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All HBS Web
(1,352)
- Faculty Publications (171)
- 2016
- Article
The Mirroring Hypothesis: Theory, Evidence, and Exceptions
By: Lyra J. Colfer and Carliss Y. Baldwin
The mirroring hypothesis predicts that organizational ties within a project, firm, or group of firms (e.g., communication, collocation, employment) will correspond to the technical dependencies in the work being performed. This article presents a unified picture of...
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Keywords:
Modularity;
Mirroring Hypothesis;
Organization Design;
Conway's Law;
Knowledge Boundaries;
Relational Contracts;
Open Source Software;
Organizational Design;
Organizational Structure;
Boundaries;
Knowledge Management;
Applications and Software
Colfer, Lyra J., and Carliss Y. Baldwin. "The Mirroring Hypothesis: Theory, Evidence, and Exceptions." Industrial and Corporate Change 25, no. 5 (2016): 709–738. (Lead Article.)
- Spring 2016
- Article
Performance Responses to Competition Across Skill-Levels in Rank Order Tournaments: Field Evidence and Implications for Tournament Design
By: Kevin J. Boudreau, Karim R. Lakhani and Michael E. Menietti
Tournaments are widely used in the economy to organize production and innovation. We study individual contestant-level data from 2,796 contestants in 774 software algorithm design contests with random assignment. Precisely conforming to theory predictions, the...
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Boudreau, Kevin J., Karim R. Lakhani, and Michael E. Menietti. "Performance Responses to Competition Across Skill-Levels in Rank Order Tournaments: Field Evidence and Implications for Tournament Design." RAND Journal of Economics 47, no. 1 (Spring 2016): 140–165.
- 2016
- Working Paper
The Reference Wars: Encyclopedia Britannica's Decline and Encarta's Emergence
By: Shane Greenstein
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 Encarta in 1993 led to sharp declines in the sales of books, which led to the distressed sale...
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Keywords:
Market Entry and Exit;
Service Operations;
Emerging Markets;
Applications and Software;
Books;
Information Technology Industry;
Information Industry
Greenstein, Shane. "The Reference Wars: Encyclopedia Britannica's Decline and Encarta's Emergence." Working Paper, April 2016.
- January 2016 (Revised January 2017)
- Case
Rumie: Bringing Digital Education to the Underserved
By: John J-H Kim and Amram Migdal
In fall of 2015, the Toronto, Canada–based education technology nonprofit Rumie had distributed thousands of computer tablets preloaded with collections of thousands of pieces of curated educational content to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in some of the most...
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Keywords:
Edtech;
Education Technology;
Social Enterprise;
Nonprofit;
Education Startup;
Technological Innovation;
Nonprofit Organizations;
Social Entrepreneurship;
Education;
Business Startups;
Education Industry;
Canada;
Africa
Kim, John J-H, and Amram Migdal. "Rumie: Bringing Digital Education to the Underserved." Harvard Business School Case 316-140, January 2016. (Revised January 2017.)
- October 2015 (Revised October 2016)
- Case
Building Watson: Not So Elementary, My Dear! (Abridged)
By: Willy C. Shih
This case is set inside IBM Research's efforts to build a computer that can successfully take on human challengers playing the game show Jeopardy! It opens with the machine named Watson offering the incorrect answer "Toronto" to a seemingly simple question during the...
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Keywords:
Analytics;
Big Data;
Business Analytics;
Product Development Strategy;
Machine Learning;
Machine Intelligence;
Artificial Intelligence;
Product Development;
AI and Machine Learning;
Information Technology;
Analytics and Data Science;
Information Technology Industry;
United States
Shih, Willy C. "Building Watson: Not So Elementary, My Dear! (Abridged)." Harvard Business School Case 616-025, October 2015. (Revised October 2016.)
- October 2015
- Case
Facebook: The First Ten Years
By: Shane Greenstein, Marco Iansiti and Christine Snively
Facebook celebrated its ten year anniversary in February 2014. Over the past decade it has grown into the largest social network in the world with one billion users. After filing an IPO in 2012 at a $104 billion valuation (the third largest IPO in U.S. history), the...
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- October 2015 (Revised September 2016)
- Technical Note
Flight: Now without Humans Aboard
By: Mitchell Weiss, Karim Lakhani, HT Kung and Kerry Herman
This note provides an overview of the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, or drones) industry in September 2015. UAVs offered many potential applications in industries as diverse as aerial imaging and photography, agriculture, construction, infrastructure inspection and...
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- Summer 2015
- Article
Investment Incentives in Open-Source and Proprietary Two-Sided Platforms
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Gaston Llanes
We study incentives to invest in platform quality in open-source and proprietary two-sided platforms. Open platforms have open access, and developers invest to improve the platform. Proprietary platforms have closed access, and investment is done by the platform owner....
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Casadesus-Masanell, Ramon, and Gaston Llanes. "Investment Incentives in Open-Source and Proprietary Two-Sided Platforms." Journal of Economics & Management Strategy 24, no. 2 (Summer 2015): 306–324.
