Publications

August 2018 (Revised October 2020)
Case

Tailor Brands: Artificial Intelligence-Driven Branding

By: Jill Avery

Using proprietary artificial intelligence technology, startup Tailor Brands set out to democratize branding by allowing small businesses to create their brand identities by automatically generating logos in just minutes at minimal cost with no branding or design skills... View Details

June 2008
Case

Starbucks Coffee Company in the 21st Century

By: Nancy F. Koehn, Marya Lisl Hill-Popper Besharov and Katherine Miller

The case explores the opportunities and challenges confronting Starbucks in the early 21st century. For more than 15 years, Starbucks has grown swiftly and successfully, helping create a large, dynamic market for specialty coffee, building one of the world's most... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Economy; Growth Management; Brands and Branding; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Competition

September 2003
Case

Allscripts, Inc.

By: William A. Sahlman and Laurence E. Katz

Describes a set of decisions confronting an entrepreneurial team that is considering taking managerial control of Allscripts, a health care venture. The company has gone through nine rounds of external financing and has changed its business model several times. View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business or Company Management; Venture Capital; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Health Care and Treatment; Corporate Finance; Health Industry

Find at Harvard

August 2014
Case

Netflix in 2011

By: Willy Shih and Stephen Kaufman

Reed Hastings founded Netflix to provide a home movie service that would do a better job satisfying customers than the traditional retail rental model. But as it encountered challenges it underwent several major strategy shifts, ultimately developing a business model... View Details

01 Apr 2013
News

Cultural Entrepreneurship finalists named

November 2022 (Revised December 2024)
Case

Hugging Face (A): Serving AI on a Platform

By: Shane Greenstein, Daniel Yue, Sarah Gulick and Kerry Herman

It is fall 2022, and open-source AI model company Hugging Face is considering its three areas of priorities: platform development, supporting the open-source community, and pursuing cutting-edge scientific research. As it expands services for enterprise clients, which... View Details

Keywords: Community; Open-source; AI and Machine Learning; Product Development; Networks; Service Delivery; Research; Governance; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Information Industry; Technology Industry; United States

Winter 2017
Article

Google, Mobile and Competition: The Current State of Play

By: Benjamin Edelman

I present Google practices that have raised objections from competition regulators. I consider the key impediments to competition and examine the business models foreclosed by Google's restrictions. View Details

Keywords: Antitrust; Mobile; Mobile Technology; Search Technology; Technology Platform; Contracts; Lawfulness; Competition; Information Technology Industry; European Union; Russia; South Korea

Read Now

September 2003
Case

Growing Up in China: The Financing of BabyCare Ltd.

By: Mihir A. Desai and Mark Veblen

The CFO of this infant nutritional products company must choose among competing financing offers. The interplay of Chinese legal and customs restrictions and venture capitalists' bargaining techniques challenge the CFO to navigate a tricky negotiation and to devise a... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Working Capital; Emerging Markets; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; China

May 2011
Background Note

Scale Effects, Network Effects, and Investment Strategy

By: Willy Shih

This technical note discusses scale economies, and direct and indirect network effects in the context of building better business models. Some of the great business disasters of the dot.com bubble were companies that scaled their infrastructure without working through... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Investment; Price; Crisis Management; Network Effects; Multi-Sided Platforms; Strategy

February 2021
Tutorial

What is AI?

By: Tsedal Neeley

This video explores the elements that constitute artificial intelligence (AI). From its mathematical basis to current advances in AI, this video introduces students to data, tools, and statistical models that make a computer 'intelligent.' Through an explanation of... View Details

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Digital; Technological Innovation; Leadership; AI and Machine Learning; Mathematical Methods

04 Apr 2011
Research & Ideas

Attention Medical Shoppers: What Health Care Can Learn from Walmart and Amazon

panel discussion held at Harvard Business School, where several experts talked about how to treat the troubled industry at a time when the year-old Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 is still in its relative infancy.... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Health

March 2023 (Revised May 2025)
Case

On

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Karolin Frankenberger and Sascha Mader

Founded in 2010, in just one decade, the Swiss company On had established itself as a main player in global sports footwear and apparel. Based on an unconventional strategy which one of the founders labeled as “obsessively distinct,” On grew its sales with a compound... View Details

15 Feb 2015
News

The Invention Mob, Brought to You by Quirky

TeachingInterests

Investing: Risk, Return and Impact (MBA)

By: Shawn A. Cole

This is an investing/finance course, designed to build on skills introduced in the RC finance course, but with an emphasis on how and whether investors should incorporate what have traditionally been considered “non-financial” criteria in their decisions: for... View Details

February 2001 (Revised December 2010)
Case

Kenan Systems

By: Joseph L. Bower, James Weber and Sonja Ellingson Hout

Kenan Sahin has built a very successful company using a unique business model and a unique organization and culture. Success has brought important risks, but logical options such as sale, partnering, or going public threaten the culture and hence the business. View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Innovation and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Risk Management; Organizational Culture