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- October 2023
- Case
Fortinet: Cybersecurity Pioneer Ken Xie Considers the Long Game
By: Tsedal Neeley, Jeff Huizinga and Emily Grandjean
Ken Xie, cofounder of cybersecurity giant Fortinet, faced a critical decision that would validate his leadership. Fortinet became the industry’s second-largest pureplay cybersecurity firm by developing differentiated hardware and investing in R&D. However, after a...
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- 2023
- Working Paper
LALIGA—From a Soccer Competition Organizer to a Global Player in the Sports and Entertainment Industry
By: Stephen A. Greyser, Kenneth Cortsen and Juan Fuentes Fernández
LALIGA, the first- and second-tier professional soccer league (known as “football” outside of the U.S. and Canada) in Spain, enters its 100th soccer season later this decade. The most popular game in the world (Giulianotti, 2012) has gone through many changes since...
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- April 2023
- Teaching Note
Netflix’s Culture: Binge or Cringe?
By: Hubert Joly, Leonard A. Schlesinger, James Barnett and Stacy Straaberg
In April 2022, streaming entertainment company Netflix lost customers for the first time in more than 10 years. Once a first mover in the streaming landscape, Netflix was facing competition from Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, HBO Max, and others. A key component of...
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Keywords:
Compensation and Benefits;
Employees;
Recruitment;
Resignation and Termination;
Retention;
Selection and Staffing;
Innovation and Management;
Innovation Strategy;
Leadership Style;
Business or Company Management;
Management Style;
Media;
Business Processes;
Organizational Culture;
Organizational Structure;
Performance Expectations;
Performance Productivity;
Creativity;
Business Strategy;
Entertainment and Recreation Industry;
Entertainment and Recreation Industry;
Entertainment and Recreation Industry;
Entertainment and Recreation Industry;
North America;
California;
Canada;
Europe;
Middle East;
Africa;
Asia;
Latin America
- 2023
- Working Paper
A Welfare Analysis of Gambling in Video Games
By: Tomomichi Amano and Andrey Simonov
In 2020, gamers worldwide spent more than $15 billion on loot boxes, a lottery of virtual items built into video games. Loot boxes are contentious, as regulators worry that they constitute gambling. In contrast, video game companies maintain that loot boxes are...
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- March 2023
- Article
Not from Concentrate: Collusion in Collaborative Industries
By: Jordan M. Barry, John William Hatfield, Scott Duke Kominers and Richard Lowery
The chief principle of antitrust law and theory is that reducing market concentration—having more, smaller firms instead of fewer, bigger ones—reduces anticompetitive behavior. We demonstrate that this principle is fundamentally incomplete.
In many... View Details
In many... View Details
Keywords:
Antitrust;
Antitrust Law;
Antitrust Theory;
Law And Economics;
Collusion;
Collaboration;
Collaborative Industries;
Regulation;
＂Repeated Games＂;
IPOs;
Initial Public Offerings;
Underwriters;
Real Estate;
Real Estate Agents;
Realtors;
Syndicated Markets;
Syndication;
Brokers;
Market Concentration;
Competition;
Law;
Economics;
Collaborative Innovation and Invention;
Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms;
Game Theory;
Initial Public Offering
- February 2023
- Case
Roblox: Virtual Commerce in the Metaverse
By: Ayelet Israeli and Nicole Tempest Keller
In 2022, Roblox had 58.8 million daily active users, including over half of all children and teens under the age of 16 in the United States. Roblox, a free-to-use “co-experience platform”, allowed users to come together in immersive 3D experiences to socialize, work,...
