Publications

February 2001 (Revised October 2006)
Case

McDuffy, Arms & Ginsberg

By: Jay W. Lorsch

Describes the musings of the managing partner of a law firm as he returns from an executive education program. He thinks about the many issues confronting him and his firm. Teaching Purpose: To prepare executive education participants to return to their companies and... View Details

Keywords: Executive Education; Leadership; Management; Legal Services Industry

August 1998
Background Note

Selling Books Online in Mid-1998

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Cate Reavis

Provides an overview of the trends and predictions for the online book retail industry as of August 1998 and the current status of Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and other main players' online ventures. View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Books; Retail Industry

01 Nov 2013
News

Adding Bricks to Clicks: On the Role of Physical Stores in a World of Online Shopping

05 Mar 2020
News

What one game show reveals about the American economy

17 Jun 2013
News

The SEC Gets Money-Fund Reform Half Right

December 1998
Case

MD Foods Amba

By: Ray A. Goldberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Cate Reavis

In 1998, MD Foods, a Denmark-based dairy cooperative, was searching for growth opportunities that would enable it to become northern Europe's preferred retail dairy supplier. The options being considered included expanding in existing markets, entering into new... View Details

Keywords: Cooperative Ownership; Growth and Development Strategy; Expansion; Market Entry and Exit; Alliances; Innovation and Management; Food and Beverage Industry; Europe; United Kingdom; Denmark

04 May 2023
Blog Post

Sustainability: Career Advice from HBS Career Coach Hillary Mann

Hillary Mann is a Corporate Relations Director in the Career and Professional Development Office covering Consumer Products, Retail & Luxury Goods, Hospitality, Agribusiness, View Details

December 2021 (Revised May 2022)
Case

Troverie (A)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Lindsay N. Hyde and Olivia Graham

Six months after the August 2018 launch of Troverie, a U.S.-based online retailer of luxury watches, the average cost of acquiring a customer is much higher than originally projected, and the startup is incurring a substantial loss on each sales transaction. Could... View Details

Keywords: Startup; Luxury Goods; Customer Acquisition; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Luxury; Failure; Internet and the Web; Revenue; Fashion Industry; United States

August 2022
Case

Rocket Learning: Evidence in Action

By: Brian Trelstad, Tomas Rosales and Malini Sen

Founders of Rocket Learning, an India-based nonprofit which focused on early childhood education (ECE), received an invitation from MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (JPAL), a development research organization, to test its intervention for ECE with a... View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Early Childhood Education; Nonprofit Organizations; Literacy; Values and Beliefs; Social and Collaborative Networks; Education Industry; India; Asia

John Deighton is The Harold M. Brierley Professor of Business Administration Emeritus at Harvard Business School. He is an authority on consumer behavior and marketing, with a focus on digital and direct marketing. He teaches in the area of Big Data in Marketing,... View Details

Keywords: advertising; banking; beverage; communications; computer; consumer products; credit card; e-commerce industry; financial services; grocery; hotels ＆ motels; information technology industry; marketing industry; music; pharmaceuticals; professional services

2008
Book

Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns

By: Clayton M. Christensen, Michael B. Horn and Curtis W. Johnson

According to recent studies in neuroscience, the way we learn doesn't always match up with the way we are taught. If we hope to stay competitive—academically, economically, and technologically—we need to rethink our understanding of intelligence, reevaluate our... View Details

Keywords: Learning; Teaching; Disruptive Innovation; Competitive Advantage; Technology Adoption

24 Jun 2015
HBS Case

Upgrading School with a Startup Mentality

launch his own network of schools because he believed typical elementary education was not preparing students adequately for the future. Instead, Ventilla created "microschools," each with 80 to 150 K-8 students, with a focus on... View Details

Keywords: Re: John Jong-Hyun Kim; Education

19 Dec 2011
News

Death Knell for the Category Killers?

April 1993 (Revised January 2011)
Background Note

Note on Store Location

By: David E. Bell and Jose B. Alvarez

Reviews some basic issues to be considered in selecting a new location for a retail store. View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Geographic Location; Expansion; Retail Industry

1999
Book

The Intellectual Venture Capitalist: John H. McArthur and the Work of the Harvard Business School, 1980-1995

Keywords: Venture Capital; Business Education; History

2025
Working Paper

How Do Households Suppress the Price of Tail Risk?

By: Laurent Calvet, Claire Célérier, Gordon Liao and Boris Vallée

This paper investigates the effects of the issuance of retail products with non-linear payoffs on option prices. For a given underlying asset, when the outstanding volume of products embedding a short-put position increases, implied volatility at the corresponding... View Details

Keywords: Security Design; Dividend; Options; Structured Products; Market Segmentation; Financial Instruments; Design; Volatility; Markets; Segmentation

Read Now

November 2005 (Revised September 2007)
Case

Beijing Hualian

By: David E. Bell and Mary L. Shelman

China's fifth largest domestic retailer faced intensifying competition from Wal-Mart and Carrefour with the opening of China's fast-growing retail market in January 2005. In response, Beijing Hualian developed a new "Family Store" format targeted at the nation's... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Product Positioning; Consumer Behavior; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Retail Industry; China

2000
Chapter

Learning New Technical and Interpersonal Routines in Operating Room Teams: The Case of Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery

By: Amy C. Edmondson, Richard Bohmer and Gary Pisano

Keywords: Groups and Teams; Health Care and Treatment; Practice; Competency and Skills; Training; Health Industry