Publications
Publications
Show Results For
-
All HBS Web
(101,117)
- Faculty Publications (52)
Page 1 of
52
Results
→
- August 2021 (Revised September 2021)
- Case
Roku: Swimming Upstream Amidst Industry Giants
By: Rory McDonald, Eric Westphal and Shengjie Zhu
- Winter 2021
- Article
How Would-Be Category Kings Become Commoners
By: Rory McDonald and Keith Krach
Category creation is the holy grail in business, but more often than not, the very companies that establish lucrative new markets don’t end up being the category kings. Why? Many executives undermine their own ventures’ standing by misinterpreting and misfiring on...
View Details
- September 2020
- Case
Apple Bets on Augmented Reality
By: Rory McDonald, David Lane and Mel Martin
In 2020, augmented reality (AR) was still a nascent technology with blockbuster potential, one which Apple was actively developing as its iPhone franchise waned. But the emergence of AR was uneven, including the disappointing Google Glass and the unexpected viral...
View Details
- September–October 2020
- Article
When It's Time to Pivot, What's Your Story?: How to Sell Stakeholders on a New Strategy
By: Rory McDonald and Robert Bremner
To succeed, a new company must rally investors, staff, customers, and the media around a good story. But often that narrative turns out to be wrong, and entrepreneurs realize they need to change direction. How that shift is communicated can have a huge impact on a...
View Details
- July 2020 (Revised October 2020)
- Teaching Note
Parrot: Navigating the Nascent Drone Industry
By: Rory McDonald, Anibha Singh and Matt Higgins
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 619-085
View Details
- June 2020
- Article
Parallel Play: Startups, Nascent Markets, and the Effective Design of a Business Model
By: Rory McDonald and Kathleen Eisenhardt
Prior research advances several explanations for entrepreneurial success in nascent markets but leaves a key imperative unexplored: the business model. By studying five ventures in the same nascent market, we develop a novel theoretical framework for understanding how...
View Details
- May–June 2020
- Article
The New-Market Conundrum
By: Rory McDonald and Kathleen M. Eisenhardt
Brand-new markets are like the wormholes of science fiction, where the usual rules of time and space do not apply. When a market has just been born, the forces of competition there are constantly in flux, it’s unclear who your customers really are, and conventional...
View Details
Keywords:
New Markets;
Business Model;
Strategy;
Framework;
Innovation and Invention;
Value Creation
- 2020
- Working Paper
Shaping Nascent Industries: Innovation Strategy and Regulatory Uncertainty in Personal Genomics
By: Cheng Gao and Rory McDonald
In nascent industries—whose new technologies are often poorly understood by regulators—contending with regulatory uncertainty can be crucial to organizational survival and growth. Prior research on nonmarket strategy largely focuses on established firms in mature...
View Details
- February 2020 (Revised November 2020)
- Teaching Note
Marcus by Goldman Sachs
By: Rory McDonald, Anibha Singh and Matt A. Higgins
- December 2019 (Revised April 2021)
- Teaching Note
Under Armour
By: Rory McDonald and Matt Higgins
Teaching Note for HBS No. 618-020.
View Details
- November 2019 (Revised December 2019)
- Case
Marcus by Goldman Sachs
By: Rory McDonald, Samir Junnarkar and David Lane
Five years on from the 2008 financial crisis, Goldman Sachs remained wounded. Revenues at the global investment bank had stagnated below pre-crisis levels, and the firm had yet to rebound from a substantial decline in securities-trading revenues. Marcus by Goldman...
View Details
- November–December 2019
- Article
Pivoting Isn't Enough? Managing Strategic Reorientation in New Ventures
By: Rory McDonald and Cheng Gao
New ventures often experience deviations from their plans that oblige them to reorient in pursuit of better fit between their evolving products and their target customers. Yet research is largely silent on how managers explain such changes and justify their ventures in...
View Details
Keywords:
Strategic Reorientation;
Technology Entrepreneurship;
Innovation;
Product Development Processes;
Organizational Adaptation;
Qualitative Methods (General);
Entrepreneurship;
Technology;
Organizational Change and Adaptation;
Strategy;
Innovation and Invention;
Product Development;
Communication Strategy
- October 2019 (Revised January 2020)
- Background Note
Evolution of the Drone Industry
By: Rory McDonald, Andy Wu, Emilie Billaud and Ryan Bayer
This note focuses on the development of the drone industry in recent years and provides insights on the drone technology, regulations, applications, market size, top players, and ecosystem. This note was written in conjunction with the case study “Parrot: Navigating...
View Details
- August 2019 (Revised January 2021)
- Case
The Walt Disney Company: Theme Parks
By: Rory McDonald, Allison Mnookin and Iuliana Mogosanu
As he seeks to place the division he leads on a firm footing for the future, Tom Staggs, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, is considering a range of investments designed either to upgrade the guest experience in the company’s existing parks or to expand access...
View Details
- June 2019 (Revised September 2019)
- Case
Parrot: Navigating the Nascent Drone Industry
By: Rory M. McDonald, Emilie Billaud and Vincent Dessain
In 2018, Henri Seydoux, CEO and Founder of Parrot, believed that his company was at an inflection point in its history. Parrot had been a European leader in consumer electronics since the 1990s, first developing Bluetooth kits for cars before moving on to electronic...
View Details
Keywords:
Forecasting and Prediction;
Disruption;
Entrepreneurship;
Corporate Strategy;
Technological Innovation;
Leading Change;
Competitive Advantage;
Technology;
Competitive Strategy;
Consumer Products Industry;
Electronics Industry;
Entertainment and Recreation Industry;
Motion Pictures and Video Industry;
Technology Industry;
Video Game Industry;
Europe;
France;
Paris
- June 2019 (Revised July 2020)
- Module Note
Purpose Brands
By: Rory McDonald, Clayton M. Christensen and Shaye Roseman
- December 2018
- Supplement
Amazon Acquires Whole Foods (B)
By: Rory McDonald, Sarah Mehta and Shaye Roseman
This short case, meant for pairing with HBS No. 615-013, “AmazonFresh: Rekindling the Online Grocery Market,” explores Amazon’s rationale for acquiring Whole Foods.
View Details
- December 2018
- Article
Ideological Misfit? Political Affiliation and Employee Departure in the Private-Equity Industry
By: Y. Sekou Bermiss and Rory McDonald
Though organizations are increasingly active participants in the political realm, little research has investigated how an organization’s heightened focus on political ideology impacts employees. We address this gap by exploring how an individual’s political ideological...
View Details
- November 2018
- Article
Disruptive Innovation: An Intellectual History and Directions for Future Research
By: Clayton M. Christensen, Rory McDonald, Elizabeth J. Altman and Jonathan E. Palmer
The concept of disruptive innovation has gained considerable currency among practitioners despite widespread misunderstanding of its core principles. Similarly, foundational research on disruption has elicited frequent citation and vibrant debate in academic circles,...
View Details
- Article
Managing Political Misfits
By: Y. Sekou Bermiss and Rory McDonald
Not all employees agree with your politics. That's OK.
View Details