Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(123)
- Faculty Publications (77)
- January 2017 (Revised February 2022)
- Background Note
Assessing and Enhancing Market Attractiveness
This note gives students a systematic and comprehensive framework for analyzing and influencing market attractiveness. It pays explicit attention to value creation, complements, and the dynamics of market attractiveness. It also includes careful sub-frameworks for... View Details
- January 2017
- Case
SoulCycle
By: David Collis, Eric Van den Steen and Ashley Hartman
Co-founders Julie Rice and Elizabeth Cutler have grown SoulCycle from a business idea in 2006 to a major presence among urban boutique fitness studios in 2015. In March 2015, fitness company Equinox approaches them with an offer to buy them out. Evaluating the offer... View Details
- January 2017 (Revised November 2018)
- Case
Navistar International: Competing Against PACCAR
By: Benjamin Esty, Eric Van den Steen and Jeffrey Boyar
In 2013, Navistar was in the midst of a deep crisis, having lost a third of its market share over the previous three years. Bill Kozek, the new president of Navistar North America Truck and Sales division needs to develop his division’s strategy as part of the... View Details
- August 2016 (Revised March 2018)
- Case
Videojet (A)
In 2005 Craig Purse, the CEO of Videojet, a company recently acquired by the conglomerate Danaher, is dealing with the unexpected failure of a new high-tech printer just launched in the market. The new product exemplified the first real instance in which the Videojet... View Details
- August 2016
- Supplement
Videojet (B)
In 2005 Craig Purse, the CEO of Videojet, a company recently acquired by the conglomerate Danaher, is dealing with the unexpected failure of a new high tech printer just launched in the market. The new product exemplified the first real instance in which the Videojet... View Details
- January 2016
- Case
TransDigm Inc.
By: Eric Van den Steen, Kavita Mathews and Alon Galor
Transdigm had been very successful with a PE-like business model: it acquired smaller producers of aircraft components and improved their profits, mainly by increasing efficiency and applying value pricing. By 2014, Transdigm had completed almost 50 acquisitions. Its... View Details
- December 2015 (Revised July 2020)
- Technical Note
Some Strategy Ingredients: Scale, Learning, and Market Structure
This note introduces students to some economic concepts and ideas that are important ingredients for strategy, such as scale, learning, and the effects of market structure on competition. The note approaches these ideas really from a strategy perspective with a focus... View Details
- Article
Why Do Firms Have 'Purpose'? The Firm's Role as a Carrier of Identity and Reputation
By: Rebecca Henderson and Eric Van den Steen
Why do so many firms publicly espouse a "purpose" beyond simple profit maximization? And why do so many managers and employees appear to care deeply about this purpose and to believe that it is critically important? In this paper we argue that the conventional answers... View Details
- June 2014
- Case
Airgas, Inc.
By: Eric Van den Steen and Jason Karl
In 2013, Airgas was the market leader in packaged industrial gas distribution. Recent acquisitions had made it into a larger player in upstream gas production as well, where it competed with Praxair and Air Products. Should Airgas continue building a position in gas... View Details
- March 2014
- Technical Note
Performance and Value Analysis
This note introduces the Performance and Value Analysis (PVA) framework, an integrated framework to analyze strategic performance (i.e., performance corrected for temporary and random effects). This framework (quantitatively) decomposes a firm's performance into 3... View Details
- March 2014 (Revised December 2016)
- Teaching Note
Aldi: The Dark Horse Discounter
- March 2014 (Revised March 2018)
- Case
Red Bull (A)
By: Eric Van den Steen and Carin-Isabel Knoop
Despite facing giants like Coke, Pepsi, and Budweiser—with obvious potential sources of competitive advantage—Red Bull had established itself as the U.S. market leader in energy drinks. By 2008, however, Red Bull's dominance was challenged as Monster drinks surpassed... View Details
- March 2014
- Technical Note
Drivers of Value Capture
This note introduces a framework for analyzing value capture (through bargaining and pricing) and bargaining advantage (or value capture advantage), i.e., a firm's (superior) ability to capture a share from the value it helps create. View Details
- March 2014
- Technical Note
Sustainability of Competitive Advantage
This note introduces a framework for analyzing the sustainability of competitive advantage. (While it applies more broadly, it was developed as a component of the PVA framework.) View Details
- March 2014
- Technical Note
Drivers of Value Creation
This note introduces a concise but comprehensive framework for analyzing value creation and value creation advantage, i.e., a firm's superior ability to increase the spread (or gap) between its offering's customer value (or WTP) and supplier cost (or WTS). (While the... View Details