Chain - Publications - Faculty & Research

November 2020
Supplement

Integrating Beam Suntory (B)

By: David G. Fubini, Rawi Abdelal and David Lane

Supplements (A) case: The spring 2014 acquisition of U.S. alcoholic spirits maker Beam Inc. by Japan’s Suntory Holdings vaulted Suntory from 15th to third-largest international spirits company in the world. Yet Suntory had borrowed nearly the entire $16 billion... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Communication; Borrowing and Debt; Globalization; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Retention; Leadership; Supply Chain; Organizational Structure; Ownership; Relationships; Conflict and Resolution; Integration; Value Creation; Food and Beverage Industry; Japan; United States; Chicago

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May 2016 (Revised April 2018)
Case

Building the Digital Manufacturing Enterprise of the Future at Siemens

By: Willy Shih

This case describes the motivation for and the development of Siemens' digital manufacturing enterprise vision, which became the foundation for its implementation of Industrie 4.0. While the effort started with a purely defensive move by Anton Huber, head of the... View Details

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20 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

How Small Businesses Can Survive the Coronavirus Outbreak

National Small Business Association survey. Almost half of the 950 people surveyed said that customer demand was down, and one-third of respondents were experiencing supply chain disruptions. More than half expect the US to sink into a... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Service; Food & Beverage

09 Mar 2016
Lessons from the Classroom

In This Classroom, Beer Can Improve Your Grade

coordinating choices throughout the value chain while giving students a sense of how competitive dynamics work. A dashboard from the Strategic Brew simulation. Two years and thousands of hours in the making, Strategic Brew is the idea of... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Education; Food & Beverage

10 Jan 2005
Research & Ideas

Motivation and the Cross-Sector Alliance

their traditional crops lived in primitive conditions; thus, incorporating them into the company value chain would have a significant impact on their lives.14 In the last case of this sub-group, the use of a cross-sector collaboration as... View Details

Keywords: by James Austin, Ezequiel Reficco & SEKN research team

25 Nov 2014
First Look

First Look: November 25

priorities Americans have for Social Security. The results suggest that the value retirees place on protection against longevity risk is an important caveat to the widespread enthusiasm for a switch to a slower-growing price index such as the View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

08 Oct 2014
Research & Ideas

Who Is the Chief Sustainability Officer?

"Once you reach a point where a customer says, 'What are your policies in terms of your supply chain operations?' you better have a good handle on that." Enter the CSO. The position of CSO has been created at an increasing... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Manufacturing

May 2004 (Revised July 2004)
Case

Clarence Saunders: The Comeback King

By: Nitin Nohria and Bridget Gurtler

Follows the rise and fall of the founder of the modern supermarket, Clarence Saunders. Prior to 1915, all staple shopping took place in the market or general store, where a clerk behind a counter pulled items from shelves for customers , measured them from a barrel, or... View Details

Keywords: Inflation and Deflation; Mission and Purpose; Business Processes; Leadership; Consumer Behavior; Leadership Style; Advertising; Customer Relationship Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Order Taking and Fulfillment

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10 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

The Surprising Winners and Losers in the Retail Revolution

space that supermarkets will have on hand. This will manifest itself not just in the number of excess stores in a chain's network that will need to close but, more importantly, the excess space in every individual location that a chain... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

15 Apr 2008
First Look

First Look: April 15, 2008

important determinant of delegation and the provision of incentives. Using a sample of convenience store chains, we show that market-type dispersion is related to the degree of franchising at the chain level as well as the probability of... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

08 Mar 2016
Research & Ideas

Solving an Economic Mystery Surrounding Argentina and Chile

country is home to a range of internationally competitive firms, from Falabella, the largest department store chain in Latin America, to LATAM, the largest airline group and a member of the One World Alliance. Q: Do you foresee any better... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

17 Apr 2007
First Look

First Look: April 17, 2007

instead reflect more "top-down" interventions. We conclude with a discussion of some of the historical evidence on top-down interventions. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/07-061.pdf Alignment in Cross-Functional and Cross-Firm Supply View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

06 Mar 2007
First Look

First Look: March 6, 2007

operations. And through Arbitrage, they exploit disparities between national or regional markets, often by locating different parts of the supply chain in different places—for instance, call centers in India, factories in China, and... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

February 2021
Case

Threadless: The Renewal of an Online Community

By: Shane Greenstein, Karim Lakhani and Christian Godwin

Threadless, an online apparel company and artist community which Jake Nickell founded in 2000, continued to maintain its status as a top company in the online apparel industry during its second decade. From 2010 to 2020, Threadless continued to operate its... View Details

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04 Dec 2012
First Look

First Look: December 4

businesses have developed codes of conduct and monitoring systems to ensure that working conditions in their supply chain factories meet global labor standards. Many observers have questioned whether these codes of conduct have any impact... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

15 Dec 2014
Research & Ideas

Deconstructing the Price Tag

Belgian retailer, augments cost transparency on its website with detailed supply chain information for each component of each garment, right down to the hang tag. "This was a novel thing to do, and the advantage is probably greatest when... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Retail

13 Jan 2009
First Look

First Look: January 13, 2009

Profit Chain to Work for Unbeatable Competitive Advantage Authors:James L. Heskett, W. Earl Sasser Jr., and Joe Wheeler Publication:Harvard Business Press, 2008 Abstract Ownership behaviors have a profound impact on profit and growth.... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

23 Dec 2002
Research & Ideas

Partnering and the Balanced Scorecard

strategy. The strategy map reveals the strategic chain of cause-and-effect relationships that eventually links investment in employee skills to improved financial performance. As the senior executive of a major bank declared: Partnering... View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan & David P. Norton

21 Jul 2015
First Look

First Look: July 21, 2015

company's efforts on its entire value chain from its raw materials sourcing to the lifestyle of its end consumers. The plan especially centered on wood, which represented 60% of IKEA Group's total procurement in volume and constituted a... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 2000
Article

The Fable of Fisher Body

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Daniel F. Spulber

General Motors' (GM) acquisition of Fisher Body is the classic example of market failure in the literature on contracts and the theory of the firm. According to the standard account, GM merged vertically with Fisher Body in 1926, a maker of auto bodies, because of... View Details