Publications

06 Dec 2017
What Do You Think?

Is It Time To Break Up Amazon, Apple, Facebook, or Google?

life is to maintain competition to prevent market failure, as we did by breaking up the railroads and Ma Bell. This type of intervention is not an attack on capitalism, but full-throated capitalism. It’s time.” Should any of the Tech Big... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Technology; Web Services

30 Jun 2021
In Practice

The Harvard Business School Faculty Summer Reader 2021

all of that, I’ve also been enjoying Mezzanine, a recent book of poetry by my spectacular doctoral student Zoë Hitzig, and Peter Winkler’s newest Mathematical Puzzles compendium. Scott Duke Kominers... View Details

Keywords: by Kathryn Haviland

May 2022 (Revised May 2024)
Case

The Freedom Fund (A): Ending Modern Slavery

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Courtney Han

The Freedom Fund founded in 2013 to end modern slavery had raised more than half its intended target (by 2025) of $200 million. In 2021, impressed by its decentralized-partnering style of operations, philanthropist MacKenzie Scott awarded the Fund a gift of $35 million... View Details

Keywords: Social Issues; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Spending; Decisions; India; Thailand; Ethiopia

30 Mar 2018
What Do You Think?

What Should Mark Zuckerberg Do?

Facebook’s vision and mission statement.” Brendan Coffey led the way in proposing that “FB needs a much more active strategy to place the user in a position of control with respect to how their data is used.” Bhanu Ramenani suggested one way this could be done is View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Web Services; Information Technology

September 2015 (Revised March 2016)
Case

Intuit: Turbo Tax PersonalPro - A Tale of Two Entrepreneurs

By: Shikhar Ghosh, Joseph Fuller and Michael Roberts

The case provides a vehicle for teaching about both corporate intrapreneurship and the use of lean startup methods. It tells the story of a product manager within Intuit who develops an idea for a new product that spans two of the company's existing business... View Details

Keywords: Business Units; Business or Company Management; Applications and Software; Accounting; Product Development; Financial Services Industry

04 Apr 2012
Research & Ideas

When Founders Recruit Friends and Family as Investors

Editor's note: Seasoned entrepreneurs know that a great idea for a new company is no guarantee of a successful exit. Startups fail more often than not, largely due to hubris-fueled mistakes by an inexperienced founding team. Alas, the... View Details

Keywords: by Noam Wasserman

09 Jul 2024
Cold Call Podcast

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and Brand Building

Keywords: Re: Scott Duke Kominers; Technology

15 Oct 2007
Research & Ideas

Businesses Beware: The World Is Not Flat

Thomas Friedman, author of "The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century", opines that a number of events ranging from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the rise of the Internet have flattened the competitive landscape worldwide View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

31 May 2017
What Do You Think?

Can Amazon Do What Walmart Couldn’t, Stop the 'Wheel of Retailing'?

In 1997, a young entrepreneur visited a class at Harvard Business School taught by my colleague, Len Schlesinger. The class discussed a case based on the visitor’s fledgling online retailing company that had rapidly expanded sales to $100... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Retail

26 Jun 2000
Research & Ideas

Presentation Round-Up

self-proclaimed "infrastructure guy," panelist Steve Papa (HBS MBA '99) of Optigrab.com speculated that the future of e-business services will be marked by the same pull toward uniformity that took place in industry consolidations a... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace & Kenneth Liss; Technology; Communications; Telecommunications

October 2018 (Revised May 2019)
Teaching Note

Intuit: Turbo Tax PersonalPro - A Tale of Two Entrepreneurs

By: Joseph Fuller, Shikhar Ghosh and Monica Baraldi

Teaching Note for HBS No. 816-048. The case tells the story of a product manager within Intuit who develops an idea for a new product that spans two of the company's existing business units—professional tax software, sold to accountants, and the consumer focused... View Details

Keywords: Business Units; Business or Company Management; Applications and Software; Accounting; Product Development; Financial Services Industry

10 Jan 2011
Research & Ideas

Is Groupon Good for Retailers?

may file for an initial public offering by the end of 2011, according to the New York Times. "Groupon has attracted remarkable interest," says Harvard Business School professor Benjamin G. Edelman. "With the economy... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Advertising; Technology

19 Sep 2005
Research & Ideas

Rethinking Company Loyalty

both employers and employees to strike a brand-new balance when it comes to loyalty—one that gives organizations the focus and expertise they need to compete and employees the career development opportunities they demand? According to the experts interviewed View Details

Keywords: by Lauren Keller Johnson

Research Summary

Motivation and Incentive Design

Professor Ashraf's research in motivation and incentives focuses on how to design incentives in sectors where it is important that individuals are motivated by service, such as healthcare or environmental conservation. An important lever is the... View Details

October 2008 (Revised June 2010)
Case

State of Emergency at Mercy Hospital

By: Thomas J. DeLong and Chirag D Shah

Dr. Scott Gabu, Chairman of the Emergency Department of the world-renowned, university-based Mercy Hospital, was deeply disturbed when he read the letter from the family of John Samson, a patient who had come to the emergency room one week earlier, that described an... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Knowledge Acquisition; Leadership Development; Behavior; Personal Characteristics; Health Industry

January 2003 (Revised April 2003)
Case

KIPP National, 1999 (A): Designing a School Network

Covers the origin, evolution, and nature of the KIPP Academies, two high-performing public middle schools founded in 1995 by Michael Feinberg and David Levin in Houston and New York. In January 2000, Feinberg and Levin meet with Scott Hamilton, managing director of the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Middle School Education; Expansion; Education Industry; Houston

November 2004 (Revised August 2008)
Case

KIPP National (A) (Abridged)

The KIPP Academies are, two high-performing public middle schools founded in 1995 by Michael Feinberg and David Levin in Houston and New York. In January 2000, Feinberg and Levin meet with Scott Hamilton, managing director of the Pisces Foundation, to discuss the... View Details

Keywords: Middle School Education; Framework; Leadership; Performance Effectiveness; Programs; Expansion

May 2022
Case

Byte

By: Boris Groysberg, Katherine Connolly Baden and Julia Kelley

In January 2021, Byte co-founders Scott Cohen and Blake Johnson reflected on how far their Los Angeles-based direct-to-consumer (DTC) orthodontics company had come since launching its clear aligners just a little over two years earlier. Cohen and Johnson were both... View Details

Keywords: Growth; Customer Experience; Customer Focused Organization; Innovation; DTC; Growth Management; Expansion; Entrepreneurship; Customer Focus and Relationships; Innovation and Invention; Growth and Development Strategy; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; United States