Publications

May 2006 (Revised October 2007)
Case

EU Verdict Against Microsoft

By: David B. Yoffie and Michael Slind

In 2004, following an investigation that began in 1998, the European Commission (EC) issued an antitrust judgment against Microsoft Corp., levying a record fine of 497 million euros ($613 million) and mandating changes of commercial behavior and bundling of Windows... View Details

Keywords: Judgments; Governance Compliance; Lawsuits and Litigation; Monopoly; Business and Government Relations; Competitive Strategy; Software; European Union; United States

13 Jul 2009
Research & Ideas

Diagnosing the Public Health Care Alternative

the monopoly power of Medicare and Medicaid enable them to underpay providers by an estimated $90 billion, sums made up by private insurers. But if the market were entirely composed of public insurers, who would take up the slack? The... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Health

January 2002
Case

Price-Fixing Vignettes

By: Guhan Subramanian and Michelle Kalka

This case escribes the antitrust prosecutions in the United States and abroad of the international bulk vitamins cartel. Both the civil and criminal fines were historically high, and it was the first time the United States prosecuted foreign nationals for U.S. criminal... View Details

Keywords: Price; Lawsuits and Litigation; Governance Compliance; Auctions; Laws and Statutes; Monopoly; Globalized Markets and Industries; Retail Industry; Health Industry; United States

2010
Working Paper

Mixed Source

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Gaston Llanes

We study competitive interaction between a profit-maximizing firm that sells software and complementary services and a free open source competitor. We examine the firm's choice of business model between the proprietary model (where all software modules are... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Monopoly; Open Source Distribution; Quality; Competition; Information Technology Industry

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January 11, 2024
Article

Understanding the Tradeoffs of the Amazon Antitrust Case

By: Chiara Farronato, Andrey Fradkin, Andrei Hagiu and Dionne Lomax

Regulators in the United States and Europe have been taking on Big Tech, challenging what they say are the companies’ anti-competitive and predatory strategies that harm consumers and third-party users of their platforms. This article examines the FTC’s case against... View Details

Keywords: Monopoly; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Market Design; Lawsuits and Litigation

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06 Jun 2005
Research & Ideas

Microsoft vs. Open Source: Who Will Win?

discriminate, and that piracy may even result in higher profits to Microsoft! Finally, the paper investigates the societal welfare consequences of OSS availability by comparing different industry structures (monopoly and duopoly). We find that while a View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

05 Jun 2019
Research & Ideas

If Your Customers Don't Care What You Charge, What Should You Charge?

market power dynamics, MacKay says. Market power, which is sometimes referred to as monopoly power, refers to the ability of a firm to charge a price above the level that would prevail under normal competition. The researchers argue that... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Energy

Fast Answer

Historical Research - India

Subjects covered include trade regulations on Indian imports and exports, specifically the textile, dyeing and cotton industries; the introduction of steam navigation, including the Calcutta railroad system and the East India Railway Company; debates on the East India... View Details

01 Apr 1996
News

Stasis and Turmoil: HBS Research for the Real World

communications industry has entailed the gradual removal of protected monopolies and rate-of-return regulation. Yet, at the same time, new government policies have been adopted to require open access and nondiscriminatory pricing in areas... View Details

01 Dec 2015
News

Complements to the Case Method

polishing diamonds. The person who can go out and find the diamond gets the highest return.” Lauren Cohen, L.E. Simmons Professor of Business Administration Multimedia Simulation Provides Real-World Reality Check Part Monopoly marathon,... View Details

01 Mar 2011
News

Alumni Books

expectations market; reining in monopoly pension and hedge funds; and enlarging private companies' role in the economy. Seeing Patients: Unconscious Biasin Health Care by Augustus A. White III (AMP 94, 1984) with David Chanoff (Harvard... View Details

October 2008 (Revised October 2008)
Case

Lehman Brothers and Peabody Coal

When Texas Utilities Company (TXU) wanted to acquire The Energy Group, the latter needed to spin-off its coal mining assets, Peabody Coal, to avoid running afoul of antitrust authorities. In this case, TXU's investment banker, Lehman Brothers, considers whether to... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Investment Banking; Monopoly; Conflict of Interests; Mining Industry; Utilities Industry

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Web

Bibliography | Baker Library | Bloomberg Center | Harvard Business School

Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Washington D.C., August 16, 1957. New York: United States Steel Corporation, 1957. Smith, Mark B. Toward Rational Exuberance: The Evolution of the Modern... View Details

01 Jan 2005
News

Nancy M. Barry, MBA 1975

competent team of practitioners, analysts, and managers from around the world. And she fostered the development of an organization that engaged the talents and commitment of network leaders. "To create real networks, you have to believe that the center of an operation... View Details

November 2002 (Revised March 2010)
Case

The Newsprint Industry

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Nabil I. Al-Najjar and James Pyke

Describes the 1990s consolidation on the newsprint industry. Questions whether consolidation will ever deliver on its promise. Whereas some industry observers maintain that the effects of consolidation are already visible, others argue that further consolidation is... View Details

Keywords: Five Forces Framework; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Monopoly; Mathematical Methods; Competition; Consolidation; Pulp and Paper Industry

03 Dec 2001
What Do You Think?

What Happens When the Sumo Master Learns Judo?

is happening is business as usual. Microsoft is facing a race with time and the markets to re-deploy monopoly profits from a waning desktop opportunity in order to become more competitive with sumos in other parts of the information... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

Article

Policy Implications of Weak Patent Rights

By: James J. Anton, Hillary Greene and Dennis Yao

Patents vary substantially in the degree of protection provided against unauthorized imitation. In this chapter we explore a range of work addressing the economic and policy implications of "weak" patents—patents that have a significant probability of being overturned... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Motivation and Incentives; Entrepreneurship; Competition; Policy; Innovation and Invention; Rights; Monopoly; Business Startups

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January 2020
Case

The Origins of Bell Labs

By: Tom Nicholas and John Masko

In 1947, scientists at Bell Labs invented the transistor—a tiny signal amplifier that would go on to become the fundamental building block of the digital age. But, confounding most traditional economic assumptions, it was not a vigorous startup that made this momentous... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Innovation Leadership; Technological Innovation; Patents; Monopoly; Organizational Structure; Competitive Strategy; Telecommunications Industry; Boston; Massachusetts; New York (city, NY)