Publications

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February 2023 (Revised May 2023)
Case

Accelerating the Accelerator: Raja Al Mazrouei at DIFC Fintech Hive

By: Linda A. Hill, Emily Tedards and Lydia Begag

In January 2023, Raja Al Mazrouei became the Managing Director and Acting CEO of Etihad Credit Insurance (ECI) in Dubai, UAE. In her previous role as the Executive Vice President of the DIFC Fintech Hive, she successfully built and led an accelerator program for... View Details

May 2013
Case

Yammer (A)

By: Mikolaj J. Piskorski, Kerry Herman and Aaron Smith

In Spring 2012, Yammer was on track to become a highly successful standalone company. Yammer was a leading Enterprise Social Network (ESN), providing companies a private social network in which employees could collaborate securely and efficiently. However, later that... View Details

Keywords: Information Infrastructure; Opportunities; Applications and Software; Organizational Culture; Problems and Challenges; Management Teams; Integration; Decision Choices and Conditions; Social and Collaborative Networks; Acquisition; Information Technology Industry

10 Jan 2011
Research & Ideas

Is Groupon Good for Retailers?

have attracted substantial consumer interest. Other large merchants can also handle their own offers; the Groupon-style brand and infrastructure are most valuable to smaller firms. Q: Explain how the efficacy of Groupon will change in the... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Advertising; Technology

May 2016 (Revised April 2018)
Case

Building the Digital Manufacturing Enterprise of the Future at Siemens

By: Willy Shih

This case describes the motivation for and the development of Siemens' digital manufacturing enterprise vision, which became the foundation for its implementation of Industrie 4.0. While the effort started with a purely defensive move by Anton Huber, head of the... View Details

May 2024
Supplement

gWorks (A)

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

In January of 2019, Joe Heieck, CEO of gWorks, was deciding whether to proceed with his acquisition of Data Tech, that was a business roughly the same size as gWorks. gWorks, which provided geospatial software to small city and rural county governments, was acquired by... View Details

09 Aug 2011
First Look

First Look: August 9

their infrastructure without working through the scaling effects. This note also discusses multi-sided platforms, the skewing of business models reflecting a mispricing to get one side on board, and suggests the importance of testing in... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

07 Dec 2009
Research & Ideas

Government’s Positive Role in Kick-Starting Entrepreneurship

supported by numerous examples of government intervention that has triggered the growth of a venture capital sector. For instance, the Small Business Investment Company [SBIC] program in the United States led to the formation of the View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

03 Jun 2020
Research & Ideas

Who Guarantees Your Workplace Is Safe for Return?

School of Public Health and director of the Healthy Buildings program there. John Macomber is a senior lecturer in the Finance Unit at Harvard Business School, where he teaches courses in real estate and infrastructure finance. They are... View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber and Joseph Allen; Real Estate

22 Dec 2009
First Look

First Look: Dec. 22

McBride. "Digital assets" were the currency, in the form of ad, television, movie, and videogame song placement, ringtones, mixes, and community-created content. But new artist-label contracts were needed if digital assets were going to flow freely. Moving... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

08 Dec 2008
Research & Ideas

Thinking Twice About Supply-Chain Layoffs

It's the most wonderful time of the year—or that's how the song goes. But this year's decline in retail sales has resulted in definitely uncheery employee layoffs and payroll cuts, a trend that is likely to continue. While the vicious cycle of declining sales and... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

March 2021
Supplement

Facebook's Libra (B): The Privatization of Money?

By: Marco Di Maggio, Ethan Rouen, George Serafeim and Amy Klopfenstein

This case addresses the events that took place following the conclusion of the case “Facebook’s Libra (A): The Privatization of Money?” In October 2019, several months after the conclusion of the A case, multiple members of the Libra Association announced that they... View Details

January 2011 (Revised September 2011)
Case

Caterpillar, Inc. (A)

By: David F. Hawkins

2010 Healthcare Reform Act eliminates Medicare Part D subsidy and Caterpillar recognizes a $100 million change. View Details

Keywords: Information Infrastructure; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Employment; Cost vs Benefits; Forecasting and Prediction; Change Management; Asset Management; Financial Strategy; Activity Based Costing and Management; Business or Company Management; Technology Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States

08 Aug 2017
First Look

First Look at Research and Ideas, August 8, 2017

its infrastructure for societal uses, or whether to exploit a commercial opportunity related to launching small, handheld cubesats. The case explores the basis for ISRO’s cost advantage vis-à-vis western entities, as well as its resource... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

27 Oct 2014
Research & Ideas

The Coffee Economy That Bloomed Out of Nowhere

four of the years from 1876 to 1910. Indeed, he built roads and railroads, and he instituted liberal land, labor, and credit laws that favored agricultural commerce for large landowners. But the transportation infrastructure efforts... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Food & Beverage; Agriculture & Agribusiness

05 Jun 2012
First Look

First Look: June 5

high-volume, low-cost telecom model that they had pioneered for the Indian masses in Africa. But when they began to integrate the companies, Bharti's executives discovered a slew of unexpected challenges, including cultural differences between their Indian and African... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

24 Mar 2002
Research & Ideas

The Trick of Balancing Business and Government

Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University chose business and government ethics and a good infrastructure for attracting business; while a third panelist selected civil society. Discussion and debate ensued among the five... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

March 2020
Case

Voi Technology

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Olivia Hull

Voi Technology, a fast-growing start-up out of Sweden, is competing in the highly contested European e-scooter sharing market. With a presence in nearly 40 cities in Europe by February 2020, the firm is working hard to improve its unit economics to reach profitability.... View Details