Publications

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2008
Working Paper

Opening Platforms: How, When and Why?

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Geoffrey Parker and Marshall Van Alstyne

Platform-mediated networks encompass several distinct types of participants, including end users, complementors, platform providers who facilitate users' access to complements, and sponsors who develop platform technologies. Each of these roles can be opened-that... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Governance Controls; Market Participation; Digital Platforms

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26 Sep 2019
Research & Ideas

What Can the World’s Largest Refugee Camp Teach Us About the Meaning of Work?

whether we value one another as human beings.” About the Author Danielle Kost is the senior editor of Harvard Business School Working Knowledge. HBS Digital Media Producer Amelia Kunhardt produced the video interview. [Image: Azim Khan... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

27 Feb 2020
Sharpening Your Skills

How Following Best Business Practices Can Improve Health Care

for a period as medical residents turn over in teaching hospitals. Who Drives Digital Innovation? Evidence from the US Medical Device IndustryDoes large-scale technological change characteristic of an industrywide View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Health; Medical Devices & Supplies

September 2006 (Revised July 2007)
Case

SAP: Industry Transformation

By: Andrei Hagiu, Pai-Ling Yin, Daniela Beyersdorfer and Vincent Marie Dessain

SAP seeks growth in the small- and medium-sized enterprise market. To do so, it has created a platform strategy with SAP Netweaver. What are the advantages and challenges for an incumbent entering a new market? What are the benefits and challenges of implementing a... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Strategy; Digital Platforms

March 2006 (Revised February 2007)
Case

Massive Incorporated (A)

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III, Clark Gilbert and Victoria Winston

How do you go to market with a brand new product in a new industry? How does a business develop an opportunity and then adapt its strategy to ensure success? Who are the early adopters and how does a business work with them? Katherine Hays, chief operating office at... View Details

Keywords: Emerging Markets; Product Launch; Digital Marketing; Business Startups; Advertising Industry

February 2001
Case

Sun Microsystems, Inc.: Solaris Strategy

In the late 1990s, Sun Microsystems' Solaris has emerged as the dominant UNIX-based alternative to Microsoft for server operating systems. At the same time, the open source operating system Linux has appeared unexpectedly, and it is generating significant excitement... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Competition; Open Source Distribution; Standards

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2007
Working Paper

Platform Envelopment

By: Thomas Eisenmann, Geoffrey Parker and Marshall Van Alstyne

Due to network effects and switching costs in platform markets, entrants generally must offer revolutionary functionality. We explore a second entry path that does not rely upon Schumpeterian innovation: platform envelopment. Through envelopment, a provider in one... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Market Entry and Exit; Network Effects

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02 Jun 2014
Research & Ideas

Secrets to a Successful Social Media Strategy

favor of helping customers create and strengthen relationships with each other. These relationships are in exchange for the customers doing various tasks for the company for free. The distinction between digital and social strategies is a... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

20 Oct 2014
Research & Ideas

Users Love Ello, But What’s the Business Model?

that social media users are increasingly attracted to the idea of such a model. But funding it without advertising's help won't be easy. Two digital marketing experts, Harvard Business School professors John Deighton, the Harold M.... View Details

Keywords: Re: John A. Deighton & Sunil Gupta; Publishing; Financial Services

07 Jan 2015
What Do You Think?

SUMMING UP: What Are the Limits On Workplace Transparency?

problems." Nevertheless, there was enthusiasm for disclosure, perhaps using a system of disclosing "pay bands" within which holders of specific jobs are compensated. Pete described a specific example this way. "Back in the 90's View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

03 Apr 2009
What Do You Think?

How Much Obsolescence Can Business and Society Absorb?

interlinked economy. Nothing is perfect but there is no time-out that we sometimes wish we could call." At the same time, Tom Dolembo reminded us, "After many years in the digital race, I discovered it is just electrons and... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Publishing; Journalism & News

18 Feb 2002
Research & Ideas

Wrap-up: Software, Telecom, and Recovery

digital form." Telecom Shakeout HBS assistant professor Thomas Eisenmann, moderator of the panel on "Shakeout in Telecommunications," asked the assembled VCs if they are better able to add value to equipment companies or... View Details

Keywords: by Wendy Guild & Martha Lagace; Financial Services; Technology; Communications; Telecommunications

02 Apr 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, April 2, 2019

case:https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/819043-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 918-413 Gimlet Media: A Podcasting Startup When digital distribution becomes an option for an analog industry, the effects on incumbents can be devastating.... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

10 May 2016
First Look

May 10, 2016

Decline and Encarta's Emergence By: Greenstein, Shane Abstract—The experience of Encyclopædia Britannica provides the canonical example of the decline of an established firm at the outset of the digital age. Competition from Microsoft’s... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

21 Feb 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: February 21

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=52308 Executive Development Programs Enter the Digital Vortex: I. Disrupting the Demand Landscape By: Narayandas, Das, and Mihnea C. Moldoveanu Abstract—Executive development programs have... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

January 2019 (Revised March 2021)
Case

SoundCloud: Subscription Streaming?

By: Ashish Nanda, Eric Van den Steen, Andy Wu, Jeffrey Boyar and Bonnie Bennett Slater

Established in 2007, SoundCloud already boasted the second largest number of active music listeners among all streaming services and was recognized as the go-to platform for new artists by early 2014. Yet, its founders were questioning the robustness of the firm’s... View Details

January 2014
Case

Social Strategy at Cisco Systems

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, Daniel Malter and Aaron Smith

In April 2013, Jeanne Beliveau-Dunn, vice president and general manager for Learning@Cisco Systems, was planning the future of the Cisco Learning Network, an online platform hosted at Cisco.com. Since its launch in 2008, the Cisco Learning Network provided content to... View Details

Keywords: Networks; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Competency and Skills; Learning; Web Services Industry

Article

Managing Proprietary and Shared Platforms

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

In a platform-mediated network, users rely on a common platform, provided by one or more intermediaries, that encompasses infrastructure and rules required by users to transact with each other. A fundamental design decision for firms that aspire to develop... View Details

Keywords: Governance Controls; Digital Platforms; Infrastructure; Competition; Cooperation; Information Infrastructure