Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(365)
- Faculty Publications (190)
- November 2014 (Revised January 2017)
- Case
Micromax: Scaling the Largest Indian Mobile Handset Company
By: Ranjay Gulati, Rachna Tahilyani and Alicia DeSantola
It is January 2014 and Rahul Sharma, cofounder of Micromax Informatics (Micromax), the largest Indian mobile handset company, is preparing for an emergency conference call with his private equity investors. In the last six years, Micromax had grown its annual product... View Details
- Article
How Smart, Connected Products Are Transforming Competition
By: Michael E. Porter and James E. Heppelmann
Information technology is revolutionizing products. Once composed solely of mechanical and electrical parts, products have become complex systems that combine hardware, sensors, data storage, microprocessors, software, and connectivity in myriad ways. These "smart,... View Details
- October 2014 (Revised July 2015)
- Case
Indus Towers: From Infancy to Maturity
By: Ranjay Gulati, Maxim Sytch and Rachna Tahilyani
Indus Towers, the world's largest telecom tower company, is a joint venture between three telecom rivals in India. These rivals—Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, and Idea Cellular—combined their telecom towers to provide "shared telecom infrastructure" to wireless telecom... View Details
- February 2014
- Technical Note
Mobile Broadband and the Telecommunications Industry in 2011
By: Lynda M. Applegate, Kerry Herman and Christine Snively
Mobile broadband carriers provide network access to the Internet for a range of devices (typically portable or mobile), including consumer devices such as smartphones, tablets and E-Readers, but also a host of new emerging devices. Mobile broadband networks enable data... View Details
- February 2014 (Revised January 2024)
- Case
Go Mobile: Aligning District Managers and Store Teams
By: Tatiana Sandino
Indian cell phone retailer Go Mobile had implemented high-powered incentives to motivate its store employees to behave as owners and provide exceptional service. As the company scaled up, it faced multiple challenges in building a layer of district managers that were... View Details
- February 28, 2014
- Article
A Better Route to Tech Standards
By: Josh Lerner and Jean Tirole
Technological standards are ubiquitous, whether they allow consumers to communicate seamlessly across wireless networks or manufacturers to procure goods across complex global supply chains. These standards—shaped by standard-setting organizations (SSOs) and... View Details
- January 2014 (Revised May 2015)
- Case
Yahoo: Both Sides of the Stamped Deal
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Lisa C. Mazzanti
In 2012, Marissa Mayer became the CEO of Yahoo!, a tech giant with a tumultuous past. When Mayer tries to reinvigorate the company, she hires Jacqueline Reses, who has a private equity background, to head both human resources and mergers and acquisitions (M&A). As part... View Details
- 2013
- Working Paper
Separating Homophily and Peer Influence with Latent Space
By: Joseph P. Davin, Sunil Gupta and Mikolaj Jan Piskorski
We study the impact of peer behavior on the adoption of mobile apps in a social network. To identify social influence properly, we introduce latent space as an approach to control for latent homophily, the idea that "birds of a feather flock together." In a series of... View Details
- January 2014 (Revised June 2020)
- Case
The Rise and Fall of Nokia
By: Juan Alcacer, Tarun Khanna and Christine Snively
In 2013, Nokia sold its Device and Services business to Microsoft for €5.4 billion. For decades Nokia had led the telecommunications (telecom) industry in handsets and networking. By the late 2000s, however, Nokia's position as market leader in mobile devices was... View Details
- 2014
- Case
Zenglibao: An Internet Money Market Fund Run by Tianhong Asset Management Co., LTD.
