effects; Motivation and Incentives; Social and Collaborative Networks; Reputation; Business Strategy; Competition; Internet and the Web; Social Media; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States; Virginia; New York (city, NY)
Casadesus-Masanell, Ramon, Alexander White, and Karen Elterman. "Steemit: A New Social Media?" Harvard Business School Case 720-428, December 2019.
- 28 Aug 2006
- Research & Ideas
Online Match-Making with Virtual Dates
variation of online shopping. Rather than just study the problem, they also came up with a possible solution: Virtual Dates. The researchers began their work by talking to online-dating-site users about their experiences, supplementing... View Details
- August 2018 (Revised April 2023)
- Case
Facebook—Can Ethics Scale in the Digital Age?
By: George A. Riedel and Carin-Isabel Knoop
Since its founding in 2004, Facebook has built a phenomenally successful business at global scale to become the fifth most valuable public company in the world. The revelation of Cambridge Analytica events in March 2018, where 78 million users' information was leaked... View Details
Keywords: Facebook; Ethics; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Trust; Business Model; Corporate Accountability; Social Media
Riedel, George A., and Carin-Isabel Knoop. "Facebook—Can Ethics Scale in the Digital Age?" Harvard Business School Case 319-030, August 2018. (Revised April 2023.)
- February 2023 (Revised March 2023)
- Case
Hey, Insta & YouTube, Are You Watching TikTok?
In early 2023, the entertainment app TikTok reached close to 1 billion users globally, placing it 4th behind the leading social networks of Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Featuring a sophisticated recommendation engine, TikTok mastered the art of keeping users... View Details
Keywords: Social Media; Applications and Software; Business Model; Competition; Organizational Change and Adaptation
Oberholzer-Gee, Felix. "Hey, Insta & YouTube, Are You Watching TikTok?" Harvard Business School Case 723-426, February 2023. (Revised March 2023.)
- 13 Nov 2013
- News
Can Twitter Continue to Fly High?
Strategic Brew: A Market Simulation
Strategic Brew simulates real life challenges facing the strategist. It allows users to experience and internalize the process of strategy formulation, execution, and communication in a simulated context and to see how these processes interplay with other... View Details
- November 2010
- Case
Bling Nation
By: William A. Sahlman and Liz Kind
Bling Nation, a Palo Alto, CA startup, was founded in 2007 as a mobile payment service provider that bypassed industry participants such as Visa and MasterCard. Bling Nation partnered with local community banks and merchants in small towns. The banks provided their... View Details
Keywords: Culture
Sahlman, William A., and Liz Kind. "Bling Nation." Harvard Business School Case 811-029, November 2010.
- May 2012 (Revised January 2013)
- Case
Wikipedia: Project Esperanza
By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, Andreea Gorbatai and Tiona Zuzul
In October 2006, Wikipedia was the largest volunteer-run on-line encyclopedia which could be freely read and edited by anyone with internet access. Within almost six years of its founding in 2001, the project had attracted hundreds of thousands of editors who had... View Details
Keywords: Web-enabled Application; Internet; Information Publishing; Social and Collaborative Networks; Groups and Teams; Publishing Industry; United States
Piskorski, Mikolaj Jan, Andreea Gorbatai, and Tiona Zuzul. "Wikipedia: Project Esperanza." Harvard Business School Case 712-493, May 2012. (Revised January 2013.)
- 13 Mar 2019
- HBS Seminar
Abhishek Nagaraj, University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business
- 27 Jul 2009
- Research & Ideas
Social Network Marketing: What Works?
it's important to understand both who influences purchase decisions in online communities and which groups of users can be influenced. “Viral campaigns truly leverage the network aspect of these social... View Details
- 21 Feb 2012
- First Look
First Look: Feb. 21
information is a central determinant of a firm's demand function, even for purchases as large as college attendance. When Do User Innovators Start Firms? A Theory of User Entrepreneurship Authors:Sonali Shah... View Details
Keywords: Sean Silverthorne