Publications

Forthcoming
Article

Dynamic Competition for Customer Memberships

By: Cristian Chica, Julian Jimenez-Cardenas and Jorge Tamayo

A competitive two-period membership (subscription) market is analyzed. Two symmetric firms charge a “membership” fee that allows consumers to buy products or services at a given unit price for both periods. Firms can choose between long- or short-term memberships. When... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Price Discrimination; Membership; Dynamic Competition; Competition; Price; Consumer Behavior; Business Model

December 2014 (Revised May 2015)
Case

Growth Hacking at Bazaart (A)

By: Jeffrey Bussgang and Matthew G. Preble

The four founding members of Bazaart—a young Israeli company whose sole product was its eponymous mobile application (app) which allowed users to create collages from photographs and other images—face an important strategic decision in June 2014. Since its founding... View Details

Keywords: Growth Hacking; Customer Acquisition; Startup Marketing; Startup; Startup Nation; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Customers; Marketing; Social Marketing; Fashion Industry; Technology Industry; Israel

01 Jun 2010
News

Letters to the Editor

University engineering professor Andrew Schultz Jr. who had published an article on the experience curve (or learning curve) based on his research in the aircraft industry years before BCG’s founding. Henderson’s insight was not of the learning curve per se, but its... View Details

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

September 1996 (Revised March 2002)
Case

Bishay Industries

By: David F. Hawkins and Norman Bartczak

A bankrupt company has a turnaround plan. Students are asked to predict whether it will be successful. View Details

Keywords: Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Business Plan; Goals and Objectives; Strategic Planning; Business Strategy; Cash Flow; Mathematical Methods; Financial Services Industry

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December 2006 (Revised January 2007)
Case

Infosys in India: Building a Software Giant in a Corrupt Environment

By: Rawi E. Abdelal, Rafael M. Di Tella and Prabakar (PK) Kothandaraman

Shortly after Infosys was founded in 1981, its managers faced a major turning point when they made a decision to operate without giving in to the petty corruption rife in the Indian economy. Within just a few years, that decision had truly defined the company. Over the... View Details

Keywords: History; Management Style; Moral Sensibility; Policy; Business and Government Relations; Decisions; Business Growth and Maturation; Situation or Environment; Crime and Corruption; Business Strategy; Information Technology Industry; Computer Industry; India

24 Apr 2014
News

A reformed fiscal policy is vital to renewing US productivity

marketplace while its people enjoy a high and rising standard of living. Vietor, with HBS collaborator Matthew Weinzierl, associate professor of Business Administration, and Marvin Bower Fellow, has found that US fiscal policy is eroding... View Details

01 Mar 2019
News

INK: The Lessons of Blitzscaling

every business has to be gigantic, of course. But if that is your goal, you need to be first to reach scale. How can established companies apply these techniques? Every established company needs to blitzscale new View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint

01 Sep 2009
News

Alumni Books

es-says by the cocreator of the first spreadsheet, VisiCalc. Bricklin discusses how people and technologies — cell phones, e-mail, digital cameras, and personal Web sites, among others — affect one another and how the technologies can be improved. Rain: What a Paperboy... View Details

01 Mar 2017
News

Alumni and Faculty Books for March 2017

jobs. He tells personal stories of success, complexity, and perseverance that will help up-and-coming entrepreneurs build their businesses, think differently, and employ unique approaches and strategies in their View Details

1990
Chapter

Measurement, Coordination and Learning in a Multi-plant Network

By: W. B. Chew, K. B. Clark and T. Bresnahan

Keywords: Factories, Labs, and Plants; Organizational Structure; Networks; Business Model; Measurement and Metrics; Cooperation

October 2000 (Revised October 2001)
Case

adM@rt(A)

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Carin-Isabel Knoop and David Lane

Describes the complex policy alternatives facing an online Hong Kong grocery company as it tries to apply Webvan-type concepts in the Hong Kong marketplace. Captures the extraordinary process of adaptation the company is going through as it tries to find the right... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Markets; Marketing; Business Strategy; Business Model; Decisions; Problems and Challenges; Retail Industry; Web Services Industry; Hong Kong

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February 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

Honda Innovations: Leveraging External Insights to Accelerate Creation

By: Antonio Davila

Nick Sugimoto, CEO of Honda Innovations—the open innovation organization of Honda, has to decide how to extend his organization’s approach to innovation across the world. Honda Innovations dates back to 2000 when Honda created Honda Research Institute in Silicon... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Radical Innovation; Corporate Venturing; Corporate Innovation; Organization Structure; Management Control; Business Units; Disruption; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Global Strategy; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Organizational Structure; Strategy; Auto Industry; San Francisco; Japan

March 1996 (Revised August 2000)
Case

Wildfire Communications, Inc. (A)

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Mary Connor

Founder and CEO Bill Warner is faced with critical decisions regarding the product lines, target markets, and technology platforms that his start-up, Wildfire Communications, Inc., will pursue. In addition to the question of strategic focus across these lines of... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Resource Allocation; Organizational Culture; Business Startups; Business Strategy; Communications Industry; Technology Industry

September 1994
Case

Otis Elevator Company: China Joint Venture (D)

By: Michael Y. Yoshino

Describes a set of challenges facing Otis Elevator's joint venture in China as it seeks to expand to other regions of the country. A rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details

Keywords: Joint Ventures; Expansion; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Globalization; Construction Industry; Manufacturing Industry; China

March 2017
Teaching Note

Showpad

By: Frank Cespedes

Showpad is a startup that provides a sales enablement platform and tools. The venture has grown 100% annually since its founding four years ago, and the founders are evaluating growth options and decisions in three areas: adding product features, possible pricing... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Sales

October 1998 (Revised March 1999)
Case

US Office Products (A)

Growth by acquisition (rolling up or consolidating an industry) results in questions about integrating operations, corporate form, financial structure, and management for this company. View Details

Keywords: Integration; Business or Company Management; Acquisition

August 1995 (Revised January 2007)
Case

The Schneider Building

By: William J. Poorvu and John H. Vogel Jr.

In May 1995, Jonathan Schneider, the president of the Schneider Co., is faced with several related problems. First, he needs to find a new facility that can accommodate his expanding business. Second, he needs to decide whether to lease or purchase this new facility.... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Property; Leasing; Expansion; Real Estate Industry