Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(5,160)
- Faculty Publications (1,328)
- July 2023 (Revised October 2024)
- Case
Revenue Recognition at Stride Funding: Making Sense of Revenues for a Fintech Startup
By: Paul M. Healy and Jung Koo Kang
The case explores the challenges of revenue recognition and financial reporting for Stride Funding (Stride), a fintech startup that has disrupted the student loan market. Stride leveraged proprietary machine learning and financial models to underwrite alternative... View Details
- July 2023 (Revised February 2024)
- Case
Clair
By: Lauren Cohen, Grace Headinger and Marcos Quirno
Clair was founded with a simple mission: to expedite America’s workers access to their hard-earned wages. In the headwinds of the COVID-19 pandemic, the startup had successfully raised a seed round of $4.5 million, and within two years the earned wage access (EWA)... View Details
- July 2023 (Revised May 2024)
- Case
Vytal: Packaging-as-a-Service
By: George Serafeim, Michael W. Toffel, Lena Duchene and Daniela Beyersdorfer
The Germany-based startup Vytal operated the largest digital-native reusable packaging-as-a-service network globally, having raised nearly €15 million, established a large network of restaurant partners, and prevented the use of millions of single-use take-out food... View Details
Keywords: Climate Risk; Digital; Platform Strategies; Data; Packaging; Sustainability; Start-up; Startup; Entrepreneur; Impact; Circular; Growth Strategy; Innovation; Environmental Sustainability; Innovation and Invention; Business Growth and Maturation; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Startups; Resource Allocation; Risk Management; Adoption; Strategy; Performance Productivity; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Supply Chain; Distribution; Entrepreneurship; Climate Change; Green Technology Industry; Service Industry; Retail Industry; Germany; Europe
- July 2023
- Case
HealthVerity: Real World Data and Evidence
By: Satish Tadikonda
Andrew Kress (CEO and founder) and his team had built a promising marketplace business at HealthVerity serving its core market in healthcare, with a focus on pharmaceutical R&D and services. Thus far, HealthVerity’s products had been unique to the pharma and pharma... View Details
- July 2023 (Revised February 2024)
- Case
'Bugs' Burger Bug Killers
By: William Fulmer and Ryan W. Buell
In the height of its success, Bugs Burger Bug Killers (BBBK; Burger has a soft 'g' - it rhymes with merger) was the largest independent extermination company in America, growing at more than 20% per year. BBBK built its business on the promise of pest eradication,... View Details
- 2023
- Book
The State and Capitalism in China
By: Meg Rithmire, Margaret M. Pearson and Kellee S. Tsai
This element explains China's political economic evolution from state socialist economy to a reform era state capitalism model to a more politicized, risk management approach we call "party-state capitalism." We emphasize the internal and external sources of perceived... View Details
- June 2023
- Case
Launching Egypt’s First Digital Banking Platform: QNB Bebasata
By: Mark Egan, Billy Chan and Ahmed Dahawy
The leadership team at QNB Alahli, Egypt's second biggest private bank, looked back on their efforts to create a brand-new, fully digital banking platform since 2019. A digital-only banking service was unprecedented in Egypt, a country where over 90% of financial... View Details
- June 2023 (Revised August 2023)
- Background Note
Subscription Models: Recurring Revenues for Lasting Growth
By: Elie Ofek and Amy Konary
This note offers a comprehensive exposition to subscription revenue models and aims to explain their recent rise. It covers the advantages to firms of employing a subscription-based approach to monetization (as opposed to “one-off” upfront payment), as well as the... View Details
- June 2023 (Revised September 2023)
- Simulation
Managing the Customer Journey Marketing Simulation: Adobe's Data-Driven Operating Model (DDOM)
By: Sunil Gupta, Rajiv Lal and Celine Chammas
Adobe started monitoring Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR), one of its primary metrics, when it shifted from selling its software in a box to selling the software as a subscription-based cloud service. They wanted to know when, where, and how much to invest in marketing.... View Details
- June 2023 (Revised November 2023)
- Case
Sober Sidekick
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Kumba Sennaar
Case on the nascent business model of a mobile health IT startup. In particular, should they pivot away from their successful lead generation business model to charging health plans. View Details
- June 2023 (Revised March 2024)
- Case
Creating World-Class Board Governance at SECO
By: Krishna G. Palepu and Emer Moloney
In Spring 2023, SECO CEO Massimo Mauri had the ambition to grow the €200 million revenue technology company to a €1 billion company by 2030. Founded in Italy in the 1970s, the family-owned company had gone through a period of growth and internationalization,... View Details
