Publications

02 Apr 2008
Research & Ideas

Four Companies that Conquered America

built up a strong retail market share in the U.S., not under the RBS brand, but through a series of acquisitions of regional (not national) banks. RBS is adding value for its shareholders by letting these banks retain their individual... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

October 2008
Case

The Talbots, Inc., and Subsidiaries: Accounting for Goodwill

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

In 2006, Talbots, Inc., a specialty women's retailer, purchased a competitor, J. Jill. The transaction created a large goodwill account along with accounts for trademarks and other intangible assets. Using prevailing accounting standards (Statement of Financial... View Details

Keywords: FASB; Intangible Assets; Standards; Financial Statements; Goodwill Accounting; Retail Industry; Retail Industry

February 2020
Teaching Note

Essential Explorations at MUJI

By: Tomomichi Amano and Das Narayandas

Launched as a private brand in 1980 to counter the increasingly brand-conscious consumer in Japan, MUJI offered beautifully designed, fairly priced, no-frills quality goods. The once modest private label brand with 40 products had expanded significantly by 2019 to more... View Details

Keywords: Product Portfolio Management; Brands and Branding; Product; Management; Change Management; Mission and Purpose; Retail Industry; Japan

August 2019 (Revised January 2020)
Case

Essential Explorations at MUJI

By: Tomomichi Amano, Das Narayandas, Naoko Jinjo and Akiko Kanno

Launched as a private brand in 1980 to counter the increasingly brand-conscious consumer in Japan, MUJI offered beautifully designed, fairly priced, no-frills quality goods. The once modest private label brand with 40 products had expanded significantly by 2019 to more... View Details

Keywords: Product Portfolio Management; Brands and Branding; Product; Management; Change Management; Mission and Purpose; Retail Industry; Japan

June 1994 (Revised December 1997)
Case

Safeway, Inc.'s Leveraged Buyout (A)

After years of deteriorating financial performance and eroding market position, Safeway, Inc., the largest public grocery store chain in the United States, found itself the target of a hostile takeover offer. Management decided to take the company private in a $4.3... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Restructuring; Retail Industry; United States

Web

Faculty & Research

examines the short-run impact of the 2025 U.S. tariffs on consumer prices using a unique integration of high-frequency retail pricing data, product-level country-of-origin information, and detailed tariff classifications. By linking daily... View Details

12 Nov 2013
First Look

First Look: November 12

development of Kvadrat's retail sales operations, the implementation of new Human Resources practices, and the execution of a new organizational design. Was such an extensive growth, turnaround, and internal development agenda feasible?... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2014 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Red Star Furniture Group Co. Ltd.

By: Krishna G. Palepu and Pedro Nueno

Founded in 1986, Red Star had become the leading department store in China for furniture and home equipment products (bathroom, lamps, textiles complements, etc.). The business model of Red Star was to provide adequate space for vendors (that rented the space) in good... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship In Emerging Markets; Growth Strategy And Execution; Growth and Development Strategy; Retail Industry; China

30 Nov 2009
Research & Ideas

Tracks of My Tears: Reconstructing Digital Music

or even whether to sell their products via those channels at all if online retailers impose certain bundling policies. I thought the music industry would be an ideal research setting because it is a sector strongly associated with bundled... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Music

March 2009
Article

Customer Experience Creation: Determinants, Dynamics and Management Strategies

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger, Peter C. Verhoef, Katherine N. Lemon, A. Parasuraman, Anne Roggeveen and Michael Tsiros

Retailers, such as Starbucks and Victoria's Secret, aim to provide customers a great experience across channels. In this paper we provide an overview of the existing literature on customer experience and expand on it to examine the creation of a customer experience... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Business Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Retail Industry

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19 Sep 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, September 19

implications of these effects for inventory management. To do that, we analyze data from a leading U.S. retailer who introduced a “ship-to-store” (STS) functionality that allows customers to ship products to their local View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

July 2015
Article

BYOB: How Bringing Your Own Shopping Bags Leads to Treating Yourself, and the Environment

By: Uma R. Karmarkar and Bryan Bollinger

As concerns about pollution and climate change have become more central in public discourse, shopping with reusable grocery bags has been strongly promoted as environmentally and socially conscious. In parallel, firms have joined policy makers in using a variety of... View Details

Keywords: Grocery Shopping; Reusable Bags; Licensing; Priming; Goals; Hedonic; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Environmental Sustainability; Retail Industry

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February 2016 (Revised February 2017)
Case

Greening Walmart: Progress and Controversy

By: Rebecca Henderson and James Weber

In 2005, Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, launched a sustainability initiative aimed at reducing waste and making the company more environmentally and socially conscious. By 2015, the company had made progress on multiple dimensions: energy efficiency in its... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business or Company Management; Motivation and Incentives; Reputation; Environmental Sustainability; Retail Industry; United States

November 2018 (Revised June 2019)
Case

Michael Rubin and Fanatics (A)

By: Robert F. Higgins and John Masko

In 2016, Michael Rubin’s Fanatics was the U.S.’ largest sports e-commerce company and operator of the official online store for all the major American sports leagues. That year, Fanatics began to dabble in manufacturing licensed sports merchandise, securing limited... View Details

Keywords: Fanatics; Licensed Merchandise; E-commerce; Entrepreneurship; Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Sports; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; United States

10 Jan 2011
Research & Ideas

Is Groupon Good for Retailers?

spas, paintball parties, etc., at a major markdown—up to 90 percent off a retailer's usual prices—and then requiring the retailer to pay a big chunk of the voucher revenues back to Groupon. But the Chicago-based firm is "the fastest... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Advertising; Technology

01 Jun 2023
News

Pet Project

Maev distinguishes itself with its unmatched nutritional value and food safety, with portions that are easy to store and serve. Maev shipped more than 8 million meals to subscribers in 2022 and closed a $10 million Series A round in... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Miscellaneous Store Retailers

2015
Article

Testing Strategy with Multiple Performance Measures: Evidence from a Balanced Scorecard at Store24

By: Dennis Campbell, Srikant M. Datar, Susan L. Kulp and V.G. Narayanan

We analyze balanced scorecard data from a convenience store chain, Store24, during the implementation of an innovative, but ultimately unsuccessful, strategy. Quarterly strategic reviews, based in part on the firm's balanced scorecard, led executives at Store24 to... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Business Strategy; Retail Industry