Publications

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March 2018 (Revised July 2018)
Case

Cadre

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Scott Duke Kominers and David Lane

Late in 2017, CEO Ryan Williams and his team debated whether Cadre should become not only a technology-enabled investment manager, but also an online trading exchange providing high levels of liquidity for investors in commercial real estate (CRE) equity. Cadre was a... View Details

Keywords: ＂Cadre,＂; Entrepreneurship; Market Design; Digital Platforms; Strategy; Internet and the Web; Private Equity; Financial Services Industry; Real Estate Industry; United States

January 2010 (Revised April 2010)
Case

Google in China (A)

By: John A. Quelch

In January 2010, Google threatened in a public statement to stop censoring its search results on its google.cn website, as required by Chinese authorities. Should Google exit China? Or attempt a compromise with the Chinese government? View Details

Keywords: Crisis Management; Market Entry and Exit; Business and Government Relations; Internet and the Web; Information Technology Industry; China

09 Oct 2017
Research & Ideas

Fearing Fox News, Democratic-leaning Companies Delayed Negative Announcements

Fox News has influenced how companies disclose financial news. Legal analyst Gregg Jarrett on the set in 2016. Source: Wikipedia Commons, CC 3.0) The United States presidential election of 2000 took place in a simpler time. The internet... View Details

Keywords: by Jen Deaderick; Media & Broadcasting

02 Aug 2004
Research & Ideas

Health Care Research and Prospects

you raise a lot of capital from public equity markets for biotech companies, there is a mismatch of the governance structure. The assets of a biotech company early in its life are just R&D projects. Those are really hard to value, and... View Details

Keywords: by Wendy Guild Swearingen; Health

August 2022
Case

SuperRare: Turning an NFT Marketplace into a DAO

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Scott Duke Kominers and Amy Klopfenstein

In June 2021, John Crain and Jonathan Perkins, the founders of SuperRare, a marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), contemplate whether to transform their company into a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Crain and Perkins founded SuperRare in 2018 to... View Details

27 Sep 2016
First Look

September 27, 2016

development programs have entered a period of disruption catalyzed by the digitalization of content, connectivity, and communication and are driven by renewed demand for high-level executive and managerial skills. Unlike other segments of higher education, the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2002 (Revised April 2002)
Case

Chengwei Ventures and the hdt* Investment

By: G. Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

Bo Feng, cofounder and principal in Chengwei Ventures, one of the first sovereign venture capital firms in China, is trying to decide on the proper business model for hdt, the product of a merger between two portfolio companies. This case discusses the best way for the... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Mergers and Acquisitions; Customer Relationship Management; Sovereign Finance; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Entrepreneurship; Internet and the Web; Applications and Software; Markets; Business Model; Financial Services Industry; China

01 Mar 2022
What Do You Think?

Is It Time for More Reverse Mentoring?

widening the generational gap in using cryptocurrency, buying and storing art and wine with nonfungible tokens, trading new kinds of securities on new internet investment sites offering new features, and thinking up new applications for... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

17 Jun 2002
Research & Ideas

A Litmus Test for Entrepreneurs

In 1999, Tom Herman and Kaleil Isaza Tuzman, best friends since childhood, quit their comfortable jobs to start govWorks, with millions of VC dollars to back them up. Their goal was nothing if not grandiose: to use Internet payment... View Details

Keywords: by Walter Kuemmerle

September 2017
Teaching Note

Dick's Sporting Goods

By: Jose B. Alvarez and Matthew G. Preble

This is the teaching note to accompany Rajiv Lal, Jose B. Alvarez, and Matthew G. Preble, “Dick’s Sporting Goods,” HBS No. 517-007 (Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2017). View Details

February 2017
Case

Dick's Sporting Goods

By: Rajiv Lal, Jose B. Alvarez and Matthew G. Preble

Edward Stack, chairman and CEO of Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS), faced a rapidly changing sporting goods landscape in October 2016. Two large competitors—The Sports Authority and Sport Chalet—had folded earlier that year, and DKS had to contend with increasingly robust... View Details

01 Jul 2013
Research & Ideas

Crowdfunding a Poor Investment?

from large groups of people is exactly what nonprofits and political campaigns have been doing for more than a century. In today's world, though, the Internet has dramatically altered the ability for companies and independent... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

15 Feb 2011
First Look

First Look: Feb. 15

trades involving similar goods. It draws on archival, interview, and observational data mainly from New York state to analyze market participants' efforts to legitimize commerce and resolve a jurisdictional dispute. Building on literature... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

26 Jul 2016
First Look

July 26, 2016

https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/216076-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 516-094 Airbnb, Etsy, Uber: Acquiring the First Thousand Customers By 2016, two-sided online platforms (or marketplaces) were pervasive among the highest growing View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2023
Case

CornerUp: Digitizing the Corner Store

By: Álvaro Rodríguez Arregui, Stacy Straaberg and Diego Zainos De La Sota Riva

In July 2023, Jason Diaz, co-founder and CEO of CornerUp, assessed the progress of his business-to-business e-procurement software application (app) startup, founded in January 2022. CornerUp began as a fast-moving consumer packaged goods (FMCG) distributor in New York... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Small Business; Transition; Decisions; Social Entrepreneurship; Geographic Location; Disruptive Innovation; Market Participation; Digital Platforms; Trust; Business Strategy; Expansion; Information Infrastructure; Internet and the Web; Technology Adoption; Value Creation; Technology Industry; United States

February 2000 (Revised May 2001)
Case

eBricks.com

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

eBricks.com is developing an online marketplace for construction materials. The start-up company faces two decisions: 1) whether to merge with BluelineOnline.com, a firm providing project management solutions for the construction industry; and 2) whether to develop an... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Marketplace Matching; Decision Choices and Conditions; Business Startups; Construction Industry

April 2006 (Revised March 2007)
Case

PayPal Merchant Services

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Lauren Barley

In early 2006, PayPal management is deciding how to respond to Google's entry into online payments. PayPal, owned by eBay, has targeted online merchants outside eBay's auction community for its next wave of expansion. Google represents a potential threat to PayPal's... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Competition; Expansion; Service Operations; Auctions; Web Services Industry; Service Industry