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Keywords:
Entertainment;
Games, Gaming, and Gambling;
Market Design;
Marketing;
Brands and Branding;
Marketing Channels;
Marketing Strategy;
Business Strategy;
Economics;
Economy;
Economic Systems;
Advertising;
Advertising Campaigns;
Digital Platforms;
Markets;
Price;
Innovation and Management;
Entertainment and Recreation Industry;
Entertainment and Recreation Industry;
Entertainment and Recreation Industry;
United States;
California;
North America;
South America;
Asia;
Europe
- January 2023 (Revised August 2023)
- Case
Nick Saban: Embracing 'The Process' of Sustaining Success
By: Ranjay Gulati and Eppa Rixey
Nick Saban, head coach of the University of Alabama football team from 2007-2022, fielded teams that won 183 of 208 games (88%), including a record-tying six national championships. Saban’s approach to coaching, known to many as “The Process,” and the consistent...
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Keywords:
Purpose;
Leadership And Managing People;
Football;
Recruiting;
Talent Acquisition;
Talent And Talent Management;
Talent Development And Retention;
Organization Change And Adaptation;
Organizational Behavior;
Sports;
Leadership;
Leadership Development;
Organizational Culture;
Organizational Change and Adaptation;
Sports Industry;
United States
- September 2022
- Case
The Pokémon Company: Evolving into an Everlasting Brand
By: Tomomichi Amano and Masaki Nomura
Super Bowl 50, the fiftieth annual championship game of the American National Football League played in February 2016, featured 52 commercials, and brands spent more than six million dollars each for a 30-second commercial slot. Surprisingly, the commercial that...
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- September 2022 (Revised November 2023)
- Case
Wordle
After sourdough bread, countertop chive gardens, and vaccine selfies came a pandemic-era trend that everyone seemed to be in on: one daily chance to guess a five-letter word and crow about your success on social media via little green and yellow squares. From a...
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- July 2022 (Revised November 2022)
- Case
Call of Fiduciary Duty: Microsoft Acquires Activision Blizzard
By: Joseph Pacelli, Jonas Heese and James Barnett
In January 2022, Microsoft announces its acquisition of the video game company Activision Blizzard, in a deal valued at $68.7 billion, which would make Microsoft the world’s third largest video game company. The deal came as Activision Blizzard faced gender pay...
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Keywords:
Accounting;
Goodwill Accounting;
Analysis;
Decision Making;
Talent and Talent Management;
Games, Gaming, and Gambling;
Ethics;
Leadership;
Risk and Uncertainty;
Mergers and Acquisitions;
Lawsuits and Litigation;
Entertainment and Recreation Industry;
Entertainment and Recreation Industry;
North America;
California
- June 2022 (Revised September 2022)
- Case
Netflix’s Culture: Binge or Cringe?
By: Hubert Joly, Leonard A. Schlesinger, James Barnett and Stacy Straaberg
In April 2022, streaming entertainment company Netflix lost customers for the first time in more than 10 years. Once a first mover in the streaming landscape, Netflix was facing competition from Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, HBO Max, and others. A key component of...
View Details
Keywords:
Compensation and Benefits;
Employees;
Recruitment;
Resignation and Termination;
Retention;
Selection and Staffing;
Innovation and Management;
Innovation Strategy;
Leadership Style;
Business or Company Management;
Management Style;
Media;
Business Processes;
Organizational Culture;
Organizational Structure;
Performance Expectations;
Performance Productivity;
Creativity;
Business Strategy;
Entertainment and Recreation Industry;
Entertainment and Recreation Industry;
Entertainment and Recreation Industry;
Entertainment and Recreation Industry;
North America;
California;
Canada;
Europe;
Middle East;
Africa;
Asia;
Latin America
- January 2022
- Article
Artificial Intelligence, Data-Driven Learning, and the Decentralized Structure of Platform Ecosystems
By: David R. Clough and Andy Wu
Gregory, Henfridsson, Kaganer, and Kyriakou (2020) highlight the important role of data and AI as strategic resources that platforms may use to enhance user value. However, their article overlooks a significant conceptual distinction: the installed base of...
