Publications

August 2021
Case

Mylestone: Can Multiple Pivots Preserve the Life of a Death Tech Startup?

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Marilyn Morgan Westner

Dave Balter and Jim Myers co-founded Mylestone, a death tech startup that applied technology to transform how grieving people memorialize the dead. The startup addressed a cultural problem and promised to solve a pressing need in the antiquated, multi-billion dollar... View Details

Keywords: Pivot; Startup; Business Model; Cryptocurrency; Ethical Decision Making; Emotions; Growth and Development Strategy; Ethics; Market Entry and Exit; Customer Relationship Management; Loss; Change Management; Relationships

13 Apr 2010
First Look

First Look: April 13

knowledge spillovers and capital market externalities exert a stronger impact on multinational firms while labor market pooling has a weaker effect. These findings remain robust when we examine entry decisions and explore the process of... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

16 Apr 2008
Lessons from the Classroom

Chris Christensen: Legend of the Classroom

based at HBS, Christensen's influence and legacy extend well beyond the banks of the Charles and transcend the study of business administration. When he received the School's Distinguished Service Award in 1993, Christensen was honored not only for his pioneering work... View Details

Keywords: by Deborah Blagg; Education

February 2021
Teaching Plan

Soofa: Displaying the Right Path?

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Amy Klopfenstein

This teaching plan serves as a supplement to the case “Soofa: Displaying the Right Path?” HBS 820-098. The case explores the tension between two different financing and expansion plans for a startup, and explores issues related to business model pivots and industry... View Details

14 Nov 2017
First Look

New Research and Ideas: November 14, 2017

Bussgang, Jeffrey Abstract—Relative to established organizations, start-ups can be hard to figure out. What are the jobs to be done? The best entry points? How can you tell whether a company has potential for success and is the right fit... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

January 2011 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Paydiant

By: Jose B. Alvarez, Elizabeth C. Williamson and James Weber

Kevin Laracey, founder of Paydiant, needed to figure out how to launch a payment processing company with a new technology based on smart phones. Consumers had increasingly turned to electronic payment methods such as credit cards and debit cards to make purchases.... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Credit Cards; Product Marketing; Product Launch; Market Entry and Exit; Industry Structures; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Cooperation; Technology Adoption; Retail Industry

November 1996 (Revised December 1996)
Case

Rogers Communications, Inc.: The Wave

By: John A. Deighton, Karsten Voermann and Reginal Gilyard

Rogers Communications, Inc., Canada's largest cable television provider, is deciding how it should respond to developments that appear to portend the convergence of its industry with the computing and telecommunications industries. In particular, it is investigating... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Innovation and Invention; Marketing Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Consumer Behavior; Technology Adoption; Telecommunications Industry; Canada

September 2008
Teaching Note

Chi Mei Optoelectronics (TN)

By: Willy C. Shih

Teaching Note for [608-123]. View Details

Keywords: Diversification; Information Technology; Market Entry and Exit; Standards; Industry Clusters; Supply Chain; Production; Experience and Expertise; Biotechnology Industry; Chemical Industry; Taiwan; Asia; Korean Peninsula; China

11 Mar 2014
First Look

First Look: March 11

policy epoch; second, conditional on the first choice, it has to decide on its local responsiveness strategy at the onset of each policy epoch. India, which experienced two policy shocks-shutting down to MNEs in 1970 and then opening up... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

13 Jan 2009
First Look

First Look: January 13, 2009

Case 708-479 This case on the globalization of East Asian pop music is useful for teaching concepts of regional business strategy and also of cultural arbitrage. Music companies in the case must examine why certain markets are clearly... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

30 Jan 2007
First Look

First Look: January 30, 2007

to evaluate the link between dismissal costs and productivity. Drawing on establishment-level data from the Annual Survey of Manufacturers and the Longitudinal Business Database, our estimates suggest that wrongful-discharge protections reduce employment flows and firm... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

19 Sep 2006
First Look

First Look: September 19, 2006

Harvard Business School Case 506-054 Takashimaya, the largest department store in Japan, was suffering from declining sales. CEO Koji Suzuki had succeeded in instituting changes to cut costs. However, Suzuki needed to come up with a View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

12 Feb 2008
First Look

First Look: February 12, 2007

mechanism, which we refer to as the "clamped second price auction mechanism," into the laboratory to determine whether it helps human subjects learn to play their optimal strategy faster than the standard second price auction... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

29 Jan 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, January 29, 2019

test-takers. We consider data from a large-scale, high-stakes policy change that removed penalties for wrong answers on the national college entry exam in Chile. We find that the policy change significantly reduced a large gender gap in... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

Article

Unraveling the Process of Creative Destruction: Complementary Assets and Incumbent Survival in the Typesetter Industry

By: M. Tripsas

When radical technological change transforms an industry established firms sometimes fail drastically and are displaced by new entrants, yet other times survive and prosper. Drawing upon an unusually rich data set that covers the technological and competitive... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Transformation; Market Entry and Exit; Competition; History; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Business Processes; Competency and Skills; Assets; Perspective; Disruptive Innovation

Find at Harvard

08 Aug 2017
First Look

First Look at Research and Ideas, August 8, 2017

intuitions from industrial organization can be reversed: Collusion may become easier as market concentration falls, and market entry may in fact facilitate collusion. In particular, price collusion can be sustained by a View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

02 Aug 2011
First Look

First Look: August 2

workday events can make or break employees' inner work lives. But it's forward momentum in meaningful work—progress that creates the best inner work lives. Through rigorous analysis of nearly 12,000 diary entries provided by 238 employees... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 1996 (Revised November 1996)
Case

Supermarkets in Inner Cities

By: James E. Austin and Jaan Elias

Excerpts from five articles that present the challenges and opportunities inherent in opening and operating supermarkets in inner-city neighborhoods. View Details

Keywords: Urban Scope; Market Entry and Exit; Alliances; Business and Government Relations; Problems and Challenges; Development Economics; Business and Community Relations; Business Ventures; Strategic Planning; Cooperation