Synopsis
Internet Business Models rigorously analyzes the different business models employed by Internet companies. The book examines eight Internet business models: access providers, portals, content providers, retailers, brokers, market makers, networked utility providers, and application service providers. Each chapter describes the value proposition offered by companies that pursue a given model; the factors that drive their revenues, costs, and profits; and the key strategy decisions that confront companies pursuing the model, e.g., whether to pursue aggressive growth strategies; whether to diversify. Supporting each chapter are case studies (23 total) of Internet companies written during 1999/2000 by professors at the Harvard Business School.
About the Author
Thomas R. Eisenmann is an Assistant Professor in the Entrepreneurial Management/Service Management Unit at the Harvard Business School. His current research explores the returns to Internet businesses from accelerated growth strategies, i.e., from massive upfront investment in brand building and customer acquisition. Professor Eisenmann teaches "Managing Marketspace Businesses," a course in Harvard's MBA elective curriculum on the strategic and organizational challenges facing Internet startups and established companies moving online. Professor Eisenmann received his DBA (98), MBA (83), and BA (79) from Harvard University. His doctoral thesis examined consolidation patterns in the U.S. cable television industry. The thesis focused on the relationship between a company's willingness to take strategic risks and two aspects of its organizational structure: its level of diversification, and the extent of its CEO's equity ownership. Prior to entering the Doctoral Program at the Harvard Business School, Eisenmann spent eleven years as a management consultant in the New York and London offices of McKinsey & Company. As the co-head of McKinsey's Media and Entertainment Practice from 1990 through 1994, he directed teams addressing a broad range of strategic, organizational, and operational issues for clients engaged in network television broadcasting; cable programming services; newspaper, magazine, and book publishing; and motion picture production. Professor Eisenmann serves on the Board of Directors of OneMain.com, one of the ten largest U.S. Internet Service Providers (NASDAQ: ONEM) and on the Advisory Boards of many Internet startups. He lives in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with his wife Jill Greenthal, a partner in Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette's Media and Telecommunications Group (and an HBS sectionmate), and their two children.
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