Publications

August 2017 (Revised August 2018)
Case

Busbud: Building a Data Company

By: Srikant M. Datar, Alistair Croll and Caitlin N. Bowler

The case features the work of LP Maurice (HBS '08) as he decides to take on the fragmented bus travel industry and launch an online business that aggregates and shares bus schedules for routes around the world. His first challenge: finding that the data he needs is... View Details

Keywords: Data Science; Analytics and Data Science; Business Startups; Knowledge Acquisition; Customers; Measurement and Metrics; Transportation Industry

10 Jul 2000
Research & Ideas

IT Links for Boundaryless Companies

the investment in IT as the investment in standards." The second characteristic, said Upton, is network effects. "Think about the value of owning the first telephone. The value of owning the first telephone is zero. It's only... View Details

Keywords: by Kenneth Liss

September 2019
Case

Shell: A Company of Opportunity?

By: Joseph B. Fuller and Emer Moloney

The Opportunity Hub was a cloud-based platform that enabled managers to market projects they were working on and associated resourcing needs as “Opportunity Owners” and employees, or “Opportunity Seekers,” to browse these statements of need and engage when they had... View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Change Management; Competency and Skills; Experience and Expertise; Talent and Talent Management; Energy; Energy Sources; Non-Renewable Energy; Renewable Energy; Human Resources; Employees; Retention; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Jobs and Positions; Job Design and Levels; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Labor; Human Capital; Labor Unions; Leading Change; Resource Allocation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Evaluation; Performance Productivity; Strategic Planning; Projects; Motivation and Incentives; Business Strategy; Social and Collaborative Networks; Technology Platform; Chemical Industry; Energy Industry; Information Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United Kingdom; Netherlands

November 2002 (Revised April 2004)
Case

TCS: An Entrepreneurial Air-Express Company in Pakistan

Introduces Khalid Awan, co-founder of TCS, an entrepreneurial air-express company in Pakistan. Awan has succeeded in building a sizeable company despite serious obstacles, including pressure from the public postal system, an environment prone to corruption, and a... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Emerging Markets; Entrepreneurship; Leasing; Transportation Industry; United Arab Emirates; Pakistan

19 May 2014
Research & Ideas

Why Companies Should Compete for Your Privacy

information. Social networking on Facebook would be of little value if users provided no personal information, and digital assistants such as Apple's Siri require access to consumers' location, contact lists, and calendar to be helpful. A... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Consumer Products

29 Mar 2022
Book

5 Qualities That Help Companies Thrive for Decades—Even Centuries

How do companies survive not just for years, but for decades? For centuries even? During a global pandemic, researchers are studying anew what makes companies resilient, agile, and enduring. After all,... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

23 May 2012
Research & Ideas

Five Ways to Make Your Company More Innovative

In a hypercompetitive global economy, creativity has never been more important for success . But how do you create a company that unleashes and capitalizes on innovation? For answers, writers at the HBS Alumni Bulletin turned to five HBS... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons, Julia Hanna & Roger Thompson

17 Aug 2006
Working Paper Summaries

Corporate Governance and Networks: Bankers in the Corporate Networks of Brazil, Mexico, and the United States circa 1910

Keywords: by Aldo Musacchio

2012
Other Unpublished Work

Towards Efficiencies in Canadian Internet Traffic Exchange

By: Benjamin Edelman and Bill Woodcock

Canadian Internet access is heavily and unnecessarily dependent upon foreign infrastructure, especially U.S. infrastructure. This dependence imposes significant burdens upon Canadian Internet users:

* Service prices are higher than would be the case if... View Details

Keywords: Networks; Canada; Privacy; Technology Networks; Rights; Communication Technology; Internet; Ethics; Telecommunications Industry; Canada

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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

October 2015
Case

Facebook: The First Ten Years

By: Shane Greenstein, Marco Iansiti and Christine Snively

Facebook celebrated its ten year anniversary in February 2014. Over the past decade it has grown into the largest social network in the world with one billion users. After filing an IPO in 2012 at a $104 billion valuation (the third largest IPO in U.S. history), the... View Details

Keywords: Social Networks; Technology; Facebook; Entrepreneurship; Profit; Open Source Distribution; Social and Collaborative Networks; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Internet and the Web; Digital Platforms; Social Media; Information Technology Industry

July 2024
Article

JUE Insight: Infrastructure and Finance: Evidence from India's GQ Highway Network

By: Abhiman Das, Ejaz Ghani, Arti Grover, William Kerr and Ramana Nanda

We use data from Reserve Bank of India to study the impact of India's Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) highway project on finance-dependent activity. Loan volumes increase by 20-30% in districts along GQ and are stronger in industries more dependent upon external finance.... View Details

Keywords: Highways; Finance; Development; Infrastructure; Banks and Banking; Transportation Networks; Financing and Loans; Growth and Development; India

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22 Aug 2011
Research & Ideas

Getting to Eureka!: How Companies Can Promote Creativity

of brilliance, raining down like manna from some deity of inspiration. Teaching people how to be creative, on the other hand, is like teaching them how to be tall—that is, impossible. These days, as global competition intensifies, it's more important than ever that... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

2020
Book

Competing in the Age of AI: Strategy and Leadership When Algorithms and Networks Run the World

By: Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani

In industry after industry, data, analytics, and AI-driven processes are transforming the nature of work. While we often still treat AI as the domain of a specific skill, business function, or sector, we have entered a new era in which AI is challenging the very... View Details

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Technological Innovation; Change; Competition; Strategy; Leadership; Business Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; AI and Machine Learning

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June 2002
Case

Tale of Two Airlines in the Network Age: Or Why the Spirit of King George III Is Alive and Well!

By: F. Warren McFarlan

Describes an airline service incident that ought not to have happened in the network age. Inadequate use of available technology creates service problems. A rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details

Keywords: Air Transportation; Information Management; Information Technology; Service Delivery; Problems and Challenges; Air Transportation Industry

2015
Book

MOVE: Putting America's Infrastructure Back in the Lead

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter

Americans are stuck. We live with travel delays on congested roads; shipping delays on clogged railways; and delays on repairs, project approvals, and funding due to gridlocked leadership. These delays affect us all, whether you are a daily commuter, a frequent flyer,... View Details

22 Mar 2024
Research & Ideas

Open Source Software: The $9 Trillion Resource Companies Take for Granted

Like: The Network Effect: Why Companies Should Care About Employees’ LinkedIn Connections How to Get Companies to Make Investments That Benefit Everyone How to Make AI 'Forget'... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Computer; Information Technology; Technology

June 2008
Article

Bringing the Context Back In: Settings and the Search for Syndicate Partners in Venture Capital Investment Networks

Most existing network-based theories of relationship formation, whether based on homophily or structural constraint, imply that actors form highly cohesive, homogenous clusters. Yet real networks also include many "bridging" ties—isolated links between parties that... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Networks; Theory; Partners and Partnerships; Investment; Risk and Uncertainty; Business Growth and Maturation; Size; Geographic Location

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October 2022
Case

Volt Lines: Leading a B2B Service Provider through a Crisis (A)

By: Navid Mojir and Gamze Yucaoglu

Volt Lines was a next-generation transportation service in Istanbul, Turkey. The company was trying to disrupt the traditional corporate transportation market by developing software that allowed it to offer subscription-based transportation. Under the subscription... View Details

Keywords: Business To Business Marketing; B2B Marketing; B2B Pricing; Subscription Model; Crisis Marketing; Startup; Service Management; Information Technology; Transportation; COVID-19 Pandemic; Disruptive Innovation; Digital Platforms; Business Model; Price; Crisis Management; Opportunities; Transportation Industry; Transportation Industry; Turkey