Publications

November 1999 (Revised June 2000)
Case

VerticalNet (www.verticalnet.com)

By: Das Narayandas

VerticalNet, a leading creator of targeted business-to-business vertical trade communities on the Internet, is trying to expand its model to facilitate e-commerce. Mark Walsh, the CEO of VerticalNet, has to decide how far he can extend the firm's business model without... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Decisions; Digital Platforms; Expansion; Internet and the Web

May 2019
Teaching Note

JUUL and the Vaping Revolution

By: Michael W. Toffel, Trevor Fetter, John Masko and Sarah Mehta

Teaching Note for HBS No. 619-006. View Details

14 Feb 2023
News

Dean Datar Meets with Alumni in San Francisco

technology to ensure that our two-year program is a competitive advantage. We must move to a dynamic model that prepares students to lead in a data-driven and digital world, to seek business opportunities in... View Details

01 Jun 1997
News

Competition and Strategy Unit at HBS Sets Pace In Its Field

practice." Indeed, C&S faculty have recently published a number of books that have been well received in the academic and business press. Professor Adam M. Brandenburger's Co-opetition, for instance, is a Business Week bestseller while Professor David B. Yoffie's... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young

February 2024
Case

Does “Matter” Matter? Amazon and Open Standards in the Smart Home Industry

By: Frank Nagle

In early 2023, the smart home industry stood at a pivotal juncture. The recent launch of “Matter” version 1.0, an ambitious interoperability standard developed by the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), promised to unify a fragmented market plagued by incompatible... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Resource Allocation; Standards; Business Strategy

2023
Working Paper

Scapegoating and Discrimination in Times of Crisis: Evidence from Airbnb

By: Michael Luca, Elizaveta Pronkina and Michelangelo Rossi

We present evidence that discrimination against Asian-American Airbnb users sharply increased at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a DiD approach, we find that hosts with distinctively Asian names experienced a 20 percent decline in guests relative to hosts... View Details

Keywords: Discrimination; Behavioral Economics; Market Design; Health Pandemics; Prejudice and Bias; Digital Platforms; Design

Article

Product Quality and Entering Through Tying: Experimental Evidence

By: Hyunjin Kim and Michael Luca

Dominant platform businesses often develop products in adjacent markets to complement their core business. One common approach used to gain traction in these adjacent markets has been to pursue a tying strategy. For example, Microsoft pre-installed Internet Explorer... View Details

Keywords: Tying; Platform Strategy; Google; Product; Quality; Digital Platforms; Strategy; Market Entry and Exit

Find at Harvard

December 2018
Case

Choosy

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Julia Kelley

Founded in 2017, Choosy is a data-driven fashion startup that uses algorithms to identify styles trending on social media. After manufacturing similar items using a China-based supply chain, Choosy sells them to consumers through its website and social media pages.... View Details

01 Jun 2014
News

Liberal Smarts

me question more. It makes me consider a greater spectrum of factors when I make decisions. Is the Hyderabad campus just the beginning? We want to set up five colleges in different parts of the country and connect them through digital... View Details

Keywords: Dan Morrell; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

Web

Women on Boards: How Lara Druyan and Ann Lucena Are Shaping the Future of Corporate Leadership - Blog: RGE Report

cyber and AI technologies, ensuring they can meaningfully support organizations navigating rapid technological changes. When it comes to advising on digital transformation, she works from basic product... View Details

July 2022
Case

Metaverse Seoul

By: Mitchell Weiss and Samantha Markowitz

In May 2022, the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) launched the pilot of Metaverse Seoul, a government-run metaverse. SMG had delivered a virtual version of Seoul’s mayor’s office. The team aimed to gain insights as they worked towards building a broad, immersive,... View Details

Keywords: Metaverse; Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Government Administration; Public Administration Industry; South Korea; Asia

01 Sep 2006
News

Notebook

if you walk into Best Buy and purchase a cell phone, we run your credit score and activate the account so you can walk out with a phone that’s ready to use. We tie together the retailers that sell digital services with the providers of... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services; Telecommunications; Information

01 Mar 2017
News

Swimming with the Stream

some point.” Release day Old Model: Use videos to build buzz New model: Use videos to make sales When she was working as a digital analyst at Interscope Records before HBS, Gandhi identified a common pattern: Labels would first release a... View Details

Keywords: Dan Morrell

05 Apr 2022
Blog Post

The HBS New Venture Competition Turns 25: Celebrating A Quarter Century of Innovation and Entrepreneurship

for the $10,000 Tough Technology Prize (pdf). “Entrepreneurship is an integral component of the HBS experience, as it gives students and alumni a chance to create a product or service that can effect real change,” said HBS Dean Srikant... View Details

April 2009 (Revised August 2009)
Case

Linden Lab: Crossing the Chasm

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

In early 2008, managers at Linden Lab, creator of the virtual world Second Life, faced decisions about the company's growth strategy. Despite profound initial skepticism about demand for a user-generated virtual world that was not a traditional game, Second Life had... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Demand and Consumers; Infrastructure; Technology Adoption; Digital Platforms

01 Sep 2012
News

Hierarchy's Last Stand

humiliated. Higher status used to be equated with wisdom. A person at the top, or anyone older and more experienced, could claim to know more than those below. He could have the final word, issue decisions in a puff of smoke, and tell underlings what to do. Not any... View Details

Keywords: Rosabeth Moss Kanter; Corporate Services

Other Article

Online Discounting: Who is Leading the Race to the Bottom?

By: Ayelet Israeli, Eric Anderson and Anne Coughlan

A short review of the finidings in: Israeli, Ayelet, Eric Anderson, and Anne Coughlan. "Minimum Advertised Pricing: Patterns of Violation in Competitive Retail Markets." Marketing Science 35, no. 4 (July–August 2016): 539–564. View Details

Keywords: Pricing; Price Policies; Pricing Policies; Discounting; Retailing; Retailing Industry; Minimum Advertised Price; Ecommerce; E-Commerce Strategy; Price; Distribution Channels; Distribution; Digital Marketing; E-commerce; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United States