- May 2015 (Revised September 2015)
- Case
Philips Healthcare: Marketing the HealthSuite Digital Platform
By: John A. Quelch and Margaret L. Rodriguez
In June 2014, leading healthcare and consumer technology company, Royal Philips ("Philips"), announced its HealthSuite Digital Platform to house healthcare data and enable applications used by physicians and patients. Philips had strong equity in the healthcare...
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Keywords:
Health;
Healthcare;
Digital;
Platform;
Ecosystem;
Health Care and Treatment;
Technological Innovation;
Information Technology;
Product Development;
Applications and Software;
Digital Platforms;
Health Industry;
Medical Devices and Supplies Industry;
Netherlands;
United States
Quelch, John A., and Margaret L. Rodriguez. "Philips Healthcare: Marketing the HealthSuite Digital Platform." Harvard Business School Case 515-052, May 2015. (Revised September 2015.)
- April 2015
- Teaching Plan
Codecademy: Monetizing a Movement?
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Lisa Mazzanti
This is a Teaching Plan for the case on Codecademy, an open-platform, online community for learning computer programming, launched in 2011. By 2014, the company had raised a total of $12.5 million in funding and was, on many fronts, an overwhelming success. However,...
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- March 2015
- Case
BOLT: Seed Venture Capital Firm
By: William A. Sahlman and Robert F. White
BOLT is a different kind of seed venture capital firm built to serve the needs of early-stage startups at the intersection of hardware and software.
In the past decade, the cost of entrepreneurial experimentation has dropped dramatically, particularly in web... View Details
In the past decade, the cost of entrepreneurial experimentation has dropped dramatically, particularly in web... View Details
Keywords:
Entrepreneurial Finance;
Accelerator;
Entrepreneurship;
Finance;
Venture Capital;
Applications and Software;
Information Infrastructure;
Strategy
Sahlman, William A., and Robert F. White. "BOLT: Seed Venture Capital Firm." Harvard Business School Multimedia/Video Case 815-702, March 2015.
- January 2015 (Revised May 2018)
- Case
$19B 4 txt app WhatsApp...omg!
By: David Collis, Ashley Hartman and Aakash Mehta
In February 2014, Facebook announced the acquisition of WhatsApp for $19 billion. WhatsApp, founded in 2009, was a relatively young company that employed only 50 people and earned merely $10 million in revenue in 2013. It was one of many mobile messaging services that...
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Keywords:
WhatsApp;
Facebook;
Mobile Messaging;
Social Network;
Acquisitions;
Value Added;
Strategy Alignment;
Monetization;
Social Platforms;
Technology;
Strategy;
Corporate Strategy;
Acquisition;
Communication Technology;
Social and Collaborative Networks;
Value Creation;
Social Media;
Applications and Software;
Digital Platforms;
Communications Industry;
Information Technology Industry
Collis, David, Ashley Hartman, and Aakash Mehta. "$19B 4 txt app WhatsApp...omg!" Harvard Business School Case 715-441, January 2015. (Revised May 2018.)
- 2015
- Working Paper
Crowdsourced Digital Goods and Firm Productivity: Evidence from Open Source Software
By: Frank Nagle
As firms increasingly rely on crowdsourced digital goods, understanding their impact on productivity becomes critical. This study measures the firm-level productivity impact of one such good, non-pecuniary (free) open source software (OSS). The results show a...
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Nagle, Frank. "Crowdsourced Digital Goods and Firm Productivity: Evidence from Open Source Software." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 15-062, January 2015. (Revised June 2015.)
- January 2015 (Revised March 2017)
- Case
New Urban Mechanics
By: Mitchell Weiss
Funding to scale Citizens Connect, Boston's 311 app, is both a blessing and a burden and tests two public entrepreneurs. In 2012, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts provides Boston's Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics with a grant to scale Citizens Connect across the...
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Keywords:
Public Entrepreneurship;
Civic Technology;
Government Innovation;
Civic Innovation;
Cities;
New Urban Mechanics;
Thomas. M. Menino;
Chris Osgood;
Nigel Jacob;
Connected Bits;
SeeClickFix;
Ben Berkowitz;
Eric Carlson;
Dave Mitchell;
Government Technology;
Open Innovation;
Open Source Software;
Citizens Connect;
Commonwealth Connect;
Entrepreneurship;
Innovation and Invention;
Innovation Leadership;
Innovation and Management;
Open Source Distribution;
Public Administration Industry;
Information Technology Industry;
Boston
Weiss, Mitchell. "New Urban Mechanics." Harvard Business School Case 315-075, January 2015. (Revised March 2017.)
- August 2014
- Case
Opening the Valve: From Software to Hardware (A)
By: Ethan Bernstein, Francesca Gino and Bradley Staats
Valve, one of the world's top video game software companies, has also become an iconic example of an organization with virtually no hierarchy. A 400-person organization, Valve's unique organizational form (described in detail in the case and accompanying employee...
