Publications

March 2024
Article

What Makes Groups Emotional

By: Amit Goldenberg

When people experience emotions in a group, their emotions tend to have stronger intensity and to last longer. Why is that? This question has occupied thinkers throughout history, and with the use of digital media it is even more pressing today. Historically, attention... View Details

Keywords: Groups and Teams; Emotions; Cognition and Thinking; Interpersonal Communication

August 2022
Case

Meaningful Gigs

By: Brian Trelstad and Rachel Philbin

In October 2020, just a year after founding their company Meaningful Gigs, founders Ronnie Kwesi Coleman and Stephanie Nachemja-Burton prepared for a vital investment meeting with Rethink Education. They had already reached $400,000 in annually recurring revenue (ARR)... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Growth and Development Strategy; Revenue; Education Industry; Technology Industry; Africa; United States

January 2022 (Revised March 2022)
Technical Note

Deglobalization and Alternative Futures

By: Geoffrey Jones and Valeria Giacomin

This note reviews the evidence that the world is undergoing an era of de-globalization. It shows that available metrics show some support for this theory. However there is also evidence that what is happening might be better described as regionalization. The nature of... View Details

Keywords: Global Business; Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, And Changes; Populism; Geopolitics; Business History; Globalization; Change; Financial Crisis; China

January 2025
Teaching Note

Vytal: Packaging-as-a-Service

By: George Serafeim, Michael W. Toffel and Stacy Straaberg

The Germany-based startup Vytal operated the largest digital-native reusable packaging-as-a-service network globally, having raised nearly €15 million, established a large network of restaurant partners, and prevented the use of millions of single-use take-out food... View Details

11 Dec 2023
Research & Ideas

Doing Well by Doing Good? One Industry’s Struggle to Balance Values and Profits

traditional media are now viewed as morally questionable, with a similar take on digital media, with its emphasis on rapidly producing click-bait-style content. Broader lessons for other industries? Reid and Ramarajan hope the study... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis

11 Apr 2024
In Practice

Why Progress on Immigration Might Soften Labor Pains

there's been a revolution in almost all remote worker visas around the world. The digital nomad visa is now being issued by close to 75 countries, including Mexico and Canada, Portugal, the United Arab Emirates, Brazil, and many other... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

October 2024
Article

Sampling Bias in Entrepreneurial Experiments

By: Ruiqing Cao, Rembrand Koning and Ramana Nanda

Using data from a prominent online platform for launching new digital products, we document that ‘sampling bias’—defined as the difference between a startup’s target customer base and the actual sample on which early ‘beta tests’ are conducted—has a systematic and... View Details

Keywords: Target Market; Sampling Biases; Beta Testing; Product Launch; Entrepreneurship; Gender

October 2020
Case

PraDigi Open Learning: Transforming Rural India

By: John J-H Kim and Malini Sen

Pratham is a non-governmental organization, focusing on high-quality, low-cost and replicable interventions to address gaps in the Indian education system. Co-founder Madhav Chavan is interested in using technology for education but differed in the way it is used in... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Social Entrepreneurship; Education; Information Technology; Learning; Growth and Development Strategy; Non-Governmental Organizations; Social Issues; Education Industry; India; Asia

September 2020
Case

True North: Pioneering Analytics, Algorithms and Artificial Intelligence

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Kairavi Dey and Hannah Mayer

True North was a private equity fund that specialized in the growth and buyout of mid-market, India-centric companies. The leadership team initially believed that technology was not core to traditional businesses and steered clear of new age technology-oriented... View Details

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Information Technology; Management; Operations; Organizations; Leadership; Innovation and Invention; Business Model; AI and Machine Learning; Computer Industry; Technology Industry

March 1998 (Revised August 1998)
Case

BSkyB

By: Debora L. Spar

In 1983, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. bought a floundering two-year-old British company called Satellite Television plc. and renamed it Sky. Without external financing, without having been allocated any space on Britain's existing satellites, and over the opposition of... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Change Management; Television Entertainment; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Great Britain

Find at Harvard

June 2018
Article

Video Content Marketing: The Making of Clips

By: Xuan Liu, Savannah Wei Shi, Thales S. Teixeira and Michel Wedel

Consumers have an increasingly wide variety of options available to entertain themselves. This poses a challenge for content aggregators who want to effectively promote their video content online through original trailers of movies, sitcoms, and video games. Marketers... View Details

Keywords: Film Entertainment; Marketing; Digital Marketing; Performance Effectiveness; Performance Improvement

Find at Harvard

02 Feb 2023
Research & Ideas

Why We Still Need Twitter: How Social Media Holds Companies Accountable

violations and penalties issued by 44 regulatory agencies, during the period between 2000 and 2017. First, they obtained digital maps of 3G network coverage, determined the year in which 3G became available for a certain ZIP code, and... View Details

Keywords: by Kasandra Brabaw; Technology

11 Nov 2014
First Look

First Look: November 11

2014 Harvard Business Review Digital Ubiquity: How Connections, Sensors, and Data Are Revolutionizing Business By: Iansiti, Marco, and Karim R. Lakhani Abstract—When Google bought Nest, a maker of digital... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2021
Case

Threadless: The Renewal of an Online Community

By: Shane Greenstein, Karim Lakhani and Christian Godwin

Threadless, an online apparel company and artist community which Jake Nickell founded in 2000, continued to maintain its status as a top company in the online apparel industry during its second decade. From 2010 to 2020, Threadless continued to operate its... View Details

May 2016 (Revised January 2018)
Case

Airbnb, Etsy, Uber: Acquiring the First Thousand Customers

By: Thales S. Teixeira and Morgan Brown

By 2016, two-sided online platforms (or marketplaces) were pervasive among the highest growing internet startups around. These marketplaces sought to match suppliers of assets for rent, physical products or services with customers demanding them. Among the most notable... View Details

Keywords: Airbnb; Etsy; Uber; Growth Hacking; Two-sided Market; Internet and the Web; Marketing Strategy; Digital Platforms; Digital Marketing; Business Startups; Transportation Industry; Accommodations Industry

2022
Working Paper

Getting on the Map: The Impact of Online Listings on Business Performance

By: Michael Luca, Abhishek Nagaraj and Gauri Subramani

We evaluate the extent to which small businesses maintain an online presence, looking at restaurant listings on a major online review platform. While the majority of restaurants have an online presence, we find that roughly 18 percent in our sample have no presence as... View Details

Keywords: Small Business; Internet and the Web; Revenue; Digital Marketing; Food and Beverage Industry

January 2024
Technical Note

Get Cool: Air Conditioning Industry Background

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jacob A. Small

The “air conditioning paradox” is tied to climate change: the more the planet warms, the greater the need for cooling (due to the dangers of extreme heat as well as comfort within buildings), but the use of electricity-powered AC contributes to further warming. There... View Details

Keywords: Appliances; Global Warming; Climate Change; Energy Efficiency; United States