Publications

June 2013
Background Note

Mobilizing an Online Business

By: Peter Coles and Benjamin Edelman

Entrepreneurs starting online businesses often need to mobilize multiple sets of users or customers, each of whom hesitates to participate unless others join also. This case presents several challenges with similar structure. View Details

Keywords: Mobilization Strategy; Network Effects; Platforms; Internet; Entrepreneurship; Strategy; Two-Sided Platforms; Technology Adoption; Innovation Strategy; Information Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Computer Industry

17 Jun 2019
Working Paper Summaries

The Comprehensive Effects of a Digital Paywall Sales Strategy

Keywords: by Doug J. Chung, Ho Kim, and Reo Song; Media & Broadcasting

April 2013 (Revised March 2014)
Teaching Note

Gazelle in 2012

By: Andrei Hagiu

Keywords: Strategy; Technology; Multi-sided Platforms; Consumer Electronics; Technology Industry; United States

April 2015 (Revised December 2015)
Case

Resuscitating Monitter

By: Benjamin Edelman and Wei Sun

After a Twitter API change and policy change block his fledgling startup, solo entrepreneur Alex Holt evaluates his options. Should he double-down with a major investment in new servers, rewriting his app from scratch, and charging users for a service that he had... View Details

Keywords: Platform Strategy; Envelopment; Dependence; Social Media; Business Strategy; Vertical Integration; Information Technology; Digital Platforms; Advertising Industry; Information Technology Industry; Australia

October 2021 (Revised December 2021)
Case

PhonePe: Democratizing Payments in India

By: Michael Chu and Rachna Tahilyani

The co-founders of PhonePe, India’s leading digital payment platform are considering pursuing various growth opportunities in a huge country just entering the digital age. In a highly competitive industry, the founders are keenly aware that making the right choices is... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platform; Digital Banking; Business Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Digital Platforms; Financial Services Industry; Asia; India

July 2014 (Revised August 2015)
Case

Qihoo

By: Feng Zhu

Qihoo, one of the largest Internet companies in China today, was founded in 2005. The company started its business by offering a security software product, and quickly dominated the market in China after its unusual move of giving its product away for free in 2009.... View Details

Keywords: Platform Strategy; Business Model Innovation; Chinese Internet Market; Competitive Strategy; Information Technology; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Information Technology Industry

June 2014
Article

Mastering the Intermediaries: Strategies for Dealing with the Likes of Google, Amazon, and Kayak

By: Benjamin Edelman

Many companies depend on powerful platforms which distinctively influence buyers' purchasing. (Consider, Google, Amazon, and myriad others in their respective spheres.) I consider implications of these platforms' market power, then suggest strategies to help companies... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Market Power; Dominance; Advertising Campaigns; Marketing Channels; Agreements and Arrangements; Competitive Strategy; Negotiation; Transportation Industry; Information Technology Industry; Web Services Industry

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20 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

The 5 Strategy Rules of Bill Gates, Andy Grove, and Steve Jobs

that no one had ever seen and that no one understood what it did was brilliant” Those are the questions David B. Yoffie and Michael A. Cusumano address in their new book, Strategy Rules: Five Timeless Lessons from Bill Gates, Andy Grove,... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Computer

August 2015 (Revised February 2020)
Teaching Note

Qihoo

By: Feng Zhu

Keywords: Platform Strategy; Business Model Innovation; Chinese Internet Market; Competitive Strategy; Information Technology; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Information Technology Industry; China

25 Feb 2013
Research & Ideas

Lean Strategy Not Just for Start-Ups

upgrades, forming hypotheses and conducting experiments with each new version along the way. Intuit adopted such a strategy when developing Fasal, a mobile platform that delivers agricultural market price... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Financial Services

May 2024
Case

LinkedIn Corporation, 2024

By: David B. Yoffie, George Gonzalez and Emily Grandjean

By 2024, the LinkedIn profile was well established as the professional identity of record on the Internet. Following a multi-year effort to expand the platform’s user base, as well as a period of rapid growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, LinkedIn’s membership had... View Details

Keywords: Platform; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Goals and Objectives; Social Media; Network Effects; Growth and Development Strategy; Performance Evaluation; Technology Industry; Employment Industry; Sunnyvale

19 Dec 2005
Research & Ideas

The Regional Slice of Your Global Strategy

Harvard Business School professor Pankaj Ghemawat has long argued that the best international strategy also includes recognition of differences in local markets. In the December 2005 issue of Harvard Business Review, Ghemawat highlights... View Details

Keywords: by Pankaj Ghemawat

June 2007
Article

Merchant or Two-Sided Platform?

By: Andrei Hagiu

This paper provides a first pass at clarifying the economic tradeoffs between two polar strategies for market intermediation: the "merchant" mode, in which the intermediary buys from sellers and resells to buyers; and the "two-sided platform" mode, under which the... View Details

Keywords: Merchants; Two-sided Platforms; Intermediaries; Two-Sided Markets; Digital Platforms

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November 2011
Article

Competing Matchmakers: An Experimental Analysis

By: Tanjim Hossain, Dylan B. Minor and John Morgan

Platform competition is ubiquitous, yet platform market structure is little understood. Theory models typically suffer from equilibrium multiplicity—platforms might coexist or the market might tip to either platform. We use laboratory experiments to study the outcomes... View Details

Keywords: Platform Competition; Two-Sided Markets; E-commerce; Competition; Two-Sided Platforms; Monopoly

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12 Apr 2010
Research & Ideas

One Report: Better Strategy through Integrated Reporting

they explain why company adoption of integrated reporting is essential for sustainable strategies and society. Martha Lagace: How do you define One Report? Robert G. Eccles and Michael P. Krzus: One Report is the integration of... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

21 Jun 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Multi-Sided Platforms: From Microfoundations to Design and Expansion Strategies

Keywords: by Andrei Hagiu; Technology

May 2025 (Revised May 2025)
Case

Netflix Beyond Streaming: Strategies for the Next Era of Entertainment

By: Juan Alcacer and Lorenzo Lucidi

Netflix loses subscribers for the first time in over a decade—can the streaming pioneer reinvent itself before competitors, costs, and churn catch up? In 2022, facing fierce competition and shifting consumer behaviors, Netflix confronts its most critical strategic... View Details

Keywords: United States; Australia; Brazil; Canada; France; Germany; India; Japan; Mexico; Russia; South Korea; Spain; United Kingdom