Publications

May 2022
Case

Thinking Outside the Wine Box (A): Mekanism and the Franz for Life Campaign

By: Tomomichi Amano, Elie Ofek, Mengjie Cheng and Amy Klopfenstein

This case provides an overview of “Franz for Life,” an advertising campaign that independent advertising agency Mekanism created and executed to revitalize the brand image of Franzia, a low-cost boxed wine. For several years, Franzia’s popularity declined among... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Digital Marketing; Social Marketing; Marketing Communications; Product Positioning; Food and Beverage Industry; Advertising Industry; United States

May 24, 2021
Article

What Makes an Online Marketplace Disruptive?

By: Clifford Maxwell and Scott Duke Kominers

Platforms like Airbnb, eBay, and Angie’s List have changed how markets work. But while many are innovative and make life easier for consumers, which are truly disruptive? Hewing to Clay Christensen’s theory of disruption, platforms—which operate as online... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Disruption; Framework

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January 2021 (Revised March 2021)
Case

Jumia's Path to Profitability

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Pippa Tubman Armerding and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in September 2019 as Sacha Poignonnec and Jeremy Hodara, co-founders and co-CEOs of Jumia, the leading Pan-African e-commerce platform, are contemplating the company’s path to profitability in the aftermath of a fragile investor sentiment, as the company... View Details

November 2000
Exercise

Atlantis-Biovent Negotiation: Confidential Instructions for Atlantis

By: Michael A. Wheeler

This two-party exercise illustrates bidding strategy in the context of settling a large insurance claim. Specifically, the claimant (Biovent) and the insurer (Atlantis) are asked to submit confidential offers to a dispute resolution Web site that will determine whether... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Bids and Bidding; Digital Platforms; Negotiation Process; Conflict and Resolution; Strategy; Internet and the Web

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10 Feb 2020
In Practice

6 Ways That Emerging Technology Is Disrupting Business Strategy

Even though the internet has been publicly available for almost three decades, executives at just about every company are wrestling with how to use digital technology to advance their business strategy. We asked professors from Harvard... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

01 Sep 2023
News

Solving for Z

And purpose was considered part of your personal life, not part of your professional life.” The preferences and predilections of Gen Z might not matter quite so much if the labor market weren’t so tight and if Gen Zers weren’t so... View Details

Keywords: Alexander Gelfand; Illustrations by Doug Chayka; Administration of Human Resource Programs; Government

January 2008
Article

Learning the Fine Art of Collaboration

By: Alan MacCormack and Theodore Forbath

Innovations are increasingly brought to the market by networks of firms, selected for their unique capabilities and operating in a coordinated manner. This collaborative model demands that firms develop different skills, yet despite this need, there is little guidance... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platforms

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February 2017
Case

Aston Martin: A Second Century of Performance and Luxury

By: Vish V. Krishnan, Karim R. Lakhani and Amram Migdal

Following the March 2016 launch of DB11, Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd.’s first new sports car platform in over a decade, this case discusses the future strategy of the famed British luxury auto manufacturer. Since its founding in 1902, Aston Martin has been characterized... View Details

07 Mar 2023
HBS Case

ChatGPT: Did Big Tech Set Up the World for an AI Bias Disaster?

co-author of The Digital Mindset: What It Really Takes to Thrive in the Age of Data, Algorithms, and AI. The case, and its reverberations as ChatGPT’s success escalates the AI race, offers lessons for those who are interested in AI... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis; Technology

20 May 2014
First Look

First Look: May 20

driven by patents filed by distant collaborators rather than non-collaborative patents or patents by non-distant collaborators, suggesting low cost long-distance digital communication as a potential mechanism. Download working paper:... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

Faculty & Researchers - Managing the Future of Work

The Gift of Global Talent: How Migration Shapes Business, Economy, & Society . Research Use Purpose to Transform Your Workplace , Harvard Business Review, 2022. With Leena Nair, Nick Dalton, and Patrick Hull. Digital Commerce and... View Details

August 2010 (Revised August 2011)
Case

Developing an App for That

By: Hanna Halaburda, Joshua Gans and Nathaniel Burbank

At a time when ever-rising smartphone sales are driven as much by demand for devices that run must-have third-party "apps" as by the quality of traditional voice and data services, there is a myriad of challenges facing the software developer who is looking to choose... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Competitive Strategy; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Applications and Software; Digital Platforms; Banking Industry; Information Technology Industry

30 Oct 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, October 30, 2018

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=54546 Product Quality and Entering Through Tying: Experimental Evidence By: Kim, Hyunjin, and Michael Luca Abstract—Dominant platform businesses often develop products in adjacent markets to... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

14 May 2013
First Look

First Look: May 14

of the next blockbuster, why superstars are paid unimaginable sums, and how digital technologies are transforming the entertainment landscape. Full of inside stories about some of the world's most successful entertainment brands,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

18 Sep 2007
Research & Ideas

How Brand China Can Succeed

Harvard Business School professor John Quelch writes a blog on marketing issues, called Marketing Know: How, for Harvard Business Online. It is reprinted on HBS Working Knowledge.As the British nineteenth... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

11 Apr 2023
Research & Ideas

Is Amazon a Retailer, a Tech Firm, or a Media Company? How AI Can Help Investors Decide

that maintain the system, review the categories and how they classify companies. "In the last 20 years, the boundaries of businesses have become much more diffuse because of digital technology driven business models." In contrast, the... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Consumer Products; Real Estate; Financial Services; Retail

07 Apr 2009
First Look

First Look: April 7, 2009

average, use unverifiable discretion to convey private information on future cash flows; in contrast, agency theory predicts managers, on average, use unverifiable discretion opportunistically. We test these alternative hypotheses using a sample of firms with View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

September 2017
Case

NBCUniversal Telemundo: Transforming Latino Television

By: Henry W. McGee, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Christine Snively

In August 2017, Cesar Conde, chairman of NBCUniversal International Group and NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, considered how the Miami-based Spanish-language TV network Telemundo could succeed in a rapidly shifting media landscape. Over the past few years,... View Details

Keywords: Television Industry; Television Advertising; Broadcasting; Telecommunications; Internet; Television Entertainment; Internet and the Web; Advertising; Digital Platforms; Digital Marketing; Telecommunications Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Miami