Publications

October 1994 (Revised August 2006)
Case

Sport Obermeyer Ltd.

By: Janice H. Hammond and Ananth Raman

The case describes operations at a skiwear design and merchandising company and its supply partner. Introduces production planning for short-life-cycle products with uncertain demand and allows students to analyze a reduced version of the company's production planning... View Details

Keywords: Product; Supply Chain; Demand and Consumers; Production; Planning; Globalized Markets and Industries; Forecasting and Prediction; Industry Growth; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Sports Industry; United States; Hong Kong

August 2010
Case

Flash Memory, Inc.

By: William E. Fruhan and Craig Stephenson

The CFO of Flash Memory, Inc. prepares the company's investing and financing plans for the next three years. Flash Memory is a small firm that specializes in the design and manufacture of solid state drives (SSDs) and memory modules for the computer and electronics... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting; Financial Management; Cash Flow; Forecasting and Prediction; Capital Budgeting; Computer Industry; Electronics Industry; United States

July 2017
Case

Centerbridge Partners and Great Wolf Resorts: Buying from a Highly Regarded Competitor

By: Josh Lerner, John D. Dionne and Amram Migdal

The case examines the March 2015 Centerbridge Partners investment decision regarding whether to acquire Great Wolf Resorts, a North American family-oriented indoor water parks and hotel operator, from a private equity (PE) competitor, Apollo Global Management. The case... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity Financing; Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities; CMBS; Secondary Buyouts; Business Ventures; Acquisition; Finance; Borrowing and Debt; Cost; Cost of Capital; Equity; Private Equity; Financial Instruments; Debt Securities; Accommodations Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Financial Services Industry; North and Central America; United States

Web

Research - Faculty & Research

about HBS case studies as pedagogical tools, how faculty conduct their case research, and the casewriting resources available at HBS. Initiatives & Projects View Details

Article

Financial Innovation and Endogenous Growth

By: Luc Laeven, Ross Levine and Stelios Michalopoulos

Is financial innovation necessary for sustaining economic growth? To address this question, we build a Schumpeterian model in which entrepreneurs earn profits by inventing better goods, and profit-maximizing financiers arise to screen entrepreneurs. The model has two... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Economic Growth

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February 2024 (Revised December 2024)
Case

Best Buy Health: Enabling Care at Home

By: Robert S. Huckman, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Antonio Moreno, Bradley Staats and Sarah Mehta

This case explores retailer Best Buy’s decision to enter health care. Best Buy Health aims to enable care at home across three prongs: consumer health, active aging, and virtual care. A key pillar of Best Buy Health's strategy is leveraging the Geek Squad—the company's... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Invention; Business Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Electronics Industry; Health Industry; Retail Industry; United States; Minnesota

Web

HBS Working Knowledge – Harvard Business School Faculty Research

three working Americans with criminal records from the economy? In a case study, Paul Gompers explores the challenges a social justice startup encounters in helping View Details

January 2014 (Revised June 2015)
Case

Amgen Inc.: Pursuing Innovation and Imitation? (A)

By: Ian W. Mackenzie

Set in 2009, the (A) case explores whether Amgen, a leading innovator of biotech-based drugs, should enter the emerging business of biosimilars (BS), which are essentially 'me-too' products. There appear to be sound reasons to explore this related diversification:... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry; Biotechnology Industry; United States

June 2018 (Revised January 2020)
Case

Sony

By: Stefan Thomke, Atsushi Osanai and Akiko Kanno

Sony used to be synonymous with "innovation" and "cool products." The case reveals how the company lost its edge and describes the leadership initiatives to restore its former glory. In 2012, Kazuo (Kaz) Hirai becomes CEO and successfully transforms Sony, including a... View Details

Keywords: Customer Experience; Product Differentiation; Transformation; Leadership Style; Technology Adoption; Leading Change; Electronics Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Video Game Industry; Japan

2015
Working Paper

Public R&D Investments and Private-sector Patenting: Evidence from NIH Funding Rules

By: Pierre Azoulay, Joshua S. Graff Zivin, Danielle Li and Bhaven N. Sampat

We quantify the impact of scientific grant funding at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on patenting by pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms. Our paper makes two contributions. First, we use newly constructed bibliometric data to develop a method for flexibly... View Details

Keywords: Economics Of Science; Patenting; Academic Reserach; NIH; Knowledge Spillovers; Patents; Research; Government and Politics

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July 2011 (Revised September 2018)
Case

Nashton Partners and Its Search Fund Process

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Nashton Partners was a search fund founded by two HBS MBA's that raised $500,000 to finance a search for a company that they could purchase and then run for the next five to ten years. The case examines the search fund structure, the two-year search, and two potential... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Capital Structure; Financing and Loans; Investment Funds; Partners and Partnerships

2019
Article

Time Series Experiments and Causal Estimands: Exact Randomization Tests and Trading

By: Iavor I Bojinov and Neil Shephard

We define causal estimands for experiments on single time series, extending the potential outcome framework to dealing with temporal data. Our approach allows the estimation of a broad class of these estimands and exact randomization based p-values for testing causal... View Details

Keywords: Causality; Nonparametric; Potential Outcomes; Trading Costs; Mathematical Methods

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September 2011 (Revised December 2012)
Case

Pepsi-Lipton Brisk

By: Thales S. Teixeira and Alison Caverly

This case showcases key decisions in promoting the re-launch of Brisk, a ready-to-drink iced tea by Pepsi-Lipton. The decisions are: creative, media and metrics selection. It also deals with budget allocation to traditional (Super Bowl, television) and new (viral ads... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Channels; Marketing Communications; Advertising Campaigns; Decision Making; Media; Product Launch; Resource Allocation; Performance Effectiveness; Budgets and Budgeting; Food and Beverage Industry

March 2020
Case

Cafe Kenya

By: Lynda M. Applegate and James T. Kindley

This case describes Café Kenya (CK), a Kenyan-based chain of casual quick-food restaurants. The chain was started in 2011 in Nairobi by Nekesa Kuria. Kuria started Café Kenya and grew it by reinvesting profits into company stores and through franchising. She also... View Details

Keywords: Restaurants; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Kenya

19 Jul 2023
Blog Post

A Pathway to Pursue Aspirations

While Mizuho Kanai (MBA 2018) was fulfilling her summer internship at NPR, her manager recommended that she read an HBS case study about how the Sesame Workshop CEO, Jeff Dunn (MBA 1981), was changing View Details

Luis M. Viceira

Luis M. Viceira is the George E. Bates Professor in the Finance Unit and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research, course development, and teaching focus on the areas of investment management... View Details

Keywords: banking; education industry; financial services; nonprofit industry; retail financial services

August 2005 (Revised April 2008)
Teaching Note

Store24 (B): Statistics Review with Data Desk (TN)

By: Frances X. Frei

Presents an overview of the statistical analysis covered in the case discussion. View Details

Keywords: Mathematical Methods; Retail Industry