Margins - Publications - Faculty & Research

14 May 2018
Research & Ideas

Amazon vs. Whole Foods: When Cultures Collide

from that.” The new inventory system was actually something Whole Foods had started to implement before the Amazon deal, pressured by activist shareholders who had seen the grocer’s stock and sales margins slipping for two years. “This is... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Food & Beverage

07 May 2012
Research & Ideas

The Art of Haggling

Wheeler reminds students of a core strategic choice: assessing when to focus on dividing the pie and when to focus on growing it. "Sometimes getting 70 percent of the small pie might be better than getting 50 percent of a marginally... View Details

Keywords: by Katie Johnston

07 May 2014
What Do You Think?

How Should Wealth Be Redistributed?

diagnoses. Others advocated tax and non-tax solutions. The case against hasty change was made by Dave: "Market based capitalism is the greatest driving force of prosperity in the world today, but if we forget this and marginalize it... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

22 Aug 2022
Research & Ideas

Can Amazon Remake Health Care?

care. It’s all the other expensive stuff that we need when we’re really sick. And Amazon is no expert in managing any of that. “Because Amazon might be able to introduce supply-chain disruptions that increase its profit margin does not... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette; Health

06 Jul 2016
What Do You Think?

How Do We Pay for the Costs of Globalization?

there is anything illegal about what Carrier, or many companies before it, is doing. It is carrying out the wishes of shareholders of its parent, United Technologies. As UT’s CEO, Greg Harris, put it in explaining his company’s continued high profit performance, “what... View Details

Keywords: by James L. Heskett; Manufacturing

25 Jan 2021
Book

In a Nutshell, Why American Capitalism Succeeded

civilization By Walter Friedman The thought of the United States becoming the world’s richest and most powerful nation would have been unimaginable at the time of the country’s founding. In 1783, at the end of the American Revolution, the United States was a View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Manufacturing

08 Mar 2004
Research & Ideas

Creating Value in Your Business Ecosystem

need for eBay to maintain expensive centralized monitoring and feedback systems. The company can charge commissions that are no higher than 7 percent of a given transaction—well below the typical 30 percent to 70 percent margins most... View Details

Keywords: by Marco Iansiti & Roy Levien

04 Jun 2012
Research & Ideas

The Business of Life

different in any way from running a private enterprise. That's your job, if you're building a happy family: to realize that they need to be motivated and that there's a clear way to motivate them." The Perils Of Assessing Costs Marginally... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

02 Jun 2022
Research & Ideas

Blissful Thinking: When It Comes to Finding Happiness, 'Your Dreams Are Liars'

wasn’t satisfied, I was working 80 hours a week, my relationships weren’t what I wished they were, and I was marginalizing things that should probably be more important to me. And I said, “What the hell, man?” On a plane one day, I... View Details

Keywords: by Dan Morrell

August 2007 (Revised September 2007)
Case

Gome: Bidding for China Paradise

Gome, China's largest electronics retailer, has the opportunity to acquire China Paradise, the number three player in the Chinese electronic retailer industry. This happened in the general context of a great market development and potential consolidation of the... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Trade; Market Entry and Exit; Performance; Opportunities; Competition; Consolidation; Corporate Strategy; Electronics Industry; Retail Industry; China

Citation

Educators

Purchase

07 Mar 2023
HBS Case

ChatGPT: Did Big Tech Set Up the World for an AI Bias Disaster?

suggests some of the bias in AI could be mitigated by including people from historically marginalized communities in its design. “The people who will really, really know how tools are being used are refugees or incarcerated people or... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis; Technology

17 Jun 2017
Research & Ideas

Amazon, Whole Foods Deal a Big Win for Consumers

Source: 400tmax Editor's Note. Online retailing behemoth Amazon announced June 16 that it would acquire upscale grocery chain Whole Foods Market in a deal valued at more than $13 billion. Though the company has dabbled with the idea of a brick-and-mortar footprint in... View Details

Keywords: by Jose Alvarez and Len Schlesinger; Retail

27 Jan 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Discretion Within the Constraints of Opportunity: Gender Homophily and Structure in a Formal Organization

Keywords: by Adam M. Kleinbaum, Toby E. Stuart & Michael L. Tushman

27 Jul 2020
Book

Reflection: The Pause That Brings Peace and Productivity

current one. Some doodled their thoughts, some tried to look at a problem from the perspective of someone they admired or someone who might be badly affected by it, and some tried to see if they had feelings or perspectives on the margins... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

14 Dec 2007
Op-Ed

When Your Product Becomes a Commodity

commoditization is a customer relationship management system that permits computation of the profit margin associated with each customer, based on price-paid less cost-to-serve. Companies need to invest in these information systems early... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

20 Dec 2016
First Look

December 20, 2016

induces U.S. manufacturing firms to contract their operations along multiple margins of activity goes a long way toward explaining the response of U.S. innovation to the China trade shock. Download working paper:... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

Research Summary

Overview

By: Reshmaan N. Hussam

Engaged with field work in South Asia and East Africa, Professor Hussam places a focus on exploring questions with strong theoretical motivation in the economics literature as well as relevant downstream policy implications. Her research spans four broad interests.... View Details

06 Jun 2018
Research & Ideas

Cut Salaries or Cut People? The Best Way to Survive a Downturn

because those agents deciding to leave had other options. For instance, customer service reps at a nearby call center for a global entertainment provider earned $15 an hour when first hired, and $.50 raises every six months. “While the average agent at the firm enjoyed... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

14 Mar 2023
In Practice

What Does the Failure of Silicon Valley Bank Say About the State of Finance?

bank earnings or cash flows are relatively insensitive to changes in interest rates. Additionally, the stability of net interest margin (interest received minus interest paid) is pointed to as evidence that banks have little interest rate... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Financial Services; Banking

10 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

The Little Understood Problem Confronting Diverse Workplaces

if someone has trouble ‘fitting in.’ Moreover, the people whose job it is to acculturate members of marginalized groups into these dominant group expectations are also finding it challenging. Building productive relationships across... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

Publications