Publications

06 Jun 2023
Cold Call Podcast

The Opioid Crisis, CEO Pay, and Shareholder Activism

Keywords: Re: Suraj Srinivasan; Health; Pharmaceutical; Distribution

Summer 2025
Article

Dynamic Competition for Customer Memberships

By: Cristian Chica, Julian Jimenez-Cardenas and Jorge Tamayo

A competitive two-period membership (subscription) market is analyzed. Two symmetric firms charge a “membership” fee that allows consumers to buy products or services at a given unit price for both periods. Firms can choose between long- or short-term memberships. When... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Price Discrimination; Membership; Dynamic Competition; Competition; Price; Consumer Behavior; Business Model

09 Jul 2024
Research & Ideas

Are Management Consulting Firms Failing to Manage Themselves?

After nearly a decade of uninterrupted growth, strategic consulting firms are now facing one of their most challenging periods in memory, prompting widespread cutbacks in staff and changes to recruiting. How did these firms get to this painful point? In response to... View Details

Keywords: by David Fubini; Consulting

November 1999 (Revised March 2000)
Case

Florida Department of Citrus

By: Ray A. Goldberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop and David Benedict Pearcy

The Florida Department of Citrus (FDOC) is a state agency responsible for the welfare of the Florida citrus industry. This case describes the FDOC's efforts to turn around grapefruit juice consumption. Using a health message, Dan Santangelo, the FDOC's new director,... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Management Teams; Product Marketing; Demand and Consumers; Food and Beverage Industry; Florida

Find at Harvard

07 Nov 2007
Op-Ed

How Marketing Hype Hurt Boeing and Apple

787 was showcased to the public from behind the hangar doors on July 8, 2007. Boeing marketers had done a terrific job of positioning the Dreamliner as a step change improvement in air travel, all but blocking out news around the rival Airbus 380. The hype had brought... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Aerospace; Consumer Products

March 1996 (Revised February 1999)
Case

Vistakon: 1 Day Acuvue Disposable Contact Lenses

By: Alvin J. Silk, Bruce Issacson and Marie Bell

Vistakon, an independent and entrepreneurial subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, pioneered the production and marketing of disposable contact lenses with the 1987 launch of Acuvue, the first disposable extended-wear lens--a soft contact lens that patients wear for a... View Details

Keywords: Advertising Campaigns; Business Subsidiaries; Business Startups; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Price; Risk Management; Marketing; Product Positioning; Production; Performance Effectiveness; Consumer Products Industry; United States

January 2022 (Revised February 2022)
Case

Envision Group

By: Gunnar Trumbull, Bonnie Yining Cao and Dawn H. Lau

Based in China, Envision was one of the world’s leading Greentech companies. Chief Executive Officer Lei Zhang had set the goal of achieving carbon neutrality across the company’s global operations and supply chain by 2022 and 2028 respectively. As part of its... View Details

Keywords: Green Technology; Climate Change; Emerging Markets; Information Technology; Strategy; Management; Renewable Energy; Energy Policy; Environmental Sustainability; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; Green Technology Industry; Battery Industry; China; United States; Japan; United Kingdom; France

04 May 2010
First Look

First Look: May 4

plan, has implications jointly for DCF and stock prices. Purchase this case:http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/210039-PDF-ENG United Breaks Guitars John Deighton and Leora KornfeldHarvard Business School Case 510-057 When social media... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

November 2006 (Revised July 2021)
Case

Kerr-McGee

By: Robin Greenwood and André Perold

Activist investors Carl Icahn and Barry Rosenstein acquire a stake in Oklahoma-based company Kerr-McGee. They demand two board seats and ask the company to make several operational and financial changes, including the repurchase of equity and divestiture of their... View Details

Keywords: Investment Activism; Restructuring; Equity; Investment; Management; Governance Controls; Corporate Strategy; Chemical Industry; Energy Industry; United States

31 Jan 2017
Research & Ideas

Why These Business School Professors Oppose Trump's Executive Order on Immigration

Editor’s note: Last Friday, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order indefinitely preventing Syrian refugees from entering the United States, suspending all refugee admission for 120 days, and blocking all citizens of seven... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

2018
Working Paper

Conceptions of Ethics in the Cannabis Industry: The Case of Boston, MA

By: Kristin Sippl

Work in progress exploring the consumer demand for and conceptualizations of social, economic, and environmental ethics in the emerging cannabis industry, and the private sector’s and civil society’s response. Draws on interviews and fieldwork from Portland, OR,... View Details

Keywords: Cannabis Industry; Ethics; Demand and Consumers; Boston

Read Now

December 1987 (Revised August 1990)
Case

Florida Power & Light's Quality Improvement Program

Describes a major electric utility's highly successful effort to institute a comprehensive quality improvement program throughout the organization. Designed to be used in a comparative analysis of the quality improvement effort described in Paul Revere Insurance Co.... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Quality; Performance Productivity; Utilities Industry; Florida

January 2023 (Revised August 2023)
Case

Nick Saban: Embracing 'The Process' of Sustaining Success

By: Ranjay Gulati and Eppa Rixey

Nick Saban, head coach of the University of Alabama football team from 2007-2022, fielded teams that won 183 of 208 games (88%), including a record-tying six national championships. Saban’s approach to coaching, known to many as “The Process,” and the consistent... View Details

Keywords: Purpose; Leadership And Managing People; Football; Recruiting; Talent Acquisition; Talent And Talent Management; Talent Development And Retention; Organization Change And Adaptation; Organizational Behavior; Sports; Leadership; Leadership Development; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Sports Industry; United States

01 Jan 2020
What Do You Think?

Why Not Open America's Doors to All the World’s Talent?

Laurence Dutton SUMMING UP How Should America Admit Talented Workers of the World? The notion of attracting talented workers to the United States deserves support, especially at times when the unemployment rate is low. But the H-1B... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Technology

January 2009
Case

Xi'an International University: The Growth of Private Universities in China

By: William C. Kirby, Michael Shih-ta Chen, Keith Chi-ho Wong and Tracy Manty

Huang Teng founded Xi'an International University (XAIU) as a private institute of higher education in 1992. Throughout its ensuing years, the school filled a niche and met the demand of students who did not test into one of China's public institutions. In 2008, it was... View Details

Keywords: Higher Education; Growth and Development Strategy; Private Ownership; Expansion; Education Industry; China

November 2019
Case

Gillette: Cutting Prices to Regain Share

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

After losing market share to low-priced competitors such as Harry’s and Dollar Shave Club for several years, Gillette decided to fight back by launching new products and increasing advertising. When these efforts failed to stem the losses, Gillette decided to cut the... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Product Positioning; Business Strategy; Competition; Price; Public Equity; Retail Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

September 2021 (Revised December 2023)
Case

On the Bubble: Startup Bootstrapping

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Tom Quinn and Annelena Lobb

Bubble was a software company in the low-code/no-code market, making tools that allowed users without traditional programming backgrounds or technical skills to build software. The case covers cofounder Joshua Haas’s engineering background, as he experienced a high... View Details

28 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

Making the Decision to Franchise (or not)

"It's possible to think about this in a global context," says Datar. "If my organization is operating in the United States and in China, that demands a very creative response in organizational structure." View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

August 2014
Case

Opening the Valve: From Software to Hardware (A)

By: Ethan Bernstein, Francesca Gino and Bradley Staats

Valve, one of the world's top video game software companies, has also become an iconic example of an organization with virtually no hierarchy. A 400-person organization, Valve's unique organizational form (described in detail in the case and accompanying employee... View Details