Publications

January 1986 (Revised July 2006)
Case

Kristen's Cookie Company (A)

The student is starting his or her own business, baking make-to-order cookies. Basic times of each operation are laid out and the student is asked to determine the consequences for the operating system. Serves as an exercise and review of concepts such as capacity,... View Details

Keywords: Production; Business Startups; Food and Beverage Industry

March 2019
Supplement

KITEA (B): Getting Ready to Face IKEA

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in September 2015, when IKEA is about to open its first store in Morocco. It then chronicles the efforts of KITEA CEO Amine Benkirane and his son Othman between 2013 and 2015 to prepare KITEA for IKEA’s entry. After incurring losses for the first time in... View Details

September 2010 (Revised July 2021)
Case

Gone Rural

By: Andre F. Perold

Gone Rural employs 750 women in rural communities across Swaziland to produce handwoven baskets and other hand-crafted items. The women are mostly grandmothers caring for children orphaned as a result of the country's high AIDS-related death rate. The company has a... View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Growth and Development; Buildings and Facilities; Business Growth and Maturation; Corporate Finance; Business and Shareholder Relations; Swaziland

Article

On the Division of Profit in Sequential Innovation

By: Jerry R. Green and Suzanne Scotchmer

In markets with sequential innovation, inventors of derivative improvements might undermine the profit of initial innovators through competition. Profit erosion can be mitigated by broadening the first innovator's patent protection and/or by permitting cooperative... View Details

Keywords: Profit; Innovation and Invention

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May 2023
Article

Where Sales Technology (Really) Helps

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Interest in Sales Enablement (SE), the catch-all term for attempts to increase sales productivity with AI and other technologies, is driven by multiple factors. One is the declining costs of the tools. Also, selling is now data-hungry work and not just in tech sectors.... View Details

December 2022
Article

Conflicting Interests and the Effect of Fiduciary Duty: Evidence from Variable Annuities

By: Mark Egan, Shan Ge and Johnny Tang

We examine the variable annuity market to study conflicts of interest and the effect of fiduciary duty in brokerage markets. Insurers typically pay brokers higher commissions for selling more expensive annuities. Our results indicate that sales are four times as... View Details

Keywords: Variable Annuity; Brokers; Fiduciary Duty; Finance; Investment; Insurance; Conflict of Interests; Financial Services Industry; Insurance Industry; United States

SSRN

February 1998 (Revised June 2000)
Case

Delamere Vineyard

Delamere Vineyard is a small, integrated winemaking business in Tasmania, specializing in pinot noir (red) and chardonnay (white) wines. Richard Richardson, Delamere's owner and winemaker, manages and operates the vineyard and winery largely alone. His products have... View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Quality; Production; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Australia

28 Jun 2022
Cold Call Podcast

Scaling a Fintech Startup for the Greater Good

Keywords: Re: Emily Williams; Financial Services

November 1986 (Revised August 1989)
Case

Paul Revere Insurance Co. (A)

The Paul Revere Insurance Co. lost its number one position in disability insurance, its main product, and formulated a strategy to regain the lead through a comprehensive quality improvement effort. The case describes the forces influencing the strategic direction of... View Details

Keywords: Quality; Performance Productivity; Competitive Advantage; Insurance Industry; United States

16 Jul 2008
Op-Ed

What Should Employers Do about Health Care?

cannot get out of health care, no matter what kind of health insurance system is put in place. They bear the cost of poor health in the form of sick days, absenteeism, reduced productivity at work, and early retirements of skilled... View Details

Keywords: by Michael E. Porter, Elizabeth O. Teisberg & Scott Wallace; Health

April 2000
Article

The Fable of Fisher Body

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Daniel F. Spulber

General Motors' (GM) acquisition of Fisher Body is the classic example of market failure in the literature on contracts and the theory of the firm. According to the standard account, GM merged vertically with Fisher Body in 1926, a maker of auto bodies, because of... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Failure; Contracts; Vertical Integration; Market Transactions; Investment; Trust; Production; Assets; Supply Chain; Opportunities; Technology; Auto Industry

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November 2012
Case

New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc. (Abridged)

By: H. Kent Bowen, Robert S. Huckman, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Matthew Preble

Considers whether New Balance, one of the world's five largest manufacturers of athletic footwear, should respond to Adidas' planned acquisition of Reebok—a transaction that would join the second- and third-largest companies in the industry. Highlights the unique... View Details

Keywords: Production; Competitive Strategy; Supply Chain; Brands and Branding; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Sports Industry; Retail Industry; Asia; United States

September 2008 (Revised August 2009)
Case

Columbus Tubing: Steel is Real

By: Daniel C. Snow, Gary P. Pisano, Elena Corsi and Gudrun Urfalino Kristinsdottir

Columbus Tubing must choose to improve an old technology (steel) or to develop a new material (carbon fiber). The decision must take into account a complicated context: increased demand for the "old" steel products made in Italy, increasing power of carbon fiber... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Resource Allocation; Production; Research and Development; Information Technology; Bicycle Transportation; Asia; Italy

August 2014 (Revised September 2016)
Case

ANA (A)

By: Doug J. Chung and Mayuka Yamazaki

All Nippon Airways (ANA) became the largest airline in Japan in 2013. Having been designated as a domestic carrier by the Japanese government till the mid-1980s and Japan being the sixth largest domestic airline market, two-thirds of ANA’s passenger revenue came from... View Details

Keywords: Demand and Consumers; Analysis; Economics; Price; Marketing Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Product; Policy; Air Transportation Industry; Japan

March 2003
Article

Technological Development and Medical Productivity: The Diffusion of Angioplasty in New York State

By: David M. Cutler and Robert S. Huckman

A puzzling feature of many medical innovations is that they simultaneously appear to reduce unit costs and increase total costs. We consider this phenomenon by examining the diffusion of percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA)—a treatment for coronary... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Cost; Health Care and Treatment; Health Disorders; Performance Improvement; Product; New York (state, US)

September 2010
Article

Strategies to Fight Ad-sponsored Rivals

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Feng Zhu

We analyze the optimal strategy of a high-quality incumbent that faces a low-quality ad-sponsored competitor. In addition to competing through adjustments of tactical variables such as price or the number of ads a product carries, we allow the incumbent to consider... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Business Models; Tactics; Pricing; Business Model; Advertising; Competition; Quality; Price; Product Marketing