Publications

02 Oct 2017
What Do You Think?

Do Bitcoin and Digital Currency Have a Future?

controlled basis by governments) through an innovative, supposedly secure, and secretive system of digital codes that enables owners of the currency to complete transactions off the books and out of the sight of View Details

Keywords: by James L. Heskett; Financial Services

11 Mar 2001
Research & Ideas

Digital Designs on the Inner City

An increasing number of inner city residents own computers and have online access, but government agencies and private companies need to do more to bridge the digital divide that still exists among income... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

22 Jul 2019
Book

How to Be a Digital Platform Leader

challenges and opportunities posed by digital platforms, The Business of Platforms: Strategy in the Age of Digital Competition, Innovation, and Power is a new book by Harvard Business School Professor David... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

31 Jan 2022
Research & Ideas

Where Can Digital Transformation Take You? Insights from 1,700 Leaders

their organizations merely sell the products and services they have rather than develop new offerings based on evolving customer needs and desires. Interestingly, only 55 percent of survey respondents ranked customer focus as one of the... View Details

Keywords: by Linda A. Hill, Ann Le Cam, Sunand Menon, and Emily Tedards

March 2020
Case

Maven Clinic: Women's Health in the Digital Age

By: Ariel D. Stern and Sarah Mehta

In late 2017, Kate Ryder, the founder and CEO of digital women’s health telemedicine company Maven Clinic, faced an important decision. Maven offered both a direct to consumer (D2C) product that anyone could use to book virtual appointments with health practitioners... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Strategy; Information Technology; Applications and Software; Health Industry; Technology Industry; United States

August 1995 (Revised October 1996)
Case

IDS Financial Services (Condensed)

By: John A. Deighton

Highlights the decision that must be made on balancing customer acquisition and retention and de-emphasizing the structural issues involved in administering the independent contractor sales force. View Details

Keywords: Customers; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decisions; Corporate Governance; Salesforce Management; Financial Services Industry

January 2016 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Rumie: Bringing Digital Education to the Underserved

By: John J-H Kim and Amram Migdal

In fall of 2015, the Toronto, Canada–based education technology nonprofit Rumie had distributed thousands of computer tablets preloaded with collections of thousands of pieces of curated educational content to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in some of the most... View Details

Keywords: Edtech; Education Technology; Social Enterprise; Nonprofit; Education Startup; Technological Innovation; Nonprofit Organizations; Social Entrepreneurship; Education; Business Startups; Education Industry; Canada; Africa

April 2025
Teaching Note

Tabby: Winning Customers' Digital Wallets

By: Eva Ascarza

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 524-056. Tabby, a Saudi-based fintech founded in 2019, rapidly became one of the MENA region’s first unicorns by offering buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) services with a unique twist: instead of charging end consumers, it partnered with... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Marketing; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Business Model; Competitive Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Middle East; Saudi Arabia; United Arab Emirates

Research Summary

The Role of Capital Markets in the Digital Economy

This topic of research is motivated by the rapid rise of digital adoption in firms across the economy and capital market participants’ growing interest in this phenomenon. My work studies how investors are responding to digitization, provides insights on the... View Details

01 Aug 2007
Op-Ed

Company Town: Fixing Corrupt Governments

and graft means that citizens are cheated out of a fair government that operates efficiently and in the public interest. It's time to consider a radical idea: Corporations and nonprofit groups, in addition to individuals, should be... View Details

Keywords: by Eric Werker

30 Nov 2009
Research & Ideas

Tracks of My Tears: Reconstructing Digital Music

numerous subsets of the songs on the album—but when the process is fully digital the costs of reproducing music are much lower. The Internet makes mixed bundling feasible. Q: You note that while demand for individual songs on View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Music

March 2005 (Revised June 2006)
Case

Sun Microsystems, Inc.: Web Services Strategy

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Fernando Suarez

Microsoft and IBM have excluded Sun Microsystems from the board of the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I), an industry consortium that will shape the evolution of Web services standards. Sun managers must decide whether to join WS-I as a contributing... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Standards; Corporate Governance; Power and Influence; Web Services Industry; Web Services Industry

February 23, 2022
Article

Can WEB3 Bring Back Competition to Digital Platforms?

By: Christian Catalini and Scott Duke Kominers

Like the early Internet, blockchain and Web3 applications promise a new wave of decentralization and competition—yet at the same time, it is unclear which of the dynamics that drove concentration in online platforms and services will remain in force under the Web3... View Details

Keywords: Web3; Blockchain; Interoperability; Internet and the Web; Technological Innovation; Competition; Digital Platforms

Read Now

18 Aug 2010
Working Paper Summaries

The Role of Organizational Scope and Governance in Strengthening Private Monitoring

Keywords: by Lamar Pierce & Michael W. Toffel

March 2006
Background Note

Influencing Customer Behavior in Service Operations

By: Frances X. Frei and Amy C. Edmondson

Explores ways in which service firms can influence the behavior of their customers. Drawing from research on employee motivation and applying it to customer motivation, the note describes two levels of managerial control: instrumental control, which shapes behavior... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Governance Controls; Consumer Behavior; Service Operations; Emotions; Motivation and Incentives; Power and Influence; Service Industry

13 Jan 2014
Research & Ideas

How Government Can Restore the Faith of Citizens

Henry David Thoreau once said, "That government is best that governs least." Easy for him to say. Stuck out by himself at Walden Pond, he never had to deal with potholes on his morning commute or... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

Article

Use of Connected Digital Products in Clinical Research Following the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comprehensive Analysis of Clinical Trials

By: Caroline Marra, William J. Gordon and Ariel Dora Stern

Objectives: In an effort to mitigate COVID-19 related challenges for clinical research, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued new guidance for the conduct of ‘virtual’ clinical trials in late March 2020. This study documents trends in the use of... View Details

Keywords: Connected Digital Products; Telehealth; Remote Monitoring; Health Testing and Trials; Research; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Information Technology

Read Now

November 2017 (Revised November 2018)
Technical Note

Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies and Digital Assets

By: Ramana Nanda, Robert F. White and Alexey Tuzikov

Keywords: Blockchain; Cryptocurrency; Initial Coin Offering; ICO; Finance; Entrepreneurship; Financial Services Industry