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October 2019
Case

Kaspi.kz IPO

By: Victoria Ivashina and Esel Çekin

This case follows Kaspi.kz, a private equity (Baring Vostok) co-owned retail bank in Central Asia that evolved into a fintech, payments and e-commerce company. It provides insights into private equity financing, portfolio company management, and initial public offering... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Private Equity; Initial Public Offering; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Central Asia

Jake Cook is a Lecturer of Business Administration in the Marketing Unit at Harvard Business School and an entrepreneur with a deep-seated passion for e-commerce, digital marketing, and AI.

As a Cofounder and CEO of... View Details

August 2017 (Revised November 2017)
Case

Paktor: Designing a Dating App

By: Michael Luca, Stephanie Chan and Essie Alamsyah

Paktor is a popular mobile-based online dating app from Singapore, where a user can swipe right or left on a profile to indicate her interest in a potential match. The case is designed to explore issues related to pricing, market design, and launch strategies in the... View Details

Keywords: Mobile and Wireless Technology; Design; Price; Product Launch; Global Strategy

October 2017
Case

Shift Technologies, Inc.

By: Thomas Eisenmann and Nicole Tempest Keller

In 2017, management at Shift, an online marketplace that uses a “high touch,” concierge approach to buy and sell used cars, was formulating plans for the San Francisco–based startup’s next phase of expansion. One option was to preserve Shift’s current business model... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Market Design; Multi-Sided Platforms; Marketplace Matching; Growth and Development Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Auto Industry; Retail Industry; United States

December 2010
Case

Digital Divide

By: Sunil Gupta

In November 2010, Charles Henry, chief marketing officer of a major consumer packaged goods company, was trying to convince his senior managers to enhance the digital presence of the company's brands by significantly increasing their online marketing budget. However,... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Digital Marketing; Marketing Communications; Marketing Strategy; Information Technology

Jun 2016
Video

Video: Fixing America’s Talent Supply Chain

America’s labor market has entered a “new normal” phrase. Although the unemployment rate has declined after the Great Recession, underemployment remains a major problem and the percentage of workers stuck in... View Details

Research Summary

Working Papers

By: Dennis A. Yao

Lewis, Tracy R. and Dennis A. Yao. (2001, revised 2006). "Innovation, Knowledge Flow, and Worker... View Details

28 Nov 2018
HBS Case

On Target: Rethinking the Retail Website

data about its online customers—products purchased, browsing habits, items abandoned in shopping carts—yet it wasn’t fully leveraging all that information. The company began to see this huge pile of e-commerce data as the... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Retail

August 2013 (Revised September 2015)
Case

Coursera

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Hyunjin Kim

By providing free and open-access online courses at a large scale, Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platforms seek to innovate the business models of the traditional higher education industry. In a little over a year, Coursera had grown at a rapid rate to emerge as a... View Details

Keywords: Business Models; Strategy; Competition; Business Model; Internet and the Web; Higher Education; Competitive Advantage; Education Industry

01 Sep 2020
News

Action Plan: Finding Fluency

also lets me daydream about the trip to Paris I’m going to get back on the calendar someday.” Dunaway, the chief marketing officer for Duolingo, is not alone in her desire to use her time in quarantine for self-improvement. Interest in... View Details

Keywords: April White; foreign language; education and technology; digital marketing; change management; COVID-19; Educational Services

February 2010 (Revised October 2010)
Case

YouTube: Time to Charge Users?

By: Anita Elberse and Sunil Gupta

In January 2010, YouTube, the world's largest online video aggregator, was still seeking to become profitable. Was the time right for Google, YouTube's parent company, to charge users seeking to upload content, as some analysts had suggested—and if so, who should be... View Details

Keywords: Digital Marketing; Business Model; Cost; Profit; Revenue; Consumer Behavior; Internet and the Web; Motion Pictures and Video Industry