Publications

20 Aug 2012
Research & Ideas

The Acquirers

were published in the paper, Financial vs. Strategic Buyers. The research team first scoured data of private equity firms in the United States that had set out to buy underperforming companies and turn them around—with the goal of a... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Financial Services

18 Feb 2009
First Look

First Look: February 18, 2009

possible responses to this shortage: Sharing addresses impedes new Internet applications and does not seem to be scalable. A new numbering system ("IPv6") offers greater capacity, but network incentives impede transition. Paid... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

March 2020 (Revised April 2020)
Case

CarTrade

By: Rajiv Lal and Shreya Ramachandran

Vinay Sanghi, the founder and CEO of CarTrade, had been trying different business strategies to keep the company, which he founded in 2010 as an online marketplace for used and new cars, profitable and on track for growth. In a crowded and disorganized dealer... View Details

Keywords: Online Marketplace; Automobiles; Customer Base; Internet and the Web; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Model; Financing and Loans; E-commerce; Digital Platforms; Digital Marketing; Auto Industry; Auto Industry; India; Mumbai

January 2020 (Revised March 2020)
Case

LOLA: Do You Know What's in Your Tampon?

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Aldo Sesia

LOLA is a direct-to-consumer (DTC) business launched in 2015. What started as a company to provide women with organic and transparent material-labeled tampons via a subscription model, had, by 2019 evolved to include additional menstrual and sexual wellness products.... View Details

Keywords: Direct-to-consumer; Channels; Disruption; Business Model; Brands and Branding; Internet and the Web; Strategy; Retail Industry; United States; Canada

January 2017 (Revised August 2019)
Case

X Fire Paintball & Airsoft: Is Amazon a Friend or Foe? (A)

By: Feng Zhu and Angela Acocella

Three years after launching his brick-and-mortar store, X Fire Paintball and Airsoft, Steve Herbert Sr. and his sons began selling products on Amazon.com’s third-party Marketplace, and online sales expanded rapidly. Over time, X Fire noticed that products of which it... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Competition; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Small Business; Retail Industry; Canada

April 2016
Teaching Note

Flipkart: Transitioning to a Marketplace Model

By: Sunil Gupta and Das Narayandas

In 2015, Sachin and Binny Bansal, co-founders of India's largest e-tailer, Flipkart, announced that the company would switch to a marketplace model and move its logistics arm into a separate company. At the time of the announcement, Snapdeal already claimed to be... View Details

Keywords: India; Marketplaces; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Market Entry and Exit; E-commerce; Retail Industry; India

January 2014 (Revised March 2015)
Case

Google Car

By: Karim R. Lakhani, James Weber and Christine Snively

By 2013, Google, while not a traditional manufacturer of automobiles, had invested millions of dollars in its self-driving cars which had logged over 500,000 miles of testing. The Google management team faced several questions. Should Google continue to invest in the... View Details

Keywords: Digital Services; Innovation; Technology; Technological Innovation; Internet and the Web; Market Entry and Exit; Transportation; Auto Industry; United States

September 2010
Case

Angie's List

Angie's List is a paid subscription-based service that gives consumers online access to member-submitted reviews of plumbers, electricians, and other home service providers. Customer and revenue growth are strong, but customer acquisition costs are high and the company... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Price; Competitive Advantage; Product Launch; Service Industry; United States

May 2007 (Revised July 2011)
Background Note

Retail Shopping in 2007: The Net Versus the Mall

By: Stephen P. Bradley, Nancy Bartlett and James Weber

Provides an overview of the retail sector within the United States as online shopping captures an increased percentage of consumer spending. The role of enabling technologies and applications, including comparison shopping sites and recommendation systems, are covered.... View Details

Keywords: Spending; Marketing Channels; Demand and Consumers; Information Technology; Internet and the Web; Retail Industry; United States

20 Dec 2004
Research & Ideas

The U.S. Patent Game: How to Change It

ways that are often invisible. A provocative new book by economists Adam B. Jaffe and Josh Lerner describes what's wrong, but shines a light on ways to fix the system, too. Their book, Innovation and Its Discontents: How Our Broken Patent System is Endangering... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen

26 Aug 2024
Research & Ideas

Can AI Match Human Ingenuity in Creative Problem-Solving?

When ChatGPT and other large language models began entering the mainstream two years ago, it quickly became apparent the technology could excel at certain business functions, yet it was less clear how well artificial intelligence could handle more creative tasks. Sure,... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Information Technology; Information; Technology

18 Aug 2009
First Look

First Look: August 18

Start-up's Midlife Crisis: 99Sushe.com Harvard Business School Case 309-060 Now into their third year at the helm of an Internet start-up in China, Ken Pao and Bill Li were managing a totally different company (with a new name) from the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

December 2001
Case

Alibaba.com (B)

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Fred Young

The challenges the largest Chinese electronic commerce company faces many challenges at the end of 2001. This case describes how it has completely reoriented its strategy in the past 12 months to become a B-to-B company. The key question is: Will it work and what... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Business Strategy; Internet and the Web; Problems and Challenges; Information Technology Industry; China; United States

30 May 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, May 30

pricing for first-exposure products on the site. Many in the industry have relied on years of experience and intuition to determine pricing—can Wilson provide new insights? Purchase this... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

27 Jul 2019
Op-Ed

Does Facebook's Business Model Threaten Our Elections?

the transparency front, it is publishing quarterly reports across nine categories of content, showing how much they take down before users see it. Last May, the European Union passed the General Data Protection Regulation, which places... View Details

Keywords: by George Riedel

25 Sep 2007
First Look

First Look: September 25, 2007

For more, under additivity, the geometric mean separates the prices where uniqueness holds and where it fails; it holds for the geometric mean except in one case where refinement is needed. Download the paper:... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

February 2017
Case

BlaBlaCar: The Road Ahead...

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Arun Sundararajan, Emilie Billaud and Caroline Caltagirone

In 2017, the co-founders of BlaBlaCar—the world’s largest long-distance carpooling company—reflected on the evolution of their venture and the way forward. BlaBlaCar had reached critical mass and size; yet staying still was not going to be enough to be relevant and... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Transformation; Decision Making; Values and Beliefs; Growth and Development Strategy; Digital Platforms; Network Effects; Strategic Planning; Competitive Strategy; Expansion; Internet and the Web; Transportation Networks; Transportation Industry; Transportation Industry; France; Europe