Publications

Find at Harvard

March 2017 (Revised February 2018)
Case

VMware and the Public Cloud

By: Raffaella Sadun and Christine Snively

In 2015, VMware, a pioneer in server and network virtualization and a member of parent company EMC’s “federation” of companies, had set its sights on becoming a leading public cloud provider. Two years prior, VMware first entered the public cloud market with its vCloud... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software; Growth and Development Strategy; Internet and the Web; Computer Industry; Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry

January 2002 (Revised February 2002)
Case

Postgirot Bank and Provment AB: Managing the Cost of IT Operations

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Nancy Bartlett

Describes a specific approach for measuring the efficiency of the groups of computers inside an organization and suggests ways this tool may be used to reduce the company's computing investment while maintaining service. It is a software-enabled industrial engineering... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Investment; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Management Style; Information Technology; Applications and Software

21 Jul 2015
First Look

First Look: July 21, 2015

from its historical competence in hardware to become a provider of hardware and software for managing transactions across a range of industries and payments methods. Nuti envisioned a world in which consumers would use NCR hardware or... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

Stata and Maintaining Version Stability - Research Computing Services

reason, we keep at least one to two versions of Stata installed on the HBSGrid to guarantee that changes in versions (and the underlying math and software libraries) do not cause unexpected problems. At this time, executing Stata via... View Details

10 Mar 2021
News

Vision: A Unicorn Evolves

Medina and his cofounders had courted at GroupTalent were interested in Outreach’s product, but usage wasn’t growing as quickly as the founders had hoped. Plus, the company faced the challenge of making their software compatible with... View Details

Keywords: April White; entrepreneurship; technology; startups; leadership

June 2019
Teaching Note

Zebra Medical Vision

By: Shane Greenstein and Sarah Gulick

Teaching note is meant to accompany Zebra Medical Vision case, which offers a look at a company’s decisions as a small startup competing with other startups and major technology companies. It also demonstrates the challenges faced by a machine learning company working... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Science-Based Business; Applications and Software; Patents; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Technology Industry; Israel

2018
Article

Threat of Platform-Owner Entry and Complementor Responses: Evidence from the Mobile App Market

By: Wen Wen and Feng Zhu

We examine how app developers on the Android mobile platform adjust their innovation efforts (rate and direction) and value-capture strategies in response to Google’s entry threat and actual entry into their markets. We find that, after Google’s entry threat increases,... View Details

Keywords: Platform-owner Entry; Entry Threat; Innovation; Complementors; Mobile App Industry; Digital Platforms; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Market Entry and Exit; Price; Innovation and Invention; Applications and Software

Find at Harvard

25 Aug 2022
News

Hair Today

precious: In addition to her studies, Winters was guardian of her sister, who was 14 at the time. “I remember thinking, ‘This is absolutely crazy,’” she says. After writing a paper about Drybar and its disruption of blowouts, Winters brainstormed View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; entrepreneurship; hair; beauty; Houston; Super Bowl

January 2024
Case

Flashfood: The Magic of Commitment

By: Reza Satchu and Patrick Sanguineti

Josh Domingues had accomplished what countless young entrepreneurs long to achieve: founding a promising company that aspires to make the world a tangibly better place. Shocked to learn that international food waste cumulatively amounted to the world’s third largest... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneur; Founder; Startup; Business Model; Business Startups; Food; Applications and Software; Mission and Purpose; Environmental Sustainability; Canada

01 Apr 2000
News

Strike Up the Broad(band)

open-standards, fertile software platform from which thousands of novel applications will bloom." While many of those new applications will benefit consumers, the authors raise... View Details

November 2023 (Revised January 2024)
Case

Bridgit: Persevere or Pivot?

By: Reza Satchu and Patrick Sanguineti

In late 2012, Mallorie Brodie and Lauren Lake, two young women in their final year of college, founded Bridgit, a technology startup that developed solutions to simplify vital but laborious processes within the construction industry. In the Fall of 2013, after months... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneur; Founder; Co-founders; Women Executives; Pivot; Startup; Business Model; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Applications and Software; Product Launch; Research and Development; Competition; Construction Industry; Technology Industry; United States; Canada

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; Consumer Products Industry; Electronics Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Technology Industry; United States

03 Dec 2001
What Do You Think?

What Happens When the Sumo Master Learns Judo?

the Government) really care whether it could enhance its chances in the post desktop world? Do today's information technology industries really require a different approach to government regulation? What do you think? Original Article It's probably a good idea to be... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

01 Oct 1998
News

A Zest to Invest

organizational issues. "I never thought my courses at HBS on managing people would be applicable to me," he confesses. "But my job has become more administrative and supervisory. I used to think I could turn a talented analyst or View Details

Keywords: Dun Gifford, Jr.

19 Aug 2015
Research & Ideas

Codeacademy’s Delicate Work of Adding Monetization Without Crushing Mission

THE COMPANY'S SERVICES" As an example, one of our portfolio companies at Flybridge, MongoDB, has done that extremely well. They are an open source database software company, which by definition means... View Details

Keywords: Re: Jeffrey J. Bussgang; Technology

13 Feb 2020
News

Honoring a Legend

broader impact on the world. “It was super flattering to be selected,” says Nussey, whose companies have created thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in value over his career. He cofounded a software company in high school and... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley

February 2022
Teaching Note

Borusan CAT: Monetizing Prediction in the Age of AI

By: Navid Mojir

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 521-053. View Details

Keywords: Monetization Strategy; Artificial Intelligence; Forecasting and Prediction; Applications and Software; Technological Innovation; Marketing; Segmentation; AI and Machine Learning; Construction Industry; Turkey

July 1994 (Revised March 1995)
Case

Microsoft: Multimedia Publications (B)

By: Marco Iansiti and Ellen Stein

Microsoft is about to release an apparently successful CD-ROM baseball product. The company is trying to determine what product(s) should be developed next, how it should organize itself, and what role it should play in the development of such products. View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Applications and Software; Product Design; Organizational Structure; Product Launch; Business Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Information Technology Industry; Washington (state, US)