Publications

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April 2019 (Revised July 2019)
Case

Aperture Investors

By: Krishna G. Palepu, George Serafeim and David Lane

Aperture Investors is a startup investment firm that seeks to disrupt the asset management industry through competitive differentiation by charging investors primarily when its portfolio managers outperform the marketplace. Headed by Wall Street veteran Peter Kraus and... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Talent and Talent Management; Investment; Investment Funds; Asset Management; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Marketing Channels; Emerging Markets; Partners and Partnerships; Motivation and Incentives; Financial Services Industry

March 2016 (Revised May 2021)
Supplement

IBM and the Reinvention of High School (C): Toward P-TECH's Rapid National Expansion

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Kelsi Stine-Rowe

In early 2016, Stanley Litow, IBM's Vice President of Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs and President of the IBM International Foundation, made his travel arrangements for still another flight from New York to discuss possibilities for application of a new... View Details

Keywords: IBM; P-TECH; Stanley Litow: Robin Willner; Cuomo; Scaling; Innovation; New York State; New York City; Business Model; Innovation Strategy; Innovation Leadership; Education; Business and Community Relations; Change; Growth and Development; Technology Industry; New York (state, US); New York (city, NY)

Teaching

Overview

In the MBA program, Professor Fearing teaches Technology and Operations Management (TOM), a required first-year MBA course.

In January 2013 he traveled with a cohort of... View Details

09 Apr 2025
Video

Schneider Electric | How digital solutions are accelerating sustainability in buildings

March 2008 (Revised June 2009)
Case

Actis: January 2008

By: Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

Paul Feltcher, the CEO of Actis, a leading private equity investor in emerging markets, is preparing for an executive retreat at which the management team will consider how best to position the firm for the future. Actis could move in a number of different directions... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Private Equity; Investment; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Teams; Emerging Markets; Organizational Change and Adaptation

2009
Case

What People Want (and How to Predict It)

By: Thomas H. Davenport and Jeanne G. Harris

Historically, neither the creators nor the distributors of cultural products such as books or movies have used analytics -- data, statistics, predictive modeling -- to determine the likely success of their offerings. Instead, companies relied on the brilliance of... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Creativity; Customer Satisfaction; Forecasting and Prediction; Markets; Business Model; Publishing Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry

2020
Working Paper

Social Networks, Ethnicity, and Entrepreneurship

By: William R. Kerr and Martin Mandorff

We study the relationship between ethnicity, occupational choice, and entrepreneurship. Immigrant groups in the United States cluster in specific business sectors. For example, Koreans are 34 times more concentrated in self-employment for dry cleaning than other... View Details

Keywords: Self-employed; Occupation; Entrepreneurship; Social Entrepreneurship; Industry Clusters; Ethnicity; Immigration; Networks; United States

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Research Summary

Overview

Professor McDonald studies how firms successfully navigate new markets. He examines how widely accepted strategic prescriptions can actually undermine managers’ attempts to develop a viable business model or stake out a defining new market position, and considers the... View Details

2024
Report

The Economic Benefits of a Public Sector Nano, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (nMSME) Grading Agency: Evidence from Nigeria

By: Saveshen Pillay, Zaakirah Ismail, Anywhere Sikochi and Charles Odii

This is a summary of our working paper exploring the possibility of creating a public sector small and medium enterprise (SME) grading system in Emerging Markets. Using research and insights from ongoing work with the Nigerian government, the first country in Africa to... View Details

Keywords: Credit; Public Sector; Emerging Markets; Small Business; Africa; Nigeria

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December 2000
Background Note

Online Market Makers

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Chris Hackett

Describes the business model for online market makers, firms that use the Internet to organize a marketplace, providing participants with a virtual "place" to trade, rules to govern their exchanges, and infrastructure to support trading. First it proposes a definition... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Web Services Industry

December 2014 (Revised November 2023)
Case

Codecademy: Monetizing a Movement?

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Lisa C. Mazzanti

Codecademy, an open-platform, online community for learning computer programming, launched in 2011. By 2014, the company had raised a total of $12.5 million in funding and was, on many fronts, an overwhelming success. However, there were still no revenues. The founders... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Management; Startup Management; Technology; Computer Programming; Coding; Online Education; Monetization; Online Communities; Marketplaces; Internet and the Web; Education; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Technology Industry; Education Industry

Program

Leading in the Digital Era

leadership responsibilities, including but not limited to division heads, functional heads, or executives with P&L responsibility Executives in medium to large organizations in any country or industry, including organizations with digitally driven View Details

30 May 2023
Research & Ideas

Can AI Predict Whether Shoppers Would Pick Crest or Colgate?

but large language models like generative pre-trained transformers (GPTs) may allow companies to rely on AI to uncover consumers’ tastes, according to new research from Harvard Business School and Microsoft.... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

January 2008 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Cognizant Technology Solutions

By: Robert G. Eccles, David Lane and Prabakar 'PK' Kothandaraman

In the highly competitive information technology outsourcing industry, Cognizant Technology Solutions has developed a strategy to differentiate itself by emphasizing building very close client relationships through its "Two-in-a-box" (TIB) model. This model is based on... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Knowledge Sharing; Resource Allocation; Competitive Advantage; Information Technology; Information Technology Industry

March 2018
Supplement

Chaudhary Group: Rebuilding Nepal (B)

By: Christopher J. Malloy, Lauren H. Cohen and Inakshi Sobti

Supplements the (A) case. Having successfully spearheaded relief work in the aftermath of the Nepal earthquake, the Chaudhary Foundation envisions creating a more comprehensive and sustainable development model. They are keen to build a model village that integrates... View Details

28 Mar 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, March 28

leaving questions about future procurement. Finally, Amul's farmers form a large vote bank in the state of Gujarat, and its cooperative structure risks being compromised by vested political interests. Should Amul continue with the View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

July 2020 (Revised November 2020)
Case

Pricing at Netflix

By: Elie Ofek, Marco Bertini, Oded Koenigsberg and Amy Klopfenstein

Since its launch in 1998 as “the Amazon.com of DVDs,” Netflix had evolved from a DVD rental company to a video streaming platform and producer of original films and television shows. As the company matured, it regularly increased prices and adjusted its product... View Details