Publications

October 2021
Case

Yildiz Holding's Corporate Strategy: Managing Diversification for Growth

By: Juan Alcácer and Esel Çekin

The case opens in May 2018 with Nurtaç Ziyal Afridi, chief strategy and growth officer of Yıldız Holding, a Turkish conglomerate, reflecting on the group’s diversification journey. In ten years, the group had achieved a remarkable growth through diversification: seven... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Diversification; Growth Management; Mergers and Acquisitions; Global Strategy; Restructuring; Food and Beverage Industry; North America; United Kingdom; Turkey; Asia

2017
Book

Geography, Location, and Strategy

By: Juan Alcácer, Bruce Kogut, Catherine Thomas and Bernard Yin Yeung

Changes in both technology and global political economy have vastly accelerated the pace of globalization in the last 40 years, eroding barriers that limited firms' geographic scope and unleashing a seemingly unlimited set of new threats, challenges, and opportunities... View Details

Keywords: Geographic Location; Global Strategy; Value Creation

May 2021
Article

Preparing for a Pandemic: Accelerating Vaccine Availability

By: Amrita Ahuja, Susan Athey, Arthur Baker, Eric Budish, Juan Camilo Castillo, Rachel Glennerster, Scott Duke Kominers, Michael Kremer, Jean Lee, Canice Prendergast, Christopher M. Snyder, Alex Tabarrok, Brandon Joel Tan and Witold Wiecek

Vaccinating the world’s population quickly in a pandemic has enormous health and economic benefits. We analyze the problem faced by governments in determining the scale and structure of procurement for vaccines. We analyze alternative approaches to procurement, arguing... View Details

Keywords: Vaccines; Procurement; Health Pandemics; Health Care and Treatment; Acquisition; Cooperation

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13 Mar 2025
Blog Post

Launching leaders: HBS's new initiative fuels first-generation and low-income student success

students are not only prepared to excel but also to lead with empathy, insight, and a broader understanding of the world." During the pre-orientation, Bedford, Dean Srikant Datar, and Professor Juan Alcacer... View Details

10 Aug 2015
News

Seeding a Better Future for Colombia

Part architectural spectacle, part tourist attraction, and part government-sponsored stage for forums and meetings that seed progress on key economic and diplomatic fronts, World Expos have been taking place since the 1850s. Colombia native View Details

February 2015
Article

Location Choices under Strategic Interactions

By: Juan Alcacer, Cristian Dezso and Minyuan Zhao

The literature on location choices has mostly emphasized the impact of location and firm characteristics. However, most industries with a significant presence of multi-location firms are oligopolistic in nature, which suggests that strategic interaction among firms... View Details

Keywords: Location Strategies; Multinational Strategy; Oligopolistic Competition; Firm Heterogeneity; Geographic Location; Multinational Firms and Management; Balance and Stability; Decision Choices and Conditions; Game Theory

May 2025
Case

From oneworld to a New World? LATAM’s High-Stakes Alliance Dilemma

By: Juan Alcacer and Valentina Tarzijan

As global alliances evolve and regulatory barriers mount, LATAM Airlines must reassess the strategic logic of partnerships. In 2019, Delta Air Lines proposed a $1.9 billion investment and deeper cooperation via a Joint Business Agreement, prompting LATAM to evaluate... View Details

Keywords: Aviation; Airlines; Transportation; Latin America; North America

1996
Book

Menú Estratégico—El Arte de la Guerra Competitiva [Strategic Menu—The Art of the Competitive War]

By: Julian Villalba and Juan Alcacer

Article

Benefiting from Location: Knowledge Seeking

By: Juan Alcacer and Wilbur Chung

Keywords: Geographic Location; Knowledge

September 2010
Case

Vodafone Qatar: Building a Telco in the Gulf

By: Juan Alcacer and Andrew Goodman

Keywords: Telecommunications Industry; Qatar

December 2002
Article

Knowledge Seeking and Location Choice of Foreign Direct Investment in the United States

By: Juan Alcacer and Wilbur Chung

To what extent do firms go abroad to access technology available in other locations? This paper examines whether and when state technical capabilities attract foreign investment in manufacturing from 1987-1993. We find that on average state R&D intensity does not... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Acquisition; Foreign Direct Investment; Research and Development; Information Technology; Production; Geographic Location; United States

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Web

Driving Profitable Growth - Course Catalog

HBS Course Catalog Driving Profitable Growth Course Number 2165 Professor Juan Alcacer Professor Raffaella Sadun Fall; Q2; 1.5 credits 14 Sessions Course Overview Virtually every organization considers... View Details

October 2021
Supplement

TAV Airports: Acquiring Almaty International for Students

By: Juan Alcacer and Esel Çekin

April 2019
Supplement

OTE: Managing in Times of National Crisis (B)

By: Juan Alcacer and Emer Moloney

During the period 2011-2016, CEO and Chairman of Greek telecommunications company OTE Michael Tsamaz guided the company through a much needed transformation with a multi-pronged strategy. View Details

Keywords: Leading Change; Transformation; Strategy; Telecommunications Industry; Service Industry; Technology Industry

2008
Working Paper

Spanning the Institutional Abyss: The Intergovernmental Network and the Governance of Foreign Direct Investment

By: Juan Alcacer and Paul Ingram

Global economic transactions such as foreign direct investment must extend over an institutional abyss between the jurisdiction, and therefore protection, of the states involved. Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), whose members are states, represent an important... View Details

Keywords: International Finance; Foreign Direct Investment; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Governance Controls; International Relations; Social Issues

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June 2020 (Revised August 2020)
Case

Majid Al Futtaim Retail Geographic Expansion: Brick or Click?

By: Juan Alcácer and Alpana Thapar

This case illustrates the challenges that retailers face when they aggressively pursue geographical growth by expanding both their physical store network and their online presence. It features Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) Retail, a franchisee of Carrefour hypermarkets in the... View Details

Keywords: Stores; Ecommerce; Strategy; Expansion; Geographic Location; Decision Making; Internet and the Web; Digital Transformation; E-commerce; Retail Industry; Middle East