Publications

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Strategy Faculty - Faculty & Research

Business Administration Eric J. Van den Steen Royal Little Professor of Business Administration Andy Wu Arjun and... View Details

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

Keywords: Judo Strategy; Judo Economics; Sustainable Competitive Advantage; Imitation; Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Market Entry and Exit; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

04 Feb 2014
First Look

First Look: February 4

http://ssrn.com/abstract=2280370 A Formal Theory of Strategy By: Van den Steen, Eric Abstract—What makes a decision strategic? When is strategy most important? This paper... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthlorne

Web

Strategy Curriculum - Faculty & Research

Sustaining Competitive Advantage Eric J. Van den Steen Fall 2025 Q1 1.5 Driving Profitable Growth (also listed... View Details

28 Sep 2010
First Look

First Look: September 28, 2010

PublicationsFamilienunternehmen in Westdeutschland. Corporate Governance und Gesellschafterkultur seit den 1960er Jahren (Family business in West Germany since the 1960s) Authors:Christina Lubinski Publication:Vol. 21, Schriftenreihe... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

August 2013 (Revised November 2020)
Case

Tesla Motors

By: Eric Van den Steen

In mid-2013, Tesla Motors was riding a wave of success: It had launched its first really mass-produced car—the model S—to rave reviews; had recently raised first-year production targets; and had started taking orders for its next car, the Model X. Tesla seemed to be on... View Details

Keywords: Barriers To Entry; Economic Analysis; Learning Curve; Economies Of Scale; Innovation; Market Entry; Sustainable Competitive Advantage; Vision; Strategy And Leadership; Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Competitive Advantage; Technological Innovation; Leadership; Learning; Economics; Analysis; Auto Industry

October 2018
Article

Strategy and the Strategist: How it Matters Who Develops the Strategy

By: Eric J. Van den Steen

This paper addresses primarily two questions. First, when (and why) should a company’s strategy be developed by its CEO versus by some outside analyst or other insider? Second, how does strategy interact with vision (in the sense of a strong belief about the right... View Details

Keywords: Strategy And Leadership; Strategy And Execution; Strategy; Leadership

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Placement - Doctoral

Francesca Gino , Mina Cikara , and Adam Waytz Close Strategy 2025 Aticus Peterson Strategy, 2025 Placement: New York University Stern School of Business, Management and Organizations Department Advisors: Andy Wu (Chair), Jan W. Rivkin , View Details

Web

Business Economics - Doctoral

Stephen Marglin Eric S. Maskin Marc Melitz Jeffrey Miron Ariel Pakes Amanda Pallais Matthew Rabin Kenneth Rogoff Amartya Sen Neil Shephard Andrei Shleifer Stefanie Stantcheva Jeremy Stein James Stock Ludwig Straub Tomasz Strzalecki... View Details

January 2021 (Revised March 2021)
Technical Note

Strategy and Strategic Thinking

By: Eric Van den Steen

This note gives managers a concrete perspective on what ‘a strategy’ really is, what makes a decision ‘strategic,’ and what ‘strategic thinking’ means. It also gives them practical frameworks to assess whether some set of decisions is really a strategy and how to... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Alignment; Strategy Definition; Strategy And Execution; Strategy Test; Strategy; Strategic Planning; Decision Making

February 2018
Case

Stealing Time: America's Disruption of the Swiss Watch Industry

By: Eric Van den Steen and Aaron Stark

After years of growth, the Swiss watch industry faced an existential crisis. Exports to the U.S., their primary market, had dropped by more than two thirds over the past five years. Swiss watches were being disrupted by high-quality and affordable American products.... View Details

Keywords: Business Strategy; Disruption; Change Management; United States; Switzerland

February 2014 (Revised December 2016)
Case

Aldi: The Dark Horse Discounter

By: Eric Van den Steen and David Lane

In 2013, Aldi—the world's 8th largest retailer—planned to accelerate its US expansion. Aldi was a German-based hard discounter that sold a limited assortment of private-label groceries and household items in barebones stores. Despite its presence with 1200 stores in 32... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Competitive Strategy; Strategy; Value Creation; Values and Beliefs

March 2016 (Revised January 2017)
Case

IKEA

By: Eric Van den Steen and Alon Galor

Article

Disagreement and the Allocation of Control

By: Eric J. Van den Steen

This article studies the allocation of control when there is disagreement—in the sense of differing priors—about the right course of action. People then value control rights since they believe that their decisions are better than those of others. More disagreement (due... View Details

Keywords: Governance Controls; Projects; Decisions; Value; Agreements and Arrangements

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2006
Working Paper

The Limits of Authority: Motivation versus Coordination

By: Eric J. Van den Steen

This paper studies the effects of open disagreement on motivation and coordination. It shows how, in the presence of differing priors, motivation and coordination impose conflicting demands on the allocation of authority, leading to a trade-off between the... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Governance Controls; Organizational Culture; Agency Theory; Conflict and Resolution; Motivation and Incentives

SSRN

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

Keywords: Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Price; Competitive Strategy; Air Transportation Industry

August 2016 (Revised March 2018)
Case

Videojet (A)

By: Raffaella Sadun, Bharat Anand and Eric Van den Steen

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

Keywords: Managerial Processes; Conglomerates; Relational Contracts; Corporate Strategy; Business Conglomerates; Diversification; Management Practices and Processes; Strategy; Manufacturing Industry; United States

August 2016
Supplement

Videojet (B)

By: Raffaella Sadun, Bharat Anand and Eric Van den Steen

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

Keywords: Managerial Processes; Conglomerates; Diversification; Relational Contracts; Corporate Strategy; Manufacturing Industry