Publications

October 2018
Article

Competing with Complementors: An Empirical Look at Amazon.com

By: Feng Zhu and Qihong Liu

Platform owners sometimes enter complementors' product spaces to compete against them directly. Prior studies have offered two possible explanations for such entries: platform owners may target the most successful complementors so as to appropriate value from their... View Details

Keywords: Amazon; Complementors; Co-opetition; Entry; Platform-based Markets; Competition; Digital Platforms; Competitive Strategy

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12 Feb 2022
News

The Technology That’s Helping Companies Thrive Amid the Supply-Chain Chaos

February 2005 (Revised April 2011)
Case

Haier's U.S. Refrigerator Strategy

By: Pankaj Ghemawat, Thomas M. Hout and Jordan I. Siegel

Haier, the first Chinese consumer durable brand in the United States, succeeded in the compact refrigerator, freezer, and air conditioner markets and then built a U.S. factory to enter the full-size market. Issues include the value of a local entrepreneur to the Asian... View Details

Keywords: Factories, Labs, and Plants; Global Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Brands and Branding; Market Entry and Exit; Competitive Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; China; United States

Web

Influence of the China Trade and the Heard Legacy - A Chronicle of the China Trade

records Augustine Heard & Co. preserved for posterity. The company kept shipping receipts, custom documents, export lists, telegrams, insurance vouchers, accounting books, ship designs, factory plans, View Details

September 2014 (Revised March 2017)
Case

Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief: What Can We Learn from Commercial Supply Chains?

By: Willy Shih and Margaret Pierson

Organizing speedy and efficient supply operations for unpredictable major natural disasters was a continuing challenge for the U.S. military, and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti was both unique in its operational scope and political complexity. As he reviewed the... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chains; Humanitarian Assistance; Disaster Relief; Distribution; Logistics; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Operations; Distribution Industry; United States; Haiti

April 2016
Teaching Note

Flipkart: Transitioning to a Marketplace Model

By: Sunil Gupta and Das Narayandas

In 2015, Sachin and Binny Bansal, co-founders of India's largest e-tailer, Flipkart, announced that the company would switch to a marketplace model and move its logistics arm into a separate company. At the time of the announcement, Snapdeal already claimed to be... View Details

Keywords: India; Marketplaces; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Market Entry and Exit; E-commerce; Retail Industry; India

January 2004
Case

America Latina Logistica

Describes the turnaround of America Latina Logistica, a $200 million revenue, formerly state-owned, railway in Brazil that has been restored to profitability by its CEO, a recent MBA graduate. After successfully transforming the company's operations, finances, and... View Details

Keywords: Rail Transportation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Strategy; Rail Industry; Brazil

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24 Sep 2020
News

We need a COVID-19 D-Day—and the leadership to execute it

16 Feb 2017
HBS Seminar

Chad Syverson, Chicago Booth School of Business

September–October 2022
Article

Should Your Company Sell on Amazon?: Reach Comes at a Price

By: Ayelet Israeli, Leonard A. Schlesinger, Matt Higgins and Sabir Semerkant

Selling on Amazon allows brands to reach millions of consumers—but that exposure comes with costs. They include smaller margins, more competition, the risk of commoditization, and less knowledge about customers. In this article, the authors present a scorecard to... View Details

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January 2008 (Revised February 2008)
Case

South Dakota Wheat Growers

By: David E. Bell and Mary L. Shelman

As a farmer-owned cooperative, South Dakota Wheat Growers (SDWG) serves the needs of its 3,600 active farmer-members by supplying farm inputs and organizing the marketing and transportation of grain produced in the co-op's service territory. For almost 80 years, the... View Details

Keywords: Cooperative Ownership; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Production; Rail Transportation; Marketing Strategy; Expansion; Economic Growth; Global Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; South Dakota

01 Aug 2018
News

Inside the Emerging Economy With Millions of High-Paying Jobs

14 Sep 2021
News

‘Work from Home’ Defined the Pandemic, but the Future Is ‘Work from Anywhere'

August 2019
Case

Walmart's Omnichannel Strategy: Revolution or Miscalculation?

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Karen Elterman

This case describes Walmart's omnichannel strategy in 2018 as it battled Amazon for online retail market share. The case discusses Walmart's early forays into online retail, as well as its 2018 strategy, which aimed to integrate Walmart's enormous brick and mortar... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Strategy; Internet and the Web; Distribution; Distribution Channels; Competition; Retail Industry; Bentonville; Arkansas; New Jersey; Seattle; United States

Web

Contemporary Black Artists and Public Art | Baker Library | Bloomberg Center | Harvard Business School

Europe, and their respective economic and political histories. In 2004, he was nominated for the Turner Prize and in 2010, his first public art commission, Nelson’s View Details

05 Mar 2020
News

Real Leaders: Ernest Shackleton Leads a Harrowing Expedition

Video

2012 Business Plan Contest Business Venture Track Winner: Vaxess Technologies

October 2023 (Revised June 2024)
Case

Catalent: Catalyzing the Next Era of Growth

By: Satish Tadikonda, William Marks and Kevin Emancipator

Catalent's newly appointed CEO, Alessandro Maselli, experienced the highs of the pharmaceutical contract development manufacturing (CDMO) space during COVID-19 while helping Moderna and others bring vaccines to market quickly and safely. After rushing to add capacity... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Business or Company Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Pharmaceutical Industry

May 2023
Supplement

Sian Flowers: Fresher by Sea - Video Supplement

By: Willy C. Shih

The setting for this case is the Sian Flowers, a company headquartered in Kitengela, Kenya that exports roses to predominantly Europe. Because cut flowers have a limited shelf life and consumers want them to retain their appearance for as long as possible, Sian or its... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain; Supply Chains; Sustainability; Sustainable Agriculture; Sustainability Reporting; Carbon Emissions; Supply Chain Management; Quality; Ship Transportation; Cost Management; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Africa; Kenya; Netherlands; Europe