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Choose a subject area: Digital Transformation Marketing Business Essentials Leadership & Management Entrepreneurship & Innovation Strategy Finance & Accounting Business in Society Now Offering Launching Tech Ventures On-Demand – Start... View Details

11 Nov 2020
Research & Ideas

How Hackathons Help Decide Platform Winners and Losers

tremendous way for developers to learn quickly, and for both developers and technology companies to reap real benefits.” About the author Michael Blanding is a writer based in Boston. [Image: gorodenkoff] Related Reading 6 Ways That Emerging Technology Is Disrupting... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Technology

April 2010 (Revised June 2011)
Background Note

Television Competes for a Digital Audience

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Nancy Bartlett

In the face of major disruption in the industry television networks have sought new revenue sources, implemented cost-cutting measures and strategized on ways to monetize online access to content. Programming changes, new advertising strategies, and deals via online... View Details

Keywords: Television Entertainment; Marketing Strategy; Media and Broadcasting Industry

23 Feb 2022
News

Can WEB3 Bring Back Competition to Digital Platforms?

24 Oct 2023
Research & Ideas

When Tech Platforms Identify Black-Owned Businesses, White Customers Buy

areas with less anti-Black racial bias. “Collectively, our findings suggest that digital platforms can effectively boost the performance of minority firms, particularly during a time of increased national... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald; Food & Beverage

2014
Working Paper

Digital Discrimination: The Case of Airbnb.com

By: Benjamin Edelman and Michael Luca

Online marketplaces often contain information not only about products, but also about the people selling the products. In an effort to facilitate trust, many platforms encourage sellers to provide personal profiles and even to post pictures of themselves. However,... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Internet and the Web; Race; Trust; Renting or Rental; Accommodations Industry; Real Estate Industry

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31 Jan 2022
Research & Ideas

Where Can Digital Transformation Take You? Insights from 1,700 Leaders

Digitally mature companies have the right technical expertise (such as experienced data scientists or analysts), tools (dashboards and data visualization applications), and platforms (computing... View Details

Keywords: by Linda A. Hill, Ann Le Cam, Sunand Menon, and Emily Tedards

18 Jul 2022
Research & Ideas

After the 'Crypto Crash,' What's Next for Digital Currencies?

has reinforced the perception of critics that markets for the digital currency—used primarily as an investment vehicle as it is not widely accepted as payment for goods and services—are little more than global casinos operating with... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette; Financial Services; Technology

February 2020
Case

Klöckner & Co: Steeling for a Digital World

By: Scott Duke Kominers and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Hoping to get ahead of potential digital disruption at Klöckner & Co.—one of the world’s largest steel and metal distributors—CEO Gisbert Rühl set up both kloeckner.i (KCI), an internal transformation arm, and XOM Materials (XOM), an independent industry platform. KCI... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Market Design; Digital Platforms; Markets; Industry Structures; Supply and Industry; Technology Adoption; Transformation; Digital Transformation; Steel Industry; Information Technology Industry; Europe; Germany

28 Jan 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Digital Discrimination: The Case of Airbnb.com

Keywords: by Benjamin G. Edelman & Michael Luca; Construction; Real Estate

25 Feb 2015
Lessons from the Classroom

Scholars and Students Unpack the Digital Business Revolution

Think of Harvard Business School's recently launched the Digital Initiative (D/I) as a giant laboratory, where leading scholars and practitioners convene to research, teach, and put into practice new understandings about the relentless... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Education; Technology

March 2020
Case

Thingtesting: Launching a Brand Discovery and Testing Digital Community

By: Ayelet Israeli and Jill Avery

Thingtesting, a brand discovery and testing digital community devoted to uncovering and exploring direct-to-consumer brands, had just received seed funding and was contemplating a second year of growth. The new year brought many challenges, as founder Jenny Gyllander... View Details

2023
Working Paper

Senior Team Emotional Dynamics and Strategic Decision Making at a Platform Transition

By: Timo O. Vuori and Michael L. Tushman

Based on an inductive case study, we develop an emotional-temporal process model of an incumbent’s strategic decision making at a platform transition. We describe the senior team’s emotional response to this transition and the impact of these emotions on their... View Details

Keywords: Emotions; Decision Choices and Conditions; Transition; Digital Platforms

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April 2024 (Revised November 2024)
Case

Moderna: Pioneering a People Platform to Accelerate Science Innovation

By: Tatiana Sandino, Emil Dy and Samuel Grad

Moderna was founded in 2010 to explore how messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) could be used to create breakthrough medicines by encoding instructions for the body to create antibodies. When Stéphane Bancel (HBS 2000) took over in 2011, he bet on the potential of this... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation; Talent and Talent Management; Selection and Staffing; AI and Machine Learning; Digital Strategy; Innovation and Management; Leadership Development; Management Practices and Processes; Management Systems; Organizational Culture; Performance Evaluation; Alignment; Employee Relationship Management; Science-Based Business; Expansion; Pharmaceutical Industry; Biotechnology Industry; United States

2023
Working Paper

How Private Investors Value 'Platformness': An Exploratory Study of Unicorns

By: David B. Yoffie, Michael A. Cusumano, Annabelle Gawer, Sarah von Bargen and Kwesi Acquay

This paper explores the premium investors have been willing to pay for private companies (unicorns) that are digital platforms vs. traditional companies. View Details

Keywords: Platforms And Ecosystems; Digital Platforms; Investment Portfolio

November 2018 (Revised February 2019)
Teaching Plan

Gimlet Media: A Podcasting Startup

By: John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

When digital distribution becomes an option for an analog industry, the effects on the incumbents can be devastating. Is podcasting the beginning of the end of radio? Can it do what streaming video did to television and websites did to print? Two former public radio... View Details

Keywords: Platforms And Ecosystems; Startup; Creative Industries; Digital Marketing; Podcasting; Business Startups; Media; Entertainment; Growth and Development Strategy; Digital Platforms; United States

May 2024 (Revised May 2024)
Case

Market by Met Council: Revolutionizing Food Pantries in the Digital Age

By: Elisabeth Paulson and Michael W. Toffel

In fall 2023, the Food Program of Met Council—America’s largest Jewish charity dedicated to fighting poverty—completed the rollout of the newest version of its digital pantry platform to twelve food pantries in the Met Council food pantry network. The digital... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Digital Transformation; Nonprofit Organizations; Service Operations; Human Needs