Retail Chains - Publications - Faculty & Research

03 Feb 2016
Research & Ideas

The State of Customer Service Leadership

Southwest Airlines, for instance, has continued as a legendary US-based service provider since its inception in 1971, IKEA of Sweden has evolved to teach the world’s retailers about the power of a well- defined and well-executed service... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner; Retail

03 Mar 2014
HBS Case

Decommoditizing the Canned Tomato

downturn. "An Italian friend in the business kept saying this is horrible, look what the retailers are doing to us," says Shelman. But Francesco told Shelman that the company was doing quite well. "And I said, you've got a bad economy,... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish; Retail; Retail; Retail

08 Dec 2008
Research & Ideas

Thinking Twice About Supply-Chain Layoffs

centers can seriously affect an organization's bottom line and undermine its strategy. "My research reveals that what happens in the last 10 yards of retail supply chains is really important. Customers often... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

28 Jul 2014
Research & Ideas

Eyes Shut: The Consequences of Not Noticing

safety of the employees who make the goods that the retailer sells? No need to feel awkward if your answer is no. Most people do not think about the harms created by indirect actions, that is, behaviors that hurt others indirectly, such... View Details

Keywords: by Max H. Bazerman; Retail

09 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Incentives and Operational Excellence

to customers but also a problem for both stores and studios. Studios sell videocassettes to video rental stores at forty-five dollars, which are then rented out for around four dollars. Tapes are disposed of for five dollars after three months, so the View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

26 Jul 2010
Research & Ideas

Yes, You Can Raise Prices in a Downturn

industry. But research at HBS and other places1 shows that within-industry differences in profitability and returns are typically much greater than across industries. Buffett knows this, investing in "bad" industries like furniture View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail; Retail

15 Dec 2014
Research & Ideas

Deconstructing the Price Tag

sentiment, the researchers conducted six lab experiments in which participants answered questions about a simulated website of a fashion retailer selling T-shirts. The research also included a field study of sales figures at a real online... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Retail

28 Apr 2011
Op-Ed

While Waiting for Japan’s Recovery, Let’s Enhance Supplier Competitiveness at Home

Connection on January 31. Other major manufacturers and retailers are soon to join, and IBM intends to find other ways to enhance small business growth. Imagine the possibilities for a national campaign to reduce unemployment and grow the... View Details

Keywords: by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

15 Jul 2015
Research & Ideas

Amazon Prime Day: The Logic Behind a Retailer’s Made-up Holiday

revenue for Amazon, in addition to the additional value the online retailing giant gets from the loyalty customers feel once they are enrolled. "THERE IS NO QUESTION THAT PRIME MEMBERS ARE EXTREMELY IMPORTANT FOR AMAZON, AND IT GIVES... View Details

Keywords: Re: Sunil Gupta; Retail

22 Feb 2016
Research & Ideas

The ‘Mother of Fair Trade’ was an Unabashed Price Protectionist

California pharmacist and drugstore owner who balked at the price-slashing practices of chain store competitors and spearheaded a local price-control movement to protect her own bottom line—a crusade that would ultimately gain such... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Retail; Retail; Retail

May 1999 (Revised August 1999)
Case

Victory Supermarkets: Expansion Strategy?

By: David E. Bell and Ann Leamon

Jay DiGeronimo, president of a 16-store supermarket chain, is trying to decide the timing and method for expanding his chain. The family-owned company could continue in a maintenance mode, with each family member running one store. It could expand slowly using a new... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Cost vs Benefits; Trade; Investment; Market Entry and Exit; Supply Chain Management; Private Ownership; Competition; Expansion; Retail Industry

Citation

Find at Harvard

28 Apr 2008
HBS Case

Negotiating with Wal-Mart

Like Muccio, Talley confronted some of the same hardball price challenges, and like Muccio, she acquired a deep understanding of the Wal-Mart culture while finding "new money" in the supply chain through innovative tactics. For... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

27 Aug 2014
Lessons from the Classroom

Learning From Japan’s Remarkable Disaster Recovery

Clinic, a provider of medical services; Fast Retailing Group, which owns a chain of apparel stores; and Lawson's, which operates more than 40,000 convenience stores. The cases underscore disaster recovery... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail; Retail; Retail

July 2007 (Revised March 2008)
Background Note

Staging Two-Sided Platforms

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Andrei Hagiu

Firms that aspire to develop two-sided platforms face a formidable challenge. Prospective users on each side will not invest in the platform until they are confident there will be enough users on the other side. Traditional strategies for dealing with this... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Risk Management; Two-Sided Platforms; Supply Chain; Strategy; Retail Industry

Citation

Educators

Purchase

22 Mar 2017
Research & Ideas

What's the Ideal Frequency for a Sales Quota?

saw this effect in the modeling world, but I wanted to test it in the real world,” says Chung, an assistant professor. “The best way to do that was to perform a field experiment.” For real-world proof of how quotas affect sales performance, the researchers teamed up... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

27 Aug 2007
Op-Ed

Mattel: Getting a Toy Recall Right

million toys manufactured in China with lead paint and/or loose, potentially dangerous magnets. Clearly Mattel did not have sufficiently tight quality control procedures in its supply chain to compensate for the extra risks of outsourcing... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Consumer Products

05 Dec 2013
What Do You Think?

Is Walmart Defying Economic Gravity?

information-driven model by gaining a better understanding of product and customer relationships." Dean Vella cited Walmart's innovation in supply chain management and sustainability as ways in which it is reducing the friction... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Retail