Publications

This case analyzes the creation, loss, and attempted re-creation of competitive advantage. At one time, Bed Bath & Beyond was one of the most successful specialty retailers in the United States-it's growth and profit margins far exceeded rates at peer... View Details

November 2013
Teaching Note

Barnes & Noble: Managing the E-Book Revolution

By: Alan MacCormack, Brian Kimball Dunn and Chris F. Kemerer

In 2012, Barnes & Noble found itself in a difficult position. While the company had weathered the advent of online retailing relatively well, the arrival of electronic books (e-books) threatened the company's viability. Primary competitor Borders had already fallen by... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Internet and the Web; Adaptation; Books; Retail Industry

17 Jun 2015
News

High Yield On Main Street: Investors Earn 12% Lending To Small Business, When Banks Won't

28 Oct 2019
Research & Ideas

Brick-and-Mortar Stores Are Making a Comeback

will not survive are the retailers that are more like a warehouse, or just physical repositories of goods. Real estate is too expensive for that purpose. The opportunity to think about online and offline as... View Details

Keywords: by Jen McFarland Flint; Retail

September 2019 (Revised July 2021)
Case

Gap, Inc., 2019

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In 2000, The Gap, Inc. (Gap) was the world’s largest player in specialty fashion retailing, and companies such as Inditex of Spain, H&M of Sweden, and Fast Retailing of Japan were less than a quarter of Gap’s size. But after two decades of growth, Gap’s progress... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Change; Fashion; Multinational; Brands; Fast Fashion; Competition; Multinational Firms and Management; Performance Improvement; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Change Management; Strategy; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Sweden; Spain; United States

17 Mar 2015
News

The Success of Monitoring the Economy With Big Data

July 2022 (Revised February 2024)
Teaching Note

The DivaCup: Navigating Distribution and Growth

By: Ayelet Israeli

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 519-055. When the mother-daughter founders of DivaCup set out with a mission to disrupt the menstrual care industry with an innovative product form, they initially struggled to gain legitimacy and convince retailers to carry their unique... View Details

March 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

The DivaCup: Navigating Distribution and Growth

By: Ayelet Israeli

When the mother-daughter founders of DivaCup set out with a mission to disrupt the menstrual care industry with an innovative product form, they initially struggled to gain legitimacy and convince retailers to carry their unique product. Fifteen years later, the... View Details

2019
Working Paper

Large-Scale Demand Estimation with Search Data

By: Tomomichi Amano, Andrew Rhodes and Stephan Seiler

In many online markets, traditional methods of demand estimation are difficult to implement because assortments are very large and individual products are sold infrequently. At the same time, data on consumer search (i.e., browsing) behavior are often available and are... View Details

Keywords: High-dimensional Data; Demand Estimation; Consideration Sets; Consumer Search

SSRN

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03 Dec 2014
HBS Seminar

Ginger Jin, University of Maryland

10 Jan 2011
Research & Ideas

Is Groupon Good for Retailers?

Explain the theoretical model you describe in your paper and how it can help retailers decide whether a voucher service like Groupon makes sense for them. A: We present a model of online discount vouchers... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Advertising; Technology

09 Dec 2015
Research Event

How Do You Predict Demand and Set Prices For Products Never Sold Before?

predict demand with prescriptive analytics to make tactical decisions?” she said to a packed audience of executives, data scientists, and scholars. “I believe the answer lies in data.” Ferreira presented field work she and colleagues conducted with the Boston-based... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail; Retail

17 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

Where Did My Shopping Mall Go?

are that retailers will reduce store count and also reduce the size of those locations as online commerce begins to satisfy more and more demand. What is to become of all this View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

February 2013
Case

18 Months in a Startup: Zaggora.com

By: Tom Nicholas

The founders of Zaggora reflected back on a tumultuous year-and-a-half in which they had generated, from just $40,000 in personal savings, a multi-million dollar sportswear enterprise selling Hotpants to women. These were hotpants not of the 1960s hipster variety, but... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Growth Management; Problems and Challenges; Business Startups; Brands and Branding; Innovation and Invention; Corporate Finance; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Sports Industry

November 2000 (Revised July 2001)
Case

Intuit QuickBooks

By: Rajiv Lal and Punima P Kochikar

Internet QuickBooks, a successful product with a strong brand and an 85% share of retail sales, was faced with the challenge of meeting market growth expectations in a mature, slowing market segment. Generating recurring revenues by providing value-added online... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Decisions; Growth and Development; Brands and Branding; Market Participation; Problems and Challenges; Internet and the Web; Value; Web Services Industry