Retail Chains - Publications - Faculty & Research

15 Nov 2016
First Look

November 15, 2016

the optimal rule. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=50545 Who Should Select New Employees, the Head Office or the Unit Manager? Consequences of Centralizing Hiring at a Retail View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

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Winners & Runners-Up | New Venture Competition

Helm Social Enterprise Track Winner A web-based solution that streamlines the transition of patients from the hospital to post-acute care facilities. XinfuGo (now Tang Mall) Ying Chen, HBS Yixin La, HBS Qiwei Shi, HBS Social Enterprise Track Runner-Up A disruptive... View Details

03 Mar 2015
First Look

First Look: March 3

to attract more sponsors. With KCON 2012 having lost money, despite a robust turnout, it was far from clear whether to repeat the event and, if so, whether its scale should be expanded beyond 2012's $1.1 million budget. With CJ recently opening a View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

28 Oct 2014
First Look

First Look: October 28

examines the operations strategy of Whole Foods, one of the largest natural grocery chains in the United States. In late 2013, Whole Foods was expanding rapidly, with a publicly stated goal of growing from 351 to 1,000 domestic stores by... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

01 Mar 2018
News

Every Trick in the Book

beloved,” she says. But beloved didn’t pay the bills, and by 2015, after decades of pressure from big chains and the internet, the small, independent store was on the verge of closing. That’s when Brody, a New Yorker who spends her... View Details

Keywords: April White

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Online Business Strategy Course | HBS Online

Predicting Competition in Local Markets Competing Against Dominant Platforms Platforms in Your Value Chain Serial Acquirers Show Hide Details Concepts Understanding Network Effects Which Markets Will Tip Strategies for Underdogs Digital... View Details

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Published CSV Cases - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

course, visit the HBS Executive Education site . For more information about a published case, click its title. CVS currently in development Founded in 1963, CVS Health (CVS) was the leading drugstore chain in the United States.... View Details

2020
Working Paper

Overcoming the Cold Start Problem of CRM Using a Probabilistic Machine Learning Approach

By: Eva Ascarza

The success of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) programs ultimately depends on the firm's ability to understand consumers' preferences and precisely capture how these preferences may differ across customers. Only by understanding customer heterogeneity, firms can... View Details

Keywords: Customer Management; Targeting; Deep Exponential Families; Probabilistic Machine Learning; Cold Start Problem; Customer Relationship Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Consumer Behavior; Analytics and Data Science; Mathematical Methods; Retail Industry

Citation

SSRN

14 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Restarting Under Uncertainty: Managerial Experiences from Around the World

clients with supply chain solutions. With five distribution centers and three logistics warehouses, and over 1,000 employees, Logistics previously managed more than 50 outbound orders per day to refill stores and View Details

Keywords: by Raffaella Sadun, Andrea Bertoni, Alexia Delfino, Giovanni Fassio, and Mariapaola Testa

Profile

Peter Gumulia

not his central passion. In college, Peter interned at a supply chain company where he helped a large retailer build its first distribution center dedicated to e-commerce. “I enjoyed the process,” he says.... View Details

18 Feb 2019
Book

What’s Really Disrupting Business? It’s Not Technology

going to do it more conveniently,’” says Thales S. Teixeira, author of the new book Unlocking the Customer Value Chain: How Decoupling Drives Consumer Disruption, which debuts tomorrow. “Incumbents tend to respond to decoupling by gluing back the part of the value... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Retail; Retail; Retail; Retail

23 Mar 2023
Blog Post

Arla Foods: How Sustainable Can A Dairy Company Be?

create value for their farmer-owners, both economic and environmental. Supply Chain Sustainability. Behind their ambitious goals, Arla shared the strategic pathways that they plan to execute on their path to be carbon net zero by 2050. As... View Details

01 Jun 2022
News

A Sustainable Solution for Fashion

Ferdinand Stockmann (MBA 2021) and James Theuerkauf (MBA 2021) Photo courtesy Syrup Tech Fashion is one of the most polluting industries in the world, says James Theuerkauf (MBA 2021), who worked in McKinsey’s retail sector before... View Details

Keywords: April White

15 Mar 2017
Lessons from the Classroom

More Than 900 Examples of How Climate Change Affects Business

This word cloud is composed of blog posts by more than 900 students describing how individual organizations are likely to be affected by climate change. Image by Patrick Clapp Last fall, first-year MBA students at Harvard Business School received a new assignment in... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Green Technology

28 Nov 2005
Research & Ideas

Unilever: Transformation and Tradition

slaughter the animals some of whose parts ended up in Unilever's pies and sausages. Unilever made its own packaging, and transported its products on its own trucks and barges. It owned the distribution chain that delivered its frozen... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones; Consumer Products

03 Dec 2020
Research & Ideas

Cut Payroll Costs with Transparency, Fairness, and Compassion

US and Canadian stores, it also announced it had “committed to pay all Starbucks US and Canada retail partners for the next 30 days whether or not their store is closed, or they are otherwise unable, or even uncomfortable, coming to work.... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Sarah Abbott

March 2023 (Revised May 2025)
Case

On

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Karolin Frankenberger and Sascha Mader

Founded in 2010, in just one decade, the Swiss company On had established itself as a main player in global sports footwear and apparel. Based on an unconventional strategy which one of the founders labeled as “obsessively distinct,” On grew its sales with a compound... View Details

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Industry Information - Alumni

and news on emerging designers, disruptive technologies and global brands in the fashion and luxury goods industries. United States Census Bureau: Retail Trade Provides the industry monthly sales and inventory data, annual survey data... View Details

05 Nov 2021
Op-Ed

Is the Business World Finally Ready for the Wisdom of Shibusawa?

Eiichi Shibusawa continues to gain influence in Japan—even though he died almost a century ago. Japan’s government announced earlier this year that the 19th century business leader would be the face on 10,000 yen ($90) bank notes—the highest value denomination in... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones and Rei Morimoto; Financial Services; Retail

February 2010 (Revised June 2022)
Case

Dollarama Inc.

By: Andre F. Perold

Dollarama is the leading operator of dollar stores in Canada. The firm performed extraordinarily well after a leveraged buyout in 2004 and recently executed a highly successful IPO. The company sources its goods primarily from Asia. It has strong brand recognition and... View Details