Publications

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12 Mar 2014
Research & Ideas

Entrepreneurship and Multinationals Drive Globalization

firms in the United States to sell equipment enabling the Chinese government to censor the Web and identify... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Beauty & Cosmetics; Manufacturing; Consumer Products; Pharmaceutical

August 2018 (Revised February 2023)
Case

Hubble Contact Lenses: Data Driven Direct-to-Consumer Marketing

By: Jill Avery and Ayelet Israeli

As its Series A extension round approaches, the founders of Hubble, a subscription-based, social-media fueled, direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand of contact lenses, are reflecting on the marketing strategies that have taken them to a valuation of $200 million and debating... View Details

06 Feb 2020
Research & Ideas

What We Learned from Reading Jeff Bezos’ Patents

From an early age, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had a passion for inventing. In The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon, journalist Brad Stone wrote that even as a... View Details

Keywords: by Tricia Gregg and Boris Groysberg; Retail

May 1999
Background Note

Broadband Race, The

By: David B. Yoffie and Mary Kwak

Surveys developments in broadband in the late 1990s, focusing on the rivalry between telecom companies deploying DSL and cable companies rolling out cable modem service. Reviews the major broadband technologies, examines the state of competition in the United States,... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Internet and the Web; Competition; Telecommunications Industry; United States; Hong Kong; Singapore

Find at Harvard

July 2014 (Revised August 2014)
Case

AmazonFresh: Rekindling the Online Grocery Market

By: Rory McDonald, Clayton Christensen, Robin Yang and Ty Hollingsworth

More than a decade after the high-profile failures of several early online grocers, grocery remains the largest single U.S. retail category and one of the few that has not yet migrated online. Amazon began testing its grocery-delivery service, AmazonFresh, in Seattle,... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; New Markets; Grocery; Operations Strategy; Innovation and Invention; Strategy; Emerging Markets; Learning; Service Operations; Internet and the Web; Business Model; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

20 Aug 2020
Book

From the Plow to the Pill: How Technology Shapes Our Lives

For centuries, the creation of innovative technology—from steam engines and automobiles to computers and smartphones—has dramatically changed the nature of our work. Less deeply understood has been the impact of technology on the inner currents of our personal lives,... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

August 2018 (Revised October 2019)
Case

C3.ai—Driven to Succeed

By: Robert Simons and George Gonzalez

CEO Tom Siebel navigates his artificial intelligence (ai) startup through a series of pivots, market expansions, and even an elephant attack to become a leading platform ad service provider. The case describes his unusual management approach emphasizing employee... View Details

February 2018
Case

EmQuest: Travel Distribution in the Digital Era

By: Karim R. Lakhani and Gamze Yucaoglu

EmQuest, Emirates Group’s travel distribution company, must decide what to do with its contract with the global distribution system it uses, Sabre. Since its founding in 1988, EmQuest was servicing travel agents in the MENA region by providing a connection to over 400... View Details

Keywords: UAE; Decision; Business Model; Competitive Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Business Strategy; Value Creation; Change Management; Emerging Markets; For-Profit Firms; Competitive Advantage; Travel Industry; United Arab Emirates

01 Jun 2004
News

The Sky’s the Limit

marketing for the budding business. “It provides all the charting information on your computer, but it also connects to Internet databases and... View Details

Keywords: Seattle Avionics; Transportation; Air Transportation; Transportation

22 Mar 2010
Research & Ideas

One Strategy: Aligning Planning and Execution

Every firm has two strategies, we learn early on in the pages of One Strategy: Organization, Planning, and Decision Making. "Explicit" strategy is the one you read... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Web Services; Web Services

November 2022 (Revised June 2023)
Case

UGG Steps into the Metaverse

By: Shunyuan Zhang, Sharon Joseph, Sunil Gupta and Julia Kelley

In the fall of 2022, boot maker UGG and its parent company, Deckers, were working to position the brand in the nascent but fast growing metaverse. The metaverse, the online realm that individual users could navigate as digital avatars, was becoming more commercialized,... View Details

Keywords: Metaverse; Digital Marketing; Innovation and Invention; Marketing Channels; Marketing Strategy; Social Marketing; Internet and the Web; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United States

30 May 2018
Research & Ideas

Should Retailers Match Their Own Prices Online and in Stores?

The line gets blurry for shoppers when retailers won't honor their online prices in-store. (Kwangmoozaa) While shopping for my 10-year-old daughter’s Halloween costume last October, I pulled out my smartphone View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Retail

2009
Simulation

Finance Simulation: M&A in Wine Country: No. 3289.

By: Timothy A. Luehrman and W. Carl Kester

In this simulation, students play the role of CEO at one of three publicly-traded wine producers: Starshine, Bel Vino, or International Beverage. Each player evaluates merger and/or acquisition opportunities among the three companies and then determines reservation... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Negotiation; Valuation; Value Creation; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

August 2022 (Revised March 2023)
Case

Pricing at Netflix: The Sequel

By: Elie Ofek and Amy Klopfenstein

This case continues the themes discussed in "Pricing at Netflix" (Case 521-004). Following the conclusion of the original case, Netflix developed new, high-profile original content, added millions of subscribers, and introduced another price increase in January 2022.... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Advertising; Marketing Strategy; Entertainment; Film Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Finance; Strategy; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Business Strategy; Adaptation; Internet and the Web; Customers; Customer Satisfaction; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; North and Central America; United States

21 Aug 2018
News

The Business Shelf: Driving Digital Strategy

2015
Working Paper

The Market That Wasn't: The Non-Emergence of the Online Grocery Category.

By: C. Navis, G. Fisher, Ryan Raffaelli and Mary Ann Glynn

In this paper, we examine the non-emergence of a potential new market category. In the late 1990s, the entrepreneurial firms that attempted to sell groceries online in the US attracted significant resources, made impressive technological advancements, and generated... View Details

Keywords: Emerging Markets; Failure; Food; Online Technology; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry