Internet retail - Publications - Faculty & Research

April 2018
Supplement

Flipkart (B): The Ongoing Battle for India's E-Commerce Market

By: Sunil Gupta, Das Narayandas and Rachna Tahilyani

In 2017, both Flipkart and Amazon claimed leadership position in India's recently concluded key annual festive season sale, but it was too early to declare victory. Amazon continues to invest heavily in India. Competition from newer players is increasing. Media reports... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Competition; Retail Industry; India

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01 Mar 2012
News

Learning to Speak the Language of Business

Mikitani Main article: Where Innovation Rules Case study: Englishnization at Rakuten From Pinterest to Kobo, how Japan's Rakuten is building a global internet giant (Wired.co.uk) You might call Hiroshi Mikitani (MBA 1993) the Jeff Bezos... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; e-commerce; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Miscellaneous Store Retailers

01 Oct 1999
News

Eight Among Many: Robert F. Diromualdo

and has led a Borders initiative to launch superstores in Great Britain, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand. DiRomualdo is keenly interested in incorporating the advantages of the Internet into Borders' bricks-and-mortarbased business... View Details

Keywords: James E. Aisner

01 Apr 2000
News

Getting the Message

In 1994, the World Wide Web was not yet a household name. A new company called Yahoo! had just developed a way to look for sites on the Internet -- the search engine. HotWired debuted as the first online magazine to carry advertisements.... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young

01 Mar 2011
First Look

First Look: March 1

Strategies of Multichannel Retailers Authors:Elie Ofek, Zsolt Katona, and Miklos Sarvary Publication:Marketing Science 30, no. 1 (January-February 2011) Abstract The Internet has increased the flexibility of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Oct 2002
News

Jeremiah P. Murphy, Jr.

Harvard Square retail community, the Coop's number was almost up when Murphy arrived on the scene. As an old-style department store that carried everything from refrigerators to intimate apparel, the store was struggling to compete in the... View Details

01 Jun 2018
News

The Evolution of Modern Pricing Models

models—we need to go back to when consumers started paying attention to pricing online. The internet becomes widespread starting in 1994, and suddenly you can know the price of something with very minimal effort. And so companies needed... View Details

Profile

Hiroshi Mikitani

pitch their stories and the result is that Rakuten has been used by customers to book more than 10 million rounds of golf a year. The company operates in 13 countries and is focused on expanding its reach. Mikitani bought Buy.com, a U.S. shopping portal, in 2010 and... View Details

01 Jan 2008
News

John Doerr, MBA 1976

a dramatic impact on life in the 21st century, from online retail giant Amazon.com to Internet behemoth Google to synthetic biology leader Amyris. Doerr has become a leading advocate of innovation and... View Details

26 May 2003
Research & Ideas

What Your Competition is Telling You

perhaps prefer, the nearby independent. "There's a delicate balance between the synergies [two combatants] can generate on one hand and too much competition on the other," says Joan E. Primo, a principal of real estate and View Details

Keywords: by David Stauffer

January 1998
Case

Frontgate Catalog

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport

Frontgate is a high-end, Lebanon, Ohio-based catalog business. The decision makers are trying to determine how much financial and personnel resources to invest in the development of a Web site. The decision is being made in light of branding issues and competitor's Web... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Competition; Internet and the Web; Brands and Branding; Retail Industry; Ohio

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Find at Harvard

17 Dec 2001
Research & Ideas

Enterprising Women

Lewis (HBS MBA '92), took the Internet retailer of office supplies from 25 to 400 employees and $50 million to $500 million in revenues. Being an "intrapreneur" within a larger corporation—with a... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

01 Mar 2006
News

Fast Lane to Country Lane

TOGETHERNESS: Mark and Kim Lackley based their furniture business in Vermont. Learn on someone else’s dime. That’s a lesson from HBS that served Kim Alley Lackley (MBA ’94) well as she made the leap from software and Internet start-ups to... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley; Retail Trade; Retail Trade

30 Jan 2018
First Look

January 30, 2018

Abstract—The article discusses the notion of advertising as a profession in relation to the impact of digital analytics and data-driven marketing. Topics include the history of internet marketing, the investments of the content-driven... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

09 Apr 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, April 9, 2019

company. Purchase this case:https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/719456-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 518-038 Index In December 2017, Marc Freed-Finnegan and Jonathan Wall, the co-founders of retail technology company Index, had to... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

December 2019 (Revised January 2020)
Case

Boll & Branch

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Mel Martin

Boll & Branch is a direct-to-consumer (DTC) business launched in 2015. It was the first Fair-Trade Certified manufacturer of linens. The case provides background on the company, its start, business model, and evolution through 2019. View Details

Keywords: Direct-to-consumer; Channels; Disruption; Business Model; Brands and Branding; Internet and the Web; Strategy; Retail Industry; United States; Canada

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25 Apr 2012
What Do You Think?

How Will the “Age of Big Data” Affect Management?

appraisal of opportunities for new business startups. Furthermore, analytics (not the data) should be a source of continuing competitive advantage. In his new book, Charles Duhigg describes how the retailer Target uses data on consumption... View Details

Keywords: Re: James L. Heskett

July 2000 (Revised October 2000)
Case

Petstore.com

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

Petstore.com is one of four contenders for leadership in the highly competitive online pet supply business. Petstore.com faces decisions regarding potential merger partners and how to brand its service within the website managed by its ultimate merger partner,... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Internet and the Web; Mergers and Acquisitions; Partners and Partnerships; Internet and the Web; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Retail Industry

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2009
Working Paper

Why Do Intermediaries Divert Search? - Companion Paper

By: Andrei Hagiu and Bruno Jullien

This companion paper contains several extensions of the model presented in our main paper - Hagiu and Jullien (2009). View Details

Keywords: Market Intermediation; Search; Two Sided Markets; Platform Design; Demand and Consumers; Motivation and Incentives; Internet and the Web; Digital Platforms; Distribution Channels; Business Strategy; Retail Industry

Citation

Read Now

September 1999 (Revised April 2000)
Case

drugstore.com

By: Richard L. Nolan

On a clear day in August 1999 in the new headquarters of drugstore.com, against a backdrop of the Blue Angels flying in formation over Lake Washington practicing for their hydroplane Seafare Cup performance, Peter Neupert was pleased with his company's IPO performance.... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Internet and the Web; Problems and Challenges; Business Startups; Retail Industry

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