Publications

04 May 2015
Research & Ideas

Need to Solve a Problem? Take a Break From Collaborating

Game Previous academic research generally has focused separately on two aspects of problem-solving—either gathering facts or figuring out solutions. And the findings often have contradicted each other. Collaboration may hinder... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Video Game; Video Game

November 2006 (Revised February 2007)
Case

Microsoft Xbox: Changing the Game?

By: Andrei Hagiu

In September 1999, the Microsoft Xbox team was wondering which strategic choices would give it the best chance against the upcoming Sony PlayStation 2. Initially called "Project Midway" within Microsoft, the console project was intended to counter the perceived threat... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Recruitment; Leadership; Management Teams; Multi-Sided Platforms; Two-Sided Platforms; Production; Strategy; Competition; Expansion; Video Game Industry; Texas

09 May 2012
Research & Ideas

Clayton Christensen’s “How Will You Measure Your Life?”

called Netflix emerged in the 1990s with a novel idea: rather than make people go to the video store, why don't we mail DVDs to them? Netflix's business model made profit in just the opposite way to Blockbuster's. Netflix customers paid a... View Details

August 2015 (Revised June 2021)
Case

Amazon.com, 2021

By: John R. Wells, Benjamin Weinstock, Gabriel Ellsworth and Galen Danskin

In February 2021, Amazon announced 2020 operating profits of $22,899 million, up from $2,233 million in 2015, on sales of $386 billion, up from $107 billion five years earlier (see Exhibit 1). The shareholders expressed their satisfaction (see Exhibit 2), but not all... View Details

February 2023
Case

Roblox: Virtual Commerce in the Metaverse

By: Ayelet Israeli and Nicole Tempest Keller

In 2022, Roblox had 58.8 million daily active users, including over half of all children and teens under the age of 16 in the United States. Roblox, a free-to-use “co-experience platform”, allowed users to come together in immersive 3D experiences to socialize, work,... View Details

04 May 2021
Book

Best Buy: How Human Connection Saved a Failing Retailer

Fewer slides, more soul-searching Perhaps what’s most important, he instituted a training program that cast aside PowerPoint presentations and videos and replaced them with soul-searching conversations between both executives and... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Retail

Teaching Interest

Strategy and Technology

By: Andy Wu

The Strategy and Technology elective course explores the unique aspects of creating effective strategies for technology-intensive businesses.

What strategies win in markets with network effects?
How can technology be... View Details

05 Dec 2022
Research & Ideas

5 Companies Where Employees Move Up the Ladder Fast

wider pool of talent. Workers and potential employees can take control, too, by: Being realistic about which jobs are available where they live. Too often, says Fuller, young workers will study in fields like video View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

23 Sep 2014
First Look

First Look: September 23

governance regimes to meaningful transnational regulation. Download working paper: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2178540 Cases & Course Materials Harvard Business School Case 415-015 Opening the Valve: From Software to Hardware (A) Valve, one of the world's top View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2016 (Revised May 2018)
Case

Reinventing Best Buy

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

On March 1, 2017, Best Buy Company, Inc., North America’s largest retailer of consumer electronics and appliances, announced a third year of comparable-store sales increases and a 20.8% increase in domestic comparable online sales. These results were in marked contrast... View Details