Publications

August 2021 (Revised September 2022)
Case

Patch Technology: Making It Easy to Do the Right Thing

By: Tomomichi Amano, Robert J. Dolan and Carol Zhang

In 2021, the growing threat of climate change pushed companies around the world to understand that significant behavioral change was necessary. While many recognized that decreasing emissions was critical, more sophisticated players such as Microsoft began to recognize... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Management; Marketing; Digital Platforms; Climate Change

29 Oct 2014
Research & Ideas

Inventing Products is Less Valuable Than Inventing Ideas

the potential for building new products out of their existing inventions." Take Xerox, for example. Its research center, Xerox PARC, famously had invented the graphical user interface, mouse, laser printing, and other technologies... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Technology

August 2013 (Revised October 2013)
Case

Modern Family Planning: The Business of Circle Surrogacy

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Blake Landro

The business of surrogacy, a boutique practice with client costs upwards of $100,000, allowed couples and individuals from a variety of backgrounds, ages, and sexual orientations to build families. This case examines Circle Surrogacy (CS), one of the premier surrogacy... View Details

Keywords: Family Planning; Platform; Competitive Advantage; Law; Globalization; Competitive Strategy; Digital Platforms; United States; Ukraine

21 Nov 2013
News

Case Study: BlackBerry and Thorsten Heins

like push email with its BlackBerry Enterprise Server. This gave them a first-mover advantage, but as technology improved and data capabilities on wireless voice networks evolved rapidly and took off, the advantage turned to a burden with... View Details

Keywords: Telecommunications; Information; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management

03 Aug 2015
Research & Ideas

Why Fierce Competitors Apple and Amazon Became ’Frenemies’ Over eReaders

other, along certain dimensions they are collaborating” So why would Amazon release a version of its Kindle Reader on Apple's iPad, allowing users to access its library of exclusive digital books? "Doesn't that diminish interest in the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Technology; Technology; Technology

January 2014
Case

Social Strategy at Cisco Systems

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, Daniel Malter and Aaron Smith

In April 2013, Jeanne Beliveau-Dunn, vice president and general manager for Learning@Cisco Systems, was planning the future of the Cisco Learning Network, an online platform hosted at Cisco.com. Since its launch in 2008, the Cisco Learning Network provided content to... View Details

Keywords: Networks; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Competency and Skills; Learning; Web Services Industry

13 Aug 2024
Research & Ideas

Why Companies Shouldn't Delay Software Updates—Even After CrowdStrike's Flaw

Vulnerabilities don’t work on a calendar. Cybercriminals show up when they show up.” You Might Also Like: How Transparency Sped Innovation in a $13 Billion Wireless Sector The Critical Computer Science Principles Every Strategic Leader Needs to Know View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald; Technology; Technology; Technology; Technology

Web

DEC - Georges F. Doriot : Educating Leaders, Building Companies, Baker Library, Harvard Business School

computer startups and the eventual rise of the personal computer. "[Doriot's] investment in Digital Equipment Corporation... was a daring one," Gupta notes, "not simply because it was contrarian, but because he saw the investment as a... View Details

01 Oct 1999
News

Entrepreneur Daniel S. Bricklin: A Class Act

An extraordinary career based on the development of innovative, cutting-edge technology products was launched twenty years ago from the front row of an Aldrich Hall classroom. Crunching numbers for case studies late into the night was... View Details

Keywords: Peter K. Jacobs

March 2008 (Revised June 2011)
Case

MySpace

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, David T. Chen and Carin-Isabel Knoop

The case, set in late 2007, examines what MySpace—the largest online social network—should do to respond to its agile competitor, Facebook. Since its inception MySpace had experienced phenomenal growth, acquiring 20 million members in its first 20 months of operation,... View Details

Keywords: Open Source Distribution; Partners and Partnerships; Social and Collaborative Networks; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Internet and the Web; Digital Platforms; Information Technology Industry

2006
Book

Invisible Engines: How Software Platforms Drive Innovation and Transform Industries

By: David S. Evans, Andrei Hagiu and Richard Schmalensee

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Applications and Software; Innovation and Invention; Transformation

Find at Harvard

May 2003 (Revised October 2003)
Case

BEA Systems, Inc.: Constant Reinvention to Cope with Market Waves

Developed in 1995 as a specialist software vendor, BEA Systems, Inc. had already transformed itself twice from a transaction processing product company to a server application provider. By July 2002, it had become the fastest company in history to reach $1 billion in... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Digital Platforms; Business Growth and Maturation; Management Practices and Processes; Applications and Software; Entrepreneurship; Organizational Culture; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry

Find at Harvard

January 2001 (Revised March 2003)
Case

Quantum Corporation: eSupplyChain Group

The eSupplyChain group has been recently formed with Quantum Corp.'s Hard Disk Drive Group to evaluate Internet/IT-based approaches to improving supply chain performance. The Hard Disk Drive Group has endured several quarters of poor financial performance and has... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Information Technology; Supply Chain Management; Business Strategy

01 Jun 1996
News

1996 Global Alumni Conference Probes "Information Revolution"

for the limitless possibilities associated with California and the West. And in keeping with the entrepreneurial dynamism that is so much a part of today's information technology explosion, "the City by the Bay" has always been a magnet... View Details

Keywords: Daniel Penrice

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

Keywords: Integration; Business Units; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Competitive Advantage; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States

01 Mar 2010
News

Cyberposium 15

Last November’s Cyberposium, titled “Navigating the Digital Storm,” marked the fifteenth anniversary of what many call the premier on-campus tech gathering in the United States. Organized by the HBS student-run TechMedia Club, the event... View Details

Keywords: News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; Information; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

22 Aug 2020
News

Bluemercury’s Marla Beck on How Covid-19 Is Changing the Beauty Business

“We’ve taken so many good things from them,” Beck tells the podcast. “They have technology infrastructure that we don’t have. They have incredible financial infrastructure. We’ve piggybacked onto some of their relationships with View Details

February 2021 (Revised March 2021)
Case

AptDeco: Circular Economy Furniture Marketplace

By: Ayelet Israeli and Jamie Merkrebs

AptDeco, a used furniture marketplace, was growing rapidly in the tri-state area. The co-founders were confident that the business model, financial position, and unit economics positioned AptDeco for scaling in the massive $120 billion furniture market, despite its... View Details