Publications

April 1998 (Revised January 2000)
Case

Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.: Supply Management

By: Francis Aguilar, Paul Clark and Xin Xi He

This case depicts the supply-management practices--including planning, production, and distribution--at Pioneer Hi-Bred International, the world's leader in the genetically engineered hybrid crop-seed industry. Set in the context of a supply-management planning... View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Production; Distribution; Marketing Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; Logistics; Planning; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Biotechnology Industry

14 Sep 2010
First Look

First Look: September 14, 2010

activity. We examine the responses of U.S.-based MNEs and domestic industrial production to a set of IPR reforms in the 1980s and 1990s. Following reform, MNEs expand the scale of their activities. MNEs that... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Article

Adding Value by Talking More

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Derek A. Haas and Jonathan Warsh

The prevailing fee-for-service payment model has led health care administrators and physician practices to impose severe constraints on the time physicians spend talking, for which they are reimbursed poorly or not at all. New value-based reimbursement models, however,... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Cost Management; Health Care and Treatment; Customer Focus and Relationships; Health Industry

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Article

Product Positioning in a Two-Dimensional Vertical Differentiation Model: The Role of Quality Costs

By: Dominique Lauga and Elie Ofek

We study a duopoly model where consumers are heterogeneous with respect to their willingness to pay for two product characteristics and marginal costs are increasing with the quality level chosen on each attribute. We show that while firms seek to manage competition... View Details

Keywords: Duopoly and Oligopoly; Customers; Quality; Product Positioning; Competition; Management; Cost; Product

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Profile

Oliver Bladek

however, HBS has made me consider opportunities that I previously shunned. While I'm still keenly interested in general management (trying to get P+L and people responsibility sooner rather than later), I... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Consulting

December 2002 (Revised October 2006)
Case

Tesco Plc.

By: David E. Bell

Tesco, a supermarket chain, has been transformed from a third-rate retailer to a global leader in the past ten years. This case describes how that was accomplished. Interviews with Tesco employees explain the company's approach to understanding customers, motivating... View Details

Keywords: History; Motivation and Incentives; Leadership; Internet and the Web; Supply Chain Management; Global Strategy; Globalization; Customer Focus and Relationships; Business Strategy; Retail Industry

December 2004 (Revised December 2005)
Case

Nectar: Making Loyalty Pay

By: John A. Deighton

Loyalty Management UK (LMUK) manages British supermarket chain Sainsbury's frequent-shopper card program, called Nectar. LMUK uses Sainsbury's sponsorship as the magnet to attract other retailers into a profitable, multisponsor loyalty network. Examines the economics... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Business or Company Management; Supply Chain Management; Marketing Strategy; Networks; Marketing Channels; Advertising Campaigns; Outcome or Result; Growth and Development; Retail Industry; Great Britain

March 2000
Case

Medscape

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer and Lisa Shapiro Strovink

Medscape is a health care Web site that focuses on delivering high-quality information to health providers and consumers. This case describes Medscape's formation and business model and asks, How is this model unique and is it sustainable? View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Customer Focus and Relationships; Service Delivery; Web Sites; Information Industry

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November 2016
Case

But, It's For a Good Cause

By: Elizabeth Keenan and John Gourville

Companies have long tried to enhance consumers’ perceptions of their firms and the products they sell in a variety of ways. Such efforts include the development of a brand image that the public views favorably, as in the case of Apple. It extends to the development of... View Details

Keywords: Social Change; Marketing And Society; Social Marketing; Brands and Branding; Customers; Perception; Advertising; Advertising Campaigns; Partners and Partnerships; Trends; Environmental Sustainability

January 2009 (Revised May 2009)
Case

College Summit: Rethinking the Relationship Between Growth and Impact

By: Stacey M. Childress and Geoff Eckman Marietta

College Summit, a nonprofit organization "committed to the day when every student who can make it in college makes it to college," was faced with an important strategic decision. After growing rapidly at more than 30% a year for the last several years, founder and CEO,... View Details

Keywords: Secondary Education; Growth and Development Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Nonprofit Organizations; Education Industry

November 2001 (Revised January 2002)
Case

OSI Group

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Hal Hogan

Discusses the challenges facing a global food service supplier and the company's ability to partner with major customers, such as McDonald's. View Details

Keywords: Problems and Challenges; Food; Globalization; Service Delivery; Partners and Partnerships; Service Operations; Customers

02 Oct 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, October 2, 2018

Xu Abstract—We investigate how dynamic pricing can lead to more product returns in the online retail industry. Using detailed sales data of more than two million transactions from the Indian online retail market, where price promotions... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

August 2021
Case

Orchadio's First Two Split Experiments

By: Iavor I. Bojinov, Marco Iansiti and David Lane

Orchadio, a direct-to-consumer grocery business, needs to conduct its first two A/B tests—one to evaluate the effectiveness and functioning of its newly redesigned website, and one to market-test four versions of a new banner for the website. To do so, it will rely on... View Details

Keywords: Information Management; Technological Innovation; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Resource Allocation; Marketing; Measurement and Metrics; Customization and Personalization; Information Technology; Internet and the Web; Digital Platforms; Information Technology Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

Keywords: Development; Microfinance

2006
Chapter

The Social Dimensions of Entrepreneurship

By: Amir Licht and Jordan I. Siegel

Schumpeter's canonical depiction of the entrepreneur as an agent of social and economic change implies that entrepreneurs are especially sensitive to the social environment. We use an organizing framework based on institutional economics, in combination with lessons... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Social Institutions; Culture; Law; Social Networks; Reputation; Social Entrepreneurship; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact