Publications

February 2018
Case

Earlham College Basketball: Turnaround Strategy

By: Juan Alcacer and Anne Marie Knott

Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, is in the heart of basketball country. Yet its record for the 2013/2014 basketball season was a dismal 5–20. The school recruited Jason Polykoff from the University of Pennsylvania’s coaching staff to reinvent the program. By... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Problems and Challenges; Strategy; Sports; Sports Industry; Indiana

August 2015 (Revised May 2017)
Case

TSG Hoffenheim: Football in the Age of Analytics

By: Feng Zhu, Karim R. Lakhani, Sascha L. Schmidt and Kerry Herman

In 2015, Dietmar Hopp, owner of Germany's Bundesliga football team TSG Hoffenheim and co-founder of the global enterprise software company SAP, was considering how to ensure long-term sustainability and competitiveness for TSG Hoffenheim. While historically a small... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Measurement and Metrics; Sports; Sports Industry

Profile

Fola Folowosele

Latin America. HBS played an integral role in securing both internships. Firstly, it was while organizing a sports panel for the Africa Business Conference in my RC (required curriculum) year that I met my future boss, who I invited to... View Details

Keywords: Consulting; Consumer Products

01 Sep 2003
News

Jonathan Mariner

Mariner Photo courtesy Jonathan Mariner “There aren’t many activities that bring a community together so quickly — without respect to age, race, and gender lines — as a winning ball club,” observes Jonathan D. Mariner, the veteran sports... View Details

Keywords: Deborah Blagg; Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries; Arts, Entertainment

January 2016
Case

Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup

By: Boris Groysberg, Sascha L. Schmidt, Arjun Thomke, Kerry Herman and Michael Norris

After years of ups and downs, Germany won its fourth World Cup Championship in 2014. This case examines the national team's recent history and the changes they made to set themselves up for success. View Details

Keywords: Football; Soccer; ＂World Cup,＂ Germany; Germany; Organizational Behavior; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Success; Sports; Sports Industry; Germany; Brazil

27 Aug 2019
News

A Shot at Success

shooter. Her skills—and her resourcefulness—earned Feickert more than 40 offers. She attended the University of Kansas, where she spent three years as a Jayhawk and graduated with a degree in accounting, becoming a first-generation college graduate. View Details

Keywords: April White

November 2009 (Revised September 2010)
Supplement

Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (B)

By: Frances X. Frei and Matthew Todd Perlberg

Supplement to the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Sports; Talent and Talent Management; Sports Industry

April 1990 (Revised March 1992)
Case

Oakland A's: Baseball's Great Transformation

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger

The Oakland A's baseball team underwent a major turnaround during the 1980s, both on the field and in the business office. One of the most significant improvements came in the area of customer service. The A's management believed that if they took care of their fans,... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Customer Focus and Relationships; Sports; Sports Industry; California

02 Jun 2021
News

The NBA's African Expansion

basketball being a top sport throughout Africa in 10 years,” according