Publications

Parker is the founder of Cobli, the most advanced vehicle telematics and mobility platform in Latin America. Launched in 2017, the company has already raised more than $20mm from investors such as Fifth Wall Ventures and Valor Capital... View Details

Keywords: Insurance;#64;#Software/App;#68;#Transportation & Logistics

December 1999 (Revised November 2000)
Background Note

Pricing and Market Making on the Internet

By: Robert J. Dolan and Youngme E. Moon

Considers the impact of the Internet on how market exchanges will take place. Discusses the role of shopping agents and alternatives to fixed prices such as negotiations, auctions, and exchanges. View Details

Keywords: Price; Marketing Strategy; Auctions; Digital Platforms; Negotiation; Internet and the Web

April 2005 (Revised June 2006)
Case

Yahoo! Messenger: Network Integration

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

Describes Yahoo!'s management of the launch of version 6.0 of its Instant Messenger (IM) product, which incorporates features from 12 other Yahoo! properties, including Search, Music, Games, Photos, Personals, News, and Shopping. The integration of features from so... View Details

Keywords: Integration; Business Units; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Competitive Advantage; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States

January 2017 (Revised August 2019)
Case

X Fire Paintball & Airsoft: Is Amazon a Friend or Foe? (A)

By: Feng Zhu and Angela Acocella

Three years after launching his brick-and-mortar store, X Fire Paintball and Airsoft, Steve Herbert Sr. and his sons began selling products on Amazon.com’s third-party Marketplace, and online sales expanded rapidly. Over time, X Fire noticed that products of which it... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Competition; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Small Business; Retail Industry; Canada

April 2016
Teaching Note

Flipkart: Transitioning to a Marketplace Model

By: Sunil Gupta and Das Narayandas

In 2015, Sachin and Binny Bansal, co-founders of India's largest e-tailer, Flipkart, announced that the company would switch to a marketplace model and move its logistics arm into a separate company. At the time of the announcement, Snapdeal already claimed to be... View Details

Keywords: India; Marketplaces; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Market Entry and Exit; E-commerce; Retail Industry; India

September 1996 (Revised April 1997)
Case

GO Corporation

By: Josh Lerner, Thomas J. Kosnik, Tarek AbuZayyad and Paul C. Yang

GO faces a crisis in March 1991 when Microsoft announces the introduction of a competing operating system for pen-based computers. GO's managers must work with its venture financers, Kleiner Perkins, to redesign its financing, alliance, and product development... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Digital Platforms; Competition; Private Equity; Adaptation; Crisis Management; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry

15 Aug 2024
Op-Ed

Post-CrowdStrike, Six Questions to Test Your Company's Operational Resilience

crisis is just as crucial as the response.” Over 60 percent of tech outages result in at least $100,000 in total losses, and 15 percent cost upward of $1 million, according to the Uptime Institute, a technology trade group. In severe... View Details

Keywords: by Hise Gibson and Anita Lynch

01 Mar 2023
News

The Latest Model

Prysm Group Cofounders Hurder (left) and Barrera: bringing an industry-agnostic approach to helping business leverage emerging technologies Prysm Group cofounders Hurder (left) and Barrera: bringing an industry-agnostic approach to helping business leverage emerging... View Details

Keywords: Alexander Gelfand; blockchain; cryptocurrency; economic models; innovation; consulting; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

April 2017 (Revised February 2020)
Supplement

edaixi (eWash): Digital Transformation of Laundry Services (B)

By: Feng Zhu, Weiru Chen, Chuang Chen and Ciwu Lin

Founded in 2013 as a laundry service featuring online ordering for home pickup and delivery, China’s edaixi (eWash) illustrated the online-to-offline (O2O) business model. As yet unclear in 2016 was the optimal way to organize third-party laundry service providers,... View Details

Keywords: Laundry; O2O; Online-to-offline; Service Operations; Business Model; Digital Platforms; Transformation; Service Industry; China

May 2017 (Revised July 2017)
Supplement

Aadhaar: From Voluntary to Mandatory

By: Tarun Khanna, Anjali Raina and Rachna Chawla

Approximately 1.1 billion residents of India (99% of the population) had a unique biometric identity—Aadhaar—by 2017. In six years, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) had achieved an unprecedented milestone in emerging and developed markets. The... View Details

February 2021 (Revised February 2021)
Case

World of Dreams Entertainment Group: Building a Resilient Business

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Sarah Endline and Michael Norris

In 2021, Ron DeShay, former American Idol producer, is launching his new business venture: World of Dreams Entertainment Group. World of Dreams rethought the existing TV production model, giving audiences more power to directly influence the creation of shows through a... View Details

Keywords: Television Entertainment; Media; Social Issues; Sports; Business Ventures; Digital Platforms; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States; California; Los Angeles

16 May 2017
Blog Post

Making the Move into Digital Health and Software Engineering

and I worked on an independent project on Cryptography and Ethereum sponsored by Marco Iansiti, who heads the Technology and Operations Management Unit and the Digital Initiative at HBS. Can you tell us about the internship you did... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Technology

24 Apr 2014
News

Boutique workouts brought to the busiest people, at home

convenient online platform. “I’d love to create the official fitness platform for the Lean In generation, people want to stay active but have very little time,” says Kumar. In just her first two months of operation, with almost no... View Details

02 Jul 2019
Blog Post

Fast-track to Better Outcomes: Yoonjin Min and RapidSOS

wanted to work in an organization under a hundred people; I wanted to experience the energy, the sense of urgency of a startup, a place where people actively choose to drive forward the mission.” The posting that popped out for Yoonjin was for RapidSOS, a View Details

Keywords: Technology; Technology

01 Sep 2016
News

The Big Business of Little Loans

Illustration by Alvaro Dominguez Illustration by Alvaro Dominguez Before launching Funding Societies, a crowdfunding platform for small businesses in Singapore and Indonesia, Kelvin Teo and Reynold Wijaya (both MBA 2016) visited major... View Details

Keywords: Nancy Miller

14 Mar 2014
News

Start-up Takes the Legwork out of Shopping

Keywords: fashion; start-up; Personal Services; Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores; Retail Trade

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 2004
Case

Microsoft.NET (Abridged)

By: Alan D. MacCormack and Kerry Herman

Set in the summer of 2000, following the unveiling of Microsoft's .NET initiative to the public. Three of the key figures in .NET's development are considering the next steps they would have to take to keep the initiative moving forward. Specifically, the challenges... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Leadership; Management Skills; Organizational Structure; Digital Platforms