Publications

January 2010 (Revised April 2010)
Case

Google in China (A)

By: John A. Quelch

In January 2010, Google threatened in a public statement to stop censoring its search results on its google.cn website, as required by Chinese authorities. Should Google exit China? Or attempt a compromise with the Chinese government? View Details

Keywords: Crisis Management; Market Entry and Exit; Business and Government Relations; Internet and the Web; Information Technology Industry; China

May 2004 (Revised May 2006)
Case

AsiaInfo: The IPO Decision

The cofounder and CEO of AsiaInfo, a Chinese system integrator that built 70% of China's Internet backbone, must decide whether to list equity in the United States to fund future growth. Describes the company and the decision. A rewritten version of a previous case. View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Initial Public Offering; Growth Management; Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Equity; Information Technology Industry; China; United States

November 1999 (Revised June 2000)
Case

VerticalNet (www.verticalnet.com)

By: Das Narayandas

VerticalNet, a leading creator of targeted business-to-business vertical trade communities on the Internet, is trying to expand its model to facilitate e-commerce. Mark Walsh, the CEO of VerticalNet, has to decide how far he can extend the firm's business model without... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Decisions; Digital Platforms; Expansion; Internet and the Web

01 Jun 1999
News

New Releases

that the more things change, the more strong leadership is needed and the more complicated the interconnected web of relationships becomes. While effective leadership and management are both necessary in organizations, Kotter points out,... View Details

Keywords: Nancy O. Perry

01 Oct 2002
News

Bozidar Djelic

readers can contact me at bdjelic@mfin.sr.gov.yu or visit our Web site at www.serbia.sr.gov.yu.” Profile: Banishing Balkan Ghosts: Bozidar Djelic and the Rebirth of a Nation View Details

10 Jul 2017
Op-Ed

Op-Ed: It’s a Bad Idea to Ban Customers From Recording Videos

published an “electronic devices policy” on a little-noticed page on its website—but that policy did nothing to help the airline prevent or resolve the Dao situation. First, one might question whether that policy is in fact binding as a matter of law. By all... View Details

Keywords: by Benjamin G. Edelman; Food & Beverage; Air Transportation; Retail; Service

24 Mar 2002
Research & Ideas

Are Assets Only for America’s Wealthy?

nature and delivery of the IDA program could be the answer, he says. Rather than administering IDAs through brick-and-mortar channels—banks, paperwork, and more paperwork—why not use technology to speed up, standardize, and improve systems and processes? By using View Details

Keywords: by Carla Tishler

Profile

Jonathan Arena

design challenge: “rethink or reframe education for the 21st century.” Continuing on the design/entrepreneurship track, Jonathan has launched a startup, with a colleague at HBS, called Zeum. Intended to “connect creativity,” Zeum will use the View Details

Fast Answer

Historical and forecasted economic statistics

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01 Dec 2017
News

A Safer—and Speedier—Way to Name Your Startup

employing an engineering team to create a web application that applies natural language processing, machine learning, big data, and data visualization algorithms to make conflicts with trademarked names immediately visual, accessible, and... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna

01 Jun 2001
News

Making A Difference: HBS Club of Puget Sound Reaches Out to Young Alumni

of membership and now as club president, Kwiker has worked to build a basic loyalty to the club and to foster connections to the extended HBS community. Her innovations have included more events targeted toward the entire alumni base, young alumni socials, and a club... View Details

Keywords: Elena N. Berg

01 Dec 2003
News

DonorsChoose: Teaming Up with Teachers

appeared last June on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Afterward, so many viewers logged on to the organization’s Web site that it crashed. Once the site was back up, seven hundred New York City teachers posted new project proposals and eight... View Details

Keywords: Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations; Personal Services

Other Article

Want to See the Future of Digital Health Tools? Look to Germany

By: Ariel Dora Stern, Henrik Matthies, Julia Hagen, Jan B. Brönneke and Jörg F. Debatin

A new law will make it easier to introduce and determine the benefits of new tools. Perhaps its most important provisions are its formalization of “prescribable applications,” which include standard software, SaaS, and mobile as well as browser-based apps, and the... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Transformation; Internet and the Web; Technological Innovation; Germany

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September 2019
Article

The Persistence of Broadband User Behavior: Implications for Universal Service and Competition Policy

By: Andre Boik, Shane Greenstein and Jeffrey Prince

In several markets, firms compete not for consumer expenditure but consumer attention. We examine user priorities over the allocation of their time, and interpret that behavior in light of salient tensions in policy discussions over universal service, data caps, and... View Details

Keywords: Broadband Service; Attention Allocation; Consumer Behavior; Household; Internet and the Web; Competition; Policy

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Article

Rethinking the Profession Formerly Known as Advertising: How Data Science Is Disrupting the Work of Agencies

By: John A. Deighton

The article discusses the notion of advertising as a profession in relation to the impact of digital analytics and data-driven marketing. Topics include the history of internet marketing, the investments of the content-driven internet firms Facebook Inc. and Google... View Details

Keywords: Data Science; Digital Marketing; Marketing; Internet and the Web; Analytics and Data Science; Disruption

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December 2016
Case

thredUP: Think Secondhand First

By: Thomas Eisenmann, Allison Ciechanover and Jeff Huizinga

In the fall of 2016, the management team at thredUP, the largest U.S. online retailer of second hand clothing, is deciding whether to expand into international markets. Over the past 12 months the 7-year-old startup, which had raised over $130 million in venture... View Details

Keywords: Scaling Start-ups; International Expansion; Online Consignment; Apparel; Internet and the Web; Expansion; Entrepreneurship; Global Strategy; Business Startups; E-commerce; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail Industry; San Francisco

2014
Working Paper

Search-Based Peer Firms: Aggregating Investor Perceptions Through Internet Co-Searches

By: Charles M.C. Lee, Paul Ma and Charles C.Y. Wang

Applying a "co-search" algorithm to Internet traffic at the SEC's EDGAR web-site, we develop a novel method for identifying economically-related peer firms and for measuring their relative importance. Our results show that firms appearing in chronologically adjacent... View Details

Keywords: Peer Firm; EDGAR Search Traffic; Revealed Preference; Co-search; Industry Classification; Analytics and Data Science; Internet and the Web; Mathematical Methods; Corporate Finance

SSRN

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December 1999 (Revised November 2000)
Background Note

Pricing and Market Making on the Internet

By: Robert J. Dolan and Youngme E. Moon

Considers the impact of the Internet on how market exchanges will take place. Discusses the role of shopping agents and alternatives to fixed prices such as negotiations, auctions, and exchanges. View Details

Keywords: Price; Marketing Strategy; Auctions; Digital Platforms; Negotiation; Internet and the Web

October 2013 (Revised July 2024)
Teaching Note

Amazon in 2024

By: Sunil Gupta

Amazon launched its website in July 1995 to sell books online and by 2020 it has grown to become a digital giant with over $280 billion in annual sales. A large part of its growth came from expanding into a variety of businesses that some see as unrelated. Has it... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Marketing Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Business Model; Competitive Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Retail Industry