Profit Sharing - Publications - Faculty & Research

November 2017
Teaching Note

Reinventing Best Buy

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

Teaching Note for HBS No. 716-455. On March 1, 2017, Best Buy Company, Inc., North America’s largest retailer of consumer electronics and appliances, announced a third year of comparable-store sales increases and a 20.8% increase in domestic comparable online sales.... View Details

Keywords: Best Buy; Hubert Joly; Renew Blue; Showrooming; Webrooming; E-commerce; E-Commerce Strategy; Online Retail; Multichannel Retailing; Omnichannel; Marketplaces; Turnaround; Consumer Electronics; Consumer Electronics Accessories; Appliances; Stores-within-stores; Store Experience; Store Size; Store Pickup; Store Management; Delivery; Delivery Models; Amazon; Amazon.com; Pricing Strategy; Business Subsidiaries; Business Units; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Entertainment; Film Entertainment; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Music Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Theater Entertainment; Price; Profit; Revenue; Geographic Scope; Multinational Firms and Management; Business History; Cost; Selection and Staffing; Reports; Technological Innovation; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Human Capital; Leading Change; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Product Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Demand and Consumers; Media; Distribution; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Distribution Channels; Infrastructure; Product; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Public Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Programs; Groups and Teams; Sales; Salesforce Management; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Technology; Hardware; Information Technology; Internet; Mobile Technology; Online Technology; Search Technology; Software; Web; Web Sites; Wireless Technology; Resource Allocation; Computer Industry; Electronics Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Information Technology Industry; Retail Industry; Service Industry; Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Video Game Industry; United States; Minnesota; Minneapolis; Saint Paul; St. Paul

Citation

Purchase

02 Jul 2018
Research & Ideas

Corporate Tax Cuts Don't Increase Middle Class Incomes

nations.” What’s driving income inequality? This income inequality is happening for any number of reasons, he adds. One is mechanical. If corporate taxes are lowered, corporate profits will be greater. Since View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland

20 Dec 2022
Op-Ed

Employee Feedback: The Key to Retention During the Great Resignation

“Great Resignation” and other challenges from a constantly changing competitive landscape? First, these companies have CEOs—indeed, leaders at all levels—who care equally about profits and employee well-being and don’t see them as... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer

30 May 2018
Research & Ideas

Should Retailers Match Their Own Prices Online and in Stores?

value of the product is low and there aren’t too many undecided consumers, to offer the price match doesn’t give you much in terms of extra profits from the segment that comes to the store,” Ofek says. “By price discriminating across... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Retail

28 Nov 2005
Research & Ideas

Unilever: Transformation and Tradition

research company. These businesses were the product of past rational calculations, and some remained profitable and successful operations, but by the 1970s times had changed. Unilever found itself burdened, especially in Europe, with a... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones; Consumer Products

07 Aug 2007
First Look

First Look: August 7, 2007

between firm payout policy and tax incentives. Analysis of a panel of firms matched with the tax characteristics of the clients of their institutional shareholders indicates that "dividend-averse" institutions are significantly less likely to hold View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

14 Jan 2019
Op-Ed

These 4 CEOs Created a New Standard of Leadership

contribute to society in meaningful ways, not just profit from it. They believed that organization had to benefit all stakeholders: their customers, employees, shareholders, and communities and that this approach would result in sustained... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George; Health; Banking; Food & Beverage; Consumer Products

27 Feb 2019
Research & Ideas

The Hidden Cost of a Product Recall

many types of innovation for the firms that experience them.” There’s also a second, less studied wave of damage, as competitors ramp up product development efforts to snap up displaced customers and solidify market share gains. This... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Manufacturing; Consumer Products; Auto; Medical Devices & Supplies

12 Mar 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, March 12, 2019

the firm and the open logic of the market. To successfully employ this model, firms must learn to shepherd communities, leverage them without exploiting them, and share intellectual property rights. Last Place Aversion in Queues By:... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

05 Apr 2004
Research & Ideas

Six Ways to Build Trust in Negotiations

in good faith, yet talks sometimes collapse because each side lacks trust in the other's competence and good intentions. One party might want to make a concession or share sensitive information in the hope of inspiring disclosures and... View Details

Keywords: by Deepak Malhotra

03 Mar 2009
First Look

First Look: March 3, 2009

crucially so—on whether or not the platforms subsidize one side of the market in equilibrium. For example, with prices being strategic complements across platforms, we show that a cost-reducing investment by one firm may have a positive effect on its rival's View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

07 Jul 2003
Research & Ideas

4+2 = Sustained Business Success

compared to Kmart. (The other companies in their quad were Target and the Limited.) Both companies were in roughly the same financial shape in 1986, but Dollar General grew steadily, showing healthy profits year after year. Meanwhile,... View Details

Keywords: by Nitin Nohria, William Joyce & Bruce Roberson

20 Dec 2010
Research & Ideas

Panama Canal: Troubled History, Astounding Turnaround

2010 terms, as a share of national income) were scheduled to revert to Colombian ownership in that year. The money to buy them for the new canal effort, then, would have gone to Bogotá instead of the shareholders in the moribund French... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Transportation

Research Summary

Mastering Strategy Execution

By: Robert Simons

Professor Robert Simons’ research encompasses three areas of management accountability that are the foundation for successful strategy execution: organization design, performance measurement and control, and risk management. In addition, Simons is interested in the... View Details

12 Dec 2005
Research & Ideas

Using the Law to Strategic Advantage

such as increasing student loans, to not only comply but also gain profitable business in the process. Michael Porter and others have described a similar process occurring with respect to environmental compliance. By practicing strategic... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Legal Services

Article

Turning Waste into By-Product

By: Deishin Lee

This paper studies how a firm can create and capture value by converting a waste stream into a useful and saleable by-product (i.e., implementing by-product synergy [BPS]). We show that BPS creates an operational synergy between two products that are jointly produced.... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Innovation and Invention; Cost Management; Opportunities; Market Participation; Framework; Profit; Competition; Wastes and Waste Processing; Product; Business Processes

Citation

Find at Harvard

01 Oct 2013
First Look

First Look: October 1

by managers facing intertemporal decisions. We assess the association between different types of performance measures and the time horizon of business unit managers who have profit responsibility. Our results, based on a sample of 105... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

10 May 2010
Research & Ideas

What Top Scholars Say About Leadership

image. The relationship between the two is rich with meaning and resonance and becomes the arena for navigating the empirical, aesthetic, and ethical dimensions of authentic and compelling narrative. To our minds, portraiture is a perfect vehicle for expert leaders of... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Education

09 Nov 2022
In Practice

COP27: What Can Business Leaders Do to Fight Climate Change Now?

The US government’s newly passed Inflation Reduction Act will direct $370 billion toward advancing renewal energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions—the country's largest investment in fighting climate change so far. As business and government leaders around the... View Details

Keywords: by Lynn Schenk and Danielle Kost

21 Dec 2011
Research & Ideas

The Most Common Strategy Mistakes

to understanding everything from the free enterprise system to the individual motivations of managers. Why are some companies more profitable than others? In this excerpt from an interview between Porter and Magretta, Porter discusses the... View Details

Keywords: by Joan Magretta

Publications