Publications

February 1990 (Revised August 2001)
Case

Merloni Elettrodomestici SpA: The Transit Point Experiment

By: Janice H. Hammond and Maura G Kelly

Merloni Elettrodomestici is a leading Italian manufacturer of domestic appliances. In 1986, an exposition for Merloni customers is scheduled at its Milano regional warehouse. During the two-month period preceding the event, when the warehouse must be free of inventory,... View Details

Keywords: Logistics; Marketing Channels; Planning; Time Management; Distribution Channels; Competitive Advantage; Customer Relationship Management; Information Technology; Consumer Products Industry; Italy

15 Dec 2020
Research & Ideas

The Unspoken Messages of COVID-19 Restrictions

restrictions—may need to refine their outreach to a pandemic-weary public, especially when it comes to high-risk activities, such as indoor dining. As vaccine hopes and holiday loneliness make distancing harder, View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Food & Beverage

17 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

Harvard Business School Faculty Comment on Crisis in Japan

times the $132 billion that the 1995 Kobe earthquake did, making it one of the Japan's most costly natural disasters. Transportation disruptions and the closing of many factories throughout Japan will shrink Japanese aggregate View Details

Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty

20 Oct 2015
First Look

October 20, 2015

fluctuations. We first exposit that in the presence of Cobb-Douglas production functions and consumer preferences, there is a specific pattern of economic transmission whereby demand-side shocks propagate... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 1991 (Revised June 1993)
Background Note

The Decline of the British Cotton Industry (Abridged)

Supplements the general argument concerning the decline of the British economy by showing how vertical specialization, horizontal competition, and entrenched job control combined to create incentives for management to adapt to changing international conditions by... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Business Cycles; Organizational Structure; Consumer Products Industry; Great Britain

Find at Harvard

01 Jun 2020
News

Meal Plan

consumed outside of the home, we felt it was critical to continue to operate—our restaurants serve 4.3 million meals a day on average. With so many of our locations already set up for drive-in, drive-through, View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; restaurants; COVID-19; pandemic; recovery; Food Services and Drinking Places; Food Services and Drinking Places; Food Services and Drinking Places; Food Services and Drinking Places

23 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Historically Speaking: A Roundtable at HBS

among historians and scholars from other disciplines who are taking a historical approach to their work has demanded intellectual leadership. Al Chandler has provided that leadership for more than forty... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner

16 Jul 2014
HBS Case

Marketing Obamacare

who'd lost their insurance, and older people who didn't know they were eligible for Medicare. Consumers also had differing levels of enthusiasm about signing up for insurance, ranging from excited to cynical... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health

21 Jun 2004
Research & Ideas

Music Downloads: Pirates—or Customers?

songs for free by promoting them on the radio and on MTV. If consumers liked the samples, they purchased a dozen songs at a price of $15. We now have gone from one extreme to the other. While inflexible... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Entertainment & Recreation; Music

29 May 2017
Blog Post

The Diverse Community at HBS

Before I came to HBS, I worked at Disney in a consumer insights role with the Corporate Brand Development and Studio Marketing teams. Tracking evolving consumer behaviors in... View Details

15 Jan 2019
Blog Post

Interning in the Retail Sector

Jasmyn Beausejour, MBA 2019, describes his summer at Wayfair. As a native from Montreal and having worked in management consulting, Jasmyn was excited by the opportunity to analyze Wayfair’s expansion and... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Products / Retail

August 2024
Case

Coca Cola İçecek—Managing a Sudden Turbulence

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Namrata Arora and Gizem Cihan Dincsoy

In November 2021, Kerem Kerimoğlu, Coca Cola İçecek (CCI) Group Supply Chain Development Director, is alarmed by a news headline revealing a shortage of Turkish truck drivers impacting Europe. This crisis quickly affects CCI's distribution as third-party logistics... View Details

Keywords: Business Strategy; Logistics; Supply Chain Management; Crisis Management; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Turkey; Central Asia; Middle East

11 Jun 2001
Research & Ideas

E-Commerce Unplugged

In this excerpt, Nohria and Leestma outline the challenges and rewards awaiting businesses that target the mobile-commerce customer. The best place to start? Develop a thorough knowledge of View Details

Keywords: by Nitin Nohria & Marty Leestma

March 2021 (Revised October 2021)
Teaching Note

Afterpay U.S.: The Omnichannel Dilemma

By: Antonio Moreno and Anibha Singh

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 519-086. In 2018, Nick Molnar, the founder of the Australia-based online payment service Afterpay began its expansion to the U.S. market. The service had gained a loyal following in Australia by enabling customers to pay for online... View Details

18 Oct 2011
First Look

First Look: October 18

environmentally beneficial functions: it diverts waste from landfill and it produces renewable energy. At the same time, the waste-to-energy firm serves and collects revenue from two types of customers:... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2001 (Revised March 2003)
Case

Kelon (A): China's Corporate Dragon

By: Yasheng Huang and David Lane

Kelon was founded in the small, rural town of Rongqi in the Guangdong Province in 1984. In a six-year span, Kelon became China's largest refrigerator maker. In the 1990s it faced fierce competition from other Chinese firms as well as from multinational corporations.... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Multinational Firms and Management; Ownership; Consumer Products Industry; China

Find at Harvard

December 2007 (Revised August 2014)
Case

Xanadu on Broadway

By: Anita Elberse

Can one of Hollywood's biggest flops magically turn into a Broadway hit? Xanadu, an adaptation of a 1980 Olivia Newton-John roller-disco film described by one critic as "the epic failure to end all epic failures," opened on Broadway in July 2007. Producer Rob Ahrens,... View Details

Keywords: Theater Entertainment; Product Marketing; Product Launch; Demand and Consumers; Risk and Uncertainty; Creativity; Entertainment and Recreation Industry