Publications
Publications
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(2,399)
- Faculty Publications (603)
- April 2019
- Article
Internalizing Global Value Chains: A Firm-Level Analysis
By: Laura Alfaro, Pol Antràs, Davin Chor and Paola Conconi
In recent decades, advances in information and communication technology and falling trade barriers have led firms to retain within their boundaries and in their domestic economies only a subset of their production stages. A key decision facing firms worldwide is the... View Details
- 2019
- Chapter
Location Fundamentals, Agglomeration Economies, and the Geography of Multinational Firms
By: Laura Alfaro and Maggie Xiaoyang Chen
Multinationals exhibit distinct agglomeration patterns, which have transformed the global landscape of industrial production (Alfaro and Chen, 2014). Using a unique worldwide plant-level dataset that reports detailed location, ownership, and operation information for... View Details
- March 2019
- Teaching Note
Zespri Grows
By: David E. Bell and John Masko
Teaching Note for HBS No. 519-047. View Details
Keywords: Agribusiness; Kiwi; Kiwifruit; Agriculture; Global Supply Chain; Branding; Produce; Coordinated Industry Structure; Industry Coordination; Countercyclical Supply; New Product Development; Product Strategy; Differentiation; Food; Quality; Trade; Brands and Branding; Marketing; Strategy; Global Strategy; Change Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Globalization; Globalized Firms and Management; Competitive Strategy; Resource Allocation; Product Development; New Zealand
- March 2019 (Revised May 2019)
- Case
Fetchr: A New Way of Last Mile Delivery
By: V.G. Narayanan and Eren Kuzucu
By mid-2016, five years of aggressive growth had transformed Fetchr from a small logistics startup to a 1,000-employee, full-fledged last-mile delivery company operating across four countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Already beneficiaries of the... View Details
Keywords: Startup; Decision; Financial Strategy; UAE; KSA; MENA; Cost Accounting; Business Model; Business Startups; Transformation; Cost Management; Strategy; Disruptive Innovation; Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Logistics; Service Delivery; Supply Chain Management; Performance Evaluation; Mathematical Methods; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Transportation Networks; Middle East; United Arab Emirates; Dubai; Bahrain; Egypt; Saudi Arabia; North Africa
- March 2019
- Supplement
KITEA (B): Getting Ready to Face IKEA
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Gamze Yucaoglu
The case opens in September 2015, when IKEA is about to open its first store in Morocco. It then chronicles the efforts of KITEA CEO Amine Benkirane and his son Othman between 2013 and 2015 to prepare KITEA for IKEA’s entry. After incurring losses for the first time in... View Details
Keywords: Retail; KITEA; IKEA; Furniture; Furniture Industry; Entry Strategy; Responding To Entry; Localization; Competitive Interaction; Private Sector; For-Profit Firms; Business Strategy; Strategic Planning; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Adaptation; Corporate Strategy; Business Model; Market Entry and Exit; Retail Industry; Morocco; Africa; North Africa
- March 2019 (Revised June 2019)
- Case
Global Sourcing at Nike
By: Nien-hê Hsieh, Michael W. Toffel and Olivia Hull
This case explores the evolution of Nike’s global product sourcing strategy, in particular ongoing efforts to improve working conditions at its suppliers’ factories. When the case opens in July 2018, Vice President of Sourcing Amanda Tucker and her colleagues in Nike’s... View Details
Keywords: Sourcing; Factory Conditions; Trade; Geography; Geographic Scope; Globalized Firms and Management; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Governance Compliance; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation Strategy; Labor; Human Capital; Working Conditions; Supply Chain Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Labor and Management Relations; Complexity; Sports Industry; Fashion Industry; Oregon; Portland; Asia; North and Central America
- February 2019 (Revised September 2019)
- Case
Theranos: The Unicorn That Wasn't
By: Joseph B. Fuller and John Masko
In 2003, 19-year-old Elizabeth Holmes founded a startup dedicated to making blood testing easier and more affordable. By 2015, her company, Theranos, was worth $9 billion. It boasted a star-studded board and contracts with national pharmacy and supermarket chains... View Details
Keywords: Theranos; Blood; Lab Testing; Fraud; Holmes; Balwani; Shultz; Carreyrou; Securities And Exchange Commission; Food And Drug Administration; FDA; SEC; Health Testing and Trials; Corporate Accountability; Organizational Culture; Misleading and Fraudulent Advertising; Crime and Corruption; Entrepreneurship; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry
- January 2019 (Revised July 2019)
- Case
New Balance: Managing Orders and Working Conditions
By: Michael W. Toffel, Eileen McNeely and Matthew Preble
New Balance Athletics, Inc., a major U.S.-based athletic footwear and apparel brand, sources most of its footwear products from independent suppliers whose factories are located in China, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Monica Gorman, vice president of responsible leadership... View Details
Keywords: Footwear; Athletic Footwear; Manufacturing; CSR; Sustainability; Quality Management; Supply Chains; Operations; Management; Production; Working Conditions; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Labor and Management Relations; Supply Chain Management; Supply Chain; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Consumer Products Industry
- December 2018
- Case
Choosy
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Julia Kelley
Founded in 2017, Choosy is a data-driven fashion startup that uses algorithms to identify styles trending on social media. After manufacturing similar items using a China-based supply chain, Choosy sells them to consumers through its website and social media pages.... View Details
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Algorithms; Machine Learning; Neural Networks; Instagram; Influencer; Fast Fashion; Design; Customer Satisfaction; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Making; Cost vs Benefits; Innovation and Invention; Brands and Branding; Product Positioning; Demand and Consumers; Supply Chain; Production; Logistics; Business Model; Expansion; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Digital Platforms; Social Media; Technology Industry; Fashion Industry; North and Central America; United States; New York (state, US); New York (city, NY)
- December 2018
- Case
The Nature Conservancy in 2018
By: Jose B. Alvarez, Forest Reinhardt and Natalie Kindred
The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a U.S.-based environmental NGO with $7 billion in assets and a presence in 72 countries in 2018. TNC originated in 1951 as a land trust, acquiring land in order to conserve it. Over the last 20 years, it developed a pragmatic... View Details
- December 2018 (Revised May 2019)
- Case
Darling Ingredients International
By: David E. Bell and Natalie Kindred
Led by CEO Randall Stuewe, Texas-based Darling Ingredients International was a rendering firm with $3.7 billion in 2017 revenues. Since 2003, Darling had transformed from U.S. focused into a global player in the processing of biological waste from meat and foodservice... View Details
Keywords: Darling; Ingredients; Stuewe; Rendering; Animal Byproducts; Used Cooking Oil; UCO; Diamond Green Diesel; DGD; Valero; Renewable Diesel; Biofuel; Recycling; Carbon; LCFS; Blend; Blender; Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Renewable Energy; Food; Agribusiness; Expansion; Diversification; Growth Management; Technological Innovation; Policy; Government Legislation; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Energy Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States; Louisiana; California; Texas
- November 2018 (Revised April 2019)
- Case
Zespri Grows
By: David E. Bell and Natalie Kindred
Controlling about a third of global kiwifruit exports by volume and nearly half by value in 2018, Zespri was a grower-owned “corporatized cooperative” with the exclusive right to export New Zealand-grown kiwifruit (except to Australia). Zespri did not grow fruit but... View Details
Keywords: Agribusiness; Kiwi; Kiwifruit; Agriculture; Global Supply Chain; Branding; Produce; Coordinated Industry Structure; Industry Coordination; Countercyclical Supply; New Product Development; Product Strategy; Differentiation; Food; Quality; Trade; Brands and Branding; Marketing; Strategy; Global Strategy; Change Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Globalization; Globalized Firms and Management; Competitive Strategy; Resource Allocation; Product Development; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; New Zealand
- November 2018
- Case
The Bundesliga in the U.S.
By: Stephen A. Greyser, Sascha L. Schmidt and Florian Holzmayer
The Bundesliga, Germany’s premier football (soccer) league, is assessing its global broadcast and marketing strategy, with special focus on the very lucrative but highly competitive U.S. market. Its CEO Christian Seifert believed that a strong international position... View Details
- October 2018 (Revised October 2018)
- Teaching Note
La-Z-Boy (A)
By: Joseph B. Fuller and Julia Kelley
Kurt Darrow, CEO of La-Z-Boy furniture, must decide whether to continue an overhaul of the company's strategy in the face of a collapse in demand during the great recession. Having pared back La-Z-Boy's portfolio of brands and manufacturing network, he intends to... View Details
Keywords: Retail; Manufacturing; Organizational Transformations; Reorganization; Furniture Industry; Corporate Strategy; Home Fashion; Turnaround; Portfolio Rationalization; Globalization Of Supply Chain; Brand Repositioning; Business Growth and Maturation; Brands and Branding; Competitive Strategy; Vertical Integration; Transformation; Retail Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States
- October 2018 (Revised July 2023)
- Case
The Boston Beer Company (A): New CEO
By: Christina R. Wing and Marco Iansiti
In 1984, when the Boston Beer Company’s Samuel Adams Boston Lager was first sold, founder Jim Koch had helped ignite a craft beer movement by making small-batch premium beers in an era of industry consolidation. By 2018, Boston Beer was a publicly traded company that... View Details
- Article
You Can't Always Get What You Want: The Real Exchange Rate and Manufacturing Performance in a World of Global Value Chains
By: Laura Alfaro, Alejandro Cuñat, Harald Fadinger and Yanping Liu
Real exchange rate devaluations are typically seen as a viable development strategy, but the effectiveness of the approach may vary over time and across countries. This column explores this issue by focusing on the microeconomics of firm-level responses to exchange... View Details
- October 2018
- Article
The Operational Value of Social Media Information
By: Ruomeng Cui, Santiago Gallino, Antonio Moreno and Dennis J. Zhang
While the value of using social media information has been established in multiple business contexts, the field of operations and supply chain management have not yet explored the possibilities it offers in improving firms' operational decisions. This study attempts to... View Details
- Fall 2018
- Article
The Value of Fit Information in Online Retail: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment
By: Santiago Gallino and Antonio Moreno
Online channels generate frictions when selling products with nondigital attributes, such as apparel. Customers may be reluctant to purchase products they have not been able to try on, and those customers who do purchase may return products when they do not fit as... View Details
- September 2018
- Article
Knowledge Integrators and the Survival of Manufacturing Clusters
By: Giulio Buciuni and Gary P. Pisano
Over the past two decades, the greater prevalence of global supply chains has had contrasting effects on Western manufacturing clusters. While some of them dwindled, others proved resilient. Contributing to the recent literature on co-located clusters and clusters'... View Details
- Article
Navigating Talent Hot Spots
By: William R. Kerr
Innovation clusters like San Francisco and Boston have long had an outsize impact on the global economy, and their influence keeps growing. In 2017, for instance, America’s ten largest tech hubs accounted for 58% of U.S. patents. Globally, cities such as Tokyo, Paris,... View Details