Publications

2013
Working Paper

Do Display Ads Influence Search?: Attribution and Dynamics in Online Advertising

By: Sunil Gupta

As firms increasingly rely on online media to acquire consumers, marketing managers feel comfortable justifying higher online marketing spend by referring to online metrics such as click-through rate (CTR) and cost per acquisition (CPA). However, these standard online... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Digital Marketing

November 1998 (Revised February 1999)
Case

Microsoft Office: Finding the Suite Spot

By: Stefan H. Thomke and Steven Sinofsky

Describes a key decision-making process within Microsoft's Office products division. At a time when the PC software business has a great deal of uncertainty, Microsoft's management has to make a key decision regarding the future of software suites. A strengthening of... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Applications and Software; Strategic Planning; Organizational Design; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Product Development; Managerial Roles; Growth and Development Strategy; Risk and Uncertainty; Goals and Objectives; Digital Platforms; Innovation and Management; Computer Industry; Information Technology Industry

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2023
Chapter

Generalized Matching: Contracts and Networks

By: John William Hatfield, Ravi Jagadeesan, Scott Duke Kominers, Alexandru Nichifor, Michael Ostrovsky, Alexander Teytelboym and Alexander Westkamp

Keywords: Matching; Matching With Contracts; Matching Markets; Matching Platform; Market Design; Digital Platforms; Economics; Networks

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June 2020
Article

Frenemies in Platform Markets: Heterogeneous Profit Foci as Drivers of Compatibility Decisions

By: Ron Adner, Jianqing Chen and Feng Zhu

We study compatibility decisions of two competing platform owners that generate profits through both hardware sales and royalties from content sales. We consider a game-theoretic model in which two platforms offer different standalone utilities to users. We find that... View Details

Keywords: Compatibility; Platform Competition; Profit Foci; Digital Platforms; Competition; Profit; Decision Making

12 Apr 2016
First Look

April 12, 2016

abundance is allowing our species to develop, distribute, and profit from innovation in nearly every corner of civilization. Now key elements of the modern world such as the speed and connectedness of digital communication, the dynamic... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

13 Apr 2020
Research & Ideas

Small Businesses Are Worse Off Than We Thought

Knowledge “Everything is rapidly evolving,” says Luca, the Lee J. Styslinger III Associate Professor at HBS, “and this survey helps to get some baseline understanding of what is happening in close to real-time.” Those responses could come from government, larger... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Financial Services

29 Jun 2017
Research & Ideas

Why Uber Is Worth Saving and How To Do It

from ordinances regulating limos and taxis. The company even allegedly built a digital tool that would alert staff when code enforcers were on the way.) Kanter says the same disrespect shown for authorities on the outside seemed to seep... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Transportation

13 Sep 2016
First Look

September 13, 2016

the status quo, primarily because of the lack of a decision-making mechanism amongst the brothers. The firm rapidly went downhill, before declaring bankruptcy in 1875. Purchase this case: https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/316186-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School... View Details

03 Dec 2001
Research & Ideas

Healthcare Conference Looks At Ailing Industry

was developed elsewhere, such as a digital form of DNA. The goal now is to redefine disease based on the underlying biological mechanisms, Lander said. By that token, diseases are going to surprise us. Reclassifying them means that some... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Health

April 2019
Case

Afterpay U.S.: The Omnichannel Dilemma

By: Antonio Moreno, Donald Ngwe and George Gonzalez

In 2018, Nick Molnar, the founder of the Australia-based online payment service Afterpay began its expansion to the U.S. market. The service had gained a loyal following in Australia by enabling customers to pay for online purchases through four interest-free... View Details

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06 Oct 2015
First Look

October 6, 2015

2015 University of Chicago Press Economic Analysis of the Digital Economy By: Goldfarb, Avi, Shane Greenstein, and Catherine Tucker, eds. Abstract—As the cost of storing, sharing, and analyzing data has decreased, economic activity has... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Article

Friends or Foes? Examining Platform Owners' Entry into Complementors' Spaces

By: Feng Zhu

As platform owners continue to expand their ecosystems, many of them have started to provide consumers with their own complementary applications. These moves position the platform owners as direct competitors to their complementors. This paper surveys empirical studies... View Details

Keywords: Platform; Complementors; Digital Platforms; Market Entry and Exit; Competition

October 1994
Supplement

Frito-Lay, Decision Support System Software: Windows Network Version

By: Lynda M. Applegate

Keywords: Decision Making; Applications and Software; Digital Platforms

June 1995
Supplement

Frito-Lay, Decision Support System Software: Macintosh Network Version

By: Lynda M. Applegate

Keywords: Decision Making; Applications and Software; Digital Platforms

November–December 2014
Article

Accountable? The Problems and Solutions of Online Ad Optimization

By: Benjamin Edelman

Online advertising might seem to be the most measurable form of marketing ever invented. Comprehensive records can track who clicked what ad—and often who saw what ad—to compare those clicks with users' subsequent purchases. Ever-cheaper IT makes this tracking... View Details

Keywords: Online Advertising; Fraud; Optimization; Incentives; Digital Marketing; Contracts; Marketing Strategy; Organizational Design

25 Sep 2006
Research & Ideas

How Software Platforms Revolutionize Business

independent developers to build new features. The cell phone has become a lucrative platform for more than handset makers—also in on the party are makers of digital cameras, music services, and organizer software. Not only are existing... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Video Game; Web Services

Winter 2019
Article

Economists (and Economics) in Tech Companies

By: Susan Athey and Michael Luca

As technology platforms have created new markets and new ways of acquiring information, economists have come to play an increasingly central role in tech companies—tackling problems such as platform design, strategy, pricing, and policy. Over the past five years,... View Details

Keywords: Technology Companies; Economists; Digital Platforms; Jobs and Positions; Competency and Skills; Technology Industry