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August 2009
Case

The TSMC Way: Meeting Customer Needs at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

By: Willy C. Shih, Chen-Fu Chien, Chintay Shih and Jack Chang

When L.C. Tu receives an emergency order, he is confronted with a range of production scheduling choices, each of which has unique costs and trade-offs. The case was designed to help students understand job-shop style production and the impact of disruptions and... View Details

Keywords: Disruption; Customer Relationship Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Cost; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Production; Semiconductor Industry; Taiwan

2012
Working Paper

Learning by Supplying

By: Juan Alcacer and Joanne Oxley

Learning processes lie at the heart of our understanding of how firms build capabilities to generate and sustain competitive advantage: learning by doing, learning by exporting, learning from competitors, users, and alliance partners. In this paper we focus attention... View Details

Keywords: Learning; Supply Chain; Competitive Advantage; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Competency and Skills; Relationships; Telecommunications 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; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; North and Central America

2010
Working Paper

When Open Architecture Beats Closed: The Entrepreneurial Use of Architectural Knowledge

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

This paper describes how entrepreneurial firms can use superior architectural knowledge to open up a technical system to gain strategic advantage. The strategy involves, first, identifying "bottlenecks" in the existing system, and then creating a new open architecture... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Investment Return; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Design; Organizational Design; Competitive Advantage; Technology Industry

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27 Feb 2023
Research & Ideas

How One Late Employee Can Hurt Your Business: Data from 25 Million Timecards

lines or difficulty in finding a store employee for help. Retail operations: An oxymoron The paper adds granularity to Raman's three decades of research into operations management, which includes a focus on... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Retail

2023
Working Paper

The Effects of Inconsistent Work Schedules on Employee Lateness and Absenteeism

By: Caleb Kwon and Ananth Raman

Problem Definition: Employee lateness and absenteeism pose challenges for businesses, particularly in the retail industry, where punctuality is vital for optimal store operations and customer service. This paper relates employee lateness and absenteeism with... View Details

Keywords: Behavior; Employees; Human Capital; Retail Industry

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08 Mar 2021
In Practice

COVID Killed the Traditional Workplace. What Should Companies Do Now?

A year ago, COVID-19 forced many companies to send employees home—often with a laptop and a prayer. Now, with COVID cases subsiding and vaccinations rising, the prospect of returning to old office routines appears more possible. But will employees want to flock back to... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

Web

Leadership - Faculty & Research

them to understand why, more often than not, power is used to reproduce the existing way individuals and organizations operate in society. It then highlights what it takes to implement societal change. This includes a wide variety of... View Details

November 2023 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Infarm: Betting the (Indoor) Farm on Food Security

By: Elie Ofek

In the summer of 2023, the co-founders of Infarm, a controlled environment agriculture (CEA) company, were contemplating a major pivot going forward. While Infarm had successfully shown it could grow over 75 products—mainly herbs, leafy greens and mushrooms—in modular... View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Business Model; Market Entry and Exit; Science-Based Business; Business Strategy; Transition; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Europe; North America; Toronto; Northeastern United States

August 2019
Case

The Allstate Corporation, 2019

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In July 2019, Allstate, the United States’ number-three property and casualty (P/C) insurer, released its second-quarter earnings, which reported first-half revenues of $22.1 billion, up 11.4% year-over-year. Shareholders cheered the top-line growth, but P/C premiums... View Details

Keywords: Insurance Companies; Strategic Analysis; Strategic Change; Insurance; Strategy; Strategic Planning; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Competitive Strategy; Insurance Industry; North America

04 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Is Government Just Stupid? How Bad Decisions Are Made

discussions, they typically focus on specific issues, such as those mentioned in the campaign promises presented above. They then evaluate politicians based on how well the politicians' positions match their preferences on these key... View Details

Keywords: by Max H. Bazerman, Jonathan Baron & Katherine Shonk

Web

Technology & Innovation - Faculty & Research

consumer-facing digital products have tended to focus on novelty and speed (“move fast and break things”). They’ve spent more effort on innovating than on anticipating how customers—and bad actors—might engage with products. But as... View Details

29 Nov 2022
Research & Ideas

How Much More Would Holiday Shoppers Pay to Wear Something Rare?

fashionistas? And if companies focus more on these consumers, how is the broader consumer pool impacted? Farronato studies these questions in a working paper recently published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Written along... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Retail

24 Oct 2006
First Look

First Look: October 24, 2006

and environmental standards. Natura began to seek international markets in 1982, but experienced many setbacks until surviving the economic crisis in Argentina in 2001. The company opened operations in France and Mexico in 2005, and the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2015
Chapter

Framing the Game: How Brands' Relationships with Their Competitors Affect Consumer Preference

By: Neeru Paharia, Jill Avery and Anat Keinan

In this chapter, we explore how brands' relationships with their competitors affect consumers' preferences. Through a series of experiments, we show that the competitive context in which a brand operates can affect consumers' purchase interest and purchase frequency.... View Details

Keywords: Brand Management; CRM; Customer Relationship Management; Marketing Strategy; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Customer Focus and Relationships; Competition; Consumer Products Industry

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08 Sep 2014
Research & Ideas

The Strategic Way To Hire a Sales Team

Too often, there's a huge gap between a company's overall business strategy and the way its salesforce operates in the field. In fact, says Frank V. Cespedes, articles and books about strategy rarely take sales into consideration at all.... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

April 1997 (Revised May 1997)
Case

Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (A): The Growth Initiative

By: Dorothy A. Leonard and Carin-Isabel Knoop

In late 1994, James Down, member of Mercer's Executive Committee, has to decide whether or not he should push ahead with the writing and publication of a book on growth--at a time when the more successful business publications focus on reengineering and cost cutting.... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Organizational Culture; Business Growth and Maturation; Knowledge Management; Product Development; Information Publishing; Books; Consulting Industry; Publishing Industry