Publications

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2021
Working Paper

MLS as a Sports Product—The Prominence of the World's Game in the U.S.

By: Stephen A. Greyser and Kenneth Cortsen

The purpose of this Working Paper is to analyze how soccer at the professional level in the U.S., with Major League Soccer as a focal point, has developed over the span of a quarter of a century. It is worthwhile to examine the growth of Major League Soccer (MLS) from... View Details

Keywords: Soccer; Major League Soccer; Sports; Growth and Development; Organizational Structure; Business Model; Sports Industry; United States

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January 2014
Case

CleanSpritz

By: John A. Quelch and Alisa Zalosh

Sales of CleanSpritz all-purpose cleaning spray have been steadily declining for the past five years, and management believes the decline correlates to a growing environmental concern among U.S. consumers. CleanSpritz's management is considering several options to... View Details

Keywords: Product Positioning; Competition; Marketing Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance Improvement; Environmental Sustainability; Product Launch; Product Development; Consumer Products Industry

August 2024
Case

Zipline: Expanding the World's Largest Autonomous Drone Delivery Network

By: Tarun Khanna and George Gonzalez

Zipline initially established the world's largest logistics network in Rwanda and Ghana by delivering medical supplies to hospitals via automated drones from a centralized hub. The company is now looking to expand to the U.S. home delivery market and designed a... View Details

Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Growth and Development Strategy; Logistics; Expansion; Air Transportation; Business Model; Rwanda; Ghana; United States

January 2001
Background Note

Application Service Providers

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Sanjay Pothen

Examines the Application Service Provider (ASP) business model. First, defines the ASP model and describes different ways to categorize ASPs. Next, summarizes the various ways that ASPs create value for their clients. Then, analyzes the economic model for ASPs,... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Web Services Industry

November 1988 (Revised July 1998)
Case

WaterTest Corporation

Describes the founding and subsequent growth of WaterTest, a New Hampshire firm run by a entrepreneur with little business background. Three Harvard Business School students are working on a project to help the firm refine its marketing strategy. The students collect a... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Customers; Entrepreneurship; Data and Data Sets; Marketing Strategy

September 2003 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Direvo Biotech AG

Describes the financing and growth decisions facing Direvo, a young German biotech firm with a customer/partner that wants to become an investor. Also discusses the business model for Direvo's directed evolution technology, with applications in both industrial enzymes... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Decisions; Business Exit or Shutdown; Value; Business Startups; Biotechnology Industry; Germany

March 1993
Case

McKinsey & Co. (B):1966

Covers the firm's growth from 1956 to 1966. May be used with McKinsey & Co. (A)--1956. View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation

October 2023 (Revised February 2024)
Case

Loris

By: Shunyuan Zhang, Das Narayandas, Stacy Straaberg and David Lane

In December 2022, Loris’s executive team considered their go-to-market strategy. Loris was an artificial intelligence (AI) software startup for the customer service industry with two products on the market: 1) Agent Assist which provided customer service agents (CSAs)... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Business Startups; AI and Machine Learning; Applications and Software; Marketing Strategy; Sales; Technology Industry; United States

September 2019 (Revised June 2020)
Case

Othellonia: Growing a Mobile Game

By: Eva Ascarza, Tomomichi Amano and Sunil Gupta

In the summer of 2019, Yu Sasaki, Head of the Game Division of DeNA, a Japanese mobile gaming company, is evaluating various growth strategies for its recent game Othellonia. Sasaki needs to decide if he should focus on customer acquisition, retention, or monetization. View Details

Keywords: Targeting; Retention/churn; Freemium; Monetization; Customer Relationship Management; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing; Customers; Marketing Strategy; Retention; Acquisition; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Japan

16 May 2013
News

Harvard study finds U.S. losing edge on jobs

Reshmaan N. Hussam

Reshmaan Hussam is an associate professor of business administration in the Business, Government and International Economy Unit, a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), and a faculty affiliate at the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty... View Details

10 Nov 2011
News

Gauging Groupon’s Public Offering

Lynda M. Applegate

Lynda M. Applegate is a Baker Foundation Professor at HBS and is Chair of the Advisory Committee for Harvard University’s Masters Degree of Liberal Arts in Finance and Management at the Harvard University Extension School. She has also played a... View Details

August 2009
Case

Intel NBI: Vivonic

By: Willy C. Shih and Thomas Thurston

Vivonic was a start-up that was part of Intel's New Business Initiatives that sought to develop and sell personal health monitoring hardware and software. When it was first funded, Intel was in the midst of record growth and was seeking diversification. But the company... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Experience and Expertise; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Product Development; Failure; Diversification; Semiconductor Industry

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09 Apr 2025
HBS Seminar

Marc Rysman, Boston University

08 Sep 2020
News

Maintaining Organizational Soul While Onboarding In A Remote World

January 2018
Case

Under Armour

By: Rory McDonald, Clayton M. Christensen, Daniel West and Jonathan E. Palmer

After 20 years of growth unprecedented in the sports apparel industry, Under Armour finds itself with a new record to beat: making the leap from $5 to $10 billion in sales—a feat only accomplished to date by competitors Nike and Adidas. At the heart of this challenge... View Details