Publications

April 2012 (Revised April 2013)
Case

Mekanism: Engineering Viral Marketing

By: Thales S. Teixeira and Alison Caverly

Mekanism introduces students to a digital media production company specializing in creating viral marketing campaigns for advertising agencies and clients (e.g., Microsoft, AXE, eBay, Toyota, etc.) Mekanism has grown tremendously from 2007 to 2010 in part due to the... View Details

Keywords: Viral Marketing; Viral Advertising; Core Competencies; Growth Strategy; Online Media; Videos; Advertising Media; Internet and the Web; Expansion; Media; Marketing; Advertising; Advertising Industry; North and Central America

September 2000 (Revised June 2002)
Supplement

Overview of E-Business Pricing Models

By: Lynda M. Applegate, W. Earl Sasser and Kristin Kohler

Supplements National Logistics Management. View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Price; Business Model; Information Technology Industry

January 2022
Case

Dating Ring

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Lindsay N. Hyde

In 2015, the co-founders of Dating Ring, an online dating startup that relied on human matchmakers to arrange dates between its members, were deciding whether to either shut down the service or instead manage Dating Ring as a "lifestyle company," ramping down growth... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Failure; Business Exit or Shutdown; Internet and the Web; Venture Capital; Service Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States

May 2021 (Revised February 2025)
Teaching Note

Migros Turkey: Scaling Online Operations

By: Antonio Moreno and Anibha Singh

Teaching Note for HBS Case Nos. 621-026, 621-027, and 621-062. As Migros, one of Turkey’s largest grocery chains, forays into online groceries, the company faces operational challenges related to inventory management, fulfillment and last mile delivery and strategics... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Internet and the Web; Growth and Development Strategy; Operations; Management; Competitive Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; Turkey

2016
Working Paper

The Empirical Economics of Online Attention

By: Andre Boik, Shane Greenstein and Jeffrey Prince

In several markets, firms compete not for consumer expenditure but instead for consumer attention. We model and characterize how households allocate their scarce attention in arguably the largest market for attention: the Internet. Our characterization of household... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Competition; Behavior; Resource Allocation; Household; Cognition and Thinking

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September 2006 (Revised January 2007)
Background Note

Where to Get Your News and Information: The Digital Disruption

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Nancy Bartlett

What is the response by traditional news and information deliverers (newspapers and television networks) to declining audiences as media consumption moves to the digital medium? Provides a view of the news industry in mid-2006 and discusses the impact of an... View Details

Keywords: News; Media; Emerging Markets; Internet and the Web; Disruption; Perspective; Advertising; Journalism and News Industry

September 2003
Case

Upromise 2002

By: William A. Sahlman

Describes a set of decisions confronting the senior management of a company that has established a loyalty rewards program allocating cash to tax-advantaged college savings accounts for participants. The company has recruited a new CEO and needs to raise additional... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Management Teams; Capital; Internet and the Web; Decisions

31 Mar 2002
What Do You Think?

Is This the Decade of the Investor?

influx of foreign capital helped finance investments in new technology, one might also conclude that U.S. employees and consumers benefited to a significant degree at the expense of foreign investors. This is particularly true for money invested in new View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

29 Feb 2000
Research & Ideas

Whence IT Value?

we started to get good at interconnecting them (outside universities and research labs) only about 10 to 12 years ago. Of course, we've become a lot better at it over the past five years, with the explosion of the Internet, intranets, extranets and other offspring of... View Details

Keywords: by Andrew McAfee

12 May 2020
Blog Post

The Importance of Coordination: Apoorva Pasricha Reflects on Crisis Leadership

intersection of the private and public sectors,” Pasricha says. “I’m excited by the way technology will change our urban lives." For the first half of her tenure, Pasricha led the City’s digital inclusion initiative. Recognizing that approximately ten percent of... View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise; Technology; Nonprofit / Government

Web

Doing Business with China 2035: Navigating Uncertainty - Course Catalog

sequence of field cases, ranging from internet startups to revitalized state-owned enterprises (SOEs), across a wide range of geographical and product markets. This stands in addition to a series of technical notes address the cultural,... View Details

01 Sep 2014
News

Alumni Achievement Awards 2014

in Cambridge “I believe that after achieving financial success, most people want to have an impact on society. That’s what brings meaning and purpose to my life.” Having built and sold an Internet company in the 1990s, Chertavian launched... View Details

28 Apr 2020
Blog Post

The Importance of Coordination: Apoorva Pasricha Reflects on Crisis Leadership

intersection of the private and public sectors,” Pasricha says. “I’m excited by the way technology will change our urban lives." For the first half of her tenure, Pasricha led the City’s digital inclusion initiative. Recognizing that approximately ten percent of... View Details

September 2011
Case

Driving Profitable Growth at US Auto Parts

USAP faces extraordinary opportunities to change the way that automobiles are serviced in the US by selling parts at fair prices though online channels. View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Disruptive Innovation; Business Model; Internet and the Web; Business Strategy; Internet and the Web; Machinery and Machining; Cost Management; Auto Industry; Retail Industry; United States

Other Article

Want to See the Future of Digital Health Tools? Look to Germany

By: Ariel Dora Stern, Henrik Matthies, Julia Hagen, Jan B. Brönneke and Jörg F. Debatin

A new law will make it easier to introduce and determine the benefits of new tools. Perhaps its most important provisions are its formalization of “prescribable applications,” which include standard software, SaaS, and mobile as well as browser-based apps, and the... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Transformation; Internet and the Web; Technological Innovation; Germany

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September 2019
Article

The Persistence of Broadband User Behavior: Implications for Universal Service and Competition Policy

By: Andre Boik, Shane Greenstein and Jeffrey Prince

In several markets, firms compete not for consumer expenditure but consumer attention. We examine user priorities over the allocation of their time, and interpret that behavior in light of salient tensions in policy discussions over universal service, data caps, and... View Details

Keywords: Broadband Service; Attention Allocation; Consumer Behavior; Household; Internet and the Web; Competition; Policy

Read Now

December 2016
Case

thredUP: Think Secondhand First

By: Thomas Eisenmann, Allison Ciechanover and Jeff Huizinga

In the fall of 2016, the management team at thredUP, the largest U.S. online retailer of second hand clothing, is deciding whether to expand into international markets. Over the past 12 months the 7-year-old startup, which had raised over $130 million in venture... View Details

Keywords: Scaling Start-ups; International Expansion; Online Consignment; Apparel; Internet and the Web; Expansion; Entrepreneurship; Global Strategy; Business Startups; E-commerce; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail Industry; San Francisco