Retailing - Publications - Faculty & Research

Bernard H. Kroger

Kroger is responsible for many innovations in grocery store operations. He was the first to place grocery ads in daily newspapers and was the first grocer to bring meat departments into the store. Starting with one store, he created a chain of 5,200 stores in 1,000... View Details

Keywords: Retail

Bernard F. Gimbel

During his tenure as head of the firm, Gimbel grew annual sales of Gimbel Brothers Department Stores from $15 million to $500 million. Gimbel personally negotiated the purchase of competitor Saks and Company. In addition to the Gimbel Brothers Department Stores in New... View Details

Keywords: Retail

30 Jan 2018
First Look

January 30, 2018

Sandino Abstract—Many service organizations rely on information sharing systems to boost employee creativity to meet customer needs. We conducted a field experiment in a retail chain, based on a registered report accepted by Journal of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

08 Jan 2025
News

Mapping Pain Points at the IRS

Having spent a decade helping retailers optimize customer service, Fumi Tamaki (MBA 2014) could not pass up the opportunity in June 2024 to take on the challenge of improving the customer experience at the government organization that... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Myers; IRS; customer service; government service; Executive, Legislative, and Other General Government Support; Government

01 Jun 2012
News

New Venture Winner an Undercover Success

recipient of $25,000 for TrophoMax, a producer of patented seed and leaf inoculants. Jonathan Assayag (MBA 2010) of the HBS Club of Brazil was a semifinalist for Lema21, an online retail channel for quality eyewear. An online poll named... View Details

01 Dec 2017
News

The Changing Nature of Research

School’s Bureau of Business Research—comprised a comparative examination of the costs of operating a retail shoe business. The resulting report helped companies devise strategies to manage inventories, increase profits, and cut waste.... View Details

01 Dec 2006
News

2006 MBAs Go to Work

Equity/LBO: 15.4%) (Commercial Banking/Other: 4.1%) Consulting 21.4% Technology/Telecom 5.8% Other Services 5.7% Pharma/Biomedical 4.6% Consumer Products 4.4% Retail 4.3% Other Manufacturing 3.7% Entertainment/Media 3.4%... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

Lucio A. Noto

Noto first concentrated on consolidating and improving efficiency in Mobil's oil, gas and chemical businesses, including trimming bureaucracy at the corporate level. Noto also revamped Mobil's retail gasoline business, being one of the... View Details

Keywords: Utilities & Energy

Profile

Darrin Rahn

first first-place finish, and was honored by NAMA as its National Student of the Year. Taking food and beverages into the future Through the NAMA experience, Darrin "developed an interest in the demand side—how does food marketing work in a View Details

Keywords: CPG

Web

Buy Now, Pay Later: Pre-Industrial Credit in Practice

and places like colonial America where hard currency was scarce. Resourceful merchants and retailers devised clever instruments and institutions of credit that made possible large, complicated transactions even without a fungible means of... View Details

04 Sep 2019
News

Action Plan: A New ’Cue

sketch out Pork & Mindy’s—the fast-casual barbecue brand that will have 65 locations in the West and Midwest by the end of 2019, along with a growing retail line. On that white board Corsello identified three obstacles. Two were... View Details

Keywords: April White

Profile

Casey Gerald

book of second-year EC colleagues. When he wanted to know more about consumer goods in Asia, he found an expert on retailing in Japan through the Retail & Luxury Goods Club. “Second,” says Casey, “HBS is... View Details

01 Feb 2002
News

Design Fair

of Pinball, pictured at far right. The team, in collaboration with the Design Continuum and the MIT Media Lab, created a system for fashion retail stores that utilizes weight-sensitive floor tiles in order to know where shoppers are... View Details

Keywords: MIT Media Lab; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

18 Jul 2019
News

A Category Leader

Marla Beck (MBA 1998) is founder of Bluemercury, a retailer of high-end beauty products, and a 2019 recipient of the HBS Alumni Achievement Award. In this interview, she talks about building her business model around providing... View Details

01 Sep 2005
News

Allston Options Up for Discussion

and adding retail kiosks and bike paths, and construction of a tunnel extension from the MBTA station in Harvard Square under the Charles to Allston. In addition, the report identified possible Allston sites for the graduate schools of... View Details

Keywords: Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

24 Jul 2007
First Look

First Look: July 24, 2007

General Corporation (DG) operates one of the leading chains of extreme value retailers in the United States. 2006 revenues reached $9.2 billion, making DG the 6th largest mass retailer in the country. With... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

07 Jul 2020
Working Paper Summaries

COVID-19 and the Workplace: Implications, Issues, and Insights for Future Research and Action

Keywords: by Ashley Whillans and 28 coauthors; Retail; Retail

August 1965 (Revised December 1987)
Case

L.L. Bean, Inc.

Discusses the development and operations of a small manufacturing and mail order company doing $3 million sales. L.L. Bean operates in violation of most reasonable business principles, but it is profitable and growing. View Details

Keywords: Small Business; Operations; Growth and Development Strategy; Retail Industry; Maine

Citation

Educators

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June 1994 (Revised December 1997)
Case

Safeway, Inc.'s Leveraged Buyout (A)

After years of deteriorating financial performance and eroding market position, Safeway, Inc., the largest public grocery store chain in the United States, found itself the target of a hostile takeover offer. Management decided to take the company private in a $4.3... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Restructuring; Retail Industry; United States

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