Publications

August 2016 (Revised August 2017)
Case

AnswerDash (Abridged)

By: Elie Ofek and Jeffrey D. Shulman

It is 2014 and AnswerDash, a startup backed by venture capital, has not seen the widespread adoption of their online self-service customer support solution that they were expecting based on early success in helping clients save and generate substantial amounts of... View Details

Keywords: Pricing; Economic Value Estimation; Price Metrics; Organizational Selling; Innovation Adoption; Business To Business; Marketing; Customer Lifetime Value; Venture Capital; Customer Relationship Management; Price; Marketing Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Technology Adoption; Business Startups; Sales; Innovation and Invention; Product Marketing; Financial Services Industry

June 2016 (Revised August 2017)
Case

AnswerDash

By: Elie Ofek and Jeffrey D. Shulman

It is 2014, and AnswerDash, a startup backed by venture capital, has not seen the widespread adoption of their online self-service customer support solution that they were expecting based on early success in helping clients save and generate substantial amounts of... View Details

Keywords: Pricing; Economic Value Estimation; Price Metrics; Organizational Selling; Innovation Adoption; Business To Business; Marketing; Customer Lifetime Value; Venture Capital; Customer Relationship Management; Price; Marketing Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Technology Adoption; Business Startups; Sales; Innovation and Invention; Product Marketing; Financial Services Industry

November 1986 (Revised August 1989)
Case

Paul Revere Insurance Co. (A)

The Paul Revere Insurance Co. lost its number one position in disability insurance, its main product, and formulated a strategy to regain the lead through a comprehensive quality improvement effort. The case describes the forces influencing the strategic direction of... View Details

Keywords: Quality; Performance Productivity; Competitive Advantage; Insurance Industry; United States

23 Aug 2019
Blog Post

A Summer of Peaks and Swells: Interning at Patagonia

Before arriving to Harvard Business School, I had built my career around bringing crazy ideas to life at Google in a variety of operations, strategy, and design roles. I was surrounded by incredible people, learned from world class... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Products / Retail; Consumer Products / Retail

03 May 2024
Research & Ideas

How Much Does Proximity Influence Startup Innovation? 20 Meters' Worth to Be Exact

altogether,” Roche writes. Knowledge sharing between neighbors is highest when the two companies fundamentally differ along product market and socio-demographic features. The study found that the rate of peer technology adoption increased... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

August 2021
Case

Wymsee

By: Julia Austin, Sarah Mehta and Tom Quinn

Wymsee was a company that aimed to develop a mobile application (app) that would allow television audience members to identify and purchase clothing or accessories worn by characters in the program they were watching, with the Wymsee founders taking a percentage of... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Plan; Business Startups; Film Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Technological Innovation; Knowledge Acquisition; Product Positioning; Opportunities; Adaptation; Mobile Technology; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Technology Industry; United States; New York (city, NY)

October 2023
Case

CornerUp: Digitizing the Corner Store

By: Álvaro Rodríguez Arregui, Stacy Straaberg and Diego Zainos De La Sota Riva

In July 2023, Jason Diaz, co-founder and CEO of CornerUp, assessed the progress of his business-to-business e-procurement software application (app) startup, founded in January 2022. CornerUp began as a fast-moving consumer packaged goods (FMCG) distributor in New York... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Small Business; Transition; Decisions; Social Entrepreneurship; Geographic Location; Disruptive Innovation; Market Participation; Digital Platforms; Trust; Business Strategy; Expansion; Information Infrastructure; Internet and the Web; Technology Adoption; Value Creation; Technology Industry; United States

06 Sep 2006
Lessons from the Classroom

Mixing Students and Scientists in the Classroom

niche." His on-going research at HBS synthesizes elements of history, sociology, business, and statistics. In the classroom, Fleming has carved out a place for himself helping students from diverse disciplines learn to work together View Details

Keywords: by Deborah Blagg; Education

21 Jan 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Learning from Customers in Outsourcing: Individual and Organizational Effects

Keywords: by Jonathan R. Clark, Robert S. Huckman & Bradley R. Staats

26 Jun 2023
Research & Ideas

Want to Leave a Lasting Impression on Customers? Don't Forget the (Proverbial) Fireworks

with some surprises While some of these findings may seem intuitive, they help marketers design better experiences by investing in the elements that matter, says De Freitas. Based on their findings, the researchers suggest certain... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Entertainment & Recreation

08 Mar 2019
Blog Post

“There’s no quick shortcut to success:” Zorpads takes off

It all started with a smell. Taylor Wiegele and Sierra Smith (both MBA 2017) met with a group of classmates for their FIELD III course, trying to come up with a problem to fix. The course, now an elective, tasks first-year students with creating a View Details

22 May 2019
Blog Post

What is FIELD Global Immersion?

the principles of human-centered design, and therefore require students to quickly develop empathy with local consumers and then design a product, service, or experience to address a consumer need in the Immersion location. Past projects... View Details

January 1998 (Revised April 2001)
Case

Acer America: Development of the Aspire

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Anthony St. George

Follows the development, national launch, and global rollout of the Aspire, Acer's first new product developed outside of Taiwan. Implementing a very promising new PC concept proves challenging to Mike Culver and his U.S. team, who are plagued by coordination problems... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Globalized Firms and Management; Organizational Design; Supply Chain; Problems and Challenges; Relationships; Business Subsidiaries; Product Launch; Computer Industry; United States; Taiwan

May 2023 (Revised June 2023)
Supplement

Novartis (B): Reimagining Medicine

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Claudio Feser, Karolin Frankenberger and David Redaschi

This case unfolds around the first-ever approved personalized cancer treatment, how Novartis wrapped it into a new business model design, and how Novartis scaled it. Novartis — one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world — is, among other ventures,... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Business Model; Production; Business Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry

05 Dec 2022
What Do You Think?

How Would Jack Welch’s Leadership Style Fare in Today’s World?

years into his tenure, GE became the most valuable company in the world. Gelles and Cohan cite everything from failed acquisitions and strategies to brutal downsizing, forced ranking of managers, a poor environmental record, legal accounting practices View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Industrial Products; Industrial Products; Industrial Products; Industrial Products

27 Aug 2013
First Look

First Look: August 27

agricultural raw materials were safe, high quality, of consistent supply, and sustainably, ethically, and economically produced? How can the procurement process enable the small-scale producer to become a viable partner in the milk View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

Latin America - Global

entrepreneurs so that they can navigate the complexities of their environment more effectively. October 2024 EVENT Revitalize, Reinvent, Reskill: Unlocking Workforce Productivity Event in Medellín In October, in collaboration with the... View Details

October 2013
Supplement

Dongfeng Nissan's Venucia (B)

By: Forest Reinhardt, Mayuka Yamazaki and G.A. Donovan

The (A) case describes the launch of a new passenger vehicle in China, produced jointly by Nissan of Japan and by Chinese automaker Dongfeng. Early sales results following the April 2012 launch were disappointing and the joint venture's managers had to decide how to... View Details

Keywords: China; Japan; Multinational Firms; Cross-cultural/cross-border; Environment; Sustainability; Competitive Strategy; Product Launch; Global Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Crisis Management; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Auto Industry; China; Japan