Publications

July 2015
Case

Vita: Cosmetics in the Nordics

By: Das Narayandas, Krishna Palepu and Kerry Herman

Vita is a Norwegian cosmetics retailer owned by FSN Capital, a Scandinavian private equity company. The company has a strong market position in Norway. The case focuses on two strategic issues: how to develop an e-commerce strategy to supplement the company's... View Details

Keywords: E-Commerce Strategy; Norway; Cosmetics; Managing Under Private Equity Ownership; Strategy; Private Equity; Internet and the Web; Growth and Development Strategy; E-commerce; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Norway

2016
Working Paper

The Impact of Patent Wars on Firm Strategy: Evidence from the Global Smartphone Market

By: Feng Zhu

Strategy scholars have documented in various empirical settings that firms seek and leverage stronger institutions to mitigate hazards and gain competitive advantage. In this paper, we argue that such “institution-seeking” behavior may not be confined to the pursuit of... View Details

Keywords: Patent Wars; Patent Litigation; Intellectual Property (IP) Enforcement; Institutions; Smartphone; Patent Thicket; Digital Platforms; Patents; Lawsuits and Litigation; Globalized Markets and Industries; Business Strategy; Telecommunications Industry

September 2009 (Revised January 2012)
Case

Suntech Power

By: Richard H.K. Vietor

Suntech, a Chinese manufacturer of photovoltaic cells and solar panels, is the third largest solar company in the world. About 90 percent of its sales have been in Europe—especially Germany and Spain. But with its new "pluto" technology, and with new governmental... View Details

Keywords: Solar Power; Renewable Energy; Globalized Markets and Industries; Competition; Market Entry and Exit; Business and Government Relations; Expansion; Strategy; Energy Industry; Green Technology Industry; China

October 2022
Case

Ethena: A Go-to-Market Dilemma

By: Rembrand Koning and Stacy Straaberg

In November 2021, Roxanne Petraeus and Anne Solmssen, founders of Brooklyn-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup Ethena, were looking to expand their compliance training business. The founders hired Arnie Gullov-Singh, an outside revenue consultant, to advise on... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Judgments; Growth and Development Strategy; Business or Company Management; Business Strategy; Expansion; Segmentation; Technology Industry; United States; New York (state, US)

11 Jun 2001
Research & Ideas

E-Commerce Unplugged

technology will not be fully realized, however, if companies simply make their existing online services available through wireless devices. Successful players in the m-commerce market space will take a much broader view of the technology,... View Details

Keywords: by Nitin Nohria & Marty Leestma

January 1998 (Revised March 1998)
Case

Staples (C)

By: Myra M. Hart, Marco Iansiti and Barbara Feinberg

The search for appropriate hardware and software to support the launch of a new large-scale retail operation forces the management team to define their goals at a very detailed level and to make all underlying assumptions explicit. View Details

Keywords: Goals and Objectives; Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software; Business Startups; Management Teams; Retail Industry

January 2022
Case

Dating Ring

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Lindsay N. Hyde

In 2015, the co-founders of Dating Ring, an online dating startup that relied on human matchmakers to arrange dates between its members, were deciding whether to either shut down the service or instead manage Dating Ring as a "lifestyle company," ramping down growth... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Failure; Business Exit or Shutdown; Internet and the Web; Venture Capital; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States

October 2016
Case

Triangulate: Stay, Pivot or Exit?

By: Thomas Eisenmann, Shikhar Ghosh and Christopher Payton

Sunil Nagaraj, Triangulate's founder had spent a few years trying to launch a dating application that matched users based on their behavior on social media. Based on input from advisors, the company changed its focus from a B2B site to a B2C dating site with a unique... View Details

Keywords: Early Stage; Pivot; Two Sided Markets; Business Model; Business Exit or Shutdown; Product Launch; Venture Capital; Failure; Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Information Technology; Social and Collaborative Networks; United States; North America

24 Jun 2014
First Look

First Look: June 24

Journal of Law & Economics Deregulation, Misallocation, and Size: Evidence from India By: Alfaro, Laura, and Anusha Chari Abstract—This paper examines the impact of the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 1998 (Revised May 2001)
Case

Preview Travel (A)

By: William A. Sahlman, Nicole Tempest, Daniel H Case III and Robert Keller

Preview Travel was a leader in the online travel industry, having generated $80 million in bookings in 1997 and growing at a 34% compound annual growth rate per quarter. This case describes the evolution of Preview Travel's business plan and financing strategy and... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Business Model; Initial Public Offering; Valuation; Internet and the Web; Business Plan; Capital; Financial Strategy; Travel Industry; United States

March 2024 (Revised July 2024)
Case

WeightWatchers: Promoting Weight Health

By: Ranjay Gulati, Cynthia A. Montgomery, Ashley Whillans, Allison Ciechanover and Emily Grandjean

In December 2023, the 60-year-old weight management industry stalwart WeightWatchers announced the launch of WeightWatchers Clinic, which incorporated GLP-1s , a new class of prescription weight-loss medications, into the company’s portfolio of products and mobile app... View Details

Keywords: Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Resource Allocation; Diversification; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United States; New York (city, NY)

May 2020
Article

Scalable Holistic Linear Regression

By: Dimitris Bertsimas and Michael Lingzhi Li

We propose a new scalable algorithm for holistic linear regression building on Bertsimas & King (2016). Specifically, we develop new theory to model significance and multicollinearity as lazy constraints rather than checking the conditions iteratively. The resulting... View Details

Keywords: Mathematical Methods; Analytics and Data Science

Read Now

21 Jun 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Merchant or Two-Sided Platform?

Keywords: by Andrei Hagiu; Technology

May 2025
Supplement

On (B): The Cyclon Spins On

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

A follow-up to the On case (723-430), this short case explores how the performance athletic shoe company On expanded its Cyclon subscription and recycling program through 2024, adding two new shoe models to the subscription and a one-time-purchase recyclable T-shirt. View Details

28 Jan 2021
News

9 leadership books every manager should read

February 2000 (Revised October 2000)
Case

Open Market, Inc.: The E-Commerce Wars

By: James I. Cash Jr., Janis Lee Gogan, Michael Haselkorn and Mani Subramani

Continues the story of Open Market, Inc., a company founded in 1994 to support electronic commerce on the Internet. Despite a very successful initial public offering, the firm had reached a growth plateau, and the management team was considering several strategic... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Technological Innovation; Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Channels; Product Marketing; Product Development; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry

Find at Harvard

01 Apr 2001
News

Books: A Nation Transformed by Information

States was founded, a postal system (including roads) for the distribution of mail, copyright laws to protect intellectual property, and a plethora of newspapers and books were... View Details

Keywords: Information

2025
Article

Humor as a Window into Generative AI Bias

By: Roger Samure, Julian De Freitas and Stefano Puntoni

A preregistered audit of 600 images by generative AI across 150 different prompts explores the link between humor and discrimination in consumer-facing AI solutions. When ChatGPT updates images to make them “funnier”, the prevalence of stereotyped groups changes. While... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Demographics; Prejudice and Bias