Publications

September–October 2022
Article

Should Your Company Sell on Amazon?: Reach Comes at a Price

By: Ayelet Israeli, Leonard A. Schlesinger, Matt Higgins and Sabir Semerkant

Selling on Amazon allows brands to reach millions of consumers—but that exposure comes with costs. They include smaller margins, more competition, the risk of commoditization, and less knowledge about customers. In this article, the authors present a scorecard to... View Details

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01 Sep 2009
News

From Bytes to Bites

which built the large machines that automate the production of cardboard boxes. “I’ve always been wired operationally,” says Thomas, who majored in industrial engineering at Stanford University before coming to HBS. That background, coupled with her interest in people... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Food Services and Drinking Places; Food Services and Drinking Places; Food Services and Drinking Places; Food Services and Drinking Places

January 2009 (Revised July 2015)
Case

Restaurant Promotions in 2015

By: Benjamin Edelman

A variety of services offer consumers discounts when dining at participating restaurants. This case examines four such services: Entertainment Book, Restaurant.com, Rewards Network, and Groupon. Despite key functional similarities, each of the services chooses an... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Two-Sided Platforms; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Internet; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

06 Nov 2014
News

App Allows Customers to Pay Restaurant Bills Through Their Smartphones

Keywords: SplitNGo; i-Lab; Food Services and Drinking Places; Food Services and Drinking Places

December 2009 (Revised November 2012)
Teaching Note

Global Wine War 2009: New World versus Old (TN)

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Teaching Note for [910405]. View Details

Keywords: Emerging Markets; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Segmentation; Competitive Advantage; Globalized Firms and Management; Consumer Behavior; Industry Structures; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

December 1996 (Revised July 1997)
Case

Parker's Biscuits, Inc.: Venturing into China

Carol Wittenberg's first major task as president of the Asia/Pacific business for Parker's Biscuits is to set up a joint venture to manufacture biscuits in China. The team that Wittenberg has put together to find a joint venture partner has narrowed the choice down to... View Details

Keywords: Joint Ventures; Decision Choices and Conditions; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; China

09 Aug 2011
News

A Toast to Macchu Pisco

Asher: Distilling pisco, riding a wave. Courtesy Melanie Asher In America, it’s the new big thing in cocktails and mixology, or so proclaimed the New York Times (June 22, 2011): “Pisco, the clear grape spirit of South America .the... View Details

Keywords: Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing; Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing

01 Jun 2015
News

The End of Cows?

affect far more than your dinner. “It’s potentially severely disruptive in that it gets a lot of the current players out of the market and completely changes the supply chain,” says Alvarez, who explores this impact in a new case study... View Details

Keywords: Jason Feifer; Food and Beverage Stores; Food and Beverage Stores; Food and Beverage Stores

14 Jul 2021
News

The First Five Years: Nicolas Manes (MBA 2020)

one-third of all the food in the world is wasted.” How does the company’s food distribution process work? “We focus on resolving the nutritional needs of community kitchens by distributing high-quality... View Details

02 Dec 2013
News

Do-It-Yourself Dinners Inspired a Booming Business

Keywords: Food Services and Drinking Places; Food Services and Drinking Places

Career Coach

Connie Walsh

services for a healthcare NFP called Helping Hands. Prior to Staples, Connie worked in strategic marketing and brand management at Harvard Business School, Kraft Foods and... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Products; Retail; Social Enterprise; Technology

Article

How Much Is a Reduction of Your Customers' Wait Worth? An Empirical Study of the Fast-Food Drive-Thru Industry Based on Structural Estimation Methods

In many service industries, companies compete with each other on the basis of the waiting time their customers experience, along with other strategic instruments such as the price they charge for their service. The objective of this paper is to conduct an empirical... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Price; Service Delivery; Mathematical Methods; Competition; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

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May 1995
Case

Hannaford Brothers: Leading the Grocery Channel Transformation

The merchandising manager of a supermarket chain leads an effort to reorganize the process of buying and delivering products from manufacturers to their warehouse for further distribution to stores. The company is an early mover in implementing efficient consumer... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Supply Chain Management; Distribution Channels; Customer Focus and Relationships; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

November 2015 (Revised January 2016)
Teaching Note

McDonald's Corporation: Managing a Sustainable Supply Chain—From Amazon Soya to Cage Free Eggs

By: Michael W. Toffel

This case provides an opportunity for students to consider how large, multinational corporations should respond when targeted by activists regarding environmental and social concerns in their supply chains. Greenpeace targeted McDonald's because its chicken supplier... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Welfare; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Brazil; United States; United Kingdom