Publications

07 May 2021
News

A Best Buy CEO on What It Takes to Fix a Struggling Retailer

June 2013 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Hennes & Mauritz, 2000

By: John R. Wells and Galen Danskin

In 2000, Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) was the second-largest and most global player in the fashion retail business. It operated 682 stores, 80% of them outside its home country of Sweden, and achieved revenues of $3.0 billion and operating profits of $375 million. In 1999,... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Strategy Alignment; Strategic Planning; Fashion; Risk Management; Competition; Problems and Challenges; Management Teams; Globalized Firms and Management; Expansion; Distribution Channels; Retail Industry; Fashion Industry; Sweden

12 Feb 2018
Research & Ideas

Customers at the Back of the Line Are Anxious—Can You Keep Them from Leaving?

—Buell explains in a new working paper, “Last Place Aversion in Queues.” "If I can’t look behind me and see someone else is willing to wait longer than me, I start to question whether waiting in line is worthwhile” Buell’s research... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Retail; Service

November 2015
Case

Katherine Schuler at Boxes & Bins, Inc.

By: Linda A. Hill and James Kindley

This case is about Katherine Schuler, soon to become senior vice president of marketing at a fast-growing retail organization, Boxes & Bins (B&B). Part of Schuler's success has been due to her "fit" into a company with clear values and principles. In particular, B&B... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Personal Development and Career; Growth and Development Strategy; Retail Industry

11 Jul 2006
First Look

First Look: July 11, 2006

to increase investment in its "off eBay" strategy; how to allocate investments between the two sides of its payment network (i.e., consumers and merchants); which consumer segments to target (e.g., existing PayPal account holders or View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2017 (Revised March 2017)
Case

Royal DSM: From Continuous Transformation to Organic Growth

By: William W. George, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Amram Migdal

Royal DSM CEO Feike Sijbesma was pondering the challenges of shifting DSM’s global organization from the constant transformations of the past 100 years to creating organic growth. When Sijbesma took the helm as CEO in 2007, he further pushed and completed the company’s... View Details

Keywords: Organic Growth; Organizational Change; M＆A; Mergers And Acquisitions; Divestment; Business Ventures; Business Divisions; Business Growth and Maturation; Restructuring; Change; Change Management; Transformation; Transition; Engineering; Chemicals; Mining; Ethics; Values and Beliefs; Finance; Capital Markets; Financial Markets; Food; Globalization; Global Strategy; Globalized Firms and Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Health; Nutrition; History; Leadership; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Management; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Management Practices and Processes; Management Style; Organizations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Design; Ownership; Public Ownership; Performance; Strategy; Adaptation; Consolidation; Corporate Strategy; Value; Value Creation; Biotechnology Industry; Chemical Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Mining Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Europe; Netherlands

14 Jan 2014
First Look

First Look: January 14

show that independent retailers were actually harmed by the creation of entry barriers against large stores. Instead of simply reducing the number of new large stores entering a market, the entry barriers... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

04 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: January 4

Tsuchiya Publication:In The Yearbook on International Investment Law and Policy 2010-2011, edited by Karl P. Sauvant. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011 An abstract is unavailable at this time. Publisher's Link: View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

11 Feb 2014
First Look

First Look: February 11

constrained agency through which a particular network action is taken can affect actors' ensuing structural positions and the nature of the constraints they subsequently face. Our conceptualization of constrained agency identifies new... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2024
Case

Sacoor Brothers: From Co-Family CEOs to No Family CEOs?

By: Lauren Cohen, David Ager and Alpana Thapar

Sacoor Brothers, a luxury clothing retail company, was founded in 1989 in Lisbon, Portugal, by four brothers—Malik, Salim, Rahimo, and Moez. After establishing a strong presence in Portugal, the brothers were drawn to the rapidly growing retail markets in the Middle... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Growth; Geographic Mobility; Private Equity; Investment; Family Office; Governance; Professionalization; Institutional Development; Second-generation; Third-generation; Transition; Jordan; Retail Industry; Fashion Industry; Middle East; United Arab Emirates; Saudi Arabia; Portugal

February 2023 (Revised June 2023)
Case

Doing Business in Santiago, Chile

By: Willis Emmons, Leonard A. Schlesinger and Ruth Costas

The case uses the example of the opening of the first IKEA furniture store in Chile – which is operated by Chilean group Falabella – to discuss the opportunities and challenges of doing business in the country. It gives readers an overview of Chile’s economic... View Details

Keywords: Business Cycles; Development Economics; Developing Countries and Economies; Economic Growth; Economic Sectors; Economy; Macroeconomics; Business History; Chile; Latin America

January 2014 (Revised December 2014)
Case

GenapSys: Business Models for the Genome

By: Richard G. Hamermesh, Joseph B. Fuller and Matthew Preble

GenapSys, a California-based startup, was soon to release a new DNA sequencer that the company's founder, Hesaam Esfandyarpour, believed was truly revolutionary. The sequencer would be substantially less expensive—potentially costing just a few thousand dollars—and... View Details

Keywords: DNA Sequencing; Life Sciences; Business Model; Innovation ＆ Entrepreneurship; Health Care and Treatment; Genetics; Business Strategy; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Technology Industry; Health Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; United States

23 Sep 2022
Research & Ideas

8 Strategies to Sustain Business Innovation

other dramatic pivots: Twitter was created as a text-style messaging program for a podcast company. Yelp was born as an automated email service. YouTube was originally an online dating site. Now they’re anchors of the digital world. “You... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

21 Jun 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Merchant or Two-Sided Platform?

Keywords: by Andrei Hagiu; Technology

01 Jun 2023
HBS Case

A Nike Executive Hid His Criminal Past to Turn His Life Around. What If He Didn't Have To?

Miller vowed to hide his criminal past from the business world—a secret he managed to keep for more than 40 years. That was back in 1982, when arrest and prison records were recorded on paper, stored in filing cabinets, and were much... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Apparel & Accessories

12 Nov 2012
Research & Ideas

Pay Workers More So They Steal Less

Bigger paychecks for retail employees could generate significant payoffs for employers by reducing worker theft and raising the level of moral behavior in the workforce, a new study shows. Tatiana Sandino, an associate professor in... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Retail

March 2008 (Revised February 2009)
Case

Transparent Value LLC

By: Sharon P. Katz, Krishna G. Palepu and Aldo Sesia, Jr.

Leading index company Dow Jones recently signed a license and joint marketing agreement with Transparent Value LLC, the creator of a new fundamentals-based valuation methodology. The agreement allowed Dow Jones to offer a family of indexes based on the Transparent... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Stocks; Price; Performance Expectations; Mathematical Methods; Valuation