Browse abstracts and ordering information for case studies written and published by faculty at Stanford GSB.
For publicly available cases in this collection, Harvard Business Impact and Ivey Publishing distribute in North America, and The Case Centre and IESE Publishing in Europe.
Search the database of case studies or narrow your results by keyword, academic area, center, or initiative. Many of our cases are available to download at no charge.
The Medium Corporation seeks to change how people author, consume and engage with content on the Internet. Founded by Ev Williams, co-founder of Blogger and Twitter, the company developed a digital publishing platform and set of social network tools that…
Disappointed by how poorly his two favorite football teams were playing against each other on a Thursday night in November 2009, Warren Packard considered the other games he could watch. It was late fall and there were college basketball, college…
The Wikimedia Foundation is responsible for supporting Wikipedia and various other projects through administration, technical and financial support. Since its founding, Wikipedia has changed the way people around the world research information by allowing…
The term “conflict minerals” referred to four minerals—tantalum, tin, tungsten, and gold—that are mined in countries throughout the world, including the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). These minerals, sometimes referred to as the “3TG” minerals, were…
CODE2040 was founded by Tristan Walker and Laura Weidman Powers to create pathways to success for blacks and Latinos in the technology and entrepreneurship sector by providing mentoring and coaching for students beginning their careers. Over the course of…
Between 2010 and 2012, SolarCity experienced tremendous growth in an industry that was generally perceived to be struggling. Many other solar start-ups were failing—Solyndra, which had received a $535M loan from the U.S. government, was the highest…
The (B) case explained how Movile expanded their business, moving into the smartphone market from their core business of feature phones in Latin America. The case described the two parts of Movile’s strategy. The first was Movile’s development and launch…
The (A) case described the early days of Movile, a Brazilian mobile phone company, and debated the decision to open an office in Silicon Valley. The case went into the history of the firm and the mobile phone industry in Brazil. It discussed how the firm…
This case follows the journey of Amyris Biotechnologies from being one of the most popular clean tech startups in Silicon Valley to being an out-of-favor public company. This case explores the difficulties of changing a high capex business model and asks…
This 2015 case focuses on the evolution of Box’s management practices as the company grew from a small start-up to an organization with over 1,000 employees in five major locations. The online file sharing and cloud content collaboration service company…
The 2015 case “Royal Bank of Canada: Transforming Managers (B)” details the success of the manager improvement pilot intervention program discussed in the companion case, “Royal Bank of Canada: Transforming Managers (A).” Within one year, the division…
The 2015 case “Royal Bank of Canada: Transforming Managers (A)” discusses programs that the bank put in place between 2011 and 2013 to improve managerial effectiveness. The case looks at the traits that make good managers, how to use data to create…
“Intel’s Mobile Strategy in 2015 and Beyond” examines the company’s 2014 – 2015 strategy to become a more important mobile player. In early 2015, the semiconductor giant had virtually no presence in the smartphone market, and had only recently gained…
Susan Barney, chief financial officer of Parcel Expeditors (Parcel), a thriving same-day package delivery company headquartered in the United States, had to make some decisions. The management of Parcel was planning to take the company public in the…
On April 20, 2010, as BP p.l.c., the third-largest listed oil producer in the world, was preparing to report strong first quarter results, an explosion occurred on its drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, killing 11 workers and injuring 16 others. Over the…
Part B explores the launch of M&A Connect, a one-man initiative led by Sanat Rao, to serve as a matchmaker between viable, high-potential Indian startups and U.S.-based acquirers such as Google, AutoDesk, and Intel. Students learn how Rao approached the…
Part A of the case describes the founding of the Indian Software Product Industry Roundtable (iSPIRT, pronounced “ispirit”), a nonprofit organization formed in 2012 by a small group of Indian entrepreneurs and technology professionals who believed that…
In 2010, Cari Tuna quit her job at the Wall Street Journal to work full-time on developing a giving strategy for herself and her husband—Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz. In May 2011, the couple created the philanthropic foundation Good Ventures. Tuna…
The case tells the story of Kate Doerksen in her journey as founder and CEO of Ditto, an eyewear e-commerce company that introduced virtual fitting technology. The case covers the period from the founding of the company in 2010 to its situation in…
The Headwaters MB case describes the story of Phil Seefried, a GSB alum who co-founded a boutique investment bank, Headwaters MB, in 2001 to serve the middle market business sector. Seefried’s journey growing and managing the bank takes him on a roller…
