Publications

August 1995 (Revised December 1997)
Case

Encyclopaedia Britannica (A)

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport

Examines the growth of the CD-ROM publishing industry and its impact on the Encyclopaedia Britannica Co., which chose to ignore it. View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Information Publishing; Publishing Industry

10 Nov 2020
Sharpening Your Skills

Research News and Tips: Innovating Across Time Zones

Researchers at Harvard Business School publish hundreds of studies around business management each year, often in collaboration with peers from other institutions. Here are insights collected from papers and journal articles published over the last few months. Overcome... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

November 2020
Case

Axis My India

By: Ananth Raman, Ann Winslow and Kairavi Dey

Pradeep Gupta founded Axis My India (AMI) as a printing and publishing company in 1998. In 2013, AMI expanded into consumer research and election forecasting. Although a relatively unknown entity, AMI predicted several election results accurately. Gupta describes AMI’s... View Details

Keywords: Market Research; Operations; Management; Infrastructure; Logistics; Service Operations; Political Elections; Forecasting and Prediction; Asia; India

December 1997
Case

Baylor Books, Inc.

By: William J. Bruns Jr. and Jeremy Cott

The owner of a trade book publishing company must consider proper accounting for books returned and potentially returnable by book stores. Company and industry data are supplied. Costs of failure to publish books under contract and a cost accounting system for books... View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Financial Reporting; Publishing Industry

Find at Harvard

March 2008 (Revised August 2017)
Exercise

The Book Deal: Confidential Instructions for the AGENT

By: Deepak Malhotra and Max H. Bazerman

A two-party negotiation between an Agent representing a new author and an Editor at a large Publishing Firm. The exercise involves a one-issue, zero-sum negotiation concerning the advance on royalties that the publisher will pay to the author. View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Agreements and Arrangements; Negotiation Preparation; Negotiation Tactics; Negotiation Types; Publishing Industry

June 2003 (Revised May 2004)
Exercise

The Pacific Sentinel: Role for Alex Martinez

By: Kathleen L. McGinn and Dina R. Pradel

A new publishing company has just purchased the Pacific Sentinel, a fictional West Coast newspaper. The new publisher is willing to invest $1 million in the future success of the paper and has asked the executive editor and advertising manager to develop a joint plan... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Acquisition; Business Strategy; Publishing Industry; Western United States

Suraj Srinivasan is the Philip J. Stomberg Professor of Business Administration, a member of the Accounting and Management faculty unit, and chair of the View Details

Keywords: accounting industry; financial services

04 May 2021
News

Best Buy: How Human Connection Saved a Failing Retailer

January 2010 (Revised February 2011)
Case

The Random House Response to the Kindle

By: Bharat N. Anand and Peter Olson

In early 2010, e-readers, like Amazon's Kindle and Apple's impending iPad, threatened to disrupt the book publishing industry. The case provides an overview of the industry, describes the broader trends regarding e-readers, and asks: how should major publishers like... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Trends; Disruptive Innovation; Technological Innovation; Consumer Behavior; Industry Structures; Corporate Strategy; Hardware; Publishing Industry

Amy C. Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School, a chair established to support the study of human interactions that lead to the creation of successful enterprises that contribute to the betterment of... View Details

Keywords: health care; nonprofit industry; professional services; consulting

23 Dec 2010
News

2010 Emerald Literati Network Outstanding Paper Award

Robert Simons

Robert Simons is a Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School. For over 35 years, Simons has taught accounting, management control, and strategy execution courses in both the Harvard MBA and Executive Education Programs. For 2024/25, he is teaching a... View Details

Raffaella Sadun

Raffaella Sadun is Charles E. Wilson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and is a Co-Chair of Harvard Business School’s Project on Managing the Future of Work and co-PI of the Digital Reskilling Lab. Sadun received her PhD in Economics... View Details

May 2018 (Revised September 2018)
Case

BuzzFeed—What Future for Native Advertising and Branded Content?

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee

Jonah Peretti, CEO of digital publishing company BuzzFeed, needs to decide how to respond to Facebook’s announcement that it would prioritize posts from friends over content from publishers. View Details

Keywords: Information Publishing; Internet and the Web; Digital Marketing; Problems and Challenges; Business Model; Strategy; Publishing Industry; Publishing Industry; United States