Publications

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19 Mar 2014
News

A Brand Manager's Guide to Losing Control

19 Apr 2021
News

Trump Wants You to Boycott Coke. His Properties Are Still Serving It

March 2008 (Revised June 2011)
Case

MySpace

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, David T. Chen and Carin-Isabel Knoop

The case, set in late 2007, examines what MySpace—the largest online social network—should do to respond to its agile competitor, Facebook. Since its inception MySpace had experienced phenomenal growth, acquiring 20 million members in its first 20 months of operation,... View Details

Keywords: Open Source Distribution; Partners and Partnerships; Social and Collaborative Networks; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Internet and the Web; Digital Platforms; Information Technology Industry

November 2012 (Revised June 2013)
Case

GREE, Inc.

By: Andrei Hagiu and Masahiro Kotosaka

In 2012, GREE was one of the world's most profitable mobile social gaming companies. Its success in Japan was due both to its in-house games and to the development platform that it offered to third-party game developers. Its biggest challenge was to replicate the... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Technology; Japan

01 Sep 2013
News

Who Are We?

SOCIAL MEDIA James Kondo Managing Director, East Asia, Twitter M. James Kondo 103 alumni work in social media 41 at Facebook 31 at LinkedIn 7 at Twitter High Tech: 135 at Google 104 at Microsoft 23 at Apple... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Julia Hanna; Dan Morrell; social media,; Twitter; SodaStream; consulting; consultant; CEO; farming; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; Information; Agriculture; Food Manufacturing; Manufacturing; Rail Transportation; Transportation

April 2013 (Revised October 2013)
Case

National Instruments

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Keri Pearlson and Natalie Kindred

This case explores the use of social media to support product design, customer support, marketing and HR activities at National Instruments (NI). Based in Austin, Texas, with over $1 billion in 2011 sales, NI designs, produces, and sells software and hardware platforms... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Structure; Applications and Software; Organizational Culture; Technological Innovation; Digital Platforms; Innovation and Management; Media; Management Systems; Social and Collaborative Networks; Information Technology Industry; Service Industry; Texas

December 2022 (Revised June 2023)
Case

Hacking the U.S. Election: Russia's Misinformation Campaign

By: Shikhar Ghosh

The case discusses the relatively low technology approach used by Russia to influence the U.S. Presidential Election in 2016. Although political parties manipulating the media was not a new phenomenon, the Russians ran a broad, well-financed, and sophisticated social... View Details

Keywords: Political Elections; International Relations; Social Media; Power and Influence; Information; Russia; United States

January 2021 (Revised August 2021)
Case

ByteDance: TikTok and the Trials of Going Viral

By: William C. Kirby and John P. McHugh

In 2020, TikTok became the most valuable start-up ever. The short-form, video-sharing social media platform emerged as the crown jewel of the Chinese technology firm ByteDance, realizing 850 million monthly users and an estimated worth of $180 billion. However, a... View Details

September 2011
Module Note

Orientation to Leadership Intelligence Days, 2011

By: Joshua D. Margolis and Anthony J. Mayo

Julie Bornstein, senior vice president of Sephora Direct, is seeking to double her budget for social media and other digital marketing initiatives for 2011. A number of digital efforts implemented in the past two years seem to be bearing fruit and there is a desire to... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Borrowing and Debt; Investment Return; Resource Allocation; Marketing Communications; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Online Technology; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

26 Jul 2022
Research & Ideas

Burgers with Bugs? What Happens When Restaurants Ignore Online Reviews

scathing review. "Review sites should be careful in making sure that the freshness of reviews is coherent with current status." It cuts both ways: Restaurants can manipulate users to write positive reviews by offering discounts—or even by writing reviews themselves.... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin; Entertainment & Recreation; Food & Beverage; Retail

November 2011 (Revised May 2012)
Case

SecondMarket—Providing Liquidity for Shareholders of Privately Held iContact

By: William A. Sahlman, Ramana Nanda and James McQuade

In 2011, SecondMarket was an online platform that facilitated secondary transactions of illiquid assets, including private company stock. This case explores reasons for the decline in small-cap IPOs in the United States from the 1990s to the 2000s and how the emergence... View Details

Keywords: Business and Shareholder Relations

February 22, 2023
Article

How to Seed Organic Marketing in a Video-First World

By: Ayelet Israeli, Leonard A. Schlesinger and Matt Higgins

Early direct-to-consumer (DTC) companies relied on plentiful capital and low-cost digital marketing to power growth. But as this sector has matured, capital is more constrained, social media is more cluttered, and customer acquisition costs are rising. DTC companies... View Details

Keywords: Online Business; Ecommerce; E-commerce; E-Commerce Strategy; Omnichannel Retail; Omnichannel Retailing; Influencer Marketing; Consumer; Organic Growth; Video Advertising; Promotion; Celebrities; Online Advertising; Online Channel; Online Communities; Online Community; Go To Market Strategy; Platform; Media; Media Content; Digital; Digital Culture; Digital Influencers; Direct To Consumer Marketing; Direct-to-consumer; Innovation ＆ Entrepreneurship; Innovation; Sales; Digital Platforms; Digital Marketing; Digital Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Internet and the Web; Advertising; Business Model; Growth Management; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Marketing Channels; Marketing Communications; Communication Strategy; Innovation Strategy; Retail Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Fashion Industry; Advertising Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; United States; North America

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June 2014
Case

Going Social: Durex in China

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski and Aaron Smith

When Reckitt Benckiser (RB), a leading consumer goods company, first entered China, it encountered significant challenges. RB's strategy relied on selling high margin products supported by cost-effective advertising and distribution, but the highly competitive Chinese... View Details

Keywords: Distribution; Multinational Firms and Management; Internet and the Web; Marketing Communications; Brands and Branding; Consumer Products Industry; China

16 Jan 2018
News

Facebook, BlackRock, and the Case for Purpose-Driven Companies

July 2010 (Revised September 2012)
Case

Public Architecture

By: Lakshmi Ramarajan, Christopher Marquis and Bobbi Thomason

Public Architecture is a non-profit architecture company dedicated to creating social and professional change through design for the public good. Public has focused on three strategies to create change: 1) promoting the design community's commitment to pro bono work,... View Details

Keywords: Design; Innovation and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Nonprofit Organizations; Business Strategy; Integration

27 Nov 2006
Research & Ideas

Manly Men, Oil Platforms, and Breaking Stereotypes

Harvard Business School professors often travel into the field to conduct business research, but it's a safe bet none have had the experience of Professor Robin Ely. She and coauthor Debra Meyerson of Stanford University took helicopter trips to deep-water oil View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Energy; Utilities

08 May 2023
Research & Ideas

How Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric Crushed Crowdfunding for Minority Entrepreneurs

according to Kerr. However, there might be ways for Kickstarter and similar platforms to offset or at least mitigate some of these tendencies and trends. Minority entrepreneurs are less likely to have projects promoted as “staff picks” on... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis

October 2021
Case

Sparking Growth at Consumer Reports

By: Christina Wallace

Consumer Reports (CR) is a nonprofit organization that traditionally provided independent testing and research on consumer goods. With the need to diversify its audience and revenue streams CR partnered with market research firm Spark No. 9 to identify potential... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Management; Innovation; Entrepreneurship; Marketing; Social Media; Innovation and Management; Nonprofit Organizations