Publications

01 Oct 1999
News

Q & A: Jeanne P. Jackson: A New Regime at Banana Republic

them across catalog and online channels. I'm currently in charge of Gap Online and the Banana Republic catalog. Soon we will bring Banana Republic and Old Navy online. What will the Web bring to Banana? Having a presence on the View Details

01 Sep 2009
News

Make the Most of HBS Alumni Resources

any of the other board members if you have a particular area of interest or concern. Nominate someone you think would bring a particularly vital perspective to the board. You can find links to a list of current board members and a board nomination form on the Alumni... View Details

Keywords: Educational Support Services; Educational Services

June 2014
Article

Mastering the Intermediaries: Strategies for Dealing with the Likes of Google, Amazon, and Kayak

By: Benjamin Edelman

Many companies depend on powerful platforms which distinctively influence buyers' purchasing. (Consider, Google, Amazon, and myriad others in their respective spheres.) I consider implications of these platforms' market power, then suggest strategies to help companies... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Market Power; Dominance; Advertising Campaigns; Marketing Channels; Agreements and Arrangements; Competitive Strategy; Negotiation; Web Services Industry; Web Services Industry; Web Services Industry

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2025
Working Paper

Algorithmic Assortment Curation: An Empirical Study of Buybox in Online Marketplaces

By: Santiago Gallino, Nil Karacaoglu and Antonio Moreno

Most online sales worldwide take place in marketplaces that connect sellers and buyers. The presence of numerous third-party sellers leads to a proliferation of listings for each product, making it difficult for customers to choose between the available options. Online... View Details

Keywords: Algorithms; E-commerce; Sales; Digital Marketing; Internet and the Web; Customer Satisfaction

SSRN

2022
Working Paper

Getting on the Map: The Impact of Online Listings on Business Performance

By: Michael Luca, Abhishek Nagaraj and Gauri Subramani

We evaluate the extent to which small businesses maintain an online presence, looking at restaurant listings on a major online review platform. While the majority of restaurants have an online presence, we find that roughly 18 percent in our sample have no presence as... View Details

Keywords: Small Business; Internet and the Web; Revenue; Digital Marketing; Food and Beverage Industry

November–December 2018
Article

Online Network Revenue Management Using Thompson Sampling

By: Kris J. Ferreira, David Simchi-Levi and He Wang

We consider a network revenue management problem where an online retailer aims to maximize revenue from multiple products with limited inventory constraints. As common in practice, the retailer does not know the consumer's purchase probability at each price and must... View Details

Keywords: Online Marketing; Revenue Management; Revenue; Management; Marketing; Internet and the Web; Price; Mathematical Methods

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January 2014
Teaching Note

Dumb Ways To Die: Advertising Train Safety (A), (B) & (C)

By: John Quelch

Keywords: Advertising Media; Viral Advertising; Viral Marketing; Public Safety; Advertising; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Internet and the Web; Digital Marketing; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Public Administration Industry; Oceania; Europe

May–June 2023
Article

Need for Speed: The Impact of In-Process Delays on Customer Behavior in Online Retail

By: Santiago Gallino, Nil Karacaoglu and Antonio Moreno

The impact of delays has been widely studied in various offline services. The focus of this study is online services, and we explore the impact of in-process delays—measured by website speed—on customer behavior. We leverage novel retail and website speed data to... View Details

Keywords: Online Retail; Quasi-experiments; Abandonment; Synthetic Control; E-commerce; Internet and the Web; Consumer Behavior; Policy; Retail Industry

March 2020
Module Note

Business Model Transformation in the Platform Age

By: Feng Zhu

Although some digital platforms are highly successful, most firms today are still traditional product- or service-based firms. To take advantage of the opportunities created by platform business models, traditional firms can work with existing platforms to become their... View Details

Keywords: Platforms; Platform Businesses; Platform Disruption; Internet and the Web; Business Model; Transformation; Digital Platforms

Winter 2016
Article

Analytics for an Online Retailer: Demand Forecasting and Price Optimization

By: Kris J. Ferreira, Bin Hong Alex Lee and David Simchi-Levi

We present our work with an online retailer, Rue La La, as an example of how a retailer can use its wealth of data to optimize pricing decisions on a daily basis. Rue La La is in the online fashion sample sales industry, where they offer extremely limited-time... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Price; Forecasting and Prediction; Revenue; Sales; Retail Industry

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June 2002 (Revised September 2005)
Case

Online Music Distribution in a Post-Napster World

By: Youngme E. Moon

Provides a description of the rise and decline of Napster, the free Internet music-swapping service. Also describes second-generation peer-to-peer services (e.g., Gnutella) as well as paid subscription services (e.g., MusicNet, pressplay). View Details

Keywords: Distribution; Internet and the Web; Price; Marketing Channels; Service Operations; Music Industry

July 2001 (Revised May 2002)
Case

WWWW - Who Will Win Wireless?

This case discusses different players in the wireless Internet industry and asks readers to evaluate the likelihood that they will create and capture value. View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Success; Mobile and Wireless Technology

January 2000 (Revised March 2004)
Case

Officenet (A): Making Entrepreneurship Work in Argentina

Describes the creation and financing of Officenet, an office supply distributor in Argentina. The company serves the business-to-business market through a catalog (combined with phone orders) and also through an Internet-based catalog. Officenet is a pioneer in both... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Distribution Industry; Argentina

January 2000 (Revised May 2000)
Case

Patagon.com: Building (and Defending) the First Financial Destination in Latin America

By: William A. Sahlman, Ramiro Montealegre and Luis Pereiro

Describes Patagon.com, a company trying to build a financial portal in Latin America. The company's founders, Wenceslao Casares and Constancio Larguia, must deal with complex financial and strategic challenges as they guide the company in a difficult context. View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Problems and Challenges; Business Startups; Finance; Financial Services Industry; Latin America

January 1998 (Revised June 1999)
Case

Chemdex.com

By: William A. Sahlman, Michael J. Roberts and Laurence E. Katz

An Internet start-up company is developing an online marketplace for specialty chemicals and reagents. David Perry has been named a runner-up in the 1st annual HBS Business Plan contest and now faces seed-stage financing questions--how much money to raise, at what... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Internet and the Web; Chemicals; Business Startups; Capital; Chemical Industry