Publications

01 Dec 2019
News

Regional Alumni Events Address Climate Change

technologies in New York, to the importance of business leaders speaking out politically in Los Angeles, to the risks facing Midwest agribusiness in Chicago. The BEI will continue the series in 2020 and plans to extend it overseas by... View Details

Keywords: Jen Myers

November 2019 (Revised June 2020)
Case

Indigo Agriculture: Harnessing Nature

By: Marco Iansiti, Michael W. Toffel and James Barnett

Indigo Agriculture used a digital-enabled research and development (R&D) process to launch its initial product, microbial coatings for agricultural seeds, which increase crop yields while reducing the need for fertilizers. In doing so, the company developed direct... View Details

Keywords: Carbon Sequestration; Operations; Supply Chain; Social Enterprise; Product Development; Distribution Channels; Business Strategy; Digital Platforms; Environmental Sustainability; Science-Based Business; Climate Change; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; United States; Massachusetts

December 2004 (Revised May 2005)
Case

Nestle: Sustainable Agriculture Initiative

By: Forest L. Reinhardt

Swiss food giant Nestle attempts to improve the performance of its suppliers of agricultural commodities to raise quality, lower costs, and contribute to sustainable development. Its initiatives focus first on coffee, cocoa, and milk. Nestle managers assert that the... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Social Issues; Business and Community Relations; Corporate Strategy; Agribusiness; Supply Chain Management; Marketing Strategy; Value Creation; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

December 2018 (Revised May 2019)
Case

Darling Ingredients International

By: David E. Bell and Natalie Kindred

Led by CEO Randall Stuewe, Texas-based Darling Ingredients International was a rendering firm with $3.7 billion in 2017 revenues. Since 2003, Darling had transformed from U.S. focused into a global player in the processing of biological waste from meat and foodservice... View Details

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; Food and Beverage Industry; Europe; North and Central America; Asia

06 Dec 2021
News

Tipping Point

Illustration by Erin Robinson At one end of the global coffee supply chain are the diners who gather for brunch at the sidewalk tables outside Chloe’s Cafe in San Francisco’s Noe Valley neighborhood. Regulars there order the fluffy banana-walnut pancakes and steaming... View Details

Keywords: April White; Food Manufacturing; Manufacturing

Article

Fixing Market Failures or Fixing Elections? Elections, Banks and Agricultural Lending in India

By: Shawn A. Cole

Keywords: Failure; Voting; Banks and Banking; Agribusiness; India

Find at Harvard

July 2021
Teaching Plan

Shorefast: A Strange and Familiar Way to Reimagine Capitalism

By: Brian Trelstad, Wendy Smith and Natalie Slawinski

Teaching Plan for HBS Case No. 320-098. In 2006, Zita Cobb and two of her brothers, Alan Cobb and Tony Cobb, native Newfoundlanders, launched Shorefast to help grow another leg of Fogo Island’s economy. Like so many rural communities, Fogo Island’s fate was tied... View Details

Keywords: Place Making; Non-profit; Hotel; Economic Development; Tourism; Social Entrepreneurship; Nonprofit Organizations; Development Economics; Economic Systems; Tourism Industry; Canada

Profile

Mallika Ahluwalia

organizations doing similar work?" Applying business methods to missions Last summer, Mallika put her new business skills into practice through her internship with TechnoServe in Kampala, Uganda. "Ours was an agribusiness... View Details

01 Sep 2008
News

Farming for Fuel

would be the book value, roughly $50 million. The third option is to maintain current levels of operation until the situation becomes clearer. Reinhardt has taught the case in his Energy course in the second-year MBA elective curriculum, as well as the View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Animal Production and Aquaculture; Agriculture; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

23 Jan 2020
Research & Ideas

Businesses Need a 'Catalyst' to Make CSR Practices Stick

Many companies follow a tried-and-true approach to pursuing corporate social responsibility practices. They set aside a certain amount per year to fund a CSR office, which then tries to help clean up the environment or improve the quality of life of people in the areas... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

2011
Other Unpublished Work

From Farms to Fuel Tanks: Collective Actors and New-Venture Innovation in the U.S. Biodiesel Fuel Sector

By: Shon R. Hiatt

Little is known about the influence of collective actors on innovative technological recombinations by new ventures. Using data from U.S. biodiesel producers, I examine how the efforts of multiple collective actors (farm associations) to promote varying types of... View Details

Keywords: Alliances; Agribusiness; Energy Sources; Innovation and Invention; Biotechnology Industry; Green Technology Industry; Energy Industry; United States

September 2023
Case

FoodCloud: Tackling Food Insecurity and Climate Change in One Bite

By: Brian Trelstad and Emer Moloney

In 2013, Aoibheann O’Brien and Iseult Ward founded FoodCloud, a non-profit social enterprise that aimed to address food waste and food insecurity issues. Through its technology platform, Foodiverse, FoodCloud connected surplus food from retailers with community groups... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Expansion; Technological Innovation; Environmental Sustainability; Social Issues; Growth and Development Strategy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Republic of Ireland; Europe

2012
Article

Behavioral Economics and the Psychology of Fruit and Vegetable Consumption

By: Joe Price and Jason Riis

Behavioral economics is an emerging paradigm that challenges the assumptions and predictions of classical economics. This new paradigm emphasizes that consumers do not always make optimal use of available information nor do they always make choices and tradeoffs in a... View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Food; Social Marketing; Decision Choices and Conditions; Consumer Behavior; Nutrition

Read Now

03 Dec 2012
HBS Case

HBS Cases: Against the Grain

of Associate Professor Karthik Ramanna, the Henry B. Arthur Fellow of business ethics at Harvard Business School. In a nutshell, the case goes like this: "Jim" accepts a summer internship as a loan officer from a US-based social investment firm seeking a... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Food & Beverage

20 Dec 2022
News

Singing to the Corn

Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Spotify More Skydeck episodes Hi, my name is Julia Hanna. I'm a writer for the HBS Alumni Bulletin, and in July I flew from Boston to Omaha to spend a day with Taylor Keen (MPA 1996/ MBA 1997), a professor of entrepreneurship at... View Details

May 1979
Case

Hesston Corp. (Consolidated)

By: Thomas R. Piper

Keywords: Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry