Publications

November 1998
Case

Wegmans Food Markets: Diabetes Counseling

By: Ray A. Goldberg, David E. Bell and Ann Leamon

Danny Wegman, president of Wegmans Food Markets, is trying to decide how to evaluate the success of a nutrition-counseling program for diabetics, and whether and how to expand the program beyond the two stores currently involved. Wegmans, with 57 stores and $2.3... View Details

Keywords: Performance Evaluation; Expansion; Programs; Human Needs; Financial Management; Health Care and Treatment; Nutrition; Consumer Behavior; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

September 2023
Case

FoodCloud: Tackling Food Insecurity and Climate Change in One Bite

By: Brian Trelstad and Emer Moloney

In 2013, Aoibheann O’Brien and Iseult Ward founded FoodCloud, a non-profit social enterprise that aimed to address food waste and food insecurity issues. Through its technology platform, Foodiverse, FoodCloud connected surplus food from retailers with community groups... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Expansion; Technological Innovation; Environmental Sustainability; Social Issues; Growth and Development Strategy; Green Technology Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Republic of Ireland; Europe

November 2003 (Revised November 2005)
Case

Arcor: Global Strategy and Local Turbulence

Argentine confectionery manufacturer, Arcor Group, seeks to implement an international strategy but in 2003, recovering from the Argentine financial crisis, thwarts globalization plans. Already Latin America's leading candy producer and an exporter to over 100... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Decision Making; Global Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; Argentina

29 May 2020
Op-Ed

How Leaders Are Fighting Food Insecurity on Three Continents

are experiencing increased food insecurity among vulnerable populations, disruptions throughout food systems, and difficulty getting excess supply to the people who most need it. Responses range from... View Details

Keywords: by Howard Stevenson and Shirley Spence; Agriculture & Agribusiness

March 2008
Supplement

Patel Food and Chemicals Private Limited (B)

By: Felda Hardymon and Ann Leamon

Alok Patel, the founder and chairman of a Gujarat-based, privately held edible oils processor, has hired a CFO and the company is doing extremely well. He wants to add a new plant to process oilive oil, but estimates he will need $20 million. He must decide among... View Details

Keywords: Financial Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Financing and Loans; Investment; Financial Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Gujarat

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July 2009
Case

Arcor: Global Strategy and Local Turbulence (Abridged)

Argentine confectionery manufacturer, Arcor Group, seeks to implement an international strategy but in 2003, while recovering from the Argentine financial crisis, globalization plans are thwarted. Already Latin America's leading candy producer and an exporter to over... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Currency; Global Strategy; Expansion; Balance and Stability; Food and Beverage Industry; Latin America; Argentina

09 May 2018
Research & Ideas

A Simple Way for Restaurant Inspectors to Improve Food Safety

fix those problems. The researchers studied a sampling of data from Hazel Analytics, which gathers food safety inspections from local governments across the United States. The sample included information on... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Food & Beverage; Food & Beverage

November 2023 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Infarm: Betting the (Indoor) Farm on Food Security

By: Elie Ofek

In the summer of 2023, the co-founders of Infarm, a controlled environment agriculture (CEA) company, were contemplating a major pivot going forward. While Infarm had successfully shown it could grow over 75 products—mainly herbs, leafy greens and mushrooms—in modular... View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Business Model; Market Entry and Exit; Science-Based Business; Business Strategy; Transition; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Europe; North America; Toronto; Northeastern United States

2020
Working Paper

Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Consumption: The Impact of Access and Value

By: Retsef Levi, Elisabeth Paulson and Georgia Perakis

The goal of this paper is to leverage household-level data to improve food-related policies aimed at increasing the consumption of fruits and vegetables (FVs) among low-income households. Currently, several interventions target areas where residents have limited... View Details

Keywords: Food Deserts; Food Access; Food Policy; Causal Inference; Food; Nutrition; Poverty; Government Administration

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12 May 2016
News

Food Rescue Is on a Mission

Central to the food rescue is the organization’s trademarked program, Community Connect, which facilitates redistribution through volunteers and groups such as local Rotary International chapters and church... View Details

Keywords: Jill Radsken

2013
Teaching Note

The COFCO Group (TN)

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Zheng Xiaoming and Ziqian Zhao

COFCO was China's sole legitimate window for agricultural foreign trade before 1987. The reform of China's foreign trade system beginning in 1987 cost COFCO its monopoly position. Subsequently, the SOE giant capitalized on its foreign trade expertise to strategically... View Details

Keywords: China; Food; China

2013
Case

The COFCO Group

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Zheng Xiaoming and Ziqian Zhao

COFCO was China's sole legitimate window for agricultural foreign trade before 1987. The reform of China's foreign trade system beginning in 1987 cost COFCO its monopoly position. Subsequently, the SOE giant capitalized on its foreign trade expertise to strategically... View Details

Keywords: China; Food; China

October 2012 (Revised December 2013)
Case

Urbanizing China

By: Lakshmi Iyer and G.A. Donovan

In 2012, China attained a historic development milestone with more Chinese citizens living in cities than in the countryside. China's rapid urbanization, and the accompanying conversion of agricultural land to non-agricultural uses, raised a number of economic, social,... View Details

Keywords: China; Urbanization; Industrialization; Property Rights; Local Government Finance; Social Protest; Business Environment; Food Security; Safety; Change Management; Food; Urban Development; Social Issues; Growth and Development Strategy; Public Administration Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; China

24 Apr 2014
News

Improving the quality of food in Nigeria

Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli (MBA 1999) is helping her country rethink the way it feeds itself. The cofounder and director of AACE Food Processing & Distribution, an agroprocessing company in Nigeria, is empowering farmers and improving the... View Details

2023
Working Paper

The Benefits of Revealing Race: Evidence from Minority-owned Local Businesses

By: Abhay Aneja, Michael Luca and Oren Reshef

Is there latent demand to support Black-owned businesses? To explore, we analyze a new feature that made it easier to identify Black-owned restaurants on a large online platform. We find that labeling restaurants as “Black-owned” increased customer engagement and... View Details

Keywords: Black-owned Businesses; Race; Prejudice and Bias; Ownership; Knowledge Dissemination; Digital Platforms; Consumer Behavior; Food and Beverage Industry

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December 2013 (Revised October 2014)
Case

The Munich Oktoberfest: From Local Tradition to Global Capitalism

By: Juan Alcacer, Christian Bettinger and Andreas Philippi

Oktoberfest, an annual festival held in Munich (Germany) for more than 200 years, has grown in recent decades into a hugely popular event that attracts 7 million visitors annually, a large proportion of which are foreign. In fact, Oktoberfest's global appeal is so... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Product Positioning; Marketing Channels; Global Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; Ohio; Munich; Brazil; Bangalore; Beijing

July 2018 (Revised November 2018)
Case

The Robin Hood Army

By: Susanna Gallani

In 2014, Neel Ghose and a handful of friends spent one evening distributing excess food they had collected from local restaurants to the less fortunate people living under the Hauz Khas flyover in South Delhi. Four years later, this initiative had developed into The... View Details

Keywords: Volunteer-based Organization; Food Redistribution; Nonprofit Organizations; Food; Human Needs; Expansion; Global Range; Growth and Development