Publications

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29 Mar 2019
News

Callaway Golf Takes a Swing at Outdoor Apparel

Keywords: golf; retail; aquisitions; leadership; risk; Retail Trade; Retail Trade

February 2015
Teaching Note

Eataly: Reimagining the Grocery Store

By: Sunil Gupta and Michela Addis

Within a few years of its operations, the Italian-based supermarket Eataly created a lot of buzz and excitement among consumers and media. Eataly's initial success was even more impressive in an industry known for its intense competition and low margins. How did Eataly... View Details

Keywords: Customer Engagement; Innovation; Retailing; Supermarkets; Agribusiness; Entrepreneurship; Food; Customers; Innovation and Invention; Marketing; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Europe; North and Central America; Asia

December 2015 (Revised February 2016)
Case

Ocado

By: José Alvarez, David E. Bell and Damien McLoughlin

In 2015, U.K.-based Ocado was the world's largest pure player in the online home-delivery grocery business and was gaining a growing share of the highly competitive U.K. grocery market. Ocado had made heavy investments in technology, including a highly automated... View Details

20 Jul 2016
News

How Amazon Adapted Its Business Model to India

Keywords: Amazon; online retail; market entry; innovation; Retail Trade

Article

La innovación minorista para los consumidores emergentes en América Latina [Retail innovation for emerging consumers in Latin America]

By: Guillermo D'Andrea, Andres Terech and Luciana Silvestri

La innovacion de producto—el tipo de innovacion mas difundida y mas investigada—es dificil de intentar por parte de los minoristas. Estos casi nunca tienen incidencia en las especificaciones, funcionalidades o el diseño de la mayoria de los productos que venden. Por... View Details

Keywords: Retail; Business Model Innovation; Emerging Economies; Business Model; Emerging Markets; Innovation and Invention; Retail Industry

06 Mar 2015
News

Bluemercury Grows Up

Keywords: entrepreneurship; beauty and makeup; retail industry; Retail Trade

August 1984
Article

Kourigyou ni okeru Atarashii Data Kanri System no Kousou: Bumon-betsu ROI no Kaihatsu to Bunseki (A Plan for a New Data Management System in the Retailing Industry)

By: Hirotaka Takeuchi

Keywords: Management; System; Sales; Business Ventures; Retail Industry

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December 2014 (Revised August 2015)
Case

Muñoz Group: Sustaining Global Vertical Integration Through Innovation

By: Jose B. Alvarez and Annelena Lobb

Muñoz Group, which supplied supermarket chains and food distribution chains around the world with fruit, flowers, juice and ice cream, was at a strategic crossroads in 2014. CEO Alvaro Muñoz had to choose the best way to achieve profit goals and provide his company... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Supply Chain; Retail; Agribusiness Industry; Globalized Firms and Management; Supply Chain Management; Competitive Advantage; Vertical Integration; Profit; Innovation and Invention; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; North and Central America

01 Jun 2023
News

Buy Big, Sell Small

If you live in a rural village or small city in India and run low on toothpaste, rice, or cooking oil, you’ll likely visit your local kirana, the equivalent of a US neighborhood variety store and a mainstay of the country’s $932 billion retail economy. The shops are... View Details

Keywords: Deborah Blagg; retail; supply chain management; entrepreneurship; leadership; innovation; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Retail Trade

October 2012
Teaching Note

Hill Country Snack Foods Co. (Brief Case)

By: W. Carl Kester and Craig Stephenson

Keywords: United States; Debt Management; Retail Trade; Risk Management; Food; Capital Structure; Borrowing and Debt; Financial Strategy; Retail Industry; United States

10 Jul 2014
News

Birchbox Store Opens in NY

Keywords: bricks and mortar; retail; customer engagement; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Miscellaneous Store Retailers

October 2012 (Revised May 2014)
Case

J Sainsbury Plc, Road to Recovery

By: John R. Wells and Galen Danskin

In 2012, J Sainsbury Plc (Sainsbury's), the number three supermarket chain in the UK with £22.3 billion in sales, appeared to have put the troubles of the past behind it. For over 70 years, Sainsbury's had been the UK's largest grocer, but Tesco had overtaken it in... View Details

Keywords: United Kingdom; Retailing; Food; Tesco; Sainsbury; Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Global Strategy; Retail Industry; United Kingdom

October 2012
Supplement

Hill Country Snack Foods Co., Spreadsheet for Students (Brief Case) (CW)

By: W. Carl Kester and Craig Stephenson

Keywords: United States; Debt Management; Retail Trade; Risk Management; Food; Capital Structure; Borrowing and Debt; Financial Strategy; Retail Industry; United States

November 2020 (Revised March 2021)
Case

Amazon: Cult or Culture?

By: Boris Groysberg, Sarah L. Abbott and Tricia Gregg

Amazon was one of the first entrants in e-commerce. Under the leadership of founder Jeff Bezos, Amazon had expanded beyond books to manufacturing and selling a wide range of products and services globally. Bezos had built a customer-centric culture that permeated all... View Details

Keywords: Culture; Technology Companies; Retail; Human Resource Practices; Growth; Founder; Leadership; Organizational Culture; Growth Management; Information Technology; Human Resources; Talent and Talent Management; Retail Industry; Retail Industry

Fall 2018
Article

The Value of Fit Information in Online Retail: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment

By: Santiago Gallino and Antonio Moreno

Online channels generate frictions when selling products with nondigital attributes, such as apparel. Customers may be reluctant to purchase products they have not been able to try on, and those customers who do purchase may return products when they do not fit as... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain Information; Fit Uncertainty; Online Retail; Randomized Field Experiment; Virtual Fitting Room; Digital Retail; Customization and Personalization; Internet and the Web; Value; Performance Improvement; Retail Industry; Retail Industry

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July 2014 (Revised November 2014)
Background Note

The Structure and Functioning of the Fashion Industry

By: Mukti Khaire and Hannah Catzen

Fashion is the quintessential social-consumption good; all consumers comply with or react to fashion. Although very few consumers actually control trends, virtually every consumer is affected by fashion and contributes to it by adopting or rejecting popular styles. A... View Details

Keywords: Fashion And Creative Industries; Fashion; Retail; Creativity; Supply and Industry; Retail Industry; Retail Industry

01 Mar 2011
News

Swap ’Em If You Got ’Em

Hall (right): An online market for military personnel. Blake Hall (MBA ’10) grew up in a military family, became an Army Ranger, and was a platoon leader in Iraq for fifteen months. A conversation with a fellow veteran about the difficulty of buying and selling... View Details

Keywords: online retail; online shopping; online marketplace; National Security and International Affairs; Government; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; Information

November 2019 (Revised April 2020)
Case

Away: Scaling a DTC Travel Brand

By: Jill Avery and Joseph B. Fuller

Away, a direct-to-consumer, digital native e-commerce seller of travel luggage, is debating how to invest its latest round of venture funding. How quickly could and should Away scale and what were the most promising growth trajectories to maximize its potential? Three... View Details

Forthcoming
Article

The Effect of a System for Sharing Best Practices Within Pre-existing Peer Networks

By: Shelley Xin Li and Tatiana Sandino

Peer networks, such as enterprise social networks (ESNs), can facilitate knowledge transfer across employees. However, such systems can also lead to information overload or difficulty in finding useful information. We examine data from a natural field experiment where... View Details

Keywords: Retail; Best Practices; Enterprise Social Media; Management Accounting And Control Systems; Social and Collaborative Networks; Communication Technology; Knowledge Sharing; Sales; Social Media; Retail Industry