Publications

January 2010 (Revised January 2014)
Case

Twitter

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, David Chen, Bill Heil and Aaron Smith

Twitter is a micro-blogging company that allows users to send short text updates to others. The site is used by people, including celebrities, government officials, and businesses. It helps to raise money for non-profit organizations and provides first-responders with... View Details

Keywords: Blogs; Revenue; Information Publishing; Growth and Development Strategy; Social and Collaborative Networks; Web

January 2017 (Revised May 2020)
Case

Sesame Workshop (A): Bringing Big Bird Back to Health

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ryan Raffaelli and Jonathan Cohen

Sesame Workshop was transforming in 2016. CEO Jeff Dunn had reorganized and shifted the iconic institution to respond to digital disruption and a consensus culture. This case examines his efforts to turn Sesame Workshop around. It notes Sesame's storied history and the... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership; Information Technology; Education; Media; Strategy; Education Industry

Article

Does 'Liking' Lead to Loving? The Impact of Joining a Brand's Social Network on Marketing Outcomes

By: Leslie K. John, Oliver Emrich, Sunil Gupta and Michael I. Norton

Does “liking” a brand on Facebook cause a person to view it more favorably? Or is “liking” simply a symptom of being fond of a brand? We disentangle these possibilities and find evidence for the latter: brand attitudes and purchasing are predicted by consumers’... View Details

Keywords: Brands; Marketing Effectiveness; Brand Evaluation; Peer Influence; Brands and Branding; Social and Collaborative Networks; Social Media

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23 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

Product Disasters Can Be Fertile Ground for Innovation

including a 20-article investigative series in the New York Times that discovered similar cases at other hospitals. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) started investigations of the CT devices, dozens of patients joined in a... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health; Medical Devices & Supplies

25 Sep 2000
Research & Ideas

Cyber-Marketing: Scouting the Digital Communications Frontier

ability to select and interact with consumers with little regard for time or geography. As with earlier media transformations, the greatest benefit will go to those who comprehend View Details

Keywords: by Peter K. Jacobs

06 Jun 2005
Research & Ideas

Microsoft vs. Open Source: Who Will Win?

in client operating systems. And the same will happen in the media player space unless the American or European antitrust authorities prevent it. We expect Microsoft to put all its ammunition to fight this... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

June 18, 2022
Article

In Defense of Online Anonymity

By: Michael Luca

Lack of transparency on the internet may help fuel toxic dialogue, but it also encourages honest feedback and protects people against discrimination View Details

Keywords: Transparency; Anonymity; Honesty; Social Media; Prejudice and Bias

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11 Feb 2002
Research & Ideas

Secrets of the Successful Businesswoman

had seized business opportunities despite formidable odds. They included the first African-American millionaire, Celeste Walker, a child of slaves who founded a hair care empire that targeted other African-American women; Coco Chanel, who revolutionized fashion; View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

02 Feb 2017
Cold Call Podcast

Black Business Leaders Series: The Entrepreneurship Behind Ebony Magazine

Keywords: Publishing

21 Nov 2005
Research & Ideas

The Geography of Corporate Giving

profitability. But in a review of all of the studies that have been published on the topic over the past thirty years, HBS professor Joshua Margolis and Jim Walsh concluded that the connection between social... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

28 Jan 2002
Research & Ideas

Read All About It! Newspapers Lose Web War

business. However, despite these perceived limitations, the newspaper industry largely recognized the threat that digital media posed to the traditional printed newspaper business. In fact, many industry analysts were predicting a... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Publishing; Publishing; Publishing

March–April 2020
Article

Avoid the Pitfalls of A/B Testing

By: Iavor I. Bojinov, Guillaume Sait-Jacques and Martin Tingley

Online experiments measuring whether “A,” usually the current approach, is inferior to “B,” a proposed improvement, have become integral to the product-development cycle, especially at digital enterprises. But often firms make serious mistakes in conducting these... View Details

Keywords: A/B Testing; Experiment Design; Social Networks; Product Development; Performance Improvement; Measurement and Metrics; Social Media

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December 2018
Case

CIR Group: Passing Wealth through the Generations

By: Lauren Cohen, Christopher J. Malloy and Elena Corsi

Rodolfo, Marco, and Edoardo De Benedetti had received from their father his controlling shares in COFIDE, a publicly listed holding company that held 45.8% of CIR Group, another publicly listed holding. The latter held majority shares in GEDI, Italy’s largest print... View Details

Keywords: Succession Planning; Transferring Shares; Wealth Management; Holding Structures; Family Ownership; Ownership Stake; Management Succession; Governing and Advisory Boards; Policy; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Italy

23 Nov 2009
Research & Ideas

Management’s Role in Reforming Health Care

provider organizations to bring knowledge published in the medical and nursing literatures to bear on individual patients by selecting the right therapies and the right way of... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Health

November 2000
Case

Reuters Greenhouse Fund

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Daniel Galvin

Reuters Greenhouse Fund had successfully invested in a portfolio of 79 companies working in areas relevant to Reuters Group's strategic interests. It had itself facilitated a powerful network among the companies and become a respected global venture capital firm.... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Investment; Investment Portfolio; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Financial Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Transition; Partners and Partnerships; Networks; Internet; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry