Publications

October 2018 (Revised July 2019)
Case

BulkWhiz: Negotiating as a Startup Founder in the UAE

By: Katherine Coffman, Christine Exley and Alpana Thapar

This case follows Amira Rashad as she founds BulkWhiz, a Dubai-based buy-in-bulk grocery delivery platform. Following its launch in September 2017, BulkWhiz experiences rapid growth of 30 percent per month in the United Arab Emirates. Despite this initial success,... View Details

05 Mar 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, March 5, 2019

Case 818-079 Chewy.com (A) In late 2013, Ryan Cohen, cofounder and CEO of online pet products retailer Chewy.com, faces a “bet the company decision”—whether to stay with a third-party logistics provider (3PL) for all of its e-commerce... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

25 Jul 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas: July 25, 2017

social impact. This registered benefit corporation was formed by Davis Smith who coalesced his experiences as a Wharton MBA student along with professional knowledge from an unpaid internship in Peru and his previous e-commerce startups... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

15 Jul 2015
Research & Ideas

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

huge motivation to try something like this." Amazon is not the first to try launching its own shopping holiday. Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba manufactured its own event in 2009 with "Singles Day," which takes place on... View Details

Keywords: Re: Sunil Gupta; Retail

13 May 2014
Op-Ed

The Alibaba Effect

transactions. A combination of Amazon and eBay, it holds an 80 percent share of the e-commerce market in the world's second largest economy. Its net income for 2013 was four times more than in 2012. Its products and services lie at the... View Details

Keywords: by Bill Kirby & Warren McFarlan; Retail

June 2022
Case

Worten Portugal: Becoming a Digital Marketplace

By: Antonio Moreno, Pedro Amorim and Tonia Labruyere

With Amazon's entry into Portugal, Miguel Mota Freitas, CEO of Portuguese electronics chain Worten, is reflecting on their strategy of building a competitive marketplace. View Details

Keywords: Digital Transformation; Digital Strategy; Digital Platforms; Brands and Branding; E-commerce; Logistics; Service Delivery; Supply Chain; Competitive Strategy; Diversification; Consumer Products Industry; Electronics Industry; Retail Industry; Portugal; Spain

September 2016 (Revised February 2017)
Case

Angie's List: Ratings Pioneer Turns 20

By: Robert J. Dolan and Ayelet Israeli

In 1995, before people “googled” or “yelped,” Angela Hicks (HBS, 2000) was establishing her Angie’s List as a pioneer in the accumulation and dissemination of consumer rating information. Hicks focused on the home repair and maintenance market and, as she put it,... View Details

04 Jun 2001
Research & Ideas

RealNetworks, CNET, and Judo Strategy

intact for the Internet, and there is enormous growth potential," Yoffie said. "We still expect 700 million users by 2005 and somewhere between $7 and 8 trillion in e-commerce sales within that time frame. With the likes of... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner

22 Feb 2011
Research & Ideas

The Most Important Management Trends of the (Still Young) Twenty-First Century

survivors, the future of e-commerce and other info tech industries seemed perilous. BusinessWeek.com recently ranked Amazon #6 in its annual list of most innovative companies; four of the other five are internet or computer businesses. In... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

29 Sep 2015
First Look

September 29, 2015

significant changes, but the engineering and economic challenges of the industry made any move into that space a risky bet. Purchase this case: https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/716401-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 616-003 SF Express: From Delivery to... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

09 Apr 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, April 9, 2019

attraction, retention, and motivation of talent in organizations. Purchase this case:https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/119007-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 518-097 Flipkart (B): The Ongoing Battle for India's E-Commerce Market In... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Women Leading Business: A New Kind of Conversation

international flavor to this program. EE: Who are some of the HBS faculty and the issues they will be discussing in the 1999 Executive Forum? Hart: We'll be kicking off with Nancy Koehn discussing revolutions in commerce, particularly in retailing. The introduction and... View Details

Keywords: Re: Myra M. Hart & Cynthia A. Montgomery

18 Apr 2005
Research & Ideas

Prosper with Multi-Channel Retailing

with their best customers. While some retailers at the beginning of the e-commerce phenomenon feared that adding another channel would simply add costs and erode their other channels, she said the opposite is true in many cases.... View Details

Keywords: by Julie Jette; Consumer Products; Retail

19 Dec 2017
First Look

New Research and Ideas, December 19, 2017

e-Commerce Brand at Wayfair Wayfair, Inc. comprised five home goods, furniture, and décor e-commerce brands. Wayfair.com, the main brand, which was responsible for the majority of sales, targeted the... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

24 Jul 2000
Research & Ideas

Linking the Globe: The Role of Media and Communications

e-commerce is really about," said Job, "is reducing the gap between thought and action, between when you know something and when you do something about it." Third, he said, is a relevant brand that gives people confidence... View Details

Keywords: by Kenneth Liss; Information; Publishing; Journalism & News; Media & Broadcasting

11 Mar 2001
Research & Ideas

Evolving for Success [Part Two]

age: dot-coms, dot-com enablers, and wanna-dots. That's kind of a joke, because many of the pure dot-coms are dead. The dot-com enablers, which are the technology and service firms themselves, are the biggest e-commerce companies in the... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

November 2024
Case

Polish Agro: Where Do We Grow From Here?

By: Willy C. Shih, Lena Duchene and Daniela Beyersdorfer

By July 2024, Polish Agro had grown into one of Poland’s fastest-growing agribusinesses, with €230 million in revenue, 82 employees, and operations across Northern Poland. The company supported farmers with essential agricultural inputs like fertilizers and seeds,... View Details