Publications

26 Jan 2009
Research & Ideas

Where is Home for the Global Firm?

example, the fragmentation of production around the world, distribution outlets worldwide, and research and development facilities that capitalize on local talent pools. But we still basically think that firms belong to some home country... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

December 2019
Case

Walmart Ecommerce (A): Picking up the Pace

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Karen Elterman

This case is an abridged version (part 1 of 2) of "Walmart's Omnichannel Strategy: Revolution or Miscalculation?" HBS Case No. 720-370. The (A) case discusses Walmart's early forays into online retail, as well as improvements made under Doug McMillon beginning in 2014.... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Strategy; Internet and the Web; Distribution; Distribution Channels; Competitive Strategy; Retail Industry; Bentonville; Arkansas; United States

Research Summary

Performance Impact of Continuous Replenishment Systems

By: Janice H. Hammond

Janice H. Hammond has conducted (with Ted Clark of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) a survey of U.S. retailers to determine how the implementation of continuous replenishment programs between manufacturers and retailers affects supply channel... View Details

2021
Article

Evidence of Decreasing Internet Entropy: The Lack of Redundancy in DNS Resolution by Major Websites and Services

By: Samantha Bates, John Bowers, Shane Greenstein, Jordi Weinstock, Jonathan Zittrain and Yunhan Xu

This paper analyzes the extent to which the Internet’s global domain name resolution (DNS) system has preserved its distributed resilience given the rise of cloud-based hosting and infrastructure. We explore trends in the concentration of the DNS space since at least... View Details

Keywords: Domain Name System; Resilience; Entropy; Internet and the Web; Infrastructure; Performance Effectiveness; Safety; Cybersecurity

November 2017 (Revised July 2019)
Case

Project Moab at Hulu

By: C. Fritz Foley and James Weber

In 2015, Elaine Paul, CFO of Hulu, and the rest of the senior leadership team, must decide if they should offer a new, advertisement-free subscription service. At the time Hulu distributed a wide variety of content including in season current programing and earned... View Details

Keywords: Video On Demand; Subscriber Models; Media; Business Model; Decision Choices and Conditions; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States

December 2010
Article

Can Higher Prices Stimulate Product Use? Evidence from a Field Experiment in Zambia

By: Nava Ashraf, James Berry and Jesse M. Shapiro

The controversy over how much to charge for health products in the developing world rests, in part, on whether higher prices can increase use, either by targeting distribution to high-use households (a screening effect), or by stimulating use psychologically through a... View Details

Keywords: Price; Product; Information; Zambia

10 Mar 2015
News

Innovation and Implementation in Cardiovascular Medicine

11 Dec 2014
News

No silver lining in partisan gridlock

Article

Are REC Markets a WRECk Waiting to Happen?

By: Jurgen Weiss

The paper examines a weakness of renewable portfolio standards (RPS) implemented via the use of renewable energy certificates (RECs) related to the uncertainty of REC-based revenue streams for renewable projects. Since the production of RECs in any given year depends... View Details

Keywords: Renewable Energy; Markets; Energy Industry

November 2016 (Revised March 2018)
Case

Deutsche Bank: Structured Retail Products

By: Boris Vallée and Jérôme Lenhardt

Describes how Deutsche Bank, a leading European bank, is deciding whether or not to launch a new structured retail product in Germany: an autocallable note. Will this product find a market and how does it fit into the bank’s product portfolio? The case investigates how... View Details

June 2017
Article

Does Aggregated Returns Disclosure Increase Portfolio Risk Taking?

By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian

Many experiments have found that participants take more investment risk if they see returns less frequently, see portfolio-level returns (rather than each individual asset’s returns), or see long-horizon (rather than one-year) historical return distributions. In... View Details

Keywords: Information; Investment Portfolio; Investment Return

April 2006 (Revised August 2007)
Case

BitTorrent

Involves the copyright issues associated with Bram Cohen's revolutionary software program BitTorrent, which makes it possible to transfer very large files, such as movies, at a high speed over the Internet. The program, which is available for free over the Internet, is... View Details

Keywords: Lawfulness; Lawsuits and Litigation; Applications and Software; Copyright; Internet and the Web

August 2000 (Revised February 2002)
Case

Arepa

By: Jay O. Light and Daniel J. Green

This case illustrates the importance of structuring negotiations with large companies and investors that are critical to a start-up's success. It depicts a firm with innovative technology that contracts with giant companies in order to survive. It also demonstrates how... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Organizational Structure; Entrepreneurship; Technological Innovation; Business or Company Management; Business Model; Partners and Partnerships; Business Startups

01 Jul 2020
News

Covid-19 Dispatch: Tsedal Neeley

January 2023 (Revised April 2023)
Case

Cobalt Robotics: Scaling Workplace Robotics

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Nicole Tempest Keller and Kyung Keun Park

Founded in 2016, Cobalt Robotics, based in Fremont, California, was a Robot-as-a-Service (RaaS) company that built autonomous workplace robots that were designed to replace or supplement human security guards. Outfitted with over 60 sensors, Cobalt robots patrolled... View Details

Keywords: Information Infrastructure; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation and Invention; Marketing Strategy; Marketing Channels; Customers; Technology Industry; United States; California

2022
Working Paper

On the Origins of Our Discontent

By: Rawi Abdelal and Thomas J. DeLong

Signs of discontent with global capitalism and national capitalisms abound. Unless we find ways to create better jobs and then improve those jobs further with empathic management and thoughtful mentoring, then we will be unable to create a more stable, purposeful... View Details

Keywords: Capitalism; Human Needs; Public Opinion; Social Issues; Wealth and Poverty; Globalization; Government and Politics

October 2020
Supplement

TowerBrook: ESG in Action (B)

By: Victoria Ivashina, Brian Trelstad and Meaghan Conway

This case is the second of a two-part series that follows Ramez Sousou and his team at TowerBrook Capital Partners as they face a challenging investment decision in February of 2013. It is intended to be distributed at the end of the discussion of “TowerBrook: ESG in... View Details

Keywords: ESG; Finance; Private Equity; Corporate Governance; Value Creation

03 Dec 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Walking the Talk in Multiparty Bargaining: An Experimental Investigation

Keywords: by Kathleen L. McGinn, Katherine L. Milkman & Markus Nöth

2007
Working Paper

A Taste For Obscurity: An Individual-Level Examination of 'Long Tail' Consumption

By: Anita Elberse

Because online retailers are often able to provide products in a more cost-efficient manner than bricks-and-mortar stores, online channels are characterized by a vast assortment of products. Proponents of the "long tail" principle recently argued that the demand for... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Consumer Behavior; Distribution Channels; Product; Renting or Rental; Online Technology; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Music Industry; Retail Industry