Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(2,352)
- Faculty Publications (1,097)
- April 2017
- Case
Yushan Bicycles: Learning to Ride Abroad
By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Paul S. Myers
Yushan Bicycles, one of Taiwan's leading bicycle manufacturers, is pursuing an international expansion strategy by increasing demand for its range of traditional and electric bicycles and shifting its product mix toward higher-margin models sold through specialty... View Details
- April 2017 (Revised October 2017)
- Case
Wal-Mart Update, 2017
By: David B. Yoffie and Eric Baldwin
In 2017 Wal-Mart was still the world’s largest company, with over $480 billion in annual revenue and operations in 28 countries. Although it had mostly vanquished its rival discount retailers in the U.S., it was struggling to find the right growth strategy. Facing a... View Details
- March 2017 (Revised March 2022)
- Case
Flashion: Art vs. Science in Fashion Retailing
By: Kris Ferreira and Karim R. Lakhani
Kate Wilson, retail analytics manager at Flashion, a fashion flash-sale site, is tasked with developing analytics to optimize pricing for first-exposure products on the site. Many in the industry have relied on years of experience and intuition to determine pricing—can... View Details
- March 2017 (Revised April 2017)
- Case
OXXO's Turf War Against Extra (A)
By: Tatiana Sandino, Gerardo Pérez Cavazos and Annelena Lobb
In 2006, Mexican convenience store chain OXXO faced a threat from a formidable competitor, the rival convenience chain Extra. OXXO had embarked on an initiative to fortify its corporate culture and operating system, but the threat of Extra raised the question of... View Details
- March 2017
- Supplement
OXXO's Turf War Against Extra (B)
By: Tatiana Sandino, Gerardo Pérez Cavazos and Annelena Lobb
Supplements the (A) case. View Details
- March 2017
- Supplement
eBay vs. Carl Icahn, 2014: Interview with John Donahoe, eBay CEO 2008-2015
By: David B. Yoffie, Eric Baldwin and Tom Ryder
This video, a supplement to HBS Case No. 717-417, features an interview with former eBay CEO John Donahoe, providing his perspective on eBay's response to activist investor Carl Icahn's attack on eBay, which began in January 2014. After giving some of his own... View Details
- March 2017 (Revised July 2019)
- Case
Walmart: Navigating a Changing Retail Landscape
By: Michael E. Porter and Jorge Ramirez-Vallejo
As the largest company, by revenue, in the world, Walmart has been a lightning rod for criticism. However, in an attempt to stay ahead of traditional and digital retailers, and keep customers satisfied with evolving demands, the company is strengthening its competitive... View Details
- February 2017 (Revised April 2018)
- Case
Kameda Seika: Cracking the U.S. Market
By: Elie Ofek, Nobuo Sato and Akiko Kanno
In spring 2016, Kameda’s CEO, Michiyasu Tanaka, is facing difficult questions from board members over the lackluster performance of the company’s U.S. subsidiary. Kameda was the leading player in the Japanese rice cracker market and was looking to expand overseas to... View Details
- February 2017
- Supplement
The De Beers Group: Exploring the Diamond Reselling Opportunity
By: Benjamin C. Esty, Daniel P. Gross and Lauren G. Pickle
In September 2014, Tom Montgomery (SVP of strategic initiatives at the De Beers Group) and his team launched a pilot program in the United States to explore the $1 billion diamond market for pre-owned (recycled) diamonds. According to Montgomery, the motivation for the... View Details
Keywords: Diamonds; Go-to-market Strategy; Secondary Market; Willingness To Pay; Pilot Program; Strategy Development; Strategy Execution; Scope; Marketing; Advertising; Branding; Customer Value; Pawn Shops; Jewelry; Supply And Demand; Corporate Strategy; Business Strategy; Vertical Integration; Advertising Campaigns; Value Creation; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; United States; United Kingdom; Africa; Botswana; South Africa; Namibia
- February 2017 (Revised May 2022)
- Case
The De Beers Group: Exploring the Diamond Reselling Opportunity
By: Benjamin C. Esty, Daniel P. Gross and Lauren G. Pickle
In September 2014, Tom Montgomery (SVP of strategic initiatives at the De Beers Group) and his team launched a pilot program in the United States to explore the $1 billion diamond market for pre-owned (recycled) diamonds. According to Montgomery, the motivation for the... View Details
Keywords: Diamonds; Go-to-market Strategy; Secondary Market; Willingness To Pay; Pilot Program; Strategy Development; Strategy Execution; Scope; Marketing; Advertising; Branding; Customer Value; Pawn Shops; Jewelry; Supply And Demand; Corporate Strategy; Business Strategy; Vertical Integration; Advertising Campaigns; Value Creation; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; United States; United Kingdom; Africa; Botswana; South Africa; Namibia
- February 2017
- Teaching Note
Paez
By: Jill Avery
Paez, an Argentine start-up fashion brand, sold traditional alpargatas, a sleepy category that suddenly woke up when TOMS, a U.S. company, appropriated the traditional alpargata design, covered it with fashionable colors and prints, and tied it to a social cause.... View Details
- February 2017
- Teaching Plan
Dhamani Jewels: Becoming a Global Luxury Brand
By: Lynda Applegate
Dhamani started as a loose gemstone dealer in 1969 in Jaipur, India. By the 2000s, it was headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and had expanded into diamonds and retail. The family business was now in its second generation of leadership and aimed to become a... View Details
- February 2017
- Case
Dick's Sporting Goods
By: Rajiv Lal, Jose B. Alvarez and Matthew G. Preble
Edward Stack, chairman and CEO of Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS), faced a rapidly changing sporting goods landscape in October 2016. Two large competitors—The Sports Authority and Sport Chalet—had folded earlier that year, and DKS had to contend with increasingly robust... View Details
Keywords: Sporting Goods; Retail; Employees; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Product Marketing; Demand and Consumers; Consumer Behavior; Product; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Partners and Partnerships; Business Strategy; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Internet and the Web; E-commerce; Retail Industry; United States; Pennsylvania
- January 2017 (Revised August 2019)
- Case
X Fire Paintball & Airsoft: Is Amazon a Friend or Foe? (A)
By: Feng Zhu and Angela Acocella
Three years after launching his brick-and-mortar store, X Fire Paintball and Airsoft, Steve Herbert Sr. and his sons began selling products on Amazon.com’s third-party Marketplace, and online sales expanded rapidly. Over time, X Fire noticed that products of which it... View Details
- January 2017 (Revised August 2019)
- Supplement
X Fire Paintball & Airsoft: Is Amazon a Friend or Foe? (B)
By: Feng Zhu and Angela Acocella
Three years after launching his brick-and-mortar store, X Fire Paintball and Airsoft, Steve Herbert Sr. and his sons began selling products on Amazon.com’s third-party Marketplace and online sales expanded rapidly. Over time, X Fire noticed that products of which it... View Details
- January 2017 (Revised October 2021)
- Case
Delivering the Goods at Shippo
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Jeffrey F. Rayport and Olivia Hull
Laura Behrens Wu, CEO of software start-up Shippo, prepares her pitch for a Series A funding round following a successful seed round. Customer adoption of Shippo’s e-commerce dashboard application, which allows small and medium retailers to compare delivery rates... View Details
Keywords: Application Program Interface; API; API Strategy; Customer Cohorts; Churn; Retention; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Business Startups; Strategy; Transition; Customer Focus and Relationships; Technological Innovation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Valuation; Shipping Industry; Shipping Industry; Shipping Industry; San Francisco; California; United States
- January 2017
- Case
Expanding Ecommerce at Technos
By: Thales Teixeira, Rohit Deshpandé, Ruth Costas and Priscilla Zogbi
Technos was the market leader in the Brazilian watch market. Its CEO had made a firm commitment to evolve the company’s marketing and commercial practices by focusing less on pushing product to retail clients and more on branding to end consumers to pull watches from... View Details
- January 2017 (Revised April 2018)
- Background Note
Introduction to Incentive-based Sales Compensation Systems
By: Willy Shih
This background note explains the structure of incentive-based sales compensation systems. View Details
- January 2017 (Revised February 2018)
- Case
Godiva Japan: Think Local, Scale Global
By: Rohit Deshpandé, Esel Cekin and Akiko Kanno
This case tracks Jerome Chouchan’s strategies and execution for a successful turnaround of Godiva Japan’s operations, which were experiencing a decline in sales when he became the managing director of the company in 2010. Through various initiatives and innovations,... View Details
Keywords: Branding; Internationalization; Innovation; Positioning; Customer Segmentation; Occasion-based Segmentation; Execution; Talent; Customer-focused Strategies; Product Positioning; Globalized Firms and Management; Change Management; Talent and Talent Management; Customer Focus and Relationships; Product; Segmentation; Innovation and Invention; Brands and Branding; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Japan
- Article
Are Online and Offline Prices Similar? Evidence from Large Multi-Channel Retailers
By: Alberto Cavallo
Online prices are increasingly used for measurement and research applications, yet little is known about their relation to prices in physical stores, where most retail transactions occur. I conduct the first large-scale comparison of prices simultaneously collected... View Details