Keywords: Family Business; Business Model; Acquisition; Business Growth and Maturation; Talent and Talent Management; Customer Focus and Relationships; Engineering; Governance; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Growth and Development Strategy; Compensation and Benefits; Retention; Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Going Public; Strategic Planning; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business Strategy; Information Infrastructure; Information Technology; Value Creation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Computer Industry; Electronics Industry; Industrial Products Industry; Information Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Italy; Europe; Germany; United States; China
- June 2023
- Case
Block: Creating an Ecosystem of Ecosystems
By: Lauren Cohen, Richard Ryffel, Grace Headinger and Ruoshi Qi
At Investor Day 2022, Block announced a new vision for its businesses: creating an ecosystem of ecosystems. Outside the norm for many public growth companies, Block had recently acquired a variety of new business streams in the creator economy and Bitcoin despite a... View Details
Keywords: Business Growth; Fintech; Company Management; Growth Strategy; Innovation And Strategy; Acquisition; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Change; Finance; Growth Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Communication Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Business Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Technology Industry; United States; California; San Francisco
- June 2023 (Revised February 2024)
- Case
Betting on Green Steel
By: George Serafeim and Sofoklis Melissovas
'Betting on Green Steel' traces the innovative journey embarked upon by a group of MBA students who have set out to conceive a novel steelmaker that pioneers the production of green steel. The ensemble is confronted with a series of critical choices that will shape the... View Details
- 2023
- Working Paper
The Politics of Philanthropy in China
By: Geoffrey Jones and Yuhai Wu
This working paper looks historically at business philanthropy in China. In the West, the literature has distinguished between entrepreneurial and customary philanthropy, while the phenomenon of spiritual philanthropy has been identified in many emerging markets. This... View Details
- May 2023 (Revised June 2023)
- Case
Novartis (A): Reimagining Medicine
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Claudio Feser, Karolin Frankenberger and David Redaschi
This case unfolds around the first-ever approved personalized cancer treatment, how Novartis wrapped it into a new business model design, and how Novartis scaled it. Novartis — one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world — is, among other ventures,... View Details
- May 2023 (Revised June 2023)
- Supplement
Novartis (B): Reimagining Medicine
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Claudio Feser, Karolin Frankenberger and David Redaschi
This case unfolds around the first-ever approved personalized cancer treatment, how Novartis wrapped it into a new business model design, and how Novartis scaled it. Novartis — one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world — is, among other ventures,... View Details
- May 2023 (Revised June 2023)
- Supplement
Novartis (C): Reimagining Medicine
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Claudio Feser, Karolin Frankenberger and David Redaschi
This case unfolds around the first-ever approved personalized cancer treatment, how Novartis wrapped it into a new business model design, and how Novartis scaled it. Novartis — one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world — is, among other ventures,... View Details
- April 2023 (Revised September 2023)
- Case
Apple's iPhone Revolution: Pioneering the Circular Economy
By: George Serafeim
When asked to identify an example of a circular economy business model that has generated billions in revenues for a company, ChatGPT, the famous chatbot that in 2022 rocked the world with its ability to perform a variety of tasks, immediately identified and... View Details
- April 18, 2023
- Article
The Rebirth of Software as a Service
By: Frank V. Cespedes and Jacco van der Kooij
Traditional sales models focus on customer acquisition and the “funnel” or “pipeline” metrics that dominate talk about sales. But this approach falls short when applied to a recurring revenue business, where the customer life cycle looks more like a bowtie, not a... View Details
- April 2023 (Revised July 2023)
- Case
Fermenting Accounting Problems at Vermont Kombucha Corp.
By: Tatiana Sandino and Marshal Herrmann
Founded in 2005, Vermont Kombucha Corp. (V-Ko) was an early mover in the fledgling U.S. market for kombucha, a drink brewed for its health benefits. Early on, the company captured more than 90% of market share. Under the leadership of its founder and CEO, Joe Williams,... View Details