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- August 2021
- Supplement
Dirk Nowitzki: Changing the Game
By: Boris Groysberg
NBA Superstar Dirk Nowitzki was unsure whether the 2018–2019 season would be his last as an NBA player. He had not faced such uncertainty since 1998, when he had navigated a difficult decision regarding the timing of his move to the NBA. He also did not know what he...
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- 2021
- Working Paper
MLS as a Sports Product—The Prominence of the World's Game in the U.S.
By: Stephen A. Greyser and Kenneth Cortsen
The purpose of this Working Paper is to analyze how soccer at the professional level in the U.S., with Major League Soccer as a focal point, has developed over the span of a quarter of a century. It is worthwhile to examine the growth of Major League Soccer (MLS) from...
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- March 2021
- Case
Astralis Group: Determining a Brand Strategy
By: Benjamin C. Esty, Mette Fuglsang Hjortshoej and Emilie Billaud
After launching a Danish esports company in July 2019, and going public in December 2019 with multiple brands associated with different games, the Astralis leadership team was contemplating a shift to a single, corporate brand. While the original arguments for...
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Keywords:
Brand Strategy;
Esports;
Video Games;
Corporate Scope;
Positioning;
Ecosystem;
Brands and Branding;
Strategy;
Business Ventures;
Business Startups;
Entrepreneurship;
Ethics;
Sports;
Competitive Strategy;
Value Creation;
Diversification;
Games, Gaming, and Gambling;
Sports Industry;
Sports Industry;
Denmark;
Europe
- February 2021
- Article
Platform Diffusion at Temporary Gatherings: Social Coordination and Ecosystem Emergence
By: Tommy Pan Fang, Andy Wu and David R. Clough
Software platforms create value by cultivating an ecosystem of complementary products and services. Existing explanations for how a prospective complementor chooses platforms to join assume the complementor has rich information about the range of available platforms....
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Keywords:
Innovation Ecosystems;
Technology Diffusion;
Hackathon;
Contagion;
Software Applications;
Software Development;
Software Engineering;
Technology Strategy;
Technology Adoption;
Technological Innovation;
Information Infrastructure;
Innovation Strategy;
Digital Platforms;
Network Effects;
Applications and Software;
Information Technology;
Technology Industry;
Technology Industry;
Technology Industry;
Technology Industry
- 2020
- Working Paper
The Twofold Effect of Customer Retention in Freemium Settings
By: Eva Ascarza, Oded Netzer and Julian Runge
The main tradeoff in designing freemium services is how much of the product to offer for free. At the heart of such a tradeoff is the balancing act of providing a valuable free product in order to acquire and engage consumers, while making the free product limited...
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- October 2020 (Revised August 2022)
- Case
Epic Games: Nineteen Eighty-Fortnight
By: Andy Wu, Miaomiao Zhang and Christopher Zhang
In the midst of intensifying public and political attention towards the market power of big technology, Epic Games in 2020 challenged the status quo that has existed for years in the Apple iOS and Google Android mobile application marketplaces and payment systems....
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- October 2020 (Revised March 2021)
- Case
Pete Carroll: Building a Winning Organization through Purpose, Caring, and Inclusion
By: Ranjay Gulati, Matthew Breitfelder and Monte Burke
Competing at the highest levels of the National Football League (NFL) requires tremendous skill, dedication and persistence. The most successful coaches in the NFL know how to draw out a higher level of performance and consistency from their players. This is typically...
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- October 2020
- Article
Collusion in Markets with Syndication
By: John William Hatfield, Scott Duke Kominers, Richard Lowery and Jordan M. Barry
Markets for IPOs and debt issuances are syndicated, in the sense that a bidder who wins a contract may invite losing bidders to join a syndicate that together fulfills the contract. We show that in markets with syndication, standard intuitions from industrial...
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Keywords:
Collusion;
Antitrust;
IPO Underwriting;
Syndication;
＂Repeated Games＂;
Markets;
Game Theory