Publications

17 Dec 2019
Cold Call Podcast

Under Pressure, Oxxo Rethinks the Convenience Store

Keywords: Re: Tatiana Sandino; Retail

September 2006 (Revised March 2010)
Case

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd

By: Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu and Claudine Deborah Madras

How do companies develop a strategy that is both low-cost and differentiated without becoming squeezed in the middle? Describes how Teva, Israel's first and largest multinational, achieved its globally dominant position in generic pharmaceuticals, an industry that has... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Emerging Markets; Rank and Position; Competitive Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry; India; Israel

January 2013 (Revised June 2018)
Case

Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google 2018

By: John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

Four businesses had, by 2012, grown to dominate the infrastructure that all firms rely on to reach online customers. Will the balance of power among the four persist, will one take command at the expense of the other three, or are all four more vulnerable than they... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Competitive Advantage; Infrastructure; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Growth and Development; Service Industry; Retail Industry; United States

04 Apr 2000
Research & Ideas

The Right Way to Restructure Conglomerates in Emerging Markets

that dominate the private sector. These include huge conglomerates such as the chaebol in Korea, the Tata Group in India, and the Koc Group in Turkey. The arguments for restructuring conglomerates are simple. Selling off assets could... View Details

Keywords: by Tarun Khanna & Krishna Palepu

March 2007
Article

Internet Advertising and the Generalized Second Price Auction: Selling Billions of Dollars Worth of Keywords

By: Benjamin Edelman, Michael Ostrovsky and Michael Schwarz

We investigate the "generalized second-price" auction (GSP), a new mechanism used by search engines to sell online advertising. Although GSP looks similar to the Vickrey-Clarke-Groves (VCG) mechanism, its properties are very different. Unlike the VCG mechanism, GSP... View Details

Keywords: Auctions; Search Technology; Online Advertising; Strategy; Balance and Stability

Find at Harvard

2009
Working Paper

Farsighted House Allocation

By: Bettina-Elisabeth Klaus, Flip Klijn and Markus Walzl

In this note we study von Neumann-Morgenstern farsightedly stable sets for Shapley and Scarf (1974) housing markets. Kawasaki (2008) shows that the set of competitive allocations coincides with the unique von Neumann-Morgenstern stable set based on a farsighted version... View Details

Keywords: Microeconomics; Housing; Resource Allocation; Mathematical Methods; Competitive Strategy; Equality and Inequality

2008
Working Paper

Platform Competition, Compatibility, and Social Efficiency

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Francisco Ruiz-Aliseda

Katz and Shapiro (1985) study systems compatibility in settings with one-sided plat- forms and direct network effects. We consider systems compatibility in settings with two-sided platforms and indirect network effects to develop an explanation why markets with... View Details

Keywords: Network Effects; One-Sided Platforms; Two-Sided Platforms; Competition

January 2020 (Revised May 2020)
Case

Direct to Consumer Brands

By: Sunil Gupta

Recent years have seen the dramatic rise of direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands by several startups. Many of these brands, such as Dollar Shave Club, Harry’s, Glossier, and Allbirds, entered mature markets dominated by established companies, and yet they grew rapidly to... View Details

Keywords: Direct-to-consumer; Digital Marketing; Industry Evolution; Business Startups; Internet and the Web; Brands and Branding; Marketing; Change

20 Apr 2011
Research & Ideas

Blind Spots: We’re Not as Ethical as We Think

self-interest and, often, without regard for moral principles—is silent during the planning stage of a decision but typically emerges and dominates at the time of the decision. Not only will your self-interested motives be more prevalent... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

February 1995 (Revised October 2006)
Case

Brainard, Bennis & Farrell (A)

By: John J. Gabarro and Andrew P. Burtis

A law firm must decide how to split partnership profits among the partners. Issues of seniority versus performance, performance evaluation, and lack of consensus of values dominate the discussions. A rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details

Keywords: Partners and Partnerships; Performance Evaluation; Values and Beliefs; Rank and Position; Profit Sharing; Legal Services Industry

