Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(3,678)
- Faculty Publications (916)
- August 2013
- Technical Note
Raising the Level of Abstraction
By: Willy Shih
This technical note discusses abstraction as a way of generalizing a process or component for wider application. By hiding complexity inside a module, abstraction enables system designers to think at a higher level. This lowers entry barriers to using (and reusing) a... View Details
- 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
- July 2013 (Revised May 2017)
- Case
European Integration: Meeting the Competitiveness Challenge
By: Michael E. Porter and Christian Ketels
The case discusses the origins and development of the European Integration process from the post-war period up to 2007, focusing particularly on the efforts of the Lisbon-agenda under way since 2000 to enhance Europe's competitiveness. It discusses the different policy... View Details
- June 2013 (Revised August 2017)
- Case
Coupa
By: Michael Roberts and William Sahlman
The case describes the growth of Coupa, a software as a service platform for procurement / expense management. The issues in the case are around how fast to grow and how to finance that growth. The case includes a detailed financial model that will help students... View Details
- June 2013 (Revised March 2015)
- Case
Open Innovation at Siemens
By: Karim R. Lakhani, Katja Hutter, Stephanie Healy Pokrywa and Johann Fuller
The case describes Siemens, a worldwide innovator in the Energy, Healthcare, Industry, and Infrastructure & Cities sectors, and its efforts to develop and commercialize new R&D through open innovation, including internal and external crowdsourcing contests. Emphasis is... View Details
- June 2013 (Revised August 2013)
- Case
AVA.ph: Growing a Filipino E-Commerce Company
By: William R. Kerr and Henry Motte-Munoz
AVA is a three-year old e-commerce company in the Philippines. From its early start mimicking the Gilt Groupe concept of online flash sales, the company has grown into a broader e-commerce platform for local fashion commerce. Oliver Segovia needs to evaluate where AVA... View Details
- April 2013 (Revised June 2018)
- Teaching Note
Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google 2018
By: John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld
Keywords: Amazon; Apple; Facebook; Google; Online Platforms; Marketing; E-commerce; Digital Platforms; Digital Marketing
- April 2013 (Revised October 2013)
- Case
National Instruments
By: Lynda M. Applegate, Keri Pearlson and Natalie Kindred
This case explores the use of social media to support product design, customer support, marketing and HR activities at National Instruments (NI). Based in Austin, Texas, with over $1 billion in 2011 sales, NI designs, produces, and sells software and hardware platforms... View Details
- March 2013 (Revised April 2014)
- Case
Barnes & Noble: Managing the E-Book Revolution
By: Alan MacCormack, Brian Kimball Dunn and Chris F. Kemerer
The case describes competition in the market for E-Books, and Barnes & Noble's Strategy in this industry. As a traditional retailer, B&N was challenged by the introduction of digital technologies that allow books to be published, distributed and sold to consumers... View Details
- February–March 2013
- Article
The Mobile Banking and Payment Revolution
By: Sunil Gupta
Mobile technology is revolutionizing the global banking and payment industry. It offers new opportunities for banks to provide added convenience to their existing customers in developed countries and reach a large population of unbanked customers in emerging markets.... View Details
- January 2013 (Revised February 2013)
- Case
EverTrue: Mobile Technology Development (A)
By: William R. Kerr and Alexis Brownell
Brent Grinna is evaluating different options for the technology development of his start-up's iPhone app, including hiring local programmers, finding a CTO, or outsourcing. He only has a little over two months before he presents his alumni networking app to Brown... View Details
- January 2013 (Revised March 2015)
- Case
Hudson Yards—The Other Side of the Tracks?
By: Christopher M. Gordon, John D. Macomber, A. Eugene Kohn and Lisa Strope
Stephan Ross, CEO of Related Companies, is considering an opportunity to invest $1 billion for the air rights over the Hudson Rail Yards in New York City. The investment would allow Related to build a platform over the operating rail tracks and develop this blighted... View Details
- December 2012 (Revised October 2022)
- Case
Plastiq
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Gaurav Jain, Liroy Haddad, Luke Langford and Matt Noble
The young CEO of a venture-backed startup needs to figure out his go to market strategy and the right profile for his first key sales hires. Should he develop partnerships with channels that would provide leverage or build out a direct sales force? And should the sales... View Details
- December 2012 (Revised April 2025)
- Case
AmTran Technology Ltd.
