Publications

07 Aug 2012
First Look

First Look: August 7

experiment to measure the value of shareholder proxy access. We find that firms that would have been most vulnerable to proxy access, as measured by institutional ownership and activist institutional ownership in particular, lost View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 2024
Case

Fyffes International SA

By: David E. Bell, Damien McLoughlin and Tonia Labruyère

Helge Sparsoe, CEO of Fyffes since 2020, had taken the tropical produce importer and distributor back to a path of stable level of profitability since he joined in 2020. He was now thinking about next steps for the business, which mainly traded in bananas. He was... View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Change Management; Environmental Sustainability; Brands and Branding; Demand and Consumers; Supply Chain; Competition; Price; Value Creation; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Switzerland; United Kingdom; Republic of Ireland; Colombia; Guatemala; Costa Rica; Ecuador

03 Jul 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, July 3, 2018

Improvement in Global Supply Chain Working Conditions By: Short, Jodi L., Michael W. Toffel, and Andrea R. Hugill Abstract—Worker rights advocates seeking to improve labor conditions in global supply chains... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

11 Jun 2019
Book

These Aren't Beach Books, but Managers Should Read Them Anyway

social change has been at the center of many entrepreneurial efforts by Harvard Business School alumni. Howard Stevenson discusses their pragmatic approaches to overcoming long odds. Unlocking the Customer Value View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

12 Mar 2018
Op-Ed

Op-Ed: Why BlackRock CEO Larry Fink Is Not a Socialist

cost-cutting; in fact, cutting infrastructure, supply chain costs, and excess expenses should be done all the time, in good times and bad. This is the approach used by ExxonMobil as it has been one of the greatest View Details

Keywords: by Bill George; Banking

12 Jun 2006
Research & Ideas

The Promise of Channel Stewardship

Most company distribution systems are designed ad-hoc when needed, and serve neither value chain partners nor end users well—just look at the frustrating new-car buying process set up by American auto... View Details

Keywords: by V. Kasturi Rangan & Marie Bell; Consumer Products

June 2022
Case

Zalando: Becoming the Starting Point for Fashion

By: Antonio Moreno, Leela Nageswaran, Emilie Billaud and Federica Gabrieli

Born in 2008 as a small startup selling flip flops, by mid-2021 Zalando had turned into an online fashion company with an assortment of more than 4,500 international brands, 45 million active customers, and a presence in 23 European markets. An essential component in... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Customer Value and Value Chain; Digital Platforms; Distribution; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Infrastructure; Logistics; Service Operations; Strategy; Business Strategy; Fashion Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Distribution Industry; Retail Industry; Service Industry; Shipping Industry; Technology Industry; Europe

November 2000
Case

Geocast Network Systems, Inc.

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Christina L. Darwall and Elizabeth Kind

Geocast, a venture-backed start-up, had developed innovative technology for "datacasting" broadband information and entertainment content to an external hard drive, where it was cached for later retrieval by a Web-enabled PC. By using terrestrial TV, direct broadcast... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Customer Value and Value Chain; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Information Management; Technological Innovation; Marketing Channels; Corporate Strategy; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Web Services Industry

Find at Harvard

15 Jul 2015
Research & Ideas

Amazon Prime Day: The Logic Behind a Retailer’s Made-up Holiday

revenue for Amazon, in addition to the additional value the online retailing giant gets from the loyalty customers feel once they are enrolled. "THERE IS NO QUESTION THAT PRIME MEMBERS ARE EXTREMELY IMPORTANT FOR AMAZON, AND IT GIVES... View Details

Keywords: Re: Sunil Gupta; Retail

November 2019 (Revised September 2022)
Case

TripAdvisor: An Itinerary for Growth

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Spencer Rascoff and Susie L. Ma

In 2019, TripAdvisor was one of the best-known and most-trafficked online travel sites. For nearly 20 years, its founder and CEO Steve Kaufer had steered TripAdvisor through many phases of growth and profitability, but recently the company’s growth had started to slow.... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Decision Making; Business or Company Management; Growth Management; Innovation and Invention; Brands and Branding; Operations; Customer Value and Value Chain; Information Technology; Travel Industry; Massachusetts

14 Apr 2021
Research & Ideas

The High Cost of the Slow COVID Vaccine Rollout

officials took steps to speed vaccine development last year, the United States and other countries could have paid to build manufacturing infrastructure and shore up the supply chain needed to produce vaccines at higher capacity. That... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health

16 Jun 2015
First Look

First Look: June 16, 2015

over time and may be tempted to ape someone else's system, and so they will find it difficult to align different parts of the organization with shared priorities. As Corning, a leader in glass and materials science, has found, an innovation strategy must address how... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

07 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Market Investors Pay More for Resilient Companies

The steep market drop in the early days of the COVID-19 crisis is being used as a laboratory to study the importance of companies investing in stakeholder relations with their employees, suppliers, and customers, and how those investments could be strategic resources... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Financial Services

09 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

Starbucks’ Lessons for Premium Brands

"Stores no longer have the soul of the past and reflect a chain of stores vs. the warm feeling of a neighborhood store." Starbucks tried to add value through innovation, offering wi-fi service and... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Retail

14 Jul 2003
Research & Ideas

Keeping Your Balance With Customers

Internet and database software, the customer can now initiate the business transaction, not simply respond to the salesperson's overture. Instead of being on the end of the value chain ("product... View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan & David P. Norton

21 Nov 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, November 21, 2017

with the model's predictions, we find that whether a firm integrates upstream or downstream suppliers depends crucially on the elasticity of demand for its final product. Moreover, a firm's propensity to integrate a given stage of the View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

August 2017 (Revised May 2019)
Case

Hilti (A): Fleet Management?

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Oliver Gassmann and Roman Sauer

This case explores the strategic decision-making process of premium power tools manufacturer Hilti in 1999, when the company was considering implementing a fleet management system in the construction industry. Fleet management would involve a shift from selling power... View Details

February 2000 (Revised November 2002)
Case

QuickenInsurance: The Race to Click and Close (A)

By: Lynda M. Applegate

ES Technologies started in 1976 as a storefront in Tempe, Arizona selling personal computer kits to hobbyists. Twenty years later, revenues exceeded $3.5 billion, and the business had evolved from a computer store to a master reseller and full-line integrator of... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Entrepreneurship; Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Industry Structures; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Information Technology; Information Technology Industry; Arizona