Publications

January 2011 (Revised June 2011)
Case

Intellectual Property Intermediaries

By: Andrei Hagiu

During the past 5 to 10 years, several different intermediation business models have emerged for the intellectual property (IP) market. This note describes the most prominent ones: non-practicing entities (or patent trolls), defensive patent aggregators, online IP... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Intellectual Property; Auctions; Digital Platforms; Information Technology; Service Industry

25 Aug 2022
News

Harnessing the Tools of the Digital Age

faculty to address the most pressing business questions of the day with the same agility and speed at which technology is reshaping the marketplace. “HBS is the premiere business learning platform in the... View Details

Keywords: April White

06 Jun 2005
Research & Ideas

Microsoft vs. Open Source: Who Will Win?

with a duopoly, no operating system ends up exploiting fully its potential because developers' efforts wind up divided between the two systems. However, with a monopoly, the efforts to develop new software and improve the platform are... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

October 2016 (Revised March 2017)
Case

uberPOOL

By: Marco Iansiti, Michael W. Toffel and Amram Migdal

This case describes Uber's uberPOOL service, which let multiple Uber users who were headed in the same direction share a ride and pay substantially lower fares. View Details

Keywords: Uber; uberPOOL; Innovation and Invention; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Digital Platforms; Transportation; Transportation Networks; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry

October 2005 (Revised February 2007)
Case

Red Flag Software Co.

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Tarun Khanna, David Lane and Elizabeth Raabe

In 2005, just five years after its formal launch, Beijing-based Red Flag Software was the world's second-largest distributor of the Linux operating system and was expecting its first annual profit. On a unit basis, Red Flag led the world in desktops (PCs) shipped with... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Competitive Advantage; Applications and Software; Business Startups; Globalized Markets and Industries; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; Beijing; United States

13 Aug 2024
Research & Ideas

Why Companies Shouldn't Delay Software Updates—Even After CrowdStrike's Flaw

software update to the Falcon security platform managed by CrowdStrike, the giant cybersecurity company. “What happened in CrowdStrike is an illustration of the risk of picking up an upgrade immediately.” Greenstein’s work focuses on... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald; Technology; Technology; Technology; Technology

25 Aug 2022
News

Labs Enable Large-scale Research

HARVARD RESEARCH LABS LAUNCHED IN 2022 Research Labs Topical Focus Principal Investigators Blackbox Lab How do we ensure that Black entrepreneurs and creative professionals leverage digital technologies and View Details

August 2013
Technical Note

Raising the Level of Abstraction

By: Willy Shih

This technical note discusses abstraction as a way of generalizing a process or component for wider application. By hiding complexity inside a module, abstraction enables system designers to think at a higher level. This lowers entry barriers to using (and reusing) a... View Details

Keywords: Abstraction; Modularity; Commercialization; Information Technology; Information Infrastructure; Information Technology; Applications and Software; Digital Platforms; United States; Asia; Europe

20 May 2020
News

Keeping Families Connected

content on their respective screens. Launched in 2016 as a story app for young children, Caribu has since expanded to offer a variety of activities for kids up to age 13. The platform was named one of TIME magazine’s best inventions of... View Details

2018
Working Paper

The Welfare Effects of Peer Entry in the Accommodation Market: The Case of Airbnb

By: Chiara Farronato and Andrey Fradkin

We study the effects of enabling peer supply through Airbnb in the accommodation industry. We present a model of competition between flexible and dedicated sellers - peer hosts and hotels - who provide differentiated products. We estimate this model using data from... View Details

Keywords: Peer To Peer; Digital Platforms; Market Entry and Exit; Competition; Accommodations Industry

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Profile

Jonathan Evans

with colleagues who share my passion for technology that unleashes collaboration. I am excited to tackle hard problems with talented teammates by considering diverse perspectives and then building coalitions to get stuff done - much like... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Technology

01 Dec 2020
News

Quantum Leap

back then,” he admits. Before that, he was part of a team at Avid Technology that won an Emmy Award for digital video editing—something we take for granted on our phones today, he says, but it was unthinkable at the time. “Granted,... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing; Manufacturing

29 Jul 2021
News

A Clean Start

photosynthesis, has figured out how to convert carbon dioxide and water into all types of things, from wood and fibers to fruits and grains,” he says. It’s a process that’s worked for 3.5 billion years. “We need to look at CO2 as a resource,” he explains. So Brix set... View Details

28 Feb 2014
News

The First Five Years: Omowale Casselle (MBA 2009)

Omowale Casselle What does your work involve? "My official title is director of product management, SAMPLEit, a new venture at redbox. In this role, I'm responsible for leveraging technology across our different product lines—kiosk,... View Details

Keywords: General Merchandise Stores; Retail Trade

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

01 Jun 2023
News

The Exchange: The Tech Leader’s Tightrope

Image by John Ritter Image by John Ritter In the wake of the Snowden leaks in 2015, the New York Times dropped the bombshell news that one company had played a unique role in enabling the National Security Agency’s domestic spy program. The report, “AT&T Helped US Spy... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Justice, Public Order, and Safety Activities; Government

August 2021 (Revised September 2022)
Case

Patch Technology: Making It Easy to Do the Right Thing

By: Tomomichi Amano, Robert J. Dolan and Carol Zhang

In 2021, the growing threat of climate change pushed companies around the world to understand that significant behavioral change was necessary. While many recognized that decreasing emissions was critical, more sophisticated players such as Microsoft began to recognize... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Management; Marketing; Digital Platforms; Climate Change