Publications

October 1992 (Revised September 1993)
Case

L.L. Bean, Inc.: Item Forecasting and Inventory Management

By: Arthur Schleifer Jr.

L.L. Bean must make stocking decisions on thousands of items sold through its catalogs. In many cases, orders must be placed with vendors twelve or more weeks before a catalog lands on a customer's doorstep, and commitments cannot be changed thereafter. As a result,... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Risk Management; Cost Management; Risk and Uncertainty; Demand and Consumers; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Retail Industry; United States

27 Jun 2016
Research & Ideas

These Management Practices, Like Certain Technologies, Boost Company Performance

practices are not light switches you can turn on or off,” says Sadun. “It’s not like you can order your employees to buy into these processes—it’s a much more complex process of influencing behavior and persuading employees across all... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

Article

Wisdom or Madness? Comparing Crowds with Expert Evaluation in Funding the Arts

By: Ethan Mollick and Ramana Nanda

In fields as diverse as technology entrepreneurship and the arts, crowds of interested stakeholders are increasingly responsible for deciding which innovations to fund, a privilege that was previously reserved for a few experts, such as venture capitalists and... View Details

Keywords: Crowdfunding; Arts; Decision Choices and Conditions; Entrepreneurship; Investment; Fine Arts Industry; Technology Industry

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28 Oct 2014
First Look

First Look: October 28

interested in AstraZeneca, a UK company, as a way to reduce its corporate taxes. In recent years, AstraZeneca had significantly strengthened its pipeline of potential new drugs, and its board felt it was in... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

Web

Building Iconic Brands and Brighter Futures: Interview with Glossier CEO, Kyle Leahy - Recruiting

Insights & Advice 11 Dec 2023 Building Iconic Brands and Brighter Futures: Interview with Glossier CEO, Kyle Leahy Becca Carnahan Author HBS Team tag Alumni Consumer Products / Retail Student & Alumni Stories Kyle Leahy (MBA 2011) stepped... View Details

March 2023
Case

On

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Karolin Frankenberger and Sascha Mader

Founded in 2010, in just one decade, the Swiss company On had established itself as a main player in global sports footwear and apparel. Based on an unconventional strategy which one of the founders labeled as “obsessively distinct,” On grew its sales with a compound... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Environmental Sustainability; Product Positioning; Business Model; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Europe

February 2010
Background Note

Marketing Analysis Toolkit: Situation Analysis

By: Thomas J. Steenburgh and Jill Avery

Before managers can begin to formulate marketing strategies for their businesses, they must have a strong understanding of the internal and external marketing environments in which they are operating. In this note, we present three methods for collecting and analyzing... View Details

Keywords: Five Forces Framework; SWOT Analysis; Marketing Strategy; Demand and Consumers; Industry Structures; Strategic Planning

23 Sep 2022
Research & Ideas

8 Strategies to Sustain Business Innovation

help leaders more successfully innovate and change in their industries as they parse mixed messages about the global economy, with rampant inflation wearing on consumers and investors preparing for recession. Productive Tensions covers... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

Research Summary

Overview

By: Kris Johnson Ferreira

Professor Ferreira's research primarily focuses on how retailers can use algorithms to make better revenue management decisions, including pricing, product display, and assortment planning. In the retail industry, anticipating consumer demand is arguably one of the... View Details

Keywords: E-commerce; Analytics; Revenue Management; Pricing; Assortment Planning; Field Experiments; Operations; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Retail Industry

October 2005 (Revised August 2006)
Case

Haier: Taking a Chinese Company Global

By: Krishna G. Palepu, Tarun Khanna and Ingrid Vargas

In 2005, Haier, China's leading appliance manufacturer, had over $12 billion in worldwide sales and was the third-ranked global appliance brand behind Whirlpool and GE. Describes Haier's rise from a defunct refrigerator factory in China's Qingdao province to an... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Brands and Branding; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; China

Web

Frameworks & Key Concepts - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

interest rates, or its currency’s value, as classical economics insists. A nation’s competitiveness depends on the capacity of its industry to innovate and upgrade.” View Details

Web

Research Resources - Doctoral

Research Community Research Resources Our research and teaching resources are unmatched. The research and teaching resources at Harvard are unmatched by any other school. Students can make use of virtually any methodology required to... View Details

Web

Curriculum - Business & Environment

In 2018, Swedish furniture maker IKEA was undergoing a significant transformation. Challenged by the rise of online shopping and changing consumer behavior, and mourning the death View Details

December 2009
Article

Media Markets and Localism: Does Local News en Español Boost Hispanic Voter Turnout?

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Joel Waldfogel

Since the dawn of broadcasting, and especially in the past decade, Americans have turned their attention from local to more distant sources of news and entertainment. While the integration of media markets will raise the private welfare of many consumers, critics of a... View Details

Keywords: Voting; Ethnicity; Behavior; Local Range; Journalism and News Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; United States