Publications

July 1989 (Revised May 2004)
Case

Colonial Homes

By: David E. Bell

Colonial Homes supplies a complete raw materials package to build entire homes. The price of the package is guaranteed at the signing of the sales contract, while delivery (and payment) are not effected for up to six months. In an effort to reduce its exposure to... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Contracts; Price; Price Bubble; Fluctuation; Monopoly; Problems and Challenges; Sales; Accommodations Industry; Real Estate Industry

06 Jun 2005
Research & Ideas

Microsoft vs. Open Source: Who Will Win?

discriminate, and that piracy may even result in higher profits to Microsoft! Finally, the paper investigates the societal welfare consequences of OSS availability by comparing different industry structures (monopoly and duopoly). We find that while a View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

May 2020
Case

Trust Merchant Bank

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Pippa Tubman Armerding, Dilyana Karadzhova Botha and Salim Dewji

Trust Merchant Bank (TMB), a leading bank in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), needs to decide whether to enter the soon-to-be-liberalized insurance industry. Since its founding in 2004, TMB has played a pivotal role in reshaping the DRC banking landscape by... View Details

Keywords: Retail Banking; Financial Services; Financial Inclusion; Turnaround; Fintech; Banks and Banking; Financial Condition; Insurance; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Business Model; Family Business; Entrepreneurship; Information Technology; Monopoly; Banking Industry; Insurance Industry; Africa; Congo, Democratic Republic of the

03 May 2016
First Look

First Look, May 3, 2016

nonmarket forces that constrain those strategies are largely defined by two features: the delineation of its geographic markets by political boundaries and markets that have natural monopoly characteristics. While the pre-monopoly stage... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

04 Mar 2014
First Look

First Look: March 4

total consumer traffic for higher revenues derived by exposing consumers to unsolicited products (e.g., advertising). We show that competition between platforms leads to lower equilibrium levels of search diversion relative to a monopoly... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

14 Jun 2011
First Look

First Look: June 14

Abstract This paper provides a simple model of platforms with direct network effects, in which users value not just the quantity (i.e., number) of other users who join, but also their average quality in some dimension. A monopoly platform... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2008 (Revised October 2008)
Case

Lehman Brothers and Peabody Coal

When Texas Utilities Company (TXU) wanted to acquire The Energy Group, the latter needed to spin-off its coal mining assets, Peabody Coal, to avoid running afoul of antitrust authorities. In this case, TXU's investment banker, Lehman Brothers, considers whether to... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Investment Banking; Monopoly; Conflict of Interests; Mining Industry; Utilities Industry

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25 Nov 2014
First Look

First Look: November 25

concerning whether patents are a creative or a destructive influence on the process of technological development. In this paper I examine the basic patent tradeoff between incentives and monopoly distortions in light of recent... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

08 Oct 2013
First Look

First Look: October 8

monopoly platform when the degree of horizontal differentiation between platforms is intermediate (low). On the other hand, more intense competition between active platforms (i.e., less differentiation) leads to less search diversion.... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 2008
Teaching Note

Crossing Borders: MTC's Journey through Africa (TN)

By: Tarun Khanna

Teaching Note for [708477]. View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development; Monopoly; Strategic Planning; Mergers and Acquisitions; Leadership; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Competition; Developing Countries and Economies; Brands and Branding; Culture; Telecommunications Industry; Kuwait; Africa

July 2017 (Revised November 2017)
Case

'Clarín Lies!': Bias, Post-Truth, and Populism in Argentina's Media War

By: Rafael Di Tella, Jose Liberti and Sarah McAra

In 2012, Argentine media conglomerate Grupo Clarín and President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner were embroiled in what some called “the mother of all battles.” Grupo Clarín was one of the preeminent media companies in Argentina, with leading newspapers, cable... View Details

Keywords: Media Regulation; Media; Government and Politics; Policy; Newspapers; Government Legislation; Business and Government Relations; Risk and Uncertainty; Monopoly; Journalism and News Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Argentina

16 Nov 2010
Lessons from the Classroom

Data.gov: Matching Government Data with Rapid Innovation

ordinary citizens have the ability to shift the balance of power in positive ways that can encourage innovative ideas to be developed into practical goods and services. "Washington, DC does not have a monopoly on the best... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Technology

23 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Historically Speaking: A Roundtable at HBS

suppliers in particular. Intel became a near monopoly in microprocessors, and Microsoft, which provided the operating system, is probably the most powerful regulated monopoly in the history of U.S. industry.... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner

1998
Journal Article

Ford's Model-T: Pricing over the Product Life Cycle

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell

The pricing decisions monopolistic firms make over time are determined to a large extent by the complex interplay of two distinct sets of elements: demand- and supply-based considerations. Demand factors include the possibilities of (a) exercising dynamic price... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Decisions; Forecasting and Prediction; Cost; Price; Information; Demand and Consumers; Monopoly; Product; Sales; Complexity; Auto Industry

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Read Now

26 May 2003
Research & Ideas

What Your Competition is Telling You

and do it more efficiently, over time. Richard E. Beville should know. The chief operating officer of Lamont Digital Systems, a Greenwich, Conn., provider of digital telecommunications services, Beville started his career in the Bell system, back in the days before the... View Details

Keywords: by David Stauffer

27 Jun 2005
Research & Ideas

The Potential Downside of Win-Win

the negotiation. In April 2001, the FTC filed a complaint accusing pharmaceutical companies Schering-Plough and Upsher-Smith of restricting trade. Upsher-Smith had been preparing to introduce a generic pharmaceutical product that would threaten a near View Details

Keywords: by Max H. Bazerman

July 2016
Supplement

The EC Rains on Oracle/Sun (B)

By: Lena G. Goldberg

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Law; Antitrust; EC Regulation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Multinational Firms and Management; International Relations; Laws and Statutes; Monopoly; Business and Government Relations; Technology Industry; European Union; United States