Publications

SSRN

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January 2014 (Revised May 2015)
Case

Yahoo: Both Sides of the Stamped Deal

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Lisa C. Mazzanti

In 2012, Marissa Mayer became the CEO of Yahoo!, a tech giant with a tumultuous past. When Mayer tries to reinvigorate the company, she hires Jacqueline Reses, who has a private equity background, to head both human resources and mergers and acquisitions (M&A). As part... View Details

Keywords: Mobile App; Acquisition-hire; Exit Strategy; Start-up; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Mergers and Acquisitions; Human Resources; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Product Development; Technology Industry; Sunnyvale; New York (city, NY)

2023
Working Paper

Personalized Game Design for Improved User Retention and Monetization in Freemium Games

By: Eva Ascarza, Oded Netzer and Julian Runge

One of the most crucial aspects and significant levers that gaming companies possess in designing digital games is setting the level of difficulty, which essentially regulates the user’s ability to progress within the game. This aspect is particularly significant in... View Details

Keywords: Freemium; Retention/churn; Field Experiment; Field Experiments; Gaming; Gaming Industry; Mobile App; Mobile App Industry; Monetization; Monetization Strategy; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Customers; Retention; Product Design; Strategy

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MBA 2025 Alumni Technology Transition - Alumni

Help MBA 2025 Alumni Technology Transition 22ms Class of 2025 Technology Deadlines After graduation, your access to HBS resources will expire or transition. Please review the timeline below, View Details

February 2015
Case

Transforming Verizon 2015: Going Above the Network

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Daniel Fox

In 2015, the Chairman and CEO of Verizon Communications reflects on his four years leading the company and considers strategic repositioning for the future. Meanwhile, a rising leader within the organization, Marni Walden, leads change with a new, company-wide product... View Details

November, 2021
Article

Self Control and Smartphone Use: An Experimental Study of Soft Commitment Devices

By: Ruru Hoong

Public discussion and discourse amongst researchers suggest that smartphone use is excessive from an individual welfare standpoint, but evidence for this remains limited. I implement a randomized intervention encouraging a subset of 629 participants to adopt soft... View Details

Keywords: Social Media; Commitment; Randomized Controlled Trial; Smartphones; Addiction; Technological Change: Choices And Consequences; Behavior; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Well-being

Find at Harvard

January 2015 (Revised May 2018)
Case

$19B 4 txt app WhatsApp...omg!

By: David Collis, Ashley Hartman and Aakash Mehta

In February 2014, Facebook announced the acquisition of WhatsApp for $19 billion. WhatsApp, founded in 2009, was a relatively young company that employed only 50 people and earned merely $10 million in revenue in 2013. It was one of many mobile messaging services that... View Details

10 Mar 2015
News

"Let's Go Out and Do Something Fun"

Keywords: entrepreneurship; mobile computing; app; entertainment; Lithuania; London

March 2014 (Revised March 2015)
Case

Samsung Electronics: TV in an Era of Convergence

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Marco Iansiti and Kerry Herman

From the late 1990s to 2006/2007, Samsung Electronics moved from one of 170 TV manufacturers to gain dominant TV market share year over year from 2007-2013. As digital technologies increasingly converged in 2013-2014, the industry faced new questions: What was the... View Details

Keywords: Digital Innovation; Technology; Technology Management; Digital Convergence; Digital Technology; Innovation; Korea; Samsung; Television; Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Innovation and Invention; Innovation Leadership; Innovation and Management; Product Development; Product Design; Electronics Industry; Korean Peninsula; Asia

19 Aug 2016
News

Using Technology to Help Reclaim Lives from Addiction

from seeking help. Our at-home program uses secure videoconferencing to ensure that clients are known only to their counselors and their fellow recovery group members.” Lionrock also uses a proprietary View Details

May 25, 2016
Comment

How Consumers and Businesses are Reshaping Public Health

By: John A. Quelch

Healthcare and education are two issues in which citizens around the world, rich and poor, are passionately interested. It has long been appreciated that the way that a society treats its youngest and oldest members says much about its moral maturity. Economic... View Details

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January 2019 (Revised October 2019)
Case

Liulishuo: AI English Teacher

By: John J-H Kim and Shu Lin

Educators and entrepreneurs alike are excited about the potential for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to change the way learning will look like in the future. There is a confluence of factors such as the availability of large sources of rich,... View Details

Keywords: AI; Artificial Intelligence; Education Technology; Information Technology; Education; Entrepreneurship; AI and Machine Learning; Education Industry; China

13 Jan 2020
Blog Post

Blending my Tech and Managerial Mindsets

We recently caught up with Yuval Gonczarowski (MBA 2017), the Chief Technology Officer at ClimaCell Inc, a weather technology SaaS startup utilizing unique data sources like View Details

Web

Using Personal Devices for HBS Business | Information Technology

Personal Device Requirements Any device which will be used for HBS business or connect to HBS systems, data must adhere to the requirements listed in the Minimum Security Responsibilities: Computers and View Details

January 2015 (Revised April 2015)
Case

Zeal: Launching Personalized and Social Learning

By: John J-H Kim and Christine S. An

Set in 2014, this case follows John Danner and his team at Zeal as they consider their product development strategy. In February 2013, serial entrepreneurs John Danner and Sanjay Noronha co-found Zeal, an education technology start up providing a web-based, mobile... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Education Technology; MVP; Product Development; Product Market Fit; Monetization Strategy; SaaS Business Models; Education; Personalized Learning

Research Summary

Overview

We are studying the practical application of Michael Porter's value-based strategy to reform health care by examining best practices of integrated practice units, outcome measurement, cost measurement, value-based payment, episode based payment, regionalization of... View Details

April 2003 (Revised July 2003)
Case

Nokia and MIT's Project Oxygen

By: Rebecca Henderson and Nancy Confrey

Pending developments in wireless networking and in embedded computing present a long-range strategic challenge to Nokia, Inc. This case outlines the ways technology is likely to develop in the next 20 years, briefly describes Nokia's history and strategic positioning,... View Details

January 2024
Case

National Football League and Private 5G

By: Andy Wu, Grant Son and Shuoyu Chen

On September 9, 2021, the National Football League (NFL) designated Verizon as its official 5G partner in a 10-year deal, committed to enhance the experience for NFL teams, players, and fans in stadiums. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said, “Verizon will help us... View Details

Keywords: Football; National Football League; 5G; Verizon; Communication Technology; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Technology Adoption; Risk and Uncertainty; Business Strategy; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Sports Industry; Telecommunications Industry

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Technology & Operations Management Awards & Honors - Faculty & Research

and Operations Management Society (POMS) for "Privately-Owned Battery Storage - Reshaping The Way We Do Electricity " with Serguei Netessine. Christian Kaps : Awarded Runner-Up in the 2023 POMS PITM Student Paper Competition from the... View Details

January 2024 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Huawei: Resilience amid Autarky and Adversity

By: William C. Kirby and Daniel Fu

In September 2023, Huawei made a dramatic return to the global smartphone space with the launch of its Mate 60 Pro smartphone, equipped with an indigenously designed, 7nm chip. This came despite a myriad of export controls and restrictions imposed against the company... View Details