Publications

October 2003 (Revised January 2016)
Exercise

The BCPC Internet Strategy Team: An Exercise

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Laura Feldman

This short fictional case forms the basis of a team decision-making exercise. The case, inspired by a real decision facing a major telecommunications company, describes a cross-functional management team convened by the CEO for the purpose of developing a... View Details

Keywords: Groups and Teams; Decision Making; Risk and Uncertainty; Information Management; Perspective; Product Launch; Internet and the Web; Knowledge Sharing; Telecommunications Industry

April 2022
Case

NIO: A Chinese EV Company's Global Strategy

By: William C. Kirby, Shu Lin and Noah B. Truwit

Founded in November 2014 and based in Shanghai, NIO designed, jointly manufactured, and sold premium “smart” EVs. Its mission was to “shape a joyful lifestyle by offering high-performance smart electric vehicles and being the best user enterprise. At NIO Day 2021,... View Details

Keywords: Electric Vehicles; Expansion; Technological Innovation; Market Entry and Exit; Competitive Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Green Technology; Auto Industry; China; Europe; Norway

September 2017
Teaching Note

Marketing Transformation at Mastercard

By: Sunil Gupta and Srinivas K. Reddy

Teaching Note for HBS No. 517-040. View Details

Keywords: Mastercard; Financial Services; Ingredient Brand; B2B2C; Experiential Marketing; Digital Marketing; ROI; Marketing; Customer Focus and Relationships; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Brands and Branding; Internet and the Web; Investment Return; Financial Services Industry

2024
Working Paper

Case Studies of the Emulation of Chinese Entrepreneurial Business Models

By: Josh Lerner, Junxi Liu, Jacob Moscona and David Yang

This working paper presents four short case studies of emerging market businesses whose founders emulated Chinese firms. These examples are part of a more systematic pattern, documented extensively in Lerner et al. (2024), in which businesses developed in China were... View Details

Keywords: Emerging Markets; Business Ventures

Read Now

February 2017 (Revised November 2017)
Case

1436: The First Pure Chinese Luxury Fashion Brand?

By: Anat Keinan, Sandrine Crener and Hannah H. Chang

The case traces the birth of 1436, a new luxury brand specializing in cashmere garments. It describes how this venture emerged organically out of a combination of manufacturing and retail expertise with the ambition of creating the first pure Chinese luxury brand. The... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Product Positioning; Luxury; Global Strategy; Fashion Industry; China

February 2017
Case

Shang Xia: The Creation of a Chinese Luxury Lifestyle Brand

By: Anat Keinan, Sandrine Crener, Jing Xu, Janet Borgerson, Jonathan Schroeder and Zhiyan Wu

The case traces the birth of Shang Xia, a joint venture between the Hermès Group and Chinese designer Jiang Qiong Er. Launched in 2009 in Shanghai, the new brand's core mission is to revive and promote China’s 5,000-year-old cultural heritage and leverage Chinese... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Product Positioning; Luxury; China

April 2012 (Revised April 2013)
Case

Mekanism: Engineering Viral Marketing

By: Thales S. Teixeira and Alison Caverly

Mekanism introduces students to a digital media production company specializing in creating viral marketing campaigns for advertising agencies and clients (e.g., Microsoft, AXE, eBay, Toyota, etc.) Mekanism has grown tremendously from 2007 to 2010 in part due to the... View Details

Keywords: Viral Marketing; Viral Advertising; Core Competencies; Growth Strategy; Online Media; Videos; Advertising Media; Internet and the Web; Expansion; Media; Marketing; Advertising; Advertising Industry; North and Central America

03 Dec 2013
News

China’s Challenge: Press censorship in the internet era

24 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Why the Internet Doesn’t Change Everything

As the technology wave breaks over us, some think the Internet looks to many about to wash out the established order of everything from vacation booking to the nation-state itself. But hold on a minute, Debora Spar cautions. We've seen... View Details

Keywords: by Debora L. Spar

01 Sep 2011
News

Faculty Learn Firsthand about Chinese Business

deep connections with HBS alumni on the mainland, McFarlan arranged a six-city itinerary of meetings with executives of major consumer products, textile, software, energy, microfinance, and banking concerns. In Beijing, the group spent two hours discussing financial... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

Article

Understanding Why Universal Service Obligations May Be Unnecessary: The Private Development of Local Internet Access Markets

By: Tom Downes and Shane Greenstein

15 Aug 2016
Research & Ideas

Black Swans and Big Trends Can Ruin Anyone's Internet Prediction

"What I’ve said that turned out to be right will be considered obvious, and what was wrong will be humorous" —Bill Gates, The Road Ahead, 1995 In 2001, I wrote a book explaining why accelerated growth strategies created value for some View Details

Keywords: by Thomas R. Eisenmann; Technology

26 Jun 2000
Research & Ideas

What’s an Internet Business Model? Ask a Health Care Professional

some eternal issues of patient care: not only good health, but also quality, choice and trust? To consider these questions, the IS2K conference assembled a panel of experts, with HBS Professor Lynda Applegate as moderator, to talk about "Emerging View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Health

November 1996 (Revised June 1999)
Case

Living on Internet Time: Product Development at Netscape, Yahoo!, NetDynamics, and Microsoft

By: Marco Iansiti and Alan D. MacCormack

Describes how four companies in the Internet software market approach product development. Drawing upon short case studies of three recent projects, students are invited to synthesize the common attributes of development practice in turbulent environments. View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Internet and the Web; Applications and Software; Situation or Environment; Volatility; Risk and Uncertainty; Research and Development; Information Technology Industry; United States

October 2000 (Revised November 2005)
Case

Li & Fung (A): Internet Issues

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Fred Young

This case looks at the issues facing a Hong Kong-based trading company, which links hundreds of factories in India and Asia with major customers like Gap and the Limited in Europe and in the United States. The company has recently launched a dot-com operation to allow... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Internet and the Web; Multinational Firms and Management; Distribution Channels; Logistics; Networks; Markets; Supply Chain; Retail Industry; Hong Kong; India; Europe; United States

February 2000 (Revised June 2002)
Case

Development of the Internet in China (A), The: Challenges and Opportunities

Explores the development of the Internet in China. Starts with background information on China, the Internet, and several common Internet business models. Discusses regulatory and business obstacles to the growth of e-commerce in China. Finally, presents forecasts and... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Emerging Markets; Retail Industry; China

February 2015
Article

Risk, Information, and Incentives in Online Affiliate Marketing

By: Benjamin Edelman and Wesley Brandi

We examine online affiliate marketing programs in which merchants oversee thousands of affiliates they have never met. Some merchants hire outside specialists to set and enforce policies for affiliates, while other merchants ask their ordinary marketing staff to... View Details

Keywords: Affiliate Marketing; Incentives; Fraud; Advertising; Internet and the Web; Marketing Communications; Ethics; Digital Marketing