Publications

August 2013 (Revised September 2015)
Case

Coursera

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Hyunjin Kim

By providing free and open-access online courses at a large scale, Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platforms seek to innovate the business models of the traditional higher education industry. In a little over a year, Coursera had grown at a rapid rate to emerge as a... View Details

Keywords: Business Models; Strategy; Competition; Business Model; Internet and the Web; Higher Education; Competitive Advantage; Education Industry

March 2023
Case

Ransomware Attack at Colonial Pipeline Company

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan Ni

On the morning of May 7, 2021, Colonial Pipeline Company became aware that the company had been the victim of a malicious ransomware attack that had stolen and locked up company data. The extortionists demanded 75 bitcoins (worth about $4.4 million at the time) in... View Details

07 Jul 2003
What Do You Think?

Can We Have Too Much Productivity Improvement?

global economy and the Internet were cited by some as being responsible for the current dilemma. John van Heteren paraphrased several respondents when he opined that "I believe that the existing definition in your article was not... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

August 2013 (Revised December 2014)
Case

Taking Dell Private

By: David J. Collis, David B. Yoffie and Matthew Shaffer

In July 2012, Michael Dell, CEO and founder of Dell, Inc., met with a representative of Silver Lake Partners to explore taking his company private. The company, which he had founded in his dorm room as a college freshman and which had made him the youngest Fortune 500... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Going Private; The PC Market; Market For Corporate Control; Corporate Strategy; Leveraged Buyouts; Change Management; Private Equity; Market Entry and Exit; Private Ownership; Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software; Internet and the Web; Computer Industry; Technology Industry; United States

Profile

Enrico Ferrari

grocery delivery venture in Germany and Australia, which was backed by Rocket Internet, the largest European internet incubator and investor. Although that founder's journey ultimately came to an end, Rocket recruited Enrico as the... View Details

Keywords: Tech

01 Sep 2003
News

Kumar Mahadeva

“What’s different about our business model is that we’ve leveraged the global talent pool, kept our costs low, and stayed on top of new technologies that can benefit our clients.” Mahadeva enjoys being an entrepreneur and is excited about the innovative possibilities... View Details

Keywords: Deborah Blagg; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

October 2019 (Revised January 2020)
Case

Fixing Facebook: Fake News, Privacy, and Platform Governance

By: David Yoffie and Daniel Fisher

Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook based on the idea that connecting people was a fundamentally good thing—and a way to turn a handsome profit. But from the beginning, Facebook received criticism both for how it handled user privacy and how it curated user-generated... View Details

Keywords: Platform; Governance; Privacy; Internet and the Web; Corporate Governance; Ethics; Business and Government Relations; Strategy; Digital Platforms; Web Services Industry

11 May 2009
Research & Ideas

The IT Leader’s Hero Quest

frequently also, there is less time for making important decisions—not infrequently, they have to act in real time. With modern IT (with real time, Internet search, and social networks), few decisions can be made in secret, and even fewer... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

2016
Chapter

User-Generated Content and Social Media

By: Michael Luca

This paper documents what economists have learned about user-generated content (UGC) and social media. A growing body of evidence suggests that UGC on platforms ranging from Yelp to Facebook has a large causal impact on economic and social outcomes ranging from... View Details

Keywords: User-generated Content; Crowdsourcing; Design Economics; Internet and the Web; Marketing; Economics; Media; Social Media

Find at Harvard

Read Now

18 Feb 2019
Book

What’s Really Disrupting Business? It’s Not Technology

idea—allowing people to live-cast on the internet their day-to-day activities—that was centered on technology. After many twists and turns, they arrived at their eventual business model of allowing gamers to decouple playing games from... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Beauty & Cosmetics; Insurance; Service; Retail

02 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Not All M&As Are Alike—and That Matters

acquired 62 companies, as it races to dominate the Internet server and communication equipment fields. From the target company's point of view, an acquisition is often desirable, since it takes a massive amount of money to build a... View Details

Keywords: by Joseph L. Bower

11 Apr 2024
News

Mission Control

analytical work. I did a piece of research that uncovered or discovered the equivalence to Moore's law from the computer industry in the space industry. And I had full understanding of how Moore's law, 2x performance every two years, had driven the computer industry... View Details

February 2002 (Revised October 2005)
Case

BMWFilms

By: Youngme E. Moon and Kerry Herman

Jim McDowell, VP of marketing at BMW North America, is debating how to follow up the success of his latest marketing campaign, "BMWFilms." This campaign features five short films for the Internet, directed by some of the hottest young directors in Hollywood. By all... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Internet and the Web; Marketing Strategy; Film Entertainment; Innovation and Invention; Auto Industry; North and Central America

September 2020 (Revised February 2021)
Case

Zameer Kassam Fine Jewelry: Engaging Clients

By: Ryan W. Buell and Amy Klopfenstein

Zameer Kassam Fine Jewelry (ZKFJ) designs custom engagement rings that tell the story of a couple’s relationship. The case describes the company’s process for engaging clients, which has historically been a relatively offline, high-touch experience. Obliged by... View Details

Keywords: Customer Engagement; Service Delivery; Health Pandemics; Internet and the Web; Customer Satisfaction; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Growth and Development; Retail Industry

December 2018
Case

DraftKings and the Future of Fantasy Sports

By: Robert F. Higgins and Julia Kelley

Founded in 2012, DraftKings helped change the fantasy sports landscape by popularizing daily fantasy sports (DFS), or short-term fantasy sports tournaments that offered big cash prizes to winners. The company’s valuation exceeded $1 billion by 2015, but DraftKings soon... View Details