Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(120,196)
- Faculty Publications (776)
- January 2001
- Background Note
Online Brokers
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Alastair Brown
Describes online brokers, companies that use the Internet to help clients identify prospective trading partners and sometimes help their clients complete transactions. First, summarizes the various ways that online brokers create value for their clients. Then analyzes... View Details
- December 2000
- Background Note
Networked Utility Providers
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Alastair Brown
Defines and describes ways to categorize networked utilities, software "applets" such as RealNetwork's RealPlayer, Macromedia's Shockwave, and AOL's ICQ that are downloaded via the Internet. Networked utilities extend basic Web browser capability to allow users to... View Details
- December 2000
- Background Note
Online Market Makers
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Chris Hackett
Describes the business model for online market makers, firms that use the Internet to organize a marketplace, providing participants with a virtual "place" to trade, rules to govern their exchanges, and infrastructure to support trading. First it proposes a definition... View Details
- December 2000 (Revised July 2001)
- Case
Ventro: Builder of B2B Businesses (Condensed)
By: Lynda M. Applegate and Meredith Collura
Enables a condensed analysis of Ventro (formerly known as Chemdex), which builds and operates multiple B2B marketplace companies. Part of the Building-E-Business Online series. View Details
- December 2000
- Background Note
Online Portals
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Sanjay Pothen
Describes the online portal business model. Analyzes the model, focusing on the tactics used to acquire new users, turn new users into repeat visitors, and monetize user traffic. Explains portals' revenue and cost drivers and their implications for pursuing aggressive... View Details
- December 2000
- Background Note
Online Retailers
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Alastair Brown
Describes online retailers, companies that use the Internet to sell physical goods. Defines online retailers and describes different ways to categorize them. Explores their economic model and value proposition for consumers in comparison with offline retailers. Next,... View Details
- December 2000
- Background Note
Internet Access Providers
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Daniel Green
Describes the Internet access provider business model. First, it defines the model and presents different ways to categorize access providers. Second, it offers a summary of the various ways that Internet access providers create value for their customers. Next, it... View Details
- December 2000 (Revised November 2001)
- Case
Rise and Fall of Iridium, The
By: Alan D. MacCormack and Kerry Herman
Examines the history of Iridium Communications, a provider of mobile satellite services. Discusses the genesis of Iridium's technical design, then follows the venture through various stages of development. Describes Iridium's attempts to build a subscriber base after... View Details
- November 2000 (Revised December 2000)
- Background Note
Online Content Providers
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Alastair Brown
Describes the business model for online content providers, companies that distribute copyright content via the Internet. Focuses on their revenue and cost drivers and on the ways that online content providers create value for consumers. Also investigates the benefits... View Details
- November 2000
- Case
Model E: An Incubated Enterprise
By: Myra M. Hart
Provides a close-up view of an entrepreneurial search for opportunity, the role of incubators in the process, and the development of a viable business concept. Also depicts the changes made to the business concept as new people (with new expertise and experience) are... View Details
- November 2000 (Revised May 2002)
- Case
FleetBoston Financial: Online Banking
By: Frances X. Frei and Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar
As the ninth largest bank holding company in the United States in 2000, FleetBoston Financial Corp. provided a myriad of financial services, including retail banking, loan origination, and brokerage accounts. This case explores how FleetBoston responded to the Internet... View Details
- November 2000 (Revised June 2001)
- Case
Ventro: Builder of B2B Businesses
By: Lynda M. Applegate and Meredith Collura
Enables a thorough analysis of Ventro (formerly known as Chemdex), which builds and operates multiple B2B marketplace companies. Examines Ventro's business model and strategy as well as the company's operating, technical, and management expertise. Part of the... View Details
- November 2000
- Case
FireDrop
By: William A. Sahlman and Michael J. Roberts
Describes the evolution of FireDrop, a new venture-backed company that has developed a new platform for e-mail communication. The FireDrop application--called a Zaplet--allows for e-mails to be continually updated so they are current when read (rather than when sent).... View Details
- November 2000
- Case
Geocast Network Systems, Inc.
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Christina L. Darwall and Elizabeth Kind
Geocast, a venture-backed start-up, had developed innovative technology for "datacasting" broadband information and entertainment content to an external hard drive, where it was cached for later retrieval by a Web-enabled PC. By using terrestrial TV, direct broadcast... View Details
- October 2000 (Revised March 2001)
- Case
BizRate.com
By: Youngme E. Moon
BizRate is a market research firm that collects point-of-purchase customer feedback data from retailing merchants. It then makes its findings available to consumers in the form of "BizRate star ratings," which are displayed on its website. To date, its primary revenue... View Details
- October 2000 (Revised May 2001)
- Case
Digitas (A): Strategic Interactive Group
By: Rosabeth M. Kanter, David Lane and Courtenay Sprague
Kathy Biro, president of Digitas, an e-strategy consulting firm, has successfully grown out of the company's roots in the strategic interactive group. Her challenges now include managing the integration of the SIG with Digitas's other component, direct marketing firm... View Details
- 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
- September 2000 (Revised July 2001)
- Case
Chapters.ca
By: Michael J. Roberts, Rajiv Lal and Walter J. Salmon
Describes the challenges facing the online site associated with Canada's largest bricks-and-mortar bookseller. Presents a variety of lenses for examining the economic model of the online versus traditional book-selling business, and asks students to identify the... View Details
- September 2000 (Revised February 2025)
- Case
Netflix (2000)
The CEO of a successful Internet start-up must decide whether to delay the company's initial public offering following a significant decline in the NASDAQ market during the spring of 2000. The company's CFO is asked to reevaluate the company's projected cash flow needs... View Details