Publications

13 Dec 2022
Video

Santa Claus Debates Whether to Outsource Toy Production

2024
Working Paper

Moral Incoherence During Category Emergence: The Contentious Case of Connected Toys

By: Ryann Noe

Through a longitudinal study of the emergence of connected toys – physical toys that interact with digital devices – I build theory about moral incoherence: when competing views about the moral worth of a category persist over time. During the course of their... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Technology Adoption; Moral Sensibility; Market Entry and Exit; Consumer Behavior

Read Now

August 2003
Teaching Note

Toys "R" Us (A) and (B) (TN)

By: Dennis A. Yao and Michael G. Rukstad

Teaching Note for (9-703-445) and (9-703-446). View Details

Keywords: Retail Industry

14 Dec 2022
News

Santa Claus Debates Whether to Outsource Toy Production

February 1992
Background Note

Virtual Reality and the General Manager: Toys Becoming Tools

Find at Harvard

30 Apr 2013
News

Price Matching Criticized From Wal-Mart to Toys ‘R’ Us

November 2012 (Revised September 2013)
Case

Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities

By: Boris Groysberg and Anahita Hashemi

Learning Resources is a family-owned educational toy company that, by late 2011, was facing a myriad of challenges, including increased competition, entry into new markets, new distribution methods, rising costs of production in China, and changing customer behavior.... View Details

Keywords: Leading Teams; Strategy Formulation; Strategy And Execution; Innovation; Corporate Culture; Industry Analysis; Organizational Alignment; Entrepreneurs; Sales Channels; Leadership; Strategy; Change Management; Innovation Leadership; Family Business; Entrepreneurship; Product Design; Sales; Retail Industry; United States

2023
Article

Moral Escalation: Contested Category Emergence and Its Consequences in the Toy Industry

By: Ryann Noe

Preexisting research has outlined the cognitive, competitive, and economic barriers to market category emergence. Yet scholars have paid scant attention to the processes and consequences of moral resistance to nascent categories. Through a longitudinal, qualitative... View Details

Keywords: Moral Sensibility; Market Entry and Exit; Product Positioning; Technology Industry; Consumer Products Industry

Register to Read

September 2020 (Revised December 2020)
Case

Hot Wheels at Mattel: Reinventing the Wheel

By: Elie Ofek, Andres Terech and Nicole Tempest Keller

In 2017, Chris Down, Global Brand General Manager for Hot Wheels, and his team from the Advanced Play Group within Mattel, Inc., were considering which innovation path to pursue in order to "future proof" the Hot Wheels franchise going forward. Hot Wheels was the... View Details

Keywords: Toys; Industry Evolution; Innovation Strategy; Product Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Technological Innovation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Decision Making; Digital Transformation

07 Dec 2018
Video

Current Events Through the Lens of Theory: Toys 'R' Us

01 Jun 2013
News

Brick by Brick

Case Study Illustration by Corbis/Matthias Kulka Sometimes, a company's history contains more drama than a Russian novel. A recent case, "LEGO," explores how the toy maker grew to global dominance from humble beginnings, the mistakes that... View Details

Keywords: toys; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Retail Trade

September 2020 (Revised May 2024)
Case

Hot Wheels: Launching The Mixed Play Experience

By: Elie Ofek, Andres Terech and Nicole Tempest Keller

Chris Down, Global Brand General Manager for Hot Wheels, and his team from the Advanced Play Group within Mattel, Inc., had developed an entirely new “mixed play” product experience that blended familiar Hot Wheels play in the physical world with breakthrough play in... View Details

Keywords: Toys; Go-to-market Strategy; Product Development; Technological Innovation; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Decision Making; Marketing; Strategy; Los Angeles

01 Dec 2004
News

A Life by Design

shape a strategic plan that will make Gap “the place of choice to work,” she says. In creating that plan, Ross will draw heavily on her experience shaping a groundbreaking team-based approach to product development that she piloted to success at Mattel Inc., the... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; toys; Amusement, Gambling, and Recreation Industries; Arts, Entertainment; Sporting Goods, Hobby, Musical Instrument, and Book Stores; Retail Trade

04 May 2025
News

Trump Suggested Kids Have Too Many Dolls. He Might Be Right, but We Get a Lot More than Toys from China.

November 2012 (Revised January 2014)
Case

The LEGO Group: Envisioning Risks in Asia (A)

By: Anette Mikes and Dominique Hamel

On January 1, 2012, the LEGO Group announced a major new initiative to enhance its market penetration in Asia. Later in the year, a cross-functional group of senior managers gathered at company headquarters to discuss the status of the Asian initiative and the risks... View Details

Keywords: LEGO; Toy Industry; Fashion And Creative Industries; Organizational Structure; Risk Management; Supply Chain Management; Organizational Design; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Denmark; Asia

February 2013 (Revised March 2015)
Case

The LEGO Group: Publish or Protect?

By: Willy C. Shih and Sen Chai

Senior managers at the LEGO Group are faced with a quandary: Should they patent inventions coming out of their manufacturing process development work, should they keep them as trade secrets, or should they publish them so that they would go into the public domain and... View Details