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- Faculty Publications (74)
- August 2016 (Revised March 2018)
- Case
Videojet (A)
In 2005 Craig Purse, the CEO of Videojet, a company recently acquired by the conglomerate Danaher, is dealing with the unexpected failure of a new high-tech printer just launched in the market. The new product exemplified the first real instance in which the Videojet... View Details
- August 2016
- Supplement
Videojet (B)
In 2005 Craig Purse, the CEO of Videojet, a company recently acquired by the conglomerate Danaher, is dealing with the unexpected failure of a new high tech printer just launched in the market. The new product exemplified the first real instance in which the Videojet... View Details
- January 2016
- Case
TransDigm Inc.
By: Eric Van den Steen, Kavita Mathews and Alon Galor
Transdigm had been very successful with a PE-like business model: it acquired smaller producers of aircraft components and improved their profits, mainly by increasing efficiency and applying value pricing. By 2014, Transdigm had completed almost 50 acquisitions. Its... View Details
- December 2015 (Revised July 2020)
- Technical Note
Some Strategy Ingredients: Scale, Learning, and Market Structure
This note introduces students to some economic concepts and ideas that are important ingredients for strategy, such as scale, learning, and the effects of market structure on competition. The note approaches these ideas really from a strategy perspective with a focus... View Details
- Article
Why Do Firms Have 'Purpose'? The Firm's Role as a Carrier of Identity and Reputation
By: Rebecca Henderson and Eric Van den Steen
Why do so many firms publicly espouse a "purpose" beyond simple profit maximization? And why do so many managers and employees appear to care deeply about this purpose and to believe that it is critically important? In this paper we argue that the conventional answers... View Details
- June 2014
- Case
Airgas, Inc.
By: Eric Van den Steen and Jason Karl
In 2013, Airgas was the market leader in packaged industrial gas distribution. Recent acquisitions had made it into a larger player in upstream gas production as well, where it competed with Praxair and Air Products. Should Airgas continue building a position in gas... View Details
- March 2014
- Technical Note
Performance and Value Analysis
This note introduces the Performance and Value Analysis (PVA) framework, an integrated framework to analyze strategic performance (i.e., performance corrected for temporary and random effects). This framework (quantitatively) decomposes a firm's performance into 3... View Details
- March 2014 (Revised December 2016)
- Teaching Note
Aldi: The Dark Horse Discounter
- March 2014 (Revised March 2018)
- Case
Red Bull (A)
By: Eric Van den Steen and Carin-Isabel Knoop
Despite facing giants like Coke, Pepsi, and Budweiser—with obvious potential sources of competitive advantage—Red Bull had established itself as the U.S. market leader in energy drinks. By 2008, however, Red Bull's dominance was challenged as Monster drinks surpassed... View Details
- March 2014
- Technical Note
Drivers of Value Capture
This note introduces a framework for analyzing value capture (through bargaining and pricing) and bargaining advantage (or value capture advantage), i.e., a firm's (superior) ability to capture a share from the value it helps create. View Details
- March 2014
- Technical Note
Sustainability of Competitive Advantage
This note introduces a framework for analyzing the sustainability of competitive advantage. (While it applies more broadly, it was developed as a component of the PVA framework.) View Details
- March 2014
- Technical Note
Drivers of Value Creation
This note introduces a concise but comprehensive framework for analyzing value creation and value creation advantage, i.e., a firm's superior ability to increase the spread (or gap) between its offering's customer value (or WTP) and supplier cost (or WTS). (While the... View Details
- March 2014
- Course Overview Note
Creating and Sustaining Competitive Advantage
This note gives an overview (for instructors) of the MBA elective course "Creating and Sustaining Competitive Advantage" (CSCA). The course gives students a deep dive on competitive advantage, on its relation to overall strategic performance (defined as performance... View Details
- March 2014
- Teaching Note
Tesla Motors
In mid-2013, Tesla Motors was riding a wave of success: It had launched its first really mass-produced car—the model S—to rave reviews, had recently raised first-year production targets, and had started taking orders for its next car, the Model X. Tesla seemed to be on... View Details
- February 2014 (Revised December 2016)
- Case
Aldi: The Dark Horse Discounter
By: Eric Van den Steen and David Lane
In 2013, Aldi—the world's 8th largest retailer—planned to accelerate its US expansion. Aldi was a German-based hard discounter that sold a limited assortment of private-label groceries and household items in barebones stores. Despite its presence with 1200 stores in 32... View Details