November 1990 (Revised November 1991)
Case

Time Inc. and New Magazine Development

By: David J. Collis and Nancy Donohue

Looks at the magazine development at Time Inc. in light of the growing dominance of the video group and the modern management of the 1980s. Highlights the firm's magazine development during 1989. View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development; Management; Product; Segmentation; Publishing Industry

2024
Working Paper

Appropriate Entrepreneurship? The Rise of China and the Developing World

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

Global innovation and entrepreneurship has traditionally been dominated by a handful of high-income countries, especially the US. This paper investigates the international consequences of the rise of a new hub for innovation, focusing on the dramatic growth of... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Emerging Markets; Economic Growth; China

Article

Characterization of Satisfactory Mechanisms for the Revelation of Preferences for Public Goods

By: Jerry R. Green and Jean-Jacques Laffont

Social decision mechanisms that admit dominant strategies and result in Pareto optima are characterized by the class of mechanisms proposed by Groves. The concept of decision mechanisms is generalized and the characterization is shown to extend to these cases. View Details

Keywords: Decision Mechanisms; Game Theory; Economics

March 2016 (Revised May 2021)
Case

Michael Milken: The Junk Bond King

By: Tom Nicholas and Matthew G. Preble

Michael Milken, an investment banker who dominated the junk bond market in the 1980s, was sentenced to jail in 1990 after pleading guilty to a number of securities and tax-related felonies. In the preceding decade, Milken had helped usher in a new wave of leveraged buy... View Details

Keywords: Junk Bonds; High-yield Bonds; Financial Innovation; Shareholder Value; Bonds; Capital; Capital Structure; Cost of Capital; Crime and Corruption; Entrepreneurship; Ethics; Finance; Investment Banking; Leveraged Buyouts; Mergers and Acquisitions; Ownership; Private Equity; Restructuring; United States

May 2022 (Revised July 2022)
Case

The Voice War Continues: Hey Google vs. Alexa vs. Siri in 2022

By: David B. Yoffie and Daniel Fisher

In 2022, after five years of pursuing a new "AI-first" strategy, Google had captured a sizeable share of the American and global markets for voice assistants. Google Assistant was used by hundreds of millions of users around the world, but Amazon retained the largest... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Artificial Intelligence; Deep Learning; Voice Assistants; Smart Home; Market Share; Globalized Markets and Industries; Competitive Strategy; Digital Platforms; AI and Machine Learning; Technology Industry; United States

June 2002 (Revised August 2002)
Case

"One Country, Two Systems"? Italy and the Mezzogiorno (A)

By: Bruce R. Scott and Jamie Matthews

GDP per person in northern Italy caught up with average incomes in Britain, France, and Germany in the 1970s, but incomes in southern Italy (the Mezzogiorno) fell further behind. This was partly due to cultural and societal differences that dated to the Renaissance,... View Details

Keywords: History; Development Economics; Crime and Corruption; Social Issues; Economy; Government and Politics; Macroeconomics; Italy

01 Sep 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Transaction Cost Economics in the Digital Economy: A Research Agenda

Keywords: by Frank Nagle, Robert Seamans, and Steve Tadelis

March 2008 (Revised November 2008)
Case

Sony Digital Entertainment, Japan

By: Anita Elberse

It is late 2007. So-called cell phone ("keitai") novels have turned into an extremely popular form of entertainment-on-the- go in Japan, in particular among young, female readers. In fact, consisting mostly of love stories written by amateurs in short sentences and... View Details

Keywords: Books; Marketing Strategy; Open Source Distribution; Competition; Mobile Technology; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Publishing Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Japan

January 1987 (Revised January 1990)
Case

The World VCR Industry

By: David B. Yoffie

In the 1980s Japan dominated the world industry for video cassette recorders. This case looks at the evolution of the technology and competition in VCRs, the battles between VHS and Beta, and the emerging threats to Japanese dominance. View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Competition; Technology Industry; Electronics Industry; Japan