Publications

July 2019
Case

Instabeat—One More Lap?

By: Shikhar Ghosh, Nicole Tempest Keller and Alpana Thapar

This case follows Lebanese entrepreneur, Hind Hobeika, an engineer and competitive swimmer who spends seven years trying to launch a wearable heartrate monitor and motion sensor to help swimmers track their performance while swimming. While the Beirut-based... View Details

Keywords: Startup; Manufacturing; Prototyping; Female Protagonist; Business Startups; Decision Making; Entrepreneurship; Information Infrastructure; Information Technology; Design; Organizational Culture; United States; Lebanon

April 2017 (Revised January 2020)
Case

Korea Telecom: Building a GiGAtopia (A)

By: Shane Greenstein, Feng Zhu and Kerry Herman

Korea Telecom (KT) has committed $4 billion in investments and R&D to build a GiGAtopia, essentially ushering in the next generation of mobile (5G) and wired infrastructure. CEO Dr. Chang-Gyu Hwang, and his team are considering which areas to prioritize in terms of new... View Details

Keywords: Mobile and Wireless Technology; Technological Innovation; Infrastructure; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Telecommunications Industry

12 Oct 2022
Research & Ideas

When Design Enables Discrimination: Learning from Anti-Asian Bias on Airbnb

Airbnb hosts of Asian descent had significantly fewer stays early in the COVID-19 pandemic—and the design of the travel site may have inadvertently enabled discrimination that shut Asians out, says new research by Harvard Business Professor Michael Luca. Hosts with... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds; Technology; Technology

August 2001 (Revised March 2003)
Case

PassAct, Inc.

PassAct is a virtual distributor for high-tech R&D components and products, taking orders from researchers within companies, passing them on to appropriate suppliers, and monitoring fulfillment. Customers order from a Web-based catalog with built-in work-flow... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Web Services Industry

Find at Harvard

06 Feb 2020
Research & Ideas

What We Learned from Reading Jeff Bezos’ Patents

answer is yes. The founder’s early fascination with innovation proved key because he remains an active inventor with many patents to his name. Bezos has been known to view Amazon as “a technology company pioneering e-commerce, not a... View Details

Keywords: by Tricia Gregg and Boris Groysberg; Retail

28 Nov 2018
HBS Case

On Target: Rethinking the Retail Website

past. Measure success in narrow terms A successful customer interaction on Target.com was narrowly defined: Only when a customer searched for a product, received recommendations, and actually purchased the product would the company bother... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Retail

November 2014 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Micromax: Scaling the Largest Indian Mobile Handset Company

By: Ranjay Gulati, Rachna Tahilyani and Alicia DeSantola

It is January 2014 and Rahul Sharma, cofounder of Micromax Informatics (Micromax), the largest Indian mobile handset company, is preparing for an emergency conference call with his private equity investors. In the last six years, Micromax had grown its annual product... View Details

Keywords: Mobile; Scaling; Indian Software Development; Consumer Behavior; Management Turnover; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Management; E-commerce; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; India

May 2012 (Revised August 2014)
Case

McKesson

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Natalie Kindred

McKesson, a large, diversified drug distribution and health care IT company, is considering development of new business offerings to help private practice physicians remain independent. The company, with $122 billion in 2010 revenues, just made its first foray into... View Details

Keywords: Health Care Industry; Health Care Policy; Organizational Transformations; Health Services; Health Care and Treatment; Business Model; Service Operations; Change Management; Corporate Strategy; Information Technology; Policy; Pharmaceutical Industry; Health Industry; United States

September 2008 (Revised August 2009)
Case

VMware, Inc., 2008

By: David B. Yoffie, Andrei Hagiu and Michael Slind

Paul Maritz took the helm of VMware in July 2008, just as the company confronted a radically new competitive environment. Since its founding in 1998, VMware had been the leading provider of virtualization software. Now it faced the kind of threat that every software... View Details

Keywords: History; Digital Platforms; Competition; Decision Choices and Conditions; Applications and Software; Business Strategy

April 2020
Teaching Note

Tailor Brands: Artificial Intelligence-Driven Branding

By: Jill Avery

Using proprietary artificial intelligence technology, startup Tailor Brands set out to democratize branding by allowing small businesses to create their brand identities by automatically generating logos in just minutes at minimal cost with no branding or design skills... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United States; North America

26 Feb 2013
First Look

First Look: Feb. 26

PublicationsCommentaries and Cases on the Law of Business Organization Authors:Allen, William T., Reiner Kraakman, and Guhan Subramanian Abstract This fourth edition is completely updated throughout. It now includes excerpts from important recent cases such as... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2008 (Revised September 2008)
Case

Apple Inc., 2008

By: David B. Yoffie and Michael Slind

In January 2007, three decades after its incorporation, Apple Computer shed the second word in its name and became Apple Inc. With that move, the company signaled a fundamental shift away from its historic status as a vendor of the Macintosh personal computer (PC)... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Leadership; Industry Growth; Corporate Strategy; Information Infrastructure; Internet and the Web; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry

30 Mar 2003
Research & Ideas

The Future of IT Consulting

to automatically direct product to geographical points of demand. Q: Can you describe some of the enablers and drivers behind the growth of the IT consulting industry? How has globalization impacted this growth? A: The enablers and... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Johnston; Consulting

22 Oct 2021
Research & Ideas

Want Hybrid Work to Succeed? Trust, Don’t Track, Employees

diverge from the typical nine-to-five. Contrary to some expectations—but consistent with years of research—that flexibility has actually spurred worker productivity to improve. In polls that Neeley has taken at companies in a variety of... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

December 2023 (Revised November 2024)
Case

Generative AI and the Future of Work

By: Christopher Stanton, Matt Higgins, Shira Aronson and Meg Shriber

Generative AI seemed poised to reshape the world of work, including the higher-wage, white-collar jobs typically pursued by MBA graduates. Informed by the latest research, this case explores generative AI's potential impacts on work, productivity, value creation, and... View Details

Keywords: AI; Future Of Work; Labor Market; AI and Machine Learning; Labor; Value Creation; Performance Productivity; Technology Industry; United States