Publications

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February 2021
Article

Platform Diffusion at Temporary Gatherings: Social Coordination and Ecosystem Emergence

By: Tommy Pan Fang, Andy Wu and David R. Clough

Software platforms create value by cultivating an ecosystem of complementary products and services. Existing explanations for how a prospective complementor chooses platforms to join assume the complementor has rich information about the range of available platforms.... View Details

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05 Apr 2021
Blog Post

The MBA Response: A Calling to Leadership & Service

experience can be especially valuable as the pandemic continues and some traditional jobs and internships are harder to come by. Our Impact Here are some examples of how students like you have made a... View Details

June 2004 (Revised July 2005)
Case

Procter & Gamble: Global Business Services

By: Thomas J. DeLong, Warren Brackin, Alex Cabanas, Phil Shellhammer and David L. Ager

Dave Walker, vice-president of business service opportunities and chairman of the governance team at Procter & Gamble, must decide what to do with P&G's 5,700 employee Global Business Services (GBS) group. GBS brought together internal services such as finance,... View Details

Keywords: Business Units; Change Management; Decision Making; Globalized Firms and Management; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Organizational Design

17 Apr 2017
Research Event

The Most Pressing Issues for Platform Providers in the Sharing Economy

there’s truly such a thing as a winner-take-all market. While a winner-take-all mentality is widespread among venture capitalists who fund... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Service

October 2024
Case

EU's Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act

By: David B. Yoffie and Sarah von Bargen

Since the early 2020s, the EU began passing regulations on digital platforms and their marketplaces. One of the first was the Digital Services Act package, consisting of the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA). These regulations were focused on... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platforms; E-commerce; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Cybersecurity; European Union

December 1987 (Revised September 1995)
Case

IDS Financial Services

Scarce managerial talent, sales force turnover, and client attrition were potential problems underlying IDS' disappointing performance at mid-year 1987. The marketing vice president had three potential "fixes": 1) increasing or decreasing the $35 million budget for... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Salesforce Management; Performance Improvement; Financial Services Industry

Web

RCP Terms of Service - Research Computing Services

Usage and Policies RCP Terms of Service 5ms Please note that the RCS Terms of Service differ for internal (HBS) users and external (non-HBS) users, i.e., guests. Internal User Agreement for the HBS Research... View Details

Program

Leading Professional Service Firms

Summary As entry barriers rapidly disappear, competition is accelerating and reshaping the business landscape for professional service firms. Navigating this continual change successfully requires... View Details

Keywords: Professional Services; Professional Services

01 Jul 2015
Research & Ideas

A Bank That Takes Parmesan as Collateral: The Cheese Stands a Loan

Since 1953, the regional bank Credito Emiliano has accepted curious collateral for small-business loans: giant wheels of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. Known locally as Credem, the bank is the subject of a new... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Banking; Food & Beverage

09 Sep 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Quantity vs. Quality: Exclusion by Platforms with Network Effects

Keywords: by Andrei Hagiu; Technology

09 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Marketing a Country: Promotion as a Tool for Attracting Foreign Investment.

private organizations, however, the quasi-government agencies did not face the problems likely to be faced by a private agency in conducting the investment promotion tasks that are more like typical government tasks, such View Details

Keywords: by Louis T. Wells & Alvin G. Wint

25 Jun 2012
News

Complexity Kills: Keeping Customer Service Simple

April 2006
Background Note

Informing Service Management with Customer Data

By: Frances X. Frei and Dennis Campbell

Taught as the third module in a Harvard Business School course on Managing Service Operations. Explores the role of data analysis in ongoing service management. Describes how to realize the maximum amount of value from analyses and use this information in... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Design; Analytics and Data Science; Service Operations; Mathematical Methods; Value

30 Sep 2020
Blog Post

Reflecting on my service

genesis of my public service comes from growing up on Long Island, where the September 11th attacks affected me intimately. Over forty people from my hometown were killed; my uncle survived only because of a... View Details

Research Summary

Non-Monetary Compensation as a Source of Sustainable Competitive Advantage

Non-monetary compensation consists of things individuals get from their work that cannot be converted into currency in any way (e.g. duty, meaning and joy). Through an in-depth, case-based, examination of a number of organizations relying on non-monetary... View Details

June 2023
Supplement

Clash of Two Giants Simulation Exercise

By: Feng Zhu and Marco Iansiti

Many markets are organized around platforms that connect consumers with complementary applications and services. These platforms are two-sided because both sides - consumers and those providing applications or services - need access to the same platform to interact. A... View Details

Keywords: Customer Acquisition; Platform Strategy; Technology Platform; Digital Platforms; Competitive Strategy; Network Effects

05 Nov 2021
Op-Ed

How to Tap the Talent Automated HR Platforms Miss

As the global staffing shortage grinds on, corporate recruiters everywhere are relying on their online hiring platforms and automated systems to deliver the candidates they need. Too often, these tools will fail them, sidelining many qualified workers in the process.... View Details

Keywords: by Joseph B. Fuller

01 Feb 2000
News

Financial Services 24/7

Wingspanbank has joined with Lycos Inc. and Juno Online Services in an effort to attract more clients, and it is banking on retaining customers by offering benefits such as discounts when using View Details

Keywords: Susan Young

Article

Finding the Platform in Your Product: Four Strategies That Can Reveal Hidden Value

By: Andrei Hagiu and Elizabeth J. Altman

Five of the 10 most valuable companies in the world today—Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft—derive much of their worth from their multisided platforms (MSPs), which facilitate interactions or transactions between parties. Many MSPs are more valuable than... View Details

Keywords: Multi-Sided Platforms; Competitive Strategy; Value Creation