Publications

October 2023 (Revised May 2024)
Case

JSW Steel: Balancing Growth While Decarbonizing

By: Vikram S Gandhi and Radhika Kak

Sajjan Jindal, Chairman & Managing Director of JSW Steel, India's largest steel producer by market capitalization, was facing a dilemma. Steel demand in India was expected to grow exponentially over the next decade. However, given its traditional reliance on carbon,... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Environmental Sustainability; Investment; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Growth and Development; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Pollutants; Pollution; Production; Steel Industry; India

19 Mar 2007
Research & Ideas

Handicapping the Best Countries for Business

important and what are the keys to analyzing and understanding a country's near-term direction? A: Any business person is interested only in the future—in where markets and countries are heading. The only way to understand the near-term... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

February 2000 (Revised May 2001)
Case

BET.com

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Pauline M Fischer

Black Entertainment Television, a leading cable programmer, is launching BET.com, an Internet portal targeted toward African-Americans. This case examines the challenges facing BET management as it defines its service offerings and target customer segments in a... View Details

Keywords: Product Positioning; Ethnicity; Internet and the Web; Age; Race; Decision Choices and Conditions; Business Startups; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States

February 2022
Case

Leading The UK Vaccine Task Force

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Claudia Pienica

This case describes the first six months of the UK Vaccine Taskforce, under the leadership of Kate Bingham. With a career spent in the private sector as a biotech investor, Bingham’s appointment within the government was considered unusual. The overarching brief given... View Details

2022
Working Paper

Confidence, Self-Selection and Bias in the Aggregate

By: Benjamin Enke, Thomas Graeber and Ryan Oprea

The influence of behavioral biases on aggregate outcomes like prices and allocations depends in part on self-selection: whether rational people opt more strongly into aggregate interactions than biased individuals. We conduct a series of betting market, auction and... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Cognition and Thinking; Markets; Price

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This teaching case profiles Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), a venture capital firm launched in 2009 that quickly broke into the VC industry's top ranks. The case recounts the firm's history; describes its co-founders' motivations and their strategy for disrupting an... View Details

October 2016 (Revised February 2020)
Case

Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson

By: Anita Elberse

In June 2016, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is planning for the upcoming launch of an endeavor that is a first for a Hollywood actor with superstar status—a digital channel. The channel (named “Seven Bucks Digital Studios”) will be a new part of film and television... View Details

11 Sep 2006
Research & Ideas

Negotiating When the Rules Suddenly Change

How can you negotiate when the rules suddenly change, and no one knows whether your particular market is headed up or down? Regrouping from the cancellation of the 2004-2005 season due to failed labor negotiations, National Hockey League... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Wheeler; Sports

27 Oct 2009
First Look

First Look: October 27

of a market mechanism to draw out knowledge from diverse external sources to solve internal problems. Creating Common Ground: Propositions about Effective Intergroup Leadership Author: Rosabeth M. Kanter Publication: In Crossing the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

07 Nov 2014
News

Taylor Swift and the Economics of Music as a Service

January 2023
Teaching Note

Duolingo: Teaching Languages to the Masses

By: Youngme Moon

Teaching Note for HBS Case 323-016. At the time the case is written, Duolingo is the most popular language learning service in the world. The company has more than 40 million monthly active users, and the company’s total annual revenue has reached $250 million a year.... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Customer Relationship Management; Acquisition; Retention; Innovation and Invention

05 Apr 2011
First Look

First Look: April 5

Limits to Network Effects Authors:Hann Hałaburda and Mikołaj Jan Piskorski Abstract We model conditions under which agents in two-sided matching markets rationally prefer a platform restricting choice rather than a platform that offers... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 2014
Supplement

Ingrid Johnson: Reflections on Leading Change

By: Michael Tushman

This case discusses the issue of leading change at the business banking division of Nedbank, a prominent South African bank, between 2005 and 2009. (This timeframe, beginning just 11 years after Apartheid's end, covers Ingrid Johnson's leadership of this division... View Details

Keywords: Leading Change; Restructuring; Personal Development and Career; Commercial Banking; Banking Industry; South Africa

October 2007 (Revised December 2007)
Case

TiVo 2007: DVRs and Beyond

By: David B. Yoffie and Michael Slind

Tom Rogers, CEO of TiVo, had placed multiple strategic bets on his company. In September 2007, that strategy was due for a major test. TiVo was a maker of digital video recorder (DVR) products and a distributor of DVR technology. Rogers believed that macro-trends in... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Business Model; Television Entertainment; Intellectual Property; Lawsuits and Litigation; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Distribution; Problems and Challenges; Partners and Partnerships; Research; Internet; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States

July 2020 (Revised July 2023)
Case

Live Nation and Pharrell Williams

By: Anita Elberse and Kate Christensen

“We’re in business together, and whether we lose a few million dollars or make a few million dollars, let’s do this. If you think you can pull it off, I’m behind you.” Michael Rapino, chief executive officer of Live Nation, the world’s leading live entertainment... View Details

Keywords: Music; Entertainment; Superstars; Talent; Labor Economics; General Management; Music Entertainment; Media; Talent and Talent Management; Joint Ventures; Marketing; Strategy; Music Industry

October 2008
Article

The Small World of Investing: Board Connections and Mutual Fund Returns

By: Lauren Cohen, Andrea Frazzini and Christopher J. Malloy

This paper uses social networks to identify information transfer in security markets. We focus on connections between mutual fund managers and corporate board members via shared education networks. We find that portfolio managers place larger bets on firms they are... View Details

Keywords: Financial Markets; Information Management; Social and Collaborative Networks; Announcements; Investment Portfolio; Investment Return; Investment Funds; Asset Pricing; Governing and Advisory Boards

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August 2021 (Revised February 2022)
Case

Northvolt: Making the World's Greenest Battery

By: Jurgen R. Weiss and Emilie Billaud

In 2021, the demand for lithium-ion batteries increased rapidly, particularly for electric vehicles. Anxious not to be reliant on Asian players, Europe was keen on developing its own home-grown capacity to control the value chain, maintain employment in Europe, and get... View Details

06 Feb 2007
First Look

First Look: February 6, 2007

larger class of financial and managerial consultants who sought to refine business decision-making through the introduction of statistical data and scientific analysis. The failure of most forecasting agencies to predict the stock market... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

March 2024
Case

Expanding the Bicester Collection to New York

By: Boris Vallee, Kirby Brand, Kristina Brown, Julie McCrimlisk, Chloe Sztabnik and Arthur Segel

Secretariat, if anyone remembers, won the triple crown at the Belmont Race Track on Long Island, located at the nexus of La Guardia, JFK Airports, the Long Island Railroad and multiple major highways. Belmont Race Track is now being rebuilt along with an adjacent UBS... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Urban Development; Brands and Branding; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Sports Industry; Retail Industry; New York (state, US)