Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(733)
- Faculty Publications (133)
- May 2022
- Case
The NFL’s $110-Billion Media Rights Deals
By: Anita Elberse and Elizabeth Warner
On March 18, 2021, Brian Rolapp, chief media and business officer at the National Football League (NFL) presented the results of a months-long effort to renegotiate rights deals with the NFL’s current partners in television—the media conglomerates behind the networks... View Details
- February 2022
- Case
Toto Wolff and the Mercedes Formula One Team
By: Anita Elberse and David Moreno Vicente
In December 2021, Toto Wolff, team principal and chief executive officer of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One team (the ‘Mercedes team’) is preparing for the start of the 2021 Formula One (‘F1’) season’s last Grand Prix, in the United Arab Emirates. Everything the... View Details
- January 2022 (Revised August 2022)
- Case
Jackie Robinson: Changing the World
By: Robert Simons and Max Saffer
This case traces the rise of Jackie Robinson from the poor streets of Pasadena, California to one of the most famous people in America after he overturned the color barrier in baseball. The case describes how as a youth he excelled at basketball, football, baseball,... View Details
- January 2022
- Case
FIFA and The World Cup: The Future of Football
By: Anita Elberse, Oliver Band and Howard Johnson
Should FIFA host its biggest event—the FIFA World Cup—every two years instead of every four, as it has been doing since the event’s inception in the 1930s? In September 2021, Gianni Infantino, the president of the International Federation of Association Football... View Details
- August 2021
- Supplement
Dirk Nowitzki: Changing the Game
By: Boris Groysberg
NBA Superstar Dirk Nowitzki was unsure whether the 2018–2019 season would be his last as an NBA player. He had not faced such uncertainty since 1998, when he had navigated a difficult decision regarding the timing of his move to the NBA. He also did not know what he... View Details
- August 2021
- Case
Andreessen Horowitz’s Cultural Leadership Fund (A)
By: Anita Elberse, Briana Richardson and Cydni Williams
In May 2020, Chris Lyons, a partner at leading venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz receives the news that his company has reached a verbal agreement with one of Silicon Valley’s hottest social-media startups to lead its ‘Series A’ funding round, in a deal that... View Details
- June 2021
- Teaching Note
Michael Phelps: 'It's Okay to Not Be Okay'
By: Boris Groysberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Michael Norris
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 421-044. In 2020, Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, with 28 medals in various swimming events, was now retired. As he looked back on his 20+ year athletic career, he considered what had gone into making him the... View Details
- March 2021
- Case
Astralis Group: Determining a Brand Strategy
By: Benjamin C. Esty, Mette Fuglsang Hjortshoej and Emilie Billaud
After launching a Danish esports company in July 2019, and going public in December 2019 with multiple brands associated with different games, the Astralis leadership team was contemplating a shift to a single, corporate brand. While the original arguments for... View Details
Keywords: Brand Strategy; Esports; Video Games; Corporate Scope; Positioning; Ecosystem; Brands and Branding; Strategy; Business Ventures; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Ethics; Sports; Competitive Strategy; Value Creation; Diversification; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Sports Industry; Sports Industry; Denmark; Europe
- October 2020
- Case
Michael Phelps: 'It's Okay to Not Be Okay'
By: Boris Groysberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Michael Norris
In 2020, Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, with 28 medals in various swimming events, was now retired. As he looked back on his 20+ year athletic career, he considered what had gone into making him the greatest of all time—the highs and lows,... View Details
- July 2020 (Revised April 2022)
- Case
Paris Saint-Germain: Building One of the World's Top Sports Brands
By: Anita Elberse and David Moreno Vicente
In March 2020, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the president of French soccer club Paris Saint-Germain (‘PSG’) sees his team clinch a spot among the last eight clubs to compete in the UEFA Champions League. Established in 1970 and initially a club with only moderate success, PSG’s... View Details
- June 2020 (Revised April 2022)
- Case
AFC Ajax
By: Anita Elberse
In July 2019, AFC Ajax’s chief executive officer Edwin van der Sar finalized one of the biggest transfers in soccer—that of Matthijs de Ligt, only 19 years old but already one of the sports world’s brightest stars—from AFC Ajax to Italian powerhouse Juventus FC for a... View Details
- 2020
- Article
Why Do User Communities Matter for Strategy?
