Publications

01 Mar 2024
News

What is Web3?

secure, and decentralized framework where individuals own, and have greater control and sovereignty over, their digital assets and interactions within the digital realm. Blocks and Blockchains The foundational technology of Web3 is the blockchain, a View Details

02 Mar 2021

Women's Virtual Visit Week: Professor Katherine Coffman and Gender Differences

Join us for this faculty chat where Professor Katherine Coffman will discuss how gender differences in "willingness to apply" -- for things like higher paying positions, promotions, and stretch assignments -- impact the distribution of... View Details

01 Jun 2008
News

Grad’s “Claw” Goes to Market

Moeller and Forest competed last summer on the ABC reality show American Inventor; although they weren’t among the finalists, their product is the first from the show to be officially brought to market by a major corporation. (Gladiator GarageWorks, a subsidiary of... View Details

Keywords: Manufacturing

Oscar S. Wyatt, Jr.

Using his Ford automobile as collateral, Wyatt entered the gas distribution and energy pipeline business with $800 in 1955. His tenacity and determination quickly secured gas contracts throughout Texas, and in short order, Wyatt had built... View Details

Keywords: Utilities & Energy

Paul R. Andrews

Starting as a college textbook salesman in 1935, Andrews rose through the ranks of Prentice-Hall to become its CEO in 1965. During his tenure, the company produced exceptional financial returns and its distribution operations were... View Details

Keywords: Publishing & Print Media

August 2014 (Revised March 2015)
Case

Reinventing Retail: ShopRunner's Network Bet

By: Benjamin Edelman and Karen Webster

ShopRunner considers adjustments to improve its online shopping service which offers no-charge two-day shipping as well as easy returns and other conveniences. Competitors' diverse pricing models and ancillary benefits raise questions about how to structure and price... View Details

Keywords: Shopping Club; Coop; Pricing; Shipping; Marketing Channels; Global Strategy; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Information Technology Industry; Retail Industry; United States; China

June 1995 (Revised July 2006)
Supplement

Barilla SpA (D): JITD Problem Resolution

By: Janice H. Hammond

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Distribution; Sales; Demand and Consumers; Fluctuation; Problems and Challenges

July 2006 (Revised August 2007)
Case

The Mozilla Foundation: Launching Firefox 1.0 (A)

Explores the Mozilla Foundation's decisions leading up to the launch of Firefox 1.0, including its default browser, managing corporate partnerships, managing product development, and moving toward a revenue-based model. Mitchell Baker, president of the Mozilla... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Commercialization; Open Source Distribution; Partners and Partnerships; Information Technology; Social Entrepreneurship; Applications and Software; Innovation and Invention; Information Technology Industry; United States

Founding his company just as the Internet was gaining widespread usage and credibility, Bezos created the world’s largest on-line bookseller. Realizing that few bookstores, even superstores, carry more than 100,000 books, Bezos created an enterprise that could source... View Details

Keywords: Retail

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

11 Jun 2020
Blog Post

Know Your Audience - Recruiting HBS Students for Venture Capital

If your portfolio companies are interested in hiring, opportunities can be sent directly to Katja for distribution to students. A formal internship program is not the only way to work with HBS students over the summer. “We understand that... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital / Private Equity

Article

Exploring the Duality Between Product and Organizational Architectures: A Test of the 'Mirroring' Hypothesis

By: Alan MacCormack, Carliss Y. Baldwin and John Rusnak

A variety of academic studies argue that a relationship exists between the structure of an organization and the design of the products that the organization produces. Specifically, products tend to "mirror" the architectures of the organizations in which they are... View Details

Keywords: Organization Design; Architecture; Modularity; Open Source Software; Communication; Design; Governance; Management Practices and Processes; Open Source Distribution; Product Design; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Structure; Performance; Problems and Challenges; Behavior; Software

Foreseeing the demands of post-war relocation by veterans and their families, Shoen focused his efforts on the development of a cheap one-way truck rental unit, U-Haul. Shoen’s original and innovative ideas allowed him to cheaply and rapidly build U-Haul’s View Details

Keywords: Transportation

04 Mar 2014
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Managing Innovation

R. Lakhani on the keys to managing distributed innovation. What Does Nasa's "faster, Better, Cheaper" Teach About Innovation? Mission to Mars: It Really Is Rocket Science Do the successful Mars missions mean NASA again has the right... View Details

Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty

August 2024
Case

Quickmart: Sustaining Growth in a Challenging Economic Environment

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Kuria Kamau

In July 2023, Peter Kang’iri, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Quickmart, Kenya’s second-largest retail chain, sat in his Nairobi office reviewing the company’s first half financial results before the weekly executive committee (EXCO) meeting. The company was in... View Details

Keywords: Distribution; Supply Chain; Logistics; Business Strategy; Expansion; Business Earnings; Growth and Development Strategy; Strategic Planning; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Africa; Kenya; Nairobi