Publications

February 2019 (Revised September 2019)
Case

Amazon in Fashion

By: John R. Wells, Benjamin Weinstock and Gabriel Ellsworth

According to many analysts and industry observers, in 2018 Amazon became the largest retailer of apparel in the United States and the second largest in the world, behind Alibaba. Much of Amazon’s apparel was made by third-party retailers on its platform, but Amazon had... View Details

December 1998
Case

Pioneer Hi-Bred: Turning Seeds Into Factories

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Melissa Dailey

The agricultural sector is among the preeminent information technology users in our economy," exclaimed an August 1998 Forbes ASAP survey of the U.S. economy's best and worst users of information technology (IT). The survey designated Pioneer Hi-Bred International,... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Multinational Firms and Management; Information Management; Infrastructure; Business Strategy; Information Technology; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Iowa

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March 2020 (Revised August 2020)
Case

Culture at Google

By: Nien-hê Hsieh, Amy Klopfenstein and Sarah Mehta

Beginning in 2017, technology (tech) company Google faced a series of employee-relations issues that threatened its unique culture of innovation and open communication. Issues included protests surrounding Google’s contracts with the U.S. government, restrictions of... View Details

Article

Why Every Organization Needs an Augmented Reality Strategy

By: Michael E. Porter and James E. Heppelmann

While the physical world is three-dimensional, most data is trapped on two-dimensional pages and screens. This gulf between the real and digital worlds prevents us from fully exploiting the volumes of information now available to us. Augmented reality (AR), a set of... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Effectiveness

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June 2017
Case

Waze Connected Citizens Program

By: Mitchell Weiss and Alissa Davies

Di-Ann Eisnor, Director of Growth at Waze, founded the company’s Connected Citizens Program (CCP), a data-sharing partnership that provided officials with traffic incident and congestion data. Since 2015, her program had enabled officials in Kentucky and elsewhere to... View Details

30 Oct 2020
HBS Seminar

Vincent Larivière, University of Montréal

December 1992 (Revised May 1993)
Case

Porsche AG

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Describes the financial management of the research and development departments of an automobile manufacturer and technology supplier. Existing cost systems measure accurately the costs incurred by department and by project. But little formal information is provided... View Details

Keywords: Financial Management; Cost Accounting; Research and Development; Machinery and Machining; Auto Industry; Auto Industry

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Sebastian Hillenbrand is an Assistant Professor in the Finance Unit at Harvard Business School. He teaches the Finance I course in the MBA required curriculum.

Sebastian’s research interests are in behavioral and... View Details

February 2018 (Revised June 2021)
Case

New Constructs: Disrupting Fundamental Analysis with Robo-Analysts

By: Charles C.Y. Wang and Kyle Thomas

This case highlights the business challenges associated with a financial technology firm, New Constructs, that created a technology that can quickly parse complicated public firm financials to paint a clearer economic picture of firms, remove accounting distortions,... View Details

Keywords: Fundamental Analysis; Machine Learning; Robo-analysts; Financial Statements; Financial Reporting; Analysis; Information Technology; Accounting Industry; Accounting Industry; Accounting Industry; North America; Tennessee

15 May 2019
HBS Seminar

Pascaline Dupas, Stanford University

Forthcoming
Article

FinTech Lending and Cashless Payments

By: Pulak Ghosh, Boris Vallée and Yao Zeng

Borrower's use of cashless payments both improves their access to capital from FinTech lenders and predicts a lower probability of default. These relationships are stronger for cashless technologies providing more precise information, and for outflows. Cashless payment... View Details

Keywords: Fintech; Lending; Payments; Data Sharing; Financing and Loans; Information Technology; Banks and Banking; Business Model

28 Jan 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Agglomerative Forces and Cluster Shapes

Keywords: by William R. Kerr & Scott Duke Kominers; Technology

October 1999
Case

Intel Labs (B): A New Business Model for Commercializing Research in Photolithography

Intel deployed a creative business model to commercialize its EUV technology in photolithography. This model assigned intellectual property and machine priority in an industry consortium. View Details

Keywords: Commercialization; Operations; Research and Development

2014
Working Paper

The Global Agglomeration of Multinational Firms

By: Laura Alfaro and Maggie Chen

The explosion of multinational activities in recent decades is rapidly transforming the global landscape of industrial production. But are the emerging clusters of multinational production the rule or the exception? What drives the offshore agglomeration of... View Details

Keywords: Geographic Location; Multinational Firms and Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Market Entry and Exit; Industry Clusters

SSRN

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February 2001 (Revised July 2006)
Case

Discovering the Future: R&D Strategy at Merck

By: Gary P. Pisano

Given explosive growth in technologies for drug discovery, how does Merck remain competitive in an industry that is fragmented and continues to consolidate? View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Research and Development; Pharmaceutical Industry

Jung Koo Kang is an assistant professor in the Accounting and Management Unit. He teaches the Financial Reporting and Control course in the MBA required curriculum.

Professor Kang’s research focuses on financial technology and innovation, alternative data,... View Details

October 2019 (Revised April 2020)
Background Note

Note on Funding Deep Tech Startups

By: Karim Lakhani, Peter Barrett and Noubar Afeyan

This Background Note provides essential information on funding deep technologies—those technologies that were inherently capital intensive, time consuming, risky, and potentially disruptive. Both dilutive and non-dilutive sources of investment are highlighted, along... View Details