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Keywords:
Valve;
Self-Managed Organizations;
Organization Design;
Strategy;
Flat Organization;
Video Games;
Organization Alignment;
Family Business;
Steam;
Steam Machine;
Design;
Games, Gaming, and Gambling;
Human Resources;
Collaborative Innovation and Invention;
Technological Innovation;
Leadership Style;
Management Practices and Processes;
Organizational Design;
Organizational Structure;
Organizational Culture;
Organizational Change and Adaptation;
Groups and Teams;
Alignment;
Software;
Hardware;
Video Game Industry;
Seattle
Bernstein, Ethan, Francesca Gino, and Bradley Staats. "Opening the Valve: From Software to Hardware (A)." Harvard Business School Case 415-015, August 2014.
- August 2014 (Revised August 2015)
- Supplement
Opening the Valve: From Software to Hardware (B)
By: Ethan Bernstein, Francesca Gino and Bradley Staats
Valve, one of the world's top video game software companies, has also become an iconic example of an organization with virtually no hierarchy. A 400-person organization, Valve's unique organizational form (described in detail in the case and accompanying employee...
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Keywords:
Valve;
Self-Managed Organizations;
Organization Design;
Strategy;
Flat Organization;
Video Games;
Organization Alignment;
Family Business;
Steam;
Steam Machine;
Design;
Games, Gaming, and Gambling;
Human Resources;
Collaborative Innovation and Invention;
Technological Innovation;
Leadership Style;
Management Practices and Processes;
Organizational Design;
Organizational Structure;
Organizational Culture;
Organizational Change and Adaptation;
Groups and Teams;
Alignment;
Software;
Hardware;
Video Game Industry;
Seattle
Bernstein, Ethan, Francesca Gino, and Bradley Staats. "Opening the Valve: From Software to Hardware (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 415-016, August 2014. (Revised August 2015.)
- August 2014
- Case
Netflix: Designing the Netflix Prize (A)
By: Karim R. Lakhani, Wesley M. Cohen, Kynon Ingram, Tushar Kothalkar, Maxim Kuzemchenko, Santosh Malik, Cynthia Meyn, Greta Friar and Stephanie Healy Pokrywa
In 2006, Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, was looking for a way to solve Netflix's customer churn problem. Netflix used Cinematch, its proprietary movie recommendation software, to promote individually determined best-fit movies to customers. Hastings determined that a...
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Keywords:
Crowdsourcing;
Prizes;
Digitization;
Algorithms;
Recommendation Software;
Disruption;
Transformation;
Collaborative Innovation and Invention;
Technological Innovation;
Knowledge Sharing;
Applications and Software;
Motion Pictures and Video Industry;
Entertainment and Recreation Industry;
Technology Industry;
United States
Lakhani, Karim R., Wesley M. Cohen, Kynon Ingram, Tushar Kothalkar, Maxim Kuzemchenko, Santosh Malik, Cynthia Meyn, Greta Friar, and Stephanie Healy Pokrywa. "Netflix: Designing the Netflix Prize (A)." Harvard Business School Case 615-015, August 2014.
- 2014
- Other Article
Communicating Change: When Identity Becomes a Source of Vulnerability for Institutional Challengers
By: Ryann Elizabeth Manning, Julie Battilana and Lakshmi Ramarajan
Social movements challenge institutions through two related communication processes: articulating collective action frames and constructing collective movement identity. We argue that frames not only express movement identity, but also provide openings through which...
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Keywords:
Identity Threat;
Institutional Change;
Social Movements;
Framing;
Social Issues;
Identity;
Organizational Culture;
Change
Manning, Ryann Elizabeth, Julie Battilana, and Lakshmi Ramarajan. "Communicating Change: When Identity Becomes a Source of Vulnerability for Institutional Challengers." Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings (2014): 453–458.
- May 2014
- Article
Digital Dark Matter and the Economic Contribution of Apache
By: Shane Greenstein and Frank Nagle
Researchers have long hypothesized that research outputs from government, university, and private company R&D contribute to economic growth, but these contributions may be difficult to measure when they take a non-pecuniary form. The growth of networking devices and...
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Keywords:
Open Source;
Apache;
Economic Measurement;
Digital Economics;
Measurement and Metrics;
Open Source Distribution;
Internet and the Web;
Information Technology;
Applications and Software;
Economic Growth;
Research and Development;
Web Services Industry;
Information Technology Industry;
United States
Greenstein, Shane, and Frank Nagle. "Digital Dark Matter and the Economic Contribution of Apache." Research Policy 43, no. 4 (May 2014): 623–631. (Lead Article.)
- January 2014 (Revised May 2015)
- Case
Open English
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Lisa Mazzanti
Open English, a Miami-based startup offering online English language learning services, had more than 30,000 active students across Latin America in 2012. The company had just closed a $43 million financing round in order to rapidly scale its service to the next level....
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Keywords:
Technology Strategy;
Product Management;
Startup;
Online Learning;
Digital Platforms;
Entrepreneurship;
Business Startups;
Technology Industry;
Miami;
Venezuela
Bussgang, Jeffrey J., and Lisa Mazzanti. "Open English." Harvard Business School Case 814-020, January 2014. (Revised May 2015.)