Digital - Publications - Faculty & Research

December 2015 (Revised February 2016)
Case

Ocado

By: José Alvarez, David E. Bell and Damien McLoughlin

In 2015, U.K.-based Ocado was the world's largest pure player in the online home-delivery grocery business and was gaining a growing share of the highly competitive U.K. grocery market. Ocado had made heavy investments in technology, including a highly automated... View Details

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February 2014
Article

Responses to Entry in Multi-Sided Markets: The Impact of Craigslist on Local Newspapers

By: Robert Seamans and Feng Zhu

How do firms respond to entry in multi-sided markets? We address this question by studying the impact of Craigslist, a website providing classified-advertising services, on local U.S. newspapers. We exploit temporal and geographical variation in Craigslist's entry to... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Market Entry and Exit; Internet and the Web; Newspapers; Advertising; Advertising Industry; Journalism and News Industry

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June 2013 (Revised August 2013)
Case

AVA.ph: Growing a Filipino E-Commerce Company

By: William R. Kerr and Henry Motte-Munoz

AVA is a three-year old e-commerce company in the Philippines. From its early start mimicking the Gilt Groupe concept of online flash sales, the company has grown into a broader e-commerce platform for local fashion commerce. Oliver Segovia needs to evaluate where AVA... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Business Growth and Maturation; Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Fashion Industry; Retail Industry; Philippines

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2012
Chapter

IP Modularity in Software Ecosystems: How SugarCRM's IP and Business Model Shape Its Product Architecture

By: Josef Waltl, Joachim Henkel and Carliss Y. Baldwin

Keywords: Business Model; Digital Platforms; Open Source Distribution; Complexity; Applications and Software; Intellectual Property

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October 2018
Case

American Family Insurance and the Artificial Intelligence Opportunity

By: Rajiv Lal and Scott Johnson

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07 Feb 2012
First Look

First Look: February 7

this case:http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/412053-PDF-ENG Samasource: Give Work, Not Aid Francesca Gino and Bradley R. StaatsHarvard Business School Case 912-011 Samasource sought to use work, not aid, for economic development. The company secured contracts for... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Summer 2014
Article

When Does a Platform Create Value by Limiting Choice?

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Hanna Halaburda

We present a theory for why it might be rational for a platform to limit the number of applications available on it. Our model is based on the observation that even if users prefer application variety, applications often also exhibit direct network effects. When there... View Details

Keywords: Platform Governance; Direct Network Effects; Indirect Network Effects; Complements; Tragedy Of The Commons; Equilibrium Selection; Coordination; Foresight; Strategy; Value Creation; Digital Platforms; Balance and Stability; Decision Choices and Conditions; Consumer Behavior; Applications and Software; Network Effects

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22 May 2020
In Practice

Post-COVID Health Care: More Screens, Less Red Tape?

of Leadership Development, Emeritus. Ariel D. Stern: Remote monitoring will create more value We have already seen a rapid wave of digital transformation in health care and that is likely to continue. The explosion of telemedicine and... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

07 Apr 2015
First Look

First Look: April 7

Digital Platform: A Playbook for Strategists By: Edelman, Benjamin G. Abstract—The ubiquity of Internet access has caused a sharp rise in the number of businesses offering platforms that connect users for communication or commerce.... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

August 2024 (Revised November 2024)
Case

Mercado Bitcoin: M&A, IPO, or Series B?

By: Raymond Kluender, Emanuele Colonnelli, Sabrina T. Howell and Karina Souza

In April 2021, Brazilian cryptocurrency platform Mercado Bitcoin, had to decide how to scale: go public, M&A with a bank, or take a VC big check. In a highly volatile market, Roberto Dagnoni, chairman of the board, viewed the unprecedent crypto momentum as a window of... View Details

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16 Oct 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, October 16, 2018

digitally enabled open platforms. I go on to argue that the competitive success of open platforms against closed platforms gave rise to the "vertical-to-horizontal" transition in the computer industry in the 1980s and 1990s.... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

13 Feb 2017
Research & Ideas

Paid Search Ads Pay Off for Lesser-Known Restaurants

For business executives trying to decide where exactly in the digital realm to invest their advertising dollars, new research indicates that paid search ads on review sites such as Yelp can be a good way to go—at least for small,... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Food & Beverage

10 Jul 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, July 10, 2018

expenditures under the entry of new generation lab managers. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=46697 Executive Education in the Digital Matrix: The Disruption of the Supply Landscape By: Moldoveanu,... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

February 2006
Case

Millions of Customers and the Search for a Business: the Challenge of IRC-Hispano

Like many online services, IRC-Hispano, the world's largest Spanish-language chat organization, has many customers but sees few revenues. As an association, its structure presents many limitations and hurdles to overcome involving investing in technology platform... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Decision Choices and Conditions; Digital Platforms; Technology Adoption; Internet and the Web; Organizational Structure; Technological Innovation; Revenue; Web Services Industry; Technology Industry; Spain

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02 Sep 2016
Op-Ed

The Twitter Election

John Quelch is the Charles Edward Wilson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School where he teaches Strategic Marketing Management in the Advanced Management Program.Professor Thales Teixeira teaches Digital... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch and Thales Teixeira

29 May 2001
Research & Ideas

How Technological Disruption Changes Everything

who are focused on their existing and most profitable markets and don't see the threat coming from below. Exhibit A: The death of Digital Equipment Corp., which, along with a string of other minicomputer firms, was taken down by the PC... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Health

19 Apr 2016
First Look

April 19, 2016

Purchase this case: https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/316142-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 316-140 Rumie: Bringing Digital Education to the Underserved In fall of 2015, the Toronto, Canada–based education technology... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 20, 2024
Article

Porter’s Five Forces and Competitive Advantage in Web3

By: Scott Duke Kominers and Liang Wu

Competitive strategy — the art of crafting and executing plans to achieve an advantageous position in the market — is integral to any business, and especially relevant for platforms because it determines their ability to achieve network effects and scale. But web3... View Details

Keywords: Five Forces Framework; Competitive Strategy; Business Strategy; Network Effects; Digital Transformation

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September 2013
Case

Advanced Leadership Pathways: David Weinstein and Write the World

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Juliane Calingo Schwetz and Patricia Bissett Higgins

David Weinstein, a lawyer and former Chief Administrative Officer of mutual fund giant Fidelity Investments, launched Write the World, a proprietary online platform that included a writing curriculum, essay prompts in distinct subject matter, and access to expert... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Expansion; Social Entrepreneurship; Education; Business Startups; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving

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December 2012 (Revised September 2022)
Case

BabbaCo

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Gaurav Jain

Having just raised a Series B financing, the case protagonist is faced with a tough decision: should she "step on the gas" and scale the customer base, or continue focusing on fine-tuning the product and business model. The case describes the various marketing channels... View Details