Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(821)
- Faculty Publications (191)
- February 2020
- Case
Seso Global: Building a Blockchain-enabled Property Marketplace in Nigeria
By: Boris Vallee and Yang (Dolly) Yu
The mutual aspiration of addressing the housing shortage and improving real estate market efficiency led Daniel and Phillip to co-found Seso Global in 2017. Seso Global developed a unique integrated platform to streamline and rationalize the process of acquiring and... View Details
- January 2020
- Case
Banorte Móvil: Data-Driven Mobile Growth
By: Ayelet Israeli, Carla Larangeira and Mariana Cal
In mid-2019, Carlos Hank was deliberating over the results for Banorte Móvil—the mobile application for Banorte, Mexico’s most profitable and second-largest financial institution. Hank, who had been appointed as Banorte´s Chairman of the Board in January 2015, had... View Details
- January 2020 (Revised January 2025)
- Case
Freelancer, Ltd.
By: Christopher Stanton, Karim R. Lakhani, Jennifer L. Hoffman, Jin Hyun Paik and Nina Cohodes
Over the course of the 2010s, the rapid advancement of mobile technologies and the rise of online freelancing platforms seemed to portend a radical transformation of labor markets into on-demand, flexible talent pools. Even though several Fortune 500... View Details
- October 2019 (Revised October 2019)
- Case
Epic Games
By: Andy Wu and Christopher Zhang
Epic Games entered a stagnant market with its PC-games digital storefront in 2018, in the context of incumbent competitors such as Steam, its meteoric rise via Fortnite, and imminent industry shifts in gaming distribution. On the surface, Epic Games Store’s competitive... View Details
- October 2019 (Revised August 2020)
- Case
The Predictive Index
By: Lynda M. Applegate and James Weber
Mike Zani and Daniel Muzquiz needed to decide next steps to create a new category in the human resources consulting industry and scale their company.
Zani and Muzquiz, serial entrepreneurs, acquired Predictive Index in 2014. Previously, as clients of the... View Details
Zani and Muzquiz, serial entrepreneurs, acquired Predictive Index in 2014. Previously, as clients of the... View Details
- September 2019 (Revised November 2019)
- Case
Pinduoduo
Founded in 2015 by serial entrepreneur, Colin Huang, Pinduoduo Inc. (PDD) had become China’s fastest-growing e-commerce platform in history. PDD pioneered a new approach to online shopping that allowed shoppers to share products, invite friends to form shopping teams,... View Details
- September 2019 (Revised February 2020)
- Teaching Note
Fishbowl: Scaling Up
By: Leslie K. John
Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.
Teaching Note for HBS No. 919-013. Fishbowl is a social media app that allows professionals to connect with other relevant professionals both within their company and... View Details
Teaching Note for HBS No. 919-013. Fishbowl is a social media app that allows professionals to connect with other relevant professionals both within their company and... View Details
Keywords: Communication Technologies; Customer Value; Value Chain; Interpersonal Communication; Talent and Talent Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Entrepreneurship; Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Advertising; Product Marketing; Digital Platforms; Consumer Behavior; Network Effects; Emotions; Motivation and Incentives; Trust; Applications and Software; Technology Adoption; Digital Platforms; Communications Industry; Employment Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; United States
- July 2019
- Case
Piramal Foundation: The Business of Philanthropy
By: Vikram Gandhi and Mahima Rao-Kachroo
The Piramal Foundation was launched by diversfied Indian conglomerate, the Piramal Group, to improve the healthcare services and quality of education of India’s economically and socially disadvantaged. The foundation operates under three verticals—‘Piramal Foundation... View Details
- April 2019
- Supplement
Upwork in 2019
By: David Yoffie and Allison M. Ciechanover
Stephane Kasriel, the CEO of Upwork, the leading platform for freelance labor, updates his progress on how to redesign its business model in 2019. View Details
- April 2019
- Case
Afterpay U.S.: The Omnichannel Dilemma
By: Antonio Moreno, Donald Ngwe and George Gonzalez
In 2018, Nick Molnar, the founder of the Australia-based online payment service Afterpay began its expansion to the U.S. market. The service had gained a loyal following in Australia by enabling customers to pay for online purchases through four interest-free... View Details
Keywords: Omnichannel Retail; Multi-sided Platforms; Value Creation; Business Model Innovation; Fintech; Digital Marketing; Disruptive Innovation; Business Startups; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Change Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Customer Relationship Management; Customer Satisfaction; Financing and Loans; Microfinance; Global Strategy; Marketing Channels; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Digital Platforms; Product Development; Supply Chain Management; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Networks; Network Effects; Internet and the Web; Financial Services Industry; Retail Industry; Technology Industry; United States; Australia
- April 2019 (Revised August 2020)
- Case
Raksul
By: Scott Duke Kominers, Masahiro Kotosaka, Nobuo Sato and Akiko Kanno
Raksul, 2018 Forbes Japan "Startup of the Year," ran an e-commerce platform drawing upon thousands of individual suppliers. Launched as a business-to-business printing services marketplace, Raksul had recently expanded to operate both a logistics/delivery marketplace... View Details
- February 2019 (Revised November 2021)
- Case
MoviePass
By: Willy Shih
Mitch Lowe, the CEO of MoviePass, was having trouble convincing people of the viability of the company's business model. The company was building a multi-sided platform and was planning to extract value from increasing traffic to movie theaters through a number of... View Details
- January 2019 (Revised March 2021)
- Case
SoundCloud: Subscription Streaming?
Established in 2007, SoundCloud already boasted the second largest number of active music listeners among all streaming services and was recognized as the go-to platform for new artists by early 2014. Yet, its founders were questioning the robustness of the firm’s... View Details
Keywords: Audio; Recording; Artist; Music; Music Downloads; Streaming; Radio; Subscription; Subscription Model; Mainstream; Growth; Lawsuit; Licensing; Customers; Platform; Pivot; Music Entertainment; Strategy; Leadership; Business Model; Decision Making; Advertising; Digital Platforms; Music Industry; Europe; Germany; Sweden; United States
- January 2019 (Revised October 2019)
- Case
Rural Taobao: Alibaba's Expansion into Rural E-Commerce
By: Tarun Khanna, Ryan Allen, Adam Frost and Wesley Koo
Alibaba's Rural Taobao initiative had been launched in 2014 as a public service initiative to increase e-commerce adoption in China’s remote rural areas. In the first two iterations of the initiative, dubbed “1.0” and “2.0,” Alibaba had partnered with local businesses... View Details
Keywords: Strategy; Business Growth; Ecommerce; Corporate Social Responsibility; Business And Government; Emerging Market; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Emerging Markets; Rural Scope; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Government Relations; Decision Making; E-commerce; China
- December 2018 (Revised February 2020)
- Case
Fishbowl: Scaling Up
By: Leslie K. John
Fishbowl is a social media app that allows professionals to connect with other relevant professionals both within their company and across industry. Unlike many other social media apps, on which users typically present idealized portraits of themselves, on Fishbowl,... View Details
Keywords: Communication Technologies; Customer Value; Value Chain; Interpersonal Communication; Talent and Talent Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Entrepreneurship; Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Advertising; Product Marketing; Digital Platforms; Consumer Behavior; Network Effects; Emotions; Motivation and Incentives; Trust; Applications and Software; Technology Adoption; Social Media; Communications Industry; Employment Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; United States
- December 2018
- Case
Tiantong & Partners: Transforming Litigation Practice in China
By: Ashish Nanda and Lisa Rohrer
Jiang Yong founded Tiantong & Partners in 2002, seeking to radically improve the level of litigation-related services in China. By 2015, Tiantong was the premier Chinese litigation firm with the highest per lawyer revenues. The firm focused exclusively on high-stakes... View Details
- November 2018 (Revised February 2019)
- Teaching Plan
Gimlet Media: A Podcasting Startup
By: John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld
When digital distribution becomes an option for an analog industry, the effects on the incumbents can be devastating. Is podcasting the beginning of the end of radio? Can it do what streaming video did to television and websites did to print? Two former public radio... View Details
- November 2018 (Revised June 2019)
- Case
ofo
By: Mitchell Weiss
Dai Wei and his co-founders grew Beijing-based ofo from a school-based startup to a bike-share behemoth in a matter of months, topped an all-out market-share battle fueled with almost $1 billion in venture capital, provided 2 billion bicycle rides, soaked up the... View Details
Keywords: Ofo; Bikeshare; Scale; Platforms; Government As A Platform; Platform Mechanics; Dai Wei; Dockless Bikes; Mobike; Bike-share; Online-to-offline; Mobility; Digital Platforms; Infrastructure; Transportation; Bicycle Transportation; Growth and Development Strategy; Bicycle Industry; China; Beijing
- September 2018 (Revised October 2018)
- Supplement
Lexoo: Building a Long-Lasting Platform
By: Chiara Farronato and Elena Corsi
Lexoo, a UK-based online marketplace for legal services, was facing the strategic choice of how to grow from early start-up to mature platform. Daniel van Binsbergen, Lexoo's CEO, and web developer Chris O'Sullivan, CTO, had set up Lexoo to help Small and Medium-Sized... View Details
- August 2018 (Revised June 2019)
- Case
Oaktree: Pierre Foods Investment
By: Victoria Ivashina and Mike Harmon
This case is a setting to discuss “loan to own” investment strategy that is often pursued by distressed investors. The aftermath of the 2007 financial crisis left many companies with poor liquidity and limited ability to obtain credit. One of these companies was Pierre... View Details