By: Willy Shih, Jyun-Cheng Wang and Karen E. Robinson
As an original design manufacturer (ODM) of television sets and leading supplier to Vizio, a market leader in the U.S. for LCD flat panel TVs, AmTran Technology Ltd. uses what founder Alpha Wu describes as a "WE" model in which western companies perform sales,... View Details
Keywords: Modularity; Technology Transitions; Analog; Digital; Television; TV; Flat-panel; ATSC; NTSC; Video; Global Strategy; Innovation and Management; Innovation Leadership; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Development; Product Design; Supply Chain; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Technology Adoption; Digital Platforms; Electronics Industry; Taiwan; United States; Japan
- December 2012
- Case
Blink Booking
By: William R. Kerr, Magnus Thor Torfason and Alexis Brownell
Rebeca Minguela hopes to create an arbitrage platform, similar to Rocket Internet, that can bring start-up ideas and opportunities to Spain. However, Blink Booking, her first venture and proof of concept, is rocked by a co-founder's breach of confidence and departure.... View Details
- 2012
- Article
Organization Design for Business Ecosystems
The modern corporation has long been the central focus of the field of organization design. Such firms can be likened to nation-states: they have boundaries that circumscribe citizen-employees, and they engage in production and trade. But individual corporations are... View Details
- Winter 2013
- Article
The New Patent Intermediaries: Platforms, Defensive Aggregators and Super-Aggregators
By: Andrei Hagiu and David B. Yoffie
The patent market consists mainly of privately negotiated, bilateral transactions, either sales or cross-licenses, between large companies. There is no eBay, Amazon, New York Stock Exchange, or Kelley's Blue Book equivalent for patents, and when buyers and sellers do... View Details
- November 2012
- Case
Bonnier: Digitalizing the Media Business
By: Lynda Applegate, Daniel Nylen, Jonny Holmstrom and Kalle Lyytinen
The case follows leading Scandinavian media company Bonnier as it establishes a designated R&D division for the first time. The case, in particular, focuses on its first flagship project, called Mag+, in which it creates a digital platform for publishing digital... View Details
- November 2012 (Revised May 2013)
- Case
ASUSTeK and the Google Nexus 7 Tablet
By: Willy C. Shih and Jyun-Cheng Wang
Days after Jerry Shen introduced a new tablet computer at the Consumer Electronics Show, a Google meeting convinced him to go with a lower price point and co-branding as the Nexus 7. While his company would have a premier position at launch, companies like Samsung... View Details
Keywords: Nexus; Google; ASUSTeK; Android; Tablet; Kindle; Kindle Fire; Notebook Computers; ODM; Apple; Price Point; App Store; Ecosystem; Open Handset Alliance; Reference Design; iPad; EMS; Electronic Manufacturing Services; Smartphone; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Product Marketing; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Industry Structures; Product Design; Product Development; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Digital Platforms; Information Technology; Internet and the Web; Computer Industry; Information Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Taiwan; United States
- November 2012 (Revised August 2013)
- Supplement
Global Unichip Corporation (B)
By: Willy Shih and Chen-Fu Chien
Jim Lai, President of Global Unichip Corporation (GUC), mapped out the changes he saw coming to the global semiconductor industry. The big question was how many system developers would start coming directly to GUC. View Details
Keywords: Abstraction; Value-network; Vertical Integration; Entry Barriers; Intermediaries; Dis-intermediation; Aggregator; Vertical Specialization; Technology Adoption; Digital Platforms; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Integration; Technological Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Innovation and Management; Industry Structures; Information Infrastructure; Information Technology; Complexity; Semiconductor Industry; Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Taiwan