Publications

March 2004 (Revised November 2012)
Teaching Note

P&G Japan: The SK-II Globalization Project (TN)

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Traces changes in P&G's international strategy and structure, culminating in Organization 2005, a reorganization that places strategic emphasis on product innovation rather than geographic expansion and shifts power from local subsidiary to global business management.... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Trade; Globalization; Global Strategy; Innovation Strategy; Business or Company Management; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Hong Kong; Japan; Taiwan; Europe

09 Aug 2016
First Look

August 9, 2016

forthcoming Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes Managing Perceptions of Distress at Work: Reframing Emotion as Passion By: Wolf, Elizabeth Baily, Jooa Julia Lee, Sunita Sah, and Alison Wood... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

09 Jun 2014
Research & Ideas

The Manager in Red Sneakers

clothes rather than an elegant outfit to a luxury boutique, or wearing sneakers to a professional event. In The Red Sneakers Effect: Inferring Status and Competence from Signals of Nonconformity—an article appearing in the June 2014... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products

02 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

Digital Initiative Summit: The Business of Crowdsourcing

client to draft a challenge focused on getting consumers excited about the product. Community Members Are Eager To Participate Tongal, whose client list includes Lego and Colgate-Palmolive, said "the client... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

21 Jul 2015
First Look

First Look: July 21, 2015

driver of macroeconomic fluctuations. We first exposit that in the presence of Cobb-Douglas production functions and consumer preferences there is a specific pattern of economic transmission whereby... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 1990 (Revised March 1994)
Supplement

Digital Equipment Corp.: The Kodak Outsourcing Agreement (B)

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Herminia M. Ibarra

Describes "Frantic Friday," the day the Digital-Kodak contract was scheduled to be signed. Designed to be handed out in class. View Details

Keywords: Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Technology; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry

25 Jul 2006
First Look

First Look: July 25, 2006

developed countries. Large emerging economies with little inward FDI include India and Turkey, despite the relaxation over the last two decades of the restrictions imposed on foreign firms between 1950 and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

06 Dec 2011
First Look

First Look: Dec. 6

2011) Abstract In a vitally important relationship famously caricatured as the "Mad Mullahs" v. the "Great Satan," the fraught negotiating history and future of Iran and the United States... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Summer 2018
Article

Why High-Tech Commoditization Is Accelerating

By: Willy C. Shih

Knowledge embedded within state-of-the-art production and design tools is a powerful force that is leveling the global technology playing field. It democratizes innovation and makes future competition more challenging. This paper describes the knowledge flows through... View Details

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January 2023
Case

Kavnia Coffee

By: Lindsay N. Hyde, Thomas R. Eisenmann, Kumba Sennaar, Sarah Mehta and Jiyoon Han

Case on a coffee hardware startup where a series of experiments and pivots led founder to conclude that the venture was no longer viable. View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Operations; Business Startups; Failure; Business Exit or Shutdown; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

08 Jun 2009
Research & Ideas

The Return of the Salesman

business and society. In its Winter 2008 issue, Business History Review included five articles on salesmanship: "Selling the American Way: The Singer Sales System in Japan, 1900-1938" (by Andrew Gordon) "Inventing the U.S. Stove Industry,... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

September 2001 (Revised May 2006)
Case

Webvan

Examines Webvan's operations and the processes by which it delivers groceries that were ordered from the Internet to customers' homes. Recounts Webvan's history from founding through early 2001 and concentrates on the unique approaches to warehousing, delivery,... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Failure; Business Startups; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry

January 1987 (Revised March 1989)
Background Note

Note on the U.S. Soft Drink Industry in 1986

Demonstrates how knowing the "money mechanics" of the business is essential in developing a successful strategy among industry participants. Deals with the structural attractiveness of the industry from the concentrate producer and bottler perspectives and examines the... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

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October 2007
Teaching Note

Procter & Gamble: Organization 2005 (A) & (B) (TN)

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski

Teaching Note to 707519 and 707402. View Details

Keywords: Organizations; Consumer Products Industry

August 2002
Teaching Note

MicroFridge, TN

By: John A. Deighton

Teaching Note for (9-599-049) and (9-503-017). View Details

Keywords: Consumer Products Industry

March 2014
Teaching Note

Oral Rehydration Therapy

By: Nava Ashraf and Natalie Kindred

This Teaching Note accompanies the case "Oral Rehydration Therapy" (911-035). The case highlights the puzzlingly high rate of diarrhea-related child mortality in developing countries despite the existence of a simple, effective treatment: oral rehydration therapy... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Innovation Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Developing Countries and Economies; Technological Innovation; Distribution Channels; Emerging Markets; Consumer Behavior; Performance Consistency; Performance Evaluation; Health Industry; Africa; Asia

June 2022
Teaching Note

Bespoken Spirits: Disrupting Distilling

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 721-419. On October 7, 2020, Bespoken Spirits publicly announced it had received $2.6 million of seed funding for its “sustainable maturation process,” a process that could produce award-winning whiskeys in just days rather than years... View Details

Keywords: B2B Vs. B2C; Technological Innovation; Business Startups; Cost Management; Business Model; Consumer Products Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Service Industry

March 1990 (Revised May 1993)
Case

Pennzoil Co.

Focuses on Pennzoil's motor oil business. Designed to address the business strategy issues of how a firm chooses its scope to create competitive advantage in its core business. "Scope" can be broadly defined to include vertical scope (forward and backward integration),... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Competitive Advantage; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry