Publications

April 1992 (Revised August 1994)
Case

Apple Computer--1992

By: David B. Yoffie

In 1992, Apple received the only profitable standard other than IBM/Microsoft/Intel in the PC industry. The case examines Apple's dilemma of how to retain its profitability as the structure of the industry deteriorates. Apple's CEO poses the critical question: Can... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Industry Structures; Computer Industry

November 2006
Case

Organics: Coming Center Stage?

By: James E. Austin and Reed Martin

The organics movement has certainly come a long way. From hippie farming communes and a scattering of natural food stores in the 1960s, organics outgrew its origins as a counterculture curiosity of the 1970s to become the fastest growing segment of the food industry in... View Details

Keywords: Food; Supply and Industry; Consumer Behavior; Competitive Advantage; Competitive Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

December 2013
Teaching Note

Coffee Wars in India: Café Coffee Day Takes On the Global Brands

By: David B. Yoffie

Keywords: Coffee; Competition; Brands and Branding; Food and Beverage Industry; India

October 2009 (Revised July 2013)
Case

Gilead Sciences, Inc.: Access Program

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Katharine Lee

Gilead Sciences, the U.S. leader in HIV/AIDS medicines, with global sales of $5.4 billion in 2009, had undertaken several innovative actions to make its anti-viral products available to over 100 low- and middle-income countries. Having reached nearly 680,000 patients... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Emerging Markets; Product; Sales; Competitive Strategy; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

2008
Working Paper

On Best-Response Bidding in GSP Auctions

By: Matthew Cary, Aparna Das, Benjamin Edelman, Ioannis Giotis, Kurtis Heimerl, Anna R. Karlin, Claire Mathieu and Michael Schwarz

How should players bid in keyword auctions such as those used by Google, Yahoo! and MSN? We model ad auctions as a dynamic game of incomplete information, so we can study the convergence and robustness properties of various strategies. In particular, we consider... View Details

Keywords: Online Advertising; Auctions; Bids and Bidding; Game Theory; Mathematical Methods; Competitive Strategy

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01 Sep 2018
News

Case Study: A Good Fit

employer would be interested. —Harry McCracken (AMP 114, 1994) A highly competitive market with one-year sales cycles on the one hand; a pilot customer in a less-competitive niche with a massive opportunity... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint

01 Jun 2010
News

Faculty Books

Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd by Youngme Moon (Crown Business) Professor Moon examines what it means for a company to offer something that is fundamentally, comprehensively different. She identifies iconoclastic companies like... View Details

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

January 2017
Case

Bayer AG: Bidding to Win Merck's OTC Business

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Marc Baaij and Arjen Mulder

Shortly after submitting their best and final offer to acquire Merck's Consumer Care Division (a collection of "over-the-counter" (OTC) products with sales totaling $2 billion), the Bayer M&A team was given a chance to revise their bid because another potential... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Bidding Strategy; Valuing Synergies; Negotiations; Corporate Strategy; Business Unit Strategy; Bidding Process; Discounted Cash Flow; Cross-border M＆A; Tax Shields; Valuation; Competitive Strategy; Auctions; Bids and Bidding; Germany; United States; United Kingdom

August 2001 (Revised September 2002)
Case

Sony PlayStation2 (A)

By: Rohit Deshpande and Seth Schulman

In early 1999, the president of Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc., had to determine the appropriate U.S. launch strategy for the next-generation video game player, Sony PlayStation2. Despite the success of the original PlayStation1, new competitors and an uncertain... View Details

Keywords: Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Globalization; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Risk and Uncertainty; Competitive Strategy; Information Technology; Computer Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States

March 1995
Supplement

The Black & Decker Corporation (C): "Operation Sudden Impact" Results, 1992-94

By: Robert J. Dolan

Describes the initial results of Black & Decker's strategy in the United States. View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Product Positioning; Competition; Globalization; Construction Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

14 Oct 2013
Research & Ideas

Blockbuster! Why Star Power Works

makes huge investments to acquire, develop, and market concepts with strong hit potential, and then banks on the sales of those titles to make up for the middling performance of their other content. Today's leading film studios,... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Entertainment & Recreation

2002
Other Unpublished Work

The Effect of Editorial Discretion Book Promotion on Sales at Amazon.com

By: Benjamin Edelman

A new dataset collected by the author allows estimation of the effect on book sales of promotional listing on Amazon's editorial discretion pages. Following Goolsbee and Chevalier (2001), sales quantities are inferred from sales rank data freely available on Amazon's... View Details

Keywords: Online Advertising; Sales; Marketing Strategy; Web Sites; Competition; Books

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September 2009 (Revised November 2010)
Case

Marquee: The Business of Nightlife

By: Anita Elberse, Ryan Barlow and Sheldon Wong

In December 2008, nightlife impresario Noah Tepperberg celebrated the fifth anniversary of his New York City nightclub Marquee. While most clubs are over within their first one-and-a-half years, Tepperberg has succeeded in keeping Marquee one of NYC's hottest clubs for... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Cost Management; Marketing Strategy; Competitive Strategy

July 2010
Supplement

AdMob (B)

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski and David Chen

CEO is deciding between international expansion and increasing the number of publishers to strengthen the company's advantage in the mobile advertising industry. AdMob displayed advertising on global devices, and powered 6,000 websites and 1,000 applications, and... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Capital; Global Strategy; Resource Allocation; Product Positioning; Competitive Strategy; Expansion; Mobile Technology; Advertising Industry; Telecommunications Industry

June 2001 (Revised March 2002)
Case

Ducati

Focuses on the turnaround and strategic repositioning of Ducati, an Italian maker of high-end sport motorcycles, and describes the current concerns with the growth prospects of the company. Federico Minoli, the CEO and strategic mind behind the turnaround, knew that... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Product Positioning; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Motorcycle Industry

July 1986 (Revised May 1993)
Case

Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile

Mason Instruments has become a second source for the electronics guidance system for a Navy missile. The case decision involves bidding in the third-round competition. View Details

Keywords: Competition; Bids and Bidding; Electronics Industry; United States