By: Sonali K. Shah and Frank Nagle
In this essay, we explore how strategic management research and practice could benefit from considering the benefits and challenges obtainable through working with user communities. User communities represent a unique organizing structure for the exchange of ideas and... View Details
- May 2020 (Revised July 2020)
- Teaching Note
Brand Activism: Nike and Colin Kaepernick
By: Jill Avery and Koen Pauwels
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 519-046. Nike’s selection of politically polarizing Colin Kaepernick as the spokesperson for the thirtieth anniversary of its iconic “Just Do It” campaign catapulted the brand into the media spotlight and made it a political flashpoint... View Details
- December 2019
- Case
Small-Market Teams and Big Stars: The Milwaukee Bucks and Giannis Antetokounmpo
By: Anita Elberse and Melcolm Ruffin
In October 2019, National Basketball Association (NBA) team the Milwaukee Bucks are about to tip off their first home game in the 2019–2020 NBA season. Peter Feigin, president of the Milwaukee Bucks, and Jon Horst, the league’s youngest general manager, could look back... View Details
- November 2019
- Case
Malcolm Turner at Vanderbilt
By: David G. Fubini and James Barnett
Malcolm Turner becomes the new athletic director at Vanderbilt University, tasked with increasing athletics-related revenue and improving on-field performance, while maintaining Vanderbilt’s academic rigor for student-athletes. View Details
- October 2019
- Case
GRIT Fitness
By: Lynda M. Applegate and Olivia Hull
In December 2018, GRIT Fitness was a growing chain of boutique fitness studios offering a variety of workout classes, including weightlifting, high intensity interval training, and cardio dance. With 400 members and three Dallas studios, CEO Brittani Rettig believed... View Details
Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Mission and Purpose; Corporate Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; Forecasting and Prediction; Business Plan; Trends; Experience and Expertise; Talent and Talent Management; Training; Health; Selection and Staffing; Leadership Style; Leadership Development; Management Style; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Motivation and Incentives; Sports; Competition; Diversification; Expansion; Value Creation; Sports Industry; Sports Industry; Texas
- October 2019 (Revised February 2020)
- Case
Relevent and LaLiga: Bringing Spanish Soccer to America
By: Anita Elberse and David Moreno Vicente
“Barcelona backs out of proposed LaLiga match in Miami.” It is December 2018, and Daniel Sillman, chief executive officer of sports and entertainment company Relevent, is tasked with finding a way forward after a significant setback. Relevent had found success by... View Details
- August 2019
- Case
Apex Ski Boots
By: Kate Barasz and John T. Gourville
Apex Ski Boots has introduced a new ski boot that, due to its radical design, is meeting resistance in the marketplace from many retailers, ski experts, and consumers. The company must decide how best to drive sales in the face of this resistance. View Details
- 2019
- Working Paper
Why Do User Communities Matter for Strategy?
By: Sonali K. Shah and Frank Nagle
User communities represent a unique organizing structure for the exchange of ideas and knowledge. They are organizations composed primarily of users working collaboratively, voluntarily, and with minimal oversight to freely and openly develop and exchange knowledge... View Details
- Article
Platform Competition: Betfair and the U.K. Market for Sports Betting
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Neil Campbell
We examine two episodes of strategic interaction in the U.K. betting industry: (i) Betfair (an entrant multi-sided platform or MSP) vs. Flutter (also an MSP) and (ii) Betfair vs. traditional bookmakers. We find that although Betfair was an underfunded second mover in... View Details