Sales Channels - Publications - Faculty & Research

January 2016
Case

Haiti Hope: Innovating the Mango Value Chain

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Jean-François Harvey

This case study examines a market-based approach to economic development through the eyes of NGO TechnoServe's project manager, implementing a US$9.5 million five-year public-private partnership between Coca-Cola, IDB, and USAID. The case ends at the beginning of the... View Details

Citation

Educators

Purchase

06 Jun 2016
Research & Ideas

Skills and Behaviors that Make Entrepreneurs Successful

the successful management of all financial aspects of a business venture. Sales. Measures skills and behaviors needed to build an effective sales organization and sales channel... View Details

Keywords: by HBS Working Knowledge

10 Nov 2009
First Look

First Look: Nov. 10

insider stock purchases are significantly greater after SOX than before. Abnormal trading volumes around filings of insider sales are also greater post-SOX on average, but stock returns are not more negative. However, once controlling for... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

19 Jan 2016
First Look

January 19, 2016

reducing the optimal taxation level. We find evidence consistent with these predictions and the entrepreneurial channel using data from the Longitudinal Business Database of the U.S. Census Bureau. The marginal effect of taxation for... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

08 Oct 2020
Research & Ideas

Keep Your Weary Workers Engaged and Motivated

necessities of social distancing attenuate or alter the traditional organizational levers. Several CEOs observed: “Keeping spirits high in a sales environment. At the moment our sales force has to work twice... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

19 Apr 2010
Research & Ideas

The History of Beauty

largest, most professionally managed global companies find it hard to predict the success of product launches, and can stumble badly. One estimate is that 90 percent of new fragrance launches fail. Getting the word out to consumers, and getting product through the... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Beauty & Cosmetics

July 2017
Case

Magpie: Developing and Using Buyer Personas

By: Frank V. Cespedes

The founders of a start-up platform for publishers have developed preliminary personas of target customers and are evaluating the implications for initial target buyers, messaging, and marketing programs. The case is useful for discussing the process of developing... View Details

Keywords: Buying Process; Marketing; Sales; Distribution Channels; Segmentation; Entrepreneurship; Social Media; Consumer Products Industry; Fashion Industry; United States

Citation

Educators

Purchase

19 Feb 2013
First Look

First Look: Feb. 19

B. Yoffie Publication:Journal of Economic Perspectives Abstract The patent market consists mainly of privately negotiated, bilateral transactions, either sales or cross-licenses, between large companies. There is no eBay, Amazon, New York... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 2013 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Hennes & Mauritz, 2000

By: John R. Wells and Galen Danskin

In 2000, Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) was the second-largest and most global player in the fashion retail business. It operated 682 stores, 80% of them outside its home country of Sweden, and achieved revenues of $3.0 billion and operating profits of $375 million. In 1999,... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Strategy Alignment; Strategic Planning; Fashion; Risk Management; Competition; Problems and Challenges; Management Teams; Globalized Firms and Management; Expansion; Distribution Channels; Retail Industry; Fashion Industry; Sweden

Citation

Educators

Purchase

07 Sep 2011
First Look

First Look: Sept. 7

Fragmented upstream and downstream channels instead persist, with strong odds against upstream suppliers waging a successful defense of material interests. Such distinctive industrial structures, we show, were a direct result of whether... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

05 Jul 2022
What Do You Think?

Have We Seen the Peak of Just-in-Time Inventory Management?

distribution channel on overall inventory levels and costs. One thing that may have helped generate the HBS offer was an experiment I performed using my own crude version of what would become known as the “beer game.” In my approach, my... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Manufacturing; Shipping; Transportation

25 Aug 2014
HBS Case

Starbucks Reinvented

singer of U2, to announce a partnership to channel proceeds from holiday beverage sales to the Global Fund in support of AIDS relief programs in Africa. The New Orleans conference was a turning point for... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Food & Beverage

04 Feb 2002
Research & Ideas

How a Juicy Brand Came Back to Life

Rush Limbaugh. Stern was an especially effective spokesperson. He got to know the founders of the business personally and conveyed to his listeners a genuine and infectious regard for the products and the people behind them. The brand's distribution View Details

Keywords: by John Deighton; Food & Beverage

November 2006
Case

Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A)

By: James K. Sebenius and Ellen Knebel

Describes the retailer-supplier negotiations of Frey Farms Produce in its growth from a small local produce supplier to becoming a supplier for Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer. The (A) case sets up three negotiations led by Sarah Talley of Frey Farms Produce in... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Distribution Channels; Sales

Citation

Educators

Purchase

01 Oct 2012
Research & Ideas

Better by the Bundle?

Sales can soar when companies bundle products together into one cheaper package—Happy Meal, anyone? Yet a buyer's affinity for such deals comes with a big caveat, according to new research: These groupings are often successful only if the... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

24 Mar 2015
First Look

First Look: March 24

marginal benefit of higher capital requirements related to this channel significantly exceeds the marginal cost, indicating that U.S. capital requirements have been sub-optimally low. Download working paper:... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

16 Dec 2014
First Look

First Look: December 16

international provision of tertiary and quaternary care), new opportunities in a broader range of services and treatment channels (e.g., telemedicine, mobile health, enterprise learning, and training for other health care systems), or... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 2025
Case

TagHive: Edtech Pricing and Distributor Decisions

By: Isamar Troncoso, Frank V. Cespedes and Stacy Straaberg

Education technology (edtech) company TagHive, founded in 2017, used a direct sales team and third-party distributors to sell its Class Saathi hardware and software solution to 300 clients, mainly primary and secondary schools in India. The product aimed to improve... View Details

Citation

Educators

01 Feb 2022
Book

Innovation Isn’t Just for Startups: How Big Companies Can Succeed

What if more managers at big corporations channeled some of the same magic that helped Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos lead their startups to great success? Large companies are actually fertile ground for innovation;... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

March 1998 (Revised October 2015)
Case

Hamptonshire Express

By: V. G. Narayanan and Ananth Raman

Presents a series of problems that face a newspaper publisher, including inventory level, effort level, subsidy for unsold inventory, and commission for sales. Each problem is accompanied by one or more spreadsheets. Students must make various operational decisions. View Details