By: F. Warren McFarlan, Yongjun Jin and Xiaohui Li
Mobile Internet has imposed an increasing impact on traditional finance. Firstly, some financial business modules can be operated via mobile Internet, and the corresponding transaction cost is greatly reduced. For example, payment by traditional bank draft is replaced... View Details
- 2014
- Teaching Note
Zenglibao: An Internet Money Market Fund Run By Tianhong Asset Management Co., LTD. (TN)
By: F. Warren McFarlan, Yongjun Jin and Xiaohui Li
Mobile Internet has imposed an increasing impact on traditional finance. Firstly, some financial business modules can be operated via mobile Internet, and the corresponding transaction cost is greatly reduced. For example, payment by traditional bank draft is replaced... View Details
- November 2013
- Supplement
Arch Wireless, Inc. (B): Food for Vultures
By: Stuart C. Gilson
In 2002, a hedge fund investor acquires the distressed bank debt of a bankrupt wireless paging company and converts his holding into common stock of the reorganized entity. Determining his likely return from this investment is challenging, given that the entire... View Details
- September 2013
- Case
PadFone vs. FonePad
By: Willy Shih and Sen Chai
To Jonney Shih, Chairman of ASUSTek Computer, the introduction of Apple's iPad made clear the need to transition his company to a new cloud-computing era. But the company's roots in the manufacture of Windows-powered desktop and notebook PCs bounded the creativity of... View Details
Keywords: Mobile Phones; Smartphone; Tablet Computer; Android; Recombination; Design Thinking; Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Commercialization; Competitive Strategy; Information Technology; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; Asia; Taiwan; Europe; United States
- 2013
- Case
Advanced Leadership Pathways: Laurent Adamowicz and Bon'App
By: Rosabeth M. Kanter, Juliane Calingo Schwetz and Patricia Bissett Higgins
After a successful career as Chairman and CEO of Paris-based luxury food company, Fauchon, Laurent Adamowicz, sought to reduce obesity and improve health outcomes. Adamowicz created a mobile application to provide consumers with more accessible and interpretable... View Details
- March 2013 (Revised January 2015)
- Case
Eko: Mobile Banking and Payments in India
By: Sunil Gupta and Rachna Tahilyani
- March 2013
- Article
For Mobile Devices, Think Apps, Not Ads
By: Sunil Gupta
Many companies envision mobile ads becoming an integral part of their communications strategies. But there's a growing consensus that ads don't work on mobile devices; consumers just don't like them. Instead of creating tiny banner ads, smart marketers will turn to... View Details
- February–March 2013
- Article
The Mobile Banking and Payment Revolution
By: Sunil Gupta
Mobile technology is revolutionizing the global banking and payment industry. It offers new opportunities for banks to provide added convenience to their existing customers in developed countries and reach a large population of unbanked customers in emerging markets.... View Details
- January 2013 (Revised February 2013)
- Case
EverTrue: Mobile Technology Development (A)
By: William R. Kerr and Alexis Brownell
Brent Grinna is evaluating different options for the technology development of his start-up's iPhone app, including hiring local programmers, finding a CTO, or outsourcing. He only has a little over two months before he presents his alumni networking app to Brown... View Details
- January 2013 (Revised June 2018)
- Case
Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google 2018
By: John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld
Four businesses had, by 2012, grown to dominate the infrastructure that all firms rely on to reach online customers. Will the balance of power among the four persist, will one take command at the expense of the other three, or are all four more vulnerable than they... View Details
- November 2012 (Revised May 2013)
- Case
ASUSTeK and the Google Nexus 7 Tablet
By: Willy C. Shih and Jyun-Cheng Wang
Days after Jerry Shen introduced a new tablet computer at the Consumer Electronics Show, a Google meeting convinced him to go with a lower price point and co-branding as the Nexus 7. While his company would have a premier position at launch, companies like Samsung... View Details
Keywords: Nexus; Google; ASUSTeK; Android; Tablet; Kindle; Kindle Fire; Notebook Computers; ODM; Apple; Price Point; App Store; Ecosystem; Open Handset Alliance; Reference Design; iPad; EMS; Electronic Manufacturing Services; Smartphone; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Product Marketing; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Industry Structures; Product Design; Product Development; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Digital Platforms; Information Technology; Internet and the Web; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; Taiwan; United States