Publications

04 Apr 2016
Working Paper Summaries

Preparing the Self for Team Entry: How Relational Affirmation Improves Team Performance

Keywords: by Julia J. Lee, Francesca Gino, Daniel M. Cable, and Bradley R. Staats

November 2005 (Revised December 2016)
Case

Bally Total Fitness (A): The Rise, 1962–2004

By: John R. Wells, Elizabeth A. Raabe and Gabriel Ellsworth

From a single, modest club in 1962, Bally Total Fitness had grown to become—in management’s words—the “largest and only nationwide commercial operator of fitness centers” in the United States in 2004. Bally had faced its share of challenges, but the last couple of... View Details

Keywords: Bally Total Fitness; Fitness; Gyms; Health Clubs; Chain; Securities And Exchange Commission; Paul Toback; Weight Loss; Exercise; Contracts; Personal Training; Retention; Accounting; Accounting Audits; Accrual Accounting; Finance; Advertising; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Customers; Customer Satisfaction; Public Equity; Financing and Loans; Revenue; Revenue Recognition; Geographic Scope; Multinational Firms and Management; Health; Nutrition; Business History; Lawsuits and Litigation; Management; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing; Operations; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Public Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business Strategy; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Segmentation; Trends; Cost Management; Profit; Growth and Development; Leadership Style; Five Forces Framework; Private Ownership; Opportunities; Motivation and Incentives; Competitive Strategy; Health Industry; United States; Illinois; Chicago

March 2005 (Revised February 2006)
Case

Advising on Currency Risk at ICICI Bank

In March 2003, a client approached the Markets Advisory Group at ICICI Bank, India's second largest bank, about a hedging transaction. The hedge involved multiple interest rates and currencies. Shilpa Kumar, head of the Markets Advisory Group, has to put together a... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Currency Exchange Rate; Capital Markets; Investment Funds; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; India

Web

Hiring Organizations

The VMG Partners Volo Sports Volpi Capital W Wafra Inc. Wagmo Walmart / Walmart eCommerce Walt Disney Company, The Warburg Pincus LLC Warner Bros. Discovery Watertower Ventures Waymo Wegmans Food Markets... View Details

23 Jul 2013
First Look

First Look: July 23

exporting, learning from competitors, users, and alliance partners. In this paper we focus attention on another locus of learning that has received less attention from academics despite popular interest: learning by supplying. Using a detailed panel dataset on supply... View Details

Keywords: Anna Secino

August 1991 (Revised September 1994)
Background Note

What Is Industrial Marketing?

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

Discusses the key distinguishing aspects of industrial as compared to consumer marketing. These differences are highlighted for organizational as well as marketing mix aspects. View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Innovation Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Channels; Marketing Strategy; Marketplace Matching; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Core Relationships; Industrial Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry

December 2009 (Revised October 2015)
Case

Diamond Foods

By: David E. Bell and Mary Louise Shelman

CEO Michael Mendes has transformed a grower-owned cooperative into a publicly traded top marketer of snack foods. Diamond's organization, culture, product development process, advertising and promotion strategy, and specifically its marketing department have been built... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Business Model; Customer Focus and Relationships; Leadership; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Cooperative Ownership; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Retail Industry; United States

October 2019
Case

Engaging the Nationwide Workforce

By: Ethan S. Bernstein, Jessica Gover and Sarah Mehta

Nationwide is “on your side,” but did employees feel that way? CAO Gale King and CEO Steve Rasmussen, starting in 2008, invested heavily in a human capital strategy centered around “engagement” at the Ohio-based Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. Set in 2014, this... View Details

December 2022
Article

When and How Should Firms Differentiate? Quality and Advertising Decisions in a Duopoly

By: Dominique Olié Lauga, Elie Ofek and Zsolt Katona

A prominent hallmark of competitive interaction is the desire to differentiate from rivals. In this article, the authors examine under what conditions firms will differentiate through product quality versus advertising intensity. Firms select quality in a first stage,... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Advertising; Product Positioning

Find at Harvard

November 2003 (Revised May 2008)
Case

Atlas Electrica: International Strategy

By: Michael E. Porter and Arturo Condo

Atlas must decide whether to acquire La Indeca, increasing its Central American presence, or to focus on larger Latin American markets where higher growth is possible. In the year 2000, Jorge Rodriguez was in charge of Atlas Electrica, the largest home appliance firm... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Growth and Development Strategy; Markets; Partners and Partnerships; Competition; Expansion; Latin America; Central America

November 1991 (Revised April 1994)
Case

Nucleon, Inc.

By: Gary P. Pisano

Nucleon is a small biotechnology company whose first potential product is about to enter clinical testing. Before Nucleon can begin clinical trials, however, its management must decide how and where to manufacture the product. Three options are being contemplated: 1)... View Details

Keywords: Factories, Labs, and Plants; Entrepreneurship; Health Testing and Trials; Rights; Product Development; Production; Partners and Partnerships; Research and Development; Biotechnology Industry

January 2008 (Revised March 2009)
Case

Framedia (A) Abridged

By: Li Jin, Carliss Y. Baldwin, Li Liao, Huabing Li and Jielun Zhu

Examines an acquisition in the highly competitive outdoor media advertising industry in China in late 2005. The transaction leads to eventual consolidation of the whole industry and positive stock reactions. Discusses equity consideration in the context of an M&A... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Venture Capital; Equity; Private Equity; Corporate Governance; Emerging Markets; Organizations; Consolidation; Valuation; Advertising Industry; China

October 2005 (Revised September 2006)
Case

Museum of Fine Arts Boston

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Marie Bell

One of Boston's main cultural attractions, the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), has experienced a steady decline of its core audience over the last decade. The museum's executive director attempted to bridge the shortfall by staging new, innovative, special exhibitions,... View Details

Keywords: Product Marketing; Growth Management; Innovation Leadership; Capital; Financing and Loans; Service Operations; Consumer Behavior

September 2013 (Revised January 2015)
Case

Wal-Mart Lobbying in India?

By: Karthik Ramanna and Vidhya Muthuram

In 2012, as part of a routine disclosure under U.S. law, Wal-Mart revealed it had spent $25 million since 2008 on lobbying to "enhance market access for investment in India." This disclosure, which came weeks after the Indian government made a controversial decision to... View Details

Keywords: Lobbying; India; Multinational Corporations; Business and Government Relations; Crime and Corruption; Retail Industry; India

17 May 2017
Research & Ideas

Minorities Who 'Whiten' Job Resumes Get More Interviews

opportunity to recognize this issue as a pinch point, so they can do something about it.” DeCelles co-authored a September 2016 article about the two-year study in Administrative Science Quarterly called Whitened Resumes: Race and Self-Presentation in the Labor View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

10 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: January 10

within markets: When sentiment is high, future returns are low on relatively difficult to arbitrage and difficult to value stocks. Private capital flows appear to be one mechanism by which sentiment spreads across View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Jun 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Firm-Size Distribution and Cross-Country Income Differences

Keywords: by Laura Alfaro, Andrew Charlton & Fabio Kanczuk

September 2017 (Revised February 2019)
Case

Blackstone's GSO Capital: Crosstex Investment

By: Victoria Ivashina, John D. Dionne and Jeffrey Boyar

This case focuses on the Blackstone credit arm, GSO Capital as it evaluated a proposal for an equity investment into the distressed company, Crosstex Energy L.P., an integrated midstream energy company, that was hit hard by declining natural gas prices during the 2008... View Details

Keywords: Distress Investing; Rescue Financing; Investment; Borrowing and Debt; Financial Condition