Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(850)
- Faculty Publications (164)
- May 2008 (Revised March 2010)
- Case
Palm (A): The Debate on Licensing Palm's OS (1997)
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Kevin Boudreau and Jordan Mitchell
This case series looks at three important inflection points in Palm's history that relate to decisions about its platform: when the company was debating whether to open its operating system (OS) for licensing to third-party hardware manufacturers; 2001, when the... View Details
- May 2008 (Revised March 2010)
- Supplement
Palm (B): 2001
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Kevin Boudreau and Jordan Mitchell
This case series looks at three important inflection points in Palm's history that relate to decisions about its platform: when the company was debating whether to open its operating system (OS) for licensing to third-party hardware manufacturers; 2001, when the... View Details
- May 2008 (Revised March 2010)
- Supplement
Palm (C): 2005
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Kevin Boudreau and Jordan Mitchell
This case series looks at three important inflection points in Palm's history that relate to decisions about its platform: when the company was debating whether to open its operating system (OS) for licensing to third-party hardware manufacturers; 2001, when the... View Details
- May 2008 (Revised March 2010)
- Supplement
Palm (D): Epilogue as of 2008
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Kevin Boudreau and Jordan Mitchell
This case series looks at three important inflection points in Palm's history that relate to decisions about its platform: when the company was debating whether to open its operating system (OS) for licensing to third-party hardware manufacturers; 2001, when the... View Details
- March 2008 (Revised March 2014)
- Case
By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, Thomas R. Eisenmann, Aaron Smith, David Chen and Brian Feinstein
As Facebook topped one billion monthly users in October 2012, the online social network continued to face questions about how best to monetize its surging traffic. The company could invest further in new advertising products, which represented the majority of the... View Details
- 2007
- Working Paper
Competition in Modular Clusters
By: Carliss Y. Baldwin and C. Jason Woodard
The last twenty years have witnessed the rise of disaggregated "clusters," "networks," or "ecosystems" of firms. In these clusters the activities of R&D, product design, production, distribution, and system integration may be split up among hundreds or even thousands... View Details
- 2007
- Working Paper
Dynamics of Platform Competition: Exploring the Role of Installed Base, Platform Quality and Consumer Expectations
By: Feng Zhu and Marco Iansiti
This paper seeks to answer three questions. First, which drives the success of a platform, installed base, platform quality or consumer expectations? Second, when does a monopoly emerge in a platform-based market? Finally, when is a platform-based market socially... View Details
- August 2007
- Module Note
Managing Networked Businesses: Platform Evolution Module
Offers an overview of conceptual content and pedagogical guidance for instructors using a six-session module, "Platform Evolution," from "Managing Networked Businesses" (MNB), a case-based MBA elective course on platform-mediated networks. The module explores the... View Details
- July 2006
- Article
Dynamic Mixed Duopoly: A Model Motivated by Linux vs. Windows
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Pankaj Ghemawat
This paper analyzes a dynamic mixed duopoly in which a profit-maximizing competitor interacts with a competitor that prices at zero (or marginal cost), with the cumulation of output affecting their relative positions over time. The modeling effort is motivated by... View Details
Keywords: Open Source Software; Demand-side Learning; Network Effects; Linux; Mixed Duopoly; Competitive Dynamics; Business Models; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Information Technology; Applications and Software; Business Model; Mathematical Methods; Digital Platforms; Profit; Balance and Stability; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; SWOT Analysis; Competition; Price; Information Technology Industry
- Article
The Information Technology Ecosystem: Structure, Health, and Performance
By: Marco Iansiti and Gregory L. Richards
A number of modern industries are organized as complex networks of firms whose integrated efforts are necessary to deliver value to end customers. The complexity of these networks, or business ecosystems, and the associated interdependencies among firms, make... View Details
- October 2005 (Revised February 2007)
- Case
Red Flag Software Co.
By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Tarun Khanna, David Lane and Elizabeth Raabe
In 2005, just five years after its formal launch, Beijing-based Red Flag Software was the world's second-largest distributor of the Linux operating system and was expecting its first annual profit. On a unit basis, Red Flag led the world in desktops (PCs) shipped with... View Details
- April 2005 (Revised June 2006)
- Case
Yahoo! Messenger: Network Integration
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld
Describes Yahoo!'s management of the launch of version 6.0 of its Instant Messenger (IM) product, which incorporates features from 12 other Yahoo! properties, including Search, Music, Games, Photos, Personals, News, and Shopping. The integration of features from so... View Details
- 2003
- Other Unpublished Work
Initiative for a Competitive Milwaukee: A Call to Action
The inner city of Milwaukee holds great promise, but is not advancing economically. The inner city has been hard hit by the loss of many of its largest employers as a result of relocation, acquisition and failure. According to the 2000 US Census data, thirty percent of... View Details
- March 2001
- Article
Strategy and the Internet
By: M. E. Porter
Many of the pioneers of Internet business, both dot-coms and established companies, have competed in ways that violate nearly every precept of good strategy. Rather than focus on profits, they have chased customers indiscriminately through discounting, channel... View Details
- November 2000 (Revised November 2005)
- Case
Tellme Networks, Inc.
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Nicole Tempest
Tellme, an early-stage, venture-backed company based in Silicon Valley, leverages speech-recognition technologies to provide: 1) a "voice portal" with news and other information accessible through any telephone, and 2) turnkey application development and hosting... View Details
- September 1996 (Revised April 1997)
- Case
GO Corporation
By: Josh Lerner, Thomas J. Kosnik, Tarek AbuZayyad and Paul C. Yang
GO faces a crisis in March 1991 when Microsoft announces the introduction of a competing operating system for pen-based computers. GO's managers must work with its venture financers, Kleiner Perkins, to redesign its financing, alliance, and product development... View Details
- Forthcoming
- Article
Beefing IT Up for Your Investor? Engagement with Open Source Communities, Innovation, and Startup Funding: Evidence from GitHub
By: Annamaria Conti, Christian Peukert and Maria P. Roche
We study the engagement of nascent firms with open source communities and its implications for innovation and attracting funding. To do so, we link data on 160,065 U.S. startups from Crunchbase to their activities on the open source software development platform... View Details
- Teaching Interest
Competing in the Age of Digital Platforms
By: Andy Wu
Without exception, the most valuable companies in the world today are platforms: Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook, and many other firms have built their fortunes by facilitating innovation across global ecosystems or enabling the broad exchange of goods... View Details
- Teaching Interest
Competing in the Age of Digital Platforms—(Executive Education)
By: David B. Yoffie
Summary
Without exception, the most valuable companies in the world today are platforms. Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook, and many other firms have built their fortunes by facilitating innovation across global ecosystems or... View Details
Without exception, the most valuable companies in the world today are platforms. Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook, and many other firms have built their fortunes by facilitating innovation across global ecosystems or... View Details
- Research Summary
Managing Networked Businesses
Platform-based businesses that leverage network effects face a distinctive set of management challenges. A platform encompasses components and rules that facilitate interactions between the platform's users. A platform-based product or service exhibits a network... View Details