Publications

July 2020
Technical Note

Digital Natives Growing Without a Sales Force

By: Das Narayandas, Michael Norris and Amram Migdal

This brief case describes the rise of so-called digital natives (also called born-in-digital) in the 2000s and 2010s that successfully grew without a sales force. The case highlights the emergence of business-to-business Internet and cloud-based companies and their... View Details

February 2018
Case

Amazon, Google, and Apple: Smart Speakers and the Battle for the Connected Home

By: Rajiv Lal and Scott Johnson

Amazon, Google, and Apple all offer their own smart speaker. The devices represent each firm's entry point into the connected home market. All three companies come into the space with their own strengths and weaknesses. Who will win? View Details

01 Jun 2009
News

Consumption Is America’s Competitive Advantage

In the saber-rattling and highly influential 2007 report Rising Above the Gathering Storm, the National Academies warned that America’s technology and scientific leadership was being surpassed by a number of Asian countries, threatening... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

14 Feb 2005
Research & Ideas

The World in Your Palm?

human physiology (typing is still difficult on a small keyboard), technology (battery life for a fully converged device might be in minutes, not hours), and human preference (would the iPod be as popular if it looked like a cell phone?).... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

01 Dec 2015
News

Snapping Up Voters

marrying his political experience with greater financial acumen. Instead he has found himself in the midst of the most promising expansion of the political business itself: technological shifts that permit campaign advertisers to broaden... View Details

Keywords: Sasha Issenberg

07 Nov 2014
News

The First Five Years: Tiffany Pham (MBA 2012)

“Ultimately, the MOGUL platform leverages technology to connect women and empower them to learn from each other as well as support themselves.” What have been the best and most challenging parts about launching the company? “The best part... View Details

Keywords: News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; Information

28 May 2019
News

Research Brief: Field Research

Illustration by Joe Waldron Illustration by Joe Waldron Back in 2010, HBS finance professor Shawn Cole embarked on a two-year randomized control trial with Nilesh Fernando, then a PhD candidate at Harvard, to evaluate whether a mobile... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Crop Production; Agriculture

24 Apr 2014
News

Creating a mathematical method to understand consumer behavior in a digital world

homophily—the “birds-of-a-feather” tendencies of like-minded people? Only by understanding the relative impacts of these factors can companies develop effective marketing strategies. Studying the adoption of a mobile app in Japan, Gupta... View Details

November 2017
Case

iRobot: Moving Beyond the Roomba

By: Rajiv Lal and Scott Johnson

The makers of the Roomba, a robotic vacuum cleaner, connected the latest version of their product to the Internet. This new feature opened up a wealth of new opportunities and challenges for the company. View Details

Keywords: Irobot; Smart Home; Connected Home; Roomba; Vacuum; Mapping; Internet Of Things; Connected Products; Organizational Structure; Organizational Design; Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software; Digital Platforms; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United States

30 Jun 2014
Blog Post

Cambridge to Nairobi

business ideas with peers. At first glance it’s San Francisco—except that we’re 9,586 miles away, in Nairobi, Kenya. This summer, I’m interning at Ushahidi, a non-profit technology company that uses crowdsourcing for social activism and... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Technology; Technology

01 Apr 1998
News

Plunging Into the Net

it is the way people will adapt to and use that technology and the way firms will mobilize it to do smart business. As Rayport points out, "Internet-based businesses encounter the same management and... View Details

12 Apr 2011
News

Twelve Global Finalists Compete at HBS

Arab Emirates Rohit Dev Thakwani, OPM 37 2008 SpendWisor.com consumer electronics marketplace Midwest/Central U.S. HBS Club of Chicago Marc Hoecker, MBA '08 vinsnap mobile automotive marketing New England HBS Association of Boston Marco... View Details

Keywords: Multiple alumni

10 Apr 2019
News

Rakuten’s Mikitani Bets $5.5 Billion To Shake Up Japan’s Telecom Industry

A recent feature in Forbes outlines Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani’s plan to disrupt Japan’s mobile phone market. Named Rakuten Mobile, the company hopes to build the network in “half the time and at a cost of up to 40% less than what it... View Details

Keywords: Telecommunications; Information

September 2007 (Revised October 2007)
Case

TA Associates - MetroPCS (A)

Hythem El-Nazer, a young investment professional at TA Associates, believes he has found an attractive investment opportunity for the firm, MetroPCS, a wireless telecomm service provider. However, two months earlier, TA had invested considerable resources on this... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Investment; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Growth and Development Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Telecommunications Industry

11 May 2015
Research & Ideas

A Road Map to Fix America’s Transportation Infrastructure

Any highway commuter who has wasted hours stuck in traffic can see the cracks in the United States' transportation system, as can any airline passenger who has been stranded overnight in an airport. Yet while many agree that the need for infrastructure change is... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Transportation

July 2001 (Revised May 2002)
Case

WWWW - Who Will Win Wireless?

This case discusses different players in the wireless Internet industry and asks readers to evaluate the likelihood that they will create and capture value. View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Success; Mobile and Wireless Technology