Publications

March 2022
Case

Abu Issa Holding: Navigating the Qatar Blockade

By: Mark Egan and Youssef Abdel Aal

The case follows Ashraf Abu Issa, CEO and chairman of Abu Issa Holding (AIH), as he contemplated the fate of his company’s regional expansion. AIH was a Qatari diversified holding company, whose primary business was luxury retailing and distribution. Abu Issa had set... View Details

Keywords: Luxury Retail; Expansion; Equity; Business Divisions; Growth and Development; Market Entry and Exit; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Consumer Products Industry; Saudi Arabia; United Arab Emirates

October 2015
Case

BandPage (A)

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Colin Maclay and Greta Friar

BandPage CEO James "J" Sider is about to receive results from BandPage's targeted advertising campaign on music streaming service Rhapsody and learn whether BandPage's strategy to improve ad click through rates and generate revenue has succeeded. BandPage, which began... View Details

Keywords: Digital Innovation; Digital Music; Digital Marketing; Mobile Marketing; Technological Innovation; Marketing Communications; Music Entertainment; Mobile Technology; Music Industry

20 May 2014
First Look

First Look: May 20

Publications August 2013 Journal of the European Economic Association Sovereigns, Upstream Capital Flows and Global Imbalances By: Alfaro, Laura, Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan, and Vadym Volosovych Abstract—We construct measures of net private and public capital flows for a... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2000 (Revised August 2000)
Case

Priceline WebHouse Club

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Jon K Rust

Priceline empowered consumers to "name their own price" for airline tickets and hotel rooms; then it shopped these offers to marketers. Priceline's founder Jay Walker described the resulting transactions as a new ecosystem, that helped consumers realize lower prices... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Strategy; Disruptive Innovation; Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Retail Industry

14 Feb 2011
Research & Ideas

Clay Christensen’s Milkshake Marketing

them fail. “The jobs-to-be-done point of view causes you to crawl into the skin of your customer and go with her as she goes about her day, always asking the question as she does something: Why did she do it that way?” The problem is that consumers usually don't go... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail; Service; Consumer Products; Food & Beverage

Research Summary

"How Social Networks Moderate Loss Aversion"

The literature on consumers’ relationships with their brands emphasizes that, when people form relationships with brands that mirror their social relationships, the norms of social relationships are used as guiding principles in their interactions with... View Details

March 2022
Teaching Note

Supreme: Remaining Cool While Pursuing Growth

By: Jill Avery and Sandrine Crener

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 522-006. Following VF Corporation’s acquisition of cult streetwear brand Supreme, consumers and industry pundits were nervous that becoming part of a large, public corporation would put an end to Supreme’s slow and careful growth... View Details

Keywords: Cultural Branding; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Luxury; Growth Management; Consumer Products Industry; Fashion Industry; Retail Industry; United States

Article

Offline Showrooms in Omni-channel Retail: Demand and Operational Benefits

By: David R. Bell, Santiago Gallino and Antonio Moreno

Omnichannel environments where customers shop online and offline at the same retailer are ubiquitous and are deployed by online-first and traditional retailers alike. We focus on the relatively understudied domain of online-first retailers and the engagement of a key... View Details

Keywords: Experience Attributes; Marketing–operations Interface; Omnichannel Retailing; Quasi-experimental Methods; Retail Operations; Showrooms; Marketing Channels; Demand and Consumers; Performance Efficiency; Retail Industry

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September 2012 (Revised September 2015)
Case

Doing Business in Turkey

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Robin J. Ely, Daniela Beyersdorfer, Emilie Billaud and Cigdem Çelik

In a rather flat international business environment characterized by shrinking markets and economic turmoil, Turkey promoted itself as one of the safe havens for investments. Led by the strong domestic demand of a young population, the country had tripled its GDP... View Details

Keywords: Emerging Market Finance; Emergent Countries; Business History; Economic History; Fieldwork; Emerging Markets; Business Ventures; Strategy; Turkey

09 Apr 2024
Book

Why Work Rituals Bring Teams Together and Create More Meaning

discuss them or not, rituals are ubiquitous in all kinds of social occasions, from celebrating birthdays to paying respects to the dead. Couples often have rituals too—from setting the dinner table together every night to going grocery View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

September 1999 (Revised April 2000)
Case

drugstore.com

By: Richard L. Nolan

On a clear day in August 1999 in the new headquarters of drugstore.com, against a backdrop of the Blue Angels flying in formation over Lake Washington practicing for their hydroplane Seafare Cup performance, Peter Neupert was pleased with his company's IPO performance.... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Internet and the Web; Problems and Challenges; Business Startups; Retail Industry

January 2015 (Revised November 2016)
Case

La Martina: Leveraging Polo's Luxury Lifestyle

By: Anat Keinan, Maria Fernanda Miguel and Sandrine Crener

Founded in 1984 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, La Martina has grown from a high-end polo equipment company into a global fashion brand with operations in 56 countries. Polo, which is not only a sport but also a way of life, is at the core of the brand DNA. Polo is a... View Details

01 Oct 2013
First Look

First Look: October 1

612-033 Pret A Manger Pret A Manger, a London-based chain of sandwich shops, was known for its fast, genuine service and pre-packaged sandwiches prepared on-site daily. Instructed by its board to grow at 15% per year, Pret considered opening "twin" View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Research Summary

Bricks and Clicks: The Effect of Store Assortment on E-tail Format (with R. Lal and E. Ofek)

An often neglected aspect in existing studies of the Internet selling process is the high volume of product returns. Such returns reflect a major logistic expenditure on behalf of companies that sell over the net. The problem is reduced when consumers shop in physical... View Details

December 2016 (Revised October 2018)
Case

U.S. Digital Service

By: Mitchell Weiss, Nick Sinai and Michael Norris

Mikey Dickerson and Haley Van Dyck found themselves far from home and far from certain about where to take the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) next. In the summer of 2015, they had landed in London to meet with Mike Bracken, director of the United Kingdom’s Government... View Details

Keywords: Public Entrepreneurship; Haley Van Dyck; Mikey Dickerson; United States Digital Service; Digital Services; Innovation Teams; Scaling Innovation; 18F; Presidential Innovation Fellows; Government Digital Service; Mike Bracken; Innovation Fellowships; Entrepreneurship; Government Administration; Innovation and Management; United States; United Kingdom

October 2013
Article

Consulting on the Cusp of Disruption

By: Clayton M. Christensen, Dina Wang and Derek C. M. van Bever

Consulting fundamental business model has not changed in more than 100 years: very smart outsiders go into organizations for a finite period of time and recommend solutions for the most difficult problems confronting their clients. But at traditional... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation; Consulting Industry

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Mikey Dickerson and Haley Van Dyck found themselves far from home and far from certain about where to take the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) next. In the summer of 2015, they had landed in London to meet with Mike Bracken, director of the United Kingdom’s... View Details

08 Oct 2013
First Look

First Look: October 8

the democratization of data. The vast turnover at consultancies means armies of experienced strategists are available for hire by former clients, whose increasing sophistication allows them to allocate work instead of relying on one-stop View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2020
Working Paper

Food Security and Human Mobility During the COVID-19 Lockdown

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury, Wesley W. Koo, Xina Li, Nishant Kishore, Satchit Balsari and Tarun Khanna

During the COVID-19 crisis, millions of migrants around the world face food insecurity. This could force migrants to travel during the pandemic, exposing them to health risks and accelerating the spread of the virus. Anecdotal evidence demonstrates the importance of... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Migrants; Food Security; Mobility; Health Pandemics; Food; Distribution; Policy; Global Range