Publications

December 2022
Case

The Magic of Marks & Spencer Food

By: David E. Bell, Natalie Kindred and Damien McLoughlin

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Food; Consumer Behavior; Product Development; Competition; Price; Inflation and Deflation; Trends; Growth and Development; Strategy; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; United Kingdom

January 2018
Case

OldTown Berhad

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Greg Saldutte

In December 2017, Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE, a Dutch coffee company) made an offer to acquire OldTown Berhad (OTB), a Malaysian coffee company. Three large shareholders, representing more than half of the outstanding shares, have agreed to tender their shares, and... View Details

November 2006
Supplement

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

By: James K. Sebenius and Ellen Knebel

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Retail Industry

January 2015 (Revised July 2019)
Case

CVS Health: Promoting Drug Adherence

By: Leslie John, John Quelch and Robert Huckman

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

The case describes a program that CVS Health recently implemented to improve medication adherence, an important problem from a societal, public policy, and firm... View Details

Keywords: Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries; Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries; Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries; Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries

01 Dec 2013
News

Faster, Bigger, Stronger: Supersizing the NFL

industry segments that depend on the NFL." Surveying the league's 32 franchises, Grubman observes that each has arguably become a global brand in its own right."The size and complexity of the local franchise as a business has exploded in... View Details

19 Jan 2011
First Look

First Look: Jan. 18

analysts' forecasts of firm performance actually reflect any of these factors and which are considered most important. We use survey data from 967 analysts ranking 837 companies to judge how their forecasts are related to evaluations of firms' View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Mar 2014
News

The Solution to the Global Food Crisis Just Might Come from Nigeria

industries for decades. And even though Mustapha and his sons had earned a reputation as hard workers, there was only so much they could produce within a system that left farmers either chronically undersupplied or dealing with bags of... View Details

Keywords: Francis Storrs; John H. Davis; Michael Halse; Crop Production; Agriculture; Administration of Economic Programs; Government; Food Manufacturing; Manufacturing

21 Jan 2014
First Look

First Look: January 21

highlight the prevalence of discrimination in online marketplaces, suggesting an important unintended consequence of a seemingly routine mechanism for building trust. Download working paper: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2377353 When to Sell Your Idea: Theory and Evidence... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

18 Mar 2001
Research & Ideas

Want to Be an Entrepreneur? [Part I]

faculty, Hart, MBA '81, DBA '95, had direct knowledge of her course material: in 1985, she was one of the four founding officers of Staples Inc., the office-products retailer whose sales now exceed $10 billion per year. Hart wanted her... View Details

Keywords: by John S. Rosenberg

17 Apr 2012
First Look

First Look: April 17

and Kyle ArmbresterHarvard Business School Case 112-062 In 2007, under the leadership of CEO Stuart Rose, the iconic British retailer Marks and Spencer (M&S), with great fanfare, announced its "Plan A" initiative. Based on... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

21 Feb 2012
First Look

First Look: Feb. 21

corporate archives to explore the fine details of how firms actually operated. It also includes work by those who have been influenced by evolutionary, transaction cost, and resource-based theories of the firm. The book will be an essential source of reference for... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

10 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: January 10

are the best managed. Firms in developing countries, such as Brazil, China, and India, tend to be poorly managed. American retail firms and hospitals are also well managed by international standards, although American schools are more... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

24 Jul 2019
Lessons from the Classroom

Can These Business Students Motivate Londoners to Do the Right Thing?

former students bring these ideas into their careers in various industries ranging from tech to consulting to finance. We’ve also had students go on to work at BIT and other organizations focused on bringing behavioral economics directly... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

16 May 2017
News

Facing the Board

“We know the industry is changing and we need to become very good global thinkers. The risk of not acting is even bigger.” After kicking the case around, talk turned to the pending role play and the best ways to make it a valuable... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Myers; photos by Susan Young; Blackrock; The Boardroom

24 Feb 2009
First Look

First Look: February 24, 2009

http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=209029 The Restructuring of Daiei Harvard Business School Case 209-060 In 2004, the Industrial Revitalization Corporation of Japan (IRCJ) was given the task of restructuring... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

14 Mar 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, March 14

somewhere to stay. Clustering created positive externalities drawing new entrepreneurs into the industry who could also learn from knowledge spillovers. There were downsides to the new industry. The creation of the national image of a... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

Supplemental Financial Information - Annual Report 2020

sales at airports, retail outlets, and other brick-and-mortar locations, declined 10 percent from fiscal 2019. COVID-19 significantly reduced consumer traffic at those locations, which trimmed book sales and prompted merchants to return... View Details

December 2020 (Revised April 2021)
Case

Arcos Dorados: A QSR Recovery Plan

By: Forest Reinhardt, José B. Alvarez, Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago and Mariana Cal

Arcos Dorados—McDonald’s largest independent franchisee, covering Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)—faced a pandemic that was disrupting the entire consumer foodservice business in 2020. With the exclusive right to own, operate, and sub-franchise McDonald’s... View Details

August 2022
Supplement

Zalora: Data-Driven Pricing Recommendations

By: Ayelet Israeli

This exercise can be used in conjunction with the main case "Zalora: Data-Driven Pricing" to facilitate class discussion without requiring data analysis from the students. Instead, the exercise presents reports that were created by the data science team to answer the... View Details

Keywords: Pricing; Pricing Algorithms; Dynamic Pricing; Ecommerce; Pricing Strategy; Pricing And Revenue Management; Apparel; Singapore; Startup; Demand Estimation; Data Analysis; Data Analytics; Exercise; Price; Internet and the Web; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Singapore