Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(992)
- Faculty Publications (145)
- June 2011 (Revised March 2013)
- Case
Wal-Mart Update, 2011
By: David B. Yoffie and Renee Kim
In 2011, Wal-Mart was the world's largest company with $420 billion in sales and operations in 14 countries. Yet it found itself searching for the right growth strategy moving forward. U.S. same-store sales had declined for eight consecutive quarters and Wal-Mart was... View Details
- April 2011
- Case
Designs by Kate: The Power of Direct Sales
By: John A. Deighton and Sarah Abbott
The sales representatives at Designs by Kate (DBK) sell private label jewelry at hosted parties and through online social media channels. They are also responsible for recruiting, training, and managing new sales reps. CEO and founder Kate Creevey designed the... View Details
- January 2010 (Revised March 2013)
- Case
foursquare
By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, Thomas R. Eisenmann, Jeffrey J. Bussgang and David Chen
Co-founders of foursquare are deciding how to respond to competitive threats and scale up the organization. Foursquare was a location-based online service that allowed users to "check in" to a location using an application on a smartphone. Foursquare kept track of a... View Details
- January 2010 (Revised May 2012)
- Case
TopCoder (A): Developing Software through Crowdsourcing
By: Karim R. Lakhani, David A. Garvin and Eric Lonstein
TopCoder's crowdsourcing-based business model, in which software is developed through online tournaments, is presented. The case highlights how TopCoder has created a unique two-sided innovation platform consisting of a global community of over 225,000 developers who... View Details
- March 2010
- Article
The Desire to Win: The Effects of Competitive Arousal on Motivation and Behavior
By: Deepak Malhotra
The paper theoretically elaborates and empirically investigates the "competitive arousal" model of decision making, which argues that elements of the strategic environment (e.g., head-to-head rivalry and time pressure) can fuel competitive motivations and behavior.... View Details
- October 2009
- Simulation
Strategy Simulation: Competitive Dynamics and Wintel
In this online simulation students study the dynamics of cooperation and competition between two markedly different businesses that both rely on the flow of PC sales. Playing the role of Microsoft or Intel, students determine product release schedules and pricing, as... View Details
- April 2009 (Revised December 2015)
- Case
Dot.com: Online Pet Retailing
By: Tom Nicholas and David Chen
From 1995 to 1999, the U.S. experienced a period of tremendous growth in its information technology (IT) sector. The IT industry, although it accounted for less than 10% of the U.S. economy's total output, contributed disproportionately to economic growth. One market... View Details
- November 2008 (Revised February 2010)
- Case
CBS and Online Video
By: Dennis A. Yao, Francisco Pizarro Beleza Rodrigues Queiro and Julia Rozovsky
In late March 2007, CBS faces an important decision about its online video strategy. A just-announced joint online distribution venture between NBC Universal and News Corporation (Fox) is the impetus for this decision. Should CBS join forces with this new venture, come... View Details
- October 2008
- Case
TripIt: The Traveler's Agent
By: Lynda M. Applegate, Gabriele Piccoli and Kathryn Brohman
In July 2008, the co-founders of TripIt, a free online travel organizer that aggregated travelers' bookings from many top travel websites, had recently secured $5.1 million in new financing. While the co-founders believed that their company offered travelers a unique... View Details
- 2008
- Simulation
Strategic Innovation Simulation: Back Bay Battery
By: Willy C. Shih and Clayton Christensen
This online simulation allows students to play the role of a business unit manager at Back Bay Battery Company who faces the dilemma of balancing a portfolio of investment strategies across products in the rechargeable battery space. Players have to manage R&D... View Details
- March 2008 (Revised March 2014)
- Case
By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, Thomas R. Eisenmann, Aaron Smith, David Chen and Brian Feinstein
As Facebook topped one billion monthly users in October 2012, the online social network continued to face questions about how best to monetize its surging traffic. The company could invest further in new advertising products, which represented the majority of the... View Details
- April 2007
- Case
Schibsted
By: Bharat N. Anand and Sophie Hood
In 2006, newspaper firms in developed markets were severely threatened on three fronts: the growth of online news, online classified advertising, and free newspapers. Schibsted, however, had managed to cope with these challenges successfully, and had become something... View Details
- April 2006 (Revised March 2007)
- Case
PayPal Merchant Services
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Lauren Barley
In early 2006, PayPal management is deciding how to respond to Google's entry into online payments. PayPal, owned by eBay, has targeted online merchants outside eBay's auction community for its next wave of expansion. Google represents a potential threat to PayPal's... View Details
- May 2004 (Revised March 2005)
- Case
Music Downloads
By: David B. Yoffie and Deborah Freier
Examines the competition between competing music formats. In the '90s, the MP3 format challenged the traditional means of music distribution by allowing for storage of near CD-quality recordings at 1/10th of their previous size. The threat to traditional distribution... View Details
- March 2004 (Revised September 2005)
- Case
RealNetworks Rhapsody
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Steven Carpenter
Examines RealNetwork's (Real's) strategy for the rapidly emerging online music market. In contrast to rivals who sell individual copies of songs, Real offers online music on a subscription basis. For a $10 monthly fee, subscribers to Real's Rhapsody service have... View Details
- October 2003 (Revised January 2004)
- Background Note
Online Securities Trading in Japan
By: Lynda M. Applegate, Jamie Ladge, Haruki Umezawa and Masako Egawa
Provides an overview of the Japanese securities industry and discusses how the online trading/brokerage industry grew as a result of deregulation of financial markets and penetration of the Internet in Japan. Describes major players in the online industry--Matsui... View Details
- October 2003 (Revised January 2009)
- Case
Transforming Matsui Securities
By: Lynda M. Applegate, Masako Egawa, Jamie Ladge and Haruki Umezawa
Michio Matsui, president and CEO of Matsui Securities, transformed a small regional securities company into a leading player in the online broking industry in Japan. Discusses how he transformed the business model and culture of the company and took advantage of the... View Details
- May 2002 (Revised October 2002)
- Case
Telewest Communications plc
By: Lynda M. Applegate and Laure Mougeot Stroock
Created in 1992, Telewest has become the second largest broadband communication provider in the United Kingdom, offering telephone, cable television, and cable Internet services, as well as television and online content to the U.K. entertainment market. The first to... View Details
- April 2001 (Revised August 2001)
- Case
UNext: Business Education and e-Learning
By: Michael G. Rukstad, David J. Collis and Tyrell Levine
UNEXT has signed agreements with Columbia, Stanford, Chicago, Carnegie Mellon, and the London School of Economics to create online business courses. The company is backed by Michael Milken and Larry Ellison and has four Nobel laureates on its advisory board. Describes... View Details
- February 2001
- Case
BarnesandNoble.com (C)
By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Dickson Louie and William A. Sahlman
At the end of 1999, Steve Riggio, the vice chairman and acting CEO of barnesandnoble.com, wonders what his company should do next against Amazon.com, the online retailer who is the leading online book seller in the United States. While barnesandnoble.com has been... View Details