Publications

December 2011 (Revised June 2012)
Case

Samasource: Give Work, Not Aid

By: Francesca Gino and Bradley R. Staats

Samasource sought to use work, not aid, for economic development. The company secured contracts for digital services from large companies in the United States and Europe, divided the work up into small pieces (called microwork) and then sent it to delivery centers in... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Growth and Development Strategy; Social Enterprise

March 2007
Case

Ascent Media Group (A)

Ascent Media races to adapt to the changes resulting from increasing digitalization of its business, from creative post-production services to warehousing and repurposing of old media content. Raises issues of how technology interacts with creative processes and... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Technology; Management; Creativity

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August 2001 (Revised March 2003)
Case

PassAct, Inc.

PassAct is a virtual distributor for high-tech R&D components and products, taking orders from researchers within companies, passing them on to appropriate suppliers, and monitoring fulfillment. Customers order from a Web-based catalog with built-in work-flow... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Web Services Industry

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March 2016 (Revised May 2016)
Case

UFO Moviez—Gentle Disruption

By: Hong Luo, Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Saloni Chaturvedi

UFO Moviez is an Indian technology services provider that enables low-cost, digital delivery of films to cinemas. UFO’s satellite-based technology enables a significantly wider release of films compared to traditional analog prints and standard, higher-resolution... View Details

Keywords: Film Entertainment; Information Technology; Distribution; Disruption; Growth and Development Strategy; Technology Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; India

June 2020 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Deloitte's Pixel (A): Consulting with Open Talent

By: Michael L. Tushman, John Winsor and Kerry Herman

Deloitte Consulting’s General Manager Balaji Bondili, head of Pixel, considers how best to grow Deloitte Consulting’s use of open (on-demand) talent, as consulting companies and their clients face transformative change in the way client engagements and projects get... View Details

Keywords: Disruption; Talent and Talent Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Consulting Industry; United States

07 Jul 2019
HBS Case

Walmart's Workforce of the Future

initiative. “That requires a lot of reskilling of employees and hard choices, in an uncertain environment, in terms of how to deploy capital.” “This digital transformation creates new jobs, but, more important, it changes the nature of... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

November 2023
Case

Will Fintechs and Central Banks Play in Emtech's Sandbox?

By: Daniel Isenberg and William R. Kerr

In February 2023, Emtech’s founder Carmelle Cadet is facing a dilemma. Rapidly running out of cash, Cadet has a term sheet from a leading VC but has a choice of how to structure the investment. The decision will have significant implications for Cadet’s own stake, as... View Details

Keywords: Cryptocurrency; Business Startups; Venture Capital; Cash Flow; Currency; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Digital Platforms

April 2023 (Revised September 2023)
Case

Apple's iPhone Revolution: Pioneering the Circular Economy

By: George Serafeim

When asked to identify an example of a circular economy business model that has generated billions in revenues for a company, ChatGPT, the famous chatbot that in 2022 rocked the world with its ability to perform a variety of tasks, immediately identified and... View Details

Keywords: Iphone; Smartphone; Waste Management; Recycling; Innovation; Product Upgrade; Product Life Cycle; Sustainability; Climate Impact; Digital; Business Model Innovation; Climate Change; Information Technology; Business Model; Electronics Industry; Information Technology Industry

Research Summary

Overview

Professor Nagle studies how competitors can collaborate on the creation of core technologies, while still competing on the products and services built on top of them. His research falls into the broader categories of the futures of work, the economics of IT, and... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Strategy; Technological Innovation; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Economic Growth; Entrepreneurship; Technology; Internet; Mobile Technology; Online Technology; Technology Adoption; Technology Networks

10 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

Technology and COVID Upended Tipping Norms. Will Consumers Keep Paying?

of services. "Some of these are point-of-sale situations where we didn’t traditionally think about tipping 15 percent." “In many establishments, we’re now moving to digital payment systems such as Toast that ask you each time you purchase... View Details

Keywords: by Anna Lamb, Harvard Gazette

24 May 2018
Research & Ideas

Distance Still Matters in Business, Despite the Internet

was the “death of distance,” a concept popularized in 1997 by Frances Cairncross’s book of the same title. A recent essay in the The New Oxford Handbook of Economic Geography challenges that notion, or at least deepens the argument. While the View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Transportation; Telecommunications; Shipping; Publishing; Technology

March 2020
Case

Hotstar

By: Krishna G. Palepu and Kairavi Dey

Hotstar was an online video streaming platform owned by Star India Private Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Walt Disney Corporation. Since its launch in 2015, the platform had grown to offer over 100,000 hours of TV content, movies in nine Indian languages... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Television Entertainment; Disruption; Business Strategy; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; India; Mumbai

June 2021
Case

Akira Fukabori and Kevin Kajitani at avatarin (A) (Abridged)

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Tedards

In 2016, Akira Fukabori and Kevin Kajitani, aeronautical engineers at All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd., began to wonder why, in a world of accelerating globalization and digital connectivity, those who lived in far-remote villages or impoverished urban areas could not... View Details

Keywords: Agility; Ecosystem; Innovation Ecosystems; Innovation; Crowdsourcing; XPRIZE; Open Innovation; Partnership; Government; Collaboration; Co-creation; Purpose; Impact; Social Impact; Movement; Organizational Behavior; Organizational Ambidexterity; Ambidexterity; Culture; Culture Change; Global Teams; Experimentation; Space; Space Industry; Airline Industry; Start-up; Platform Business; Platform Strategy; Platform; Digital; Robotics; Robots; Avatar; Telepresence; Innovation Lab; Mobility; COVID-19; Intrapreneurship; Public-private Partnership; Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Partners and Partnerships; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Alignment; Leadership; Leading Change; Diversity; Organizational Culture; Change Management; Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Digital Platforms; Transportation Industry; Aerospace Industry; Japan

Teaching Interest

Technology and Operations Management

By: Chiara Farronato

This course is taught in the MBA required curriculum. It provides students with the foundations necessary to be effective operating managers. During the course students learn to analyze decisions that drive the design, planning, and execution of the activities that... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Operations Management; Innovation

23 May 2018
Research & Ideas

How to Know If Your Neighborhood Is Being Gentrified

shop may be a harbinger of things to come,” says Luca. The study didn’t specifically track the fate of existing shops or services after new businesses started opening in the area, so it’s possible the occasional shop might be crowded out... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

November 2017
Teaching Note

Tencent

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

Teaching Note for HBS No. 718-426. Tencent had undergone many transformations since it was founded in 1998 as a simple messaging service. In 2017, it was the largest online games provider in China with a wide range of game types, China’s largest social networking... View Details

March 2015
Supplement

Interview: Iz-Lynn Chan at Far East Organization

By: Linda A. Hill and Anthony Mayo

Contains excerpts from an interview with Iz-Lynn Chan, former assistant director of retail business group and service quality and vice president of Far East retail consultancy for Far East Organization, a private real estate developer group in Singapore. Chan discusses... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Retail Industry; Real Estate Industry; Singapore

December 2020
Case

Urban Company

By: Krishna G. Palepu

Urban Company is an India-based market platform that helps customers book home services and at home beauty services. The company differentiated itself by investing heavily in building customer trust. Rather than merely positioning itself as a lead generating... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Entrepreneurship; Digital Platforms; Emerging Markets; Strategy; Service Delivery; Trust; Service Industry; Service Industry; India

2008
Working Paper

The Internalization of Advertising Services: An Inter-Industry Analysis

By: Sharon Horsky, Steven C. Michael and Alvin J. Silk

The common perception appears to be that vertical integration of advertising services is more the exception than the rule in the U.S. advertising industry. This study investigates the extent of such outsourcing and examines inter-industry variation in the use of... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Cost; Analytics and Data Science; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Service Operations; Creativity; Perception; Vertical Integration; Information Technology; Advertising Industry; United States