Publications

January 1999 (Revised March 2001)
Case

MindSpring

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport

In a business environment where Internet Service Providers (ISP) has become increasingly commodity-like, Charles Brewer, founder and CEO of MindSpring, the nation's sixth largest ISP and the recognized leader in customer satisfaction, ponders a proposed merger with... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Mergers and Acquisitions; Customer Satisfaction; Growth and Development Strategy; Web Services Industry; United States

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November 2016
Case

QuintilesIMS: Biosimilar Marketing in England

By: John A. Quelch and Emily C. Boudreau

QuintilesIMS was a leading healthcare consulting firm best known for its data and information offerings as well as its market research and management consulting services for life science companies. By 2015, the company was expanding beyond the biopharmaceutical... View Details

Keywords: Health; Pharmaceutical Industry; Biotech; Marketing; Health Care and Treatment; Biotechnology Industry; England

Karen Gordon Mills is a Senior Fellow at Harvard Business School and a leading authority on U.S. competitiveness, entrepreneurship, and innovation. She served in President Barack Obama’s Cabinet as the Administrator of the U.S. Small Business... View Details

July 2018
Teaching Note

Cumplo.com

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Teaching Note for HBS No. 818-039. Teaching Note for HBS No. 818-039. Cumplo is a Chilean-based fin-tech startup that provides investors and small businesses with opportunities to access loans and investments in ways distinct from traditional financial institutions in... View Details

Keywords: Fintech; Alternative Finance; Crowdfunding; Crowdlending; Marketing Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Social Entrepreneurship; Expansion; Financial Services Industry; Latin America; South America; Chile

Summer 2018
Book Review

Leslie Berlin, Troublemakers: Silicon Valley's Coming of Age

By: William A. Sahlman

Leslie Berlin's book Troublemakers, is an engaging and insightful people-first exploration of the roots of Silicon Valley, from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. Berlin portrays seven individuals who played important roles at critical junctures in the... View Details

Keywords: Silicon Valley; Technological Innovation; Disruptive Innovation; History; California

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March 2004 (Revised September 2005)
Case

RealNetworks Rhapsody

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Steven Carpenter

Examines RealNetwork's (Real's) strategy for the rapidly emerging online music market. In contrast to rivals who sell individual copies of songs, Real offers online music on a subscription basis. For a $10 monthly fee, subscribers to Real's Rhapsody service have... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Competitive Advantage; Distribution Channels; Music Entertainment; Ownership; Service Industry; Service Industry; Service Industry

Research Summary

The Commercialization of Internet Infrastructure

By: Shane M. Greenstein

Why did commercial Internet service initially develop in some geographical areas and not others? What determines the success of businesses? What determines the value of Internet services? The research stream developed the first analysis of the Internet access... View Details

February 2019 (Revised August 2019)
Case

Maccabitech: The Promise of Israel's Healthcare Data

By: Scott Duke Kominers and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Dr. Varda Shalev bridges technology and medicine through Maccabitech, a "research and innovation wing" of Israel's Maccabi Healthcare Services (MHS) that partners with research institutions, pharmaceutical companies, and startups. Shalev hopes to scale Maccabitech's... View Details

Keywords: Big Data; Healthcare; Analytics and Data Science; Digital Platforms; Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Invention; Research; Entrepreneurship; Risk Management; Israel

09 Dec 2002
Research & Ideas

Unilever—A Case Study

animal feeds. In Europe, its food business spanned all stages of the industry, from fishing fleets to retail shops. Among its range of ancillary services were shipping, paper, packaging, plastics, and advertising and market research.... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones; Consumer Products; Entertainment & Recreation; Food & Beverage; Manufacturing; Retail

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

Keywords: Fintech; Ewa; Lending; Technology; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Social Enterprise; Business Strategy; Business Model; Mission and Purpose; Venture Capital; Profit; Financial Services Industry; United States

May 2013
Case

Wendy Peterson

By: Linda A. Hill and Alisa Zalosh

Wendy Peterson was recently promoted to Vice President of Sales at the Plano, Texas, office of AccountBack, an accounting software and services company. To penetrate a perceived market niche, Peterson hires Fred (Xing) Wu, whose familiarity with and access to Chinese... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Conflict Management; Salesforce Management; Rank and Position; Performance Evaluation; Management Teams; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Accounting Industry; Texas

Article

The Supply Chain Economy: New Policies to Drive Innovation and Jobs

By: Mercedes Delgado and Karen G. Mills

The debate in economic policymaking about the drivers of innovation and job creation has long centered on manufacturing versus services. The predominant view is that manufacturing drives innovation, wages, and growth, and that services provide less innovation and... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain Industries; Supply Chain; Economy; Policy; Innovation and Invention; Jobs and Positions

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Against a backdrop of intensifying competition, rising labor costs, and ascending customer expectations, companies are actively seeking ways to do more with less – for example, compelling customers to take on new roles in the value creation process. And, when... View Details

Uncovering the Mitigating Psychological Response to Monitoring Technologies

Organizational psychologists have long held that monitoring workers saps them of their autonomy and thereby reduces their effectiveness. Yet technology has intensified such surveillance in recent years: Managers now track everything from clinicians’ handwashing to... View Details

November 2007 (Revised April 2008)
Case

Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar: A Rural Business Initiative

By: David E. Bell, Nitin Sanghavi, Virginia Fuller and Mary L. Shelman

In rural India, farmers historically had limited access to quality input items for both their fields and homes. Indian conglomerate DSCL has undertaken a Rural Business Initiative to address this issue, establishing a chain of retail outlets throughout rural India... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Conglomerates; Agribusiness; Rural Scope; Customer Relationship Management; Business Strategy; Service Operations; Networks; Alliances; Retail Industry; India

September 1997
Case

Information at the World Bank: In Search of a Technology Solution (A)

By: W. Earl Sasser, Josep Valor and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Information Technology Services Director Mohamed Muhsin planned to restructure the World Bank's information technology in response to President Jim Wolfensohn's call to build a knowledge bank. Several reorganization efforts taken by the bank in the 1980s led to a... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Information; Knowledge Management; Mission and Purpose; Technology; Public Administration Industry

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04 Mar 2022
HBS Seminar

Michael Chu & Bob Kaplan, HBS

Blog

The Chao Center: The Heart of HBS Executive Education

created to inspire connection, conversation, and new ideas. The HBS Guest Services team, which staffs the Chao Center front desk, will greet you on arrival, answer any questions, and provide concierge View Details

2023
Working Paper

Achieving Universal Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: Addressing Market Failures or Providing a Social Floor?

By: Katherine Baicker, Amitabh Chandra and Mark Shepard

The United States spends substantially more on health care than most developed countries, yet leaves a greater share of the population uninsured. We suggest that incremental insurance expansions focused on addressing market failures will propagate inefficiencies and... View Details

Keywords: Public Sector; Insurance; Health Care and Treatment; Policy; Innovation and Invention