Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(1,533)
- Faculty Publications (781)
- October 2019 (Revised January 2020)
- Case
Fixing Facebook: Fake News, Privacy, and Platform Governance
By: David Yoffie and Daniel Fisher
Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook based on the idea that connecting people was a fundamentally good thing—and a way to turn a handsome profit. But from the beginning, Facebook received criticism both for how it handled user privacy and how it curated user-generated... View Details
- 2019
- Working Paper
Real Exchange Rate Behavior: New Evidence from Matched Retail Goods
By: Alberto Cavallo, Brent Neiman and Roberto Rigobon
We use a dataset containing daily prices for thousands of matched retail products in nine countries to study tradable-goods real exchange rates. Prices were collected from the websites of large multi-channel retailers and then carefully matched into narrowly-defined... View Details
- September 2019 (Revised December 2019)
- Case
Anthony Soohoo at Dot & Bo: Bringing Storytelling to Furniture E-Commerce
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Allison M. Ciechanover and George Gonzalez
The case provides students an opportunity to examine the founding of an e-commerce startup that used storytelling and compelling images to sell furniture and home accessories to millennials. The case describes the rapid sales growth the company experienced, as well as... View Details
- September 2019 (Revised December 2019)
- Supplement
Anthony Soohoo: Retrospection on Dot & Bo
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Allison M. Ciechanover and George Gonzalez
The case describes the final year of the once-promising furniture e-tailer, Dot & Bo, that included a challenging fundraising market, troubles with logistics and operations, and a team tragedy. The founder looks back at the experience and shares his learnings about... View Details
- September 2019 (Revised June 2020)
- Case
2U: Higher Education Rewired
By: Yael Grushka-Cockayne and Karim R. Lakhani
In its 2019 Partner Symposium, 2U, an online program management provider (OPM), showcased its new vision: “Career. Curriculum. Continuum. A construct for lifelong learning in the 21st century.” 2U, founded in 2008 and went public in 2014, was looking to expand beyond... View Details
- September 2019
- Teaching Note
Western Governors University: 10x Vision
By: William R. Kerr and Coelin P. Scibetta
Teaching Note for HBS No. 819-093. View Details
- Article
Improving the Rhythm of Your Collaboration
By: Ethan S. Bernstein, Jesse Shore and David Lazer
In this article, we summarize our research on the value of intermittency for complex problem solving at work and give practical advice on how organizations can improve the rhythm of their people's collaboration. Executives have been counseled to be collaborative... View Details
- September 2019
- Article
The Persistence of Broadband User Behavior: Implications for Universal Service and Competition Policy
By: Andre Boik, Shane Greenstein and Jeffrey Prince
In several markets, firms compete not for consumer expenditure but consumer attention. We examine user priorities over the allocation of their time, and interpret that behavior in light of salient tensions in policy discussions over universal service, data caps, and... View Details
- August 2019
- Case
Walmart's Omnichannel Strategy: Revolution or Miscalculation?
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Karen Elterman
This case describes Walmart's omnichannel strategy in 2018 as it battled Amazon for online retail market share. The case discusses Walmart's early forays into online retail, as well as its 2018 strategy, which aimed to integrate Walmart's enormous brick and mortar... View Details
- August 2019
- Case
Twiggle: E-commerce with Semantic Search
By: Shane Greenstein and Danielle Golan
Four years after being founded, in 2014, by former Google executives Amir Konigsberg (CEO) and Adi Avidor (CTO), Twiggle had developed a search enhancement that plugged into an online merchant’s existing framework. The company utilized advanced structuring and... View Details
- 2019
- Working Paper
The Effect of Payment Choices on Online Retail: Evidence from the 2016 Indian Demonetization
By: Chaithanya Bandi, Antonio Moreno, Donald Ngwe and Zhiji Xu
The Indian banknote demonetization in 2016 was one of the most significant international events of that year. Overnight, 86% of Indian currency in circulation was declared invalid unless exchanged for new bills. The sudden and unexpected demonetization constituted a... View Details
- 2019
- Book
The Business of Platforms: Strategy in the Age of Digital Competition, Innovation, and Power
By: Michael A. Cusumano, Annabelle Gawer and David B. Yoffie
The Business of Platforms explores the strategic, economic, and technology management challenges of digital platform businesses. We have five major themes in the book: 1) The world’s most valuable companies are all platforms, in part because platforms have... View Details
- April 2019
- Supplement
Upwork in 2019
By: David Yoffie and Allison M. Ciechanover
Stephane Kasriel, the CEO of Upwork, the leading platform for freelance labor, updates his progress on how to redesign its business model in 2019. View Details
- April 2019 (Revised June 2019)
- Case
Western Governors University: 10x Vision
By: William R. Kerr and Susie L. Ma
Western Governors University (WGU) was a nonprofit institution of higher education whose online learning model served more than 100,000 students in 2019 and was scaling rapidly. President Scott Pulsipher wanted to expand WGU’s reach to millions more with a plan called... View Details
- April 2019
- Case
Afterpay U.S.: The Omnichannel Dilemma
By: Antonio Moreno, Donald Ngwe and George Gonzalez
In 2018, Nick Molnar, the founder of the Australia-based online payment service Afterpay began its expansion to the U.S. market. The service had gained a loyal following in Australia by enabling customers to pay for online purchases through four interest-free... View Details
Keywords: Omnichannel Retail; Multi-sided Platforms; Value Creation; Business Model Innovation; Fintech; Digital Marketing; Disruptive Innovation; Business Startups; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Change Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Customer Relationship Management; Customer Satisfaction; Financing and Loans; Microfinance; Global Strategy; Marketing Channels; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Digital Platforms; Product Development; Supply Chain Management; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Networks; Network Effects; Internet and the Web; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United States; Australia
- April 2019 (Revised March 2020)
- Case
Handy: The Future of Work? (A)
By: Nien-hê Hsieh and Kieron Stopforth
Witnessing numerous lawsuits alleging that online platform companies misclassified workers as contractors when they were actually employees, Handy’s founders faced a series of decisions. Handy was an online platform business that enabled customers to book appointments... View Details
- April 2019 (Revised August 2020)
- Case
Raksul
By: Scott Duke Kominers, Masahiro Kotosaka, Nobuo Sato and Akiko Kanno
Raksul, 2018 Forbes Japan "Startup of the Year," ran an e-commerce platform drawing upon thousands of individual suppliers. Launched as a business-to-business printing services marketplace, Raksul had recently expanded to operate both a logistics/delivery marketplace... View Details
- March 2019 (Revised April 2021)
- Case
The DivaCup: Navigating Distribution and Growth
By: Ayelet Israeli
When the mother-daughter founders of DivaCup set out with a mission to disrupt the menstrual care industry with an innovative product form, they initially struggled to gain legitimacy and convince retailers to carry their unique product. Fifteen years later, the... View Details
Keywords: Female; Female Ceo; Female Entrepreneur; Female Protagonist; Health ＆ Wellness; Healthcare; Price Policies; Minimum Advertised Price; Differentiation; Positioning; Growth; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Price; Disruption; Distribution; Distribution Channels; Competitive Strategy; Competition; Growth Management; Mission and Purpose; Product Development; Product Marketing; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Advertising; Business Startups; Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Social Entrepreneurship; Social Issues; Social Enterprise; Green Technology Industry; Green Technology Industry; Green Technology Industry; Green Technology Industry; Green Technology Industry; Green Technology Industry; Green Technology Industry; Green Technology Industry; Canada; United States; United Kingdom
- January 2019
- Case
Data.gov (Abridged)
By: Karim R. Lakhani, Robert D. Austin and Yumi Yi
This case presents the logic and execution underlying the launch of Data.gov, an instantiation of President Obama's initiative for transparency and open government. The process used by Vivek Kundra, the federal CIO, and his team to rapidly develop the website and to... View Details
- January 2019 (Revised October 2019)
- Case
Glossier: Co-Creating a Cult Brand with a Digital Community
By: Jill Avery
Glossier’s proclaimed strategy was “born from content; fueled by community.” The digital-first, direct-to-consumer beauty brand had experienced rapid growth, with sales up 600% in 2017 and a customer portfolio that grew by threefold. But, its founder, Emily Weiss, was... View Details
Keywords: Brands; Brand Management; Brand Communication; Retailing; DTC; Influencer; Startup; Internet Marketing; Big Data; Crowdsourcing; Growth and Development Strategy; Social Media; E-commerce; Internet and the Web; Digital Marketing; Consumer Products Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Retail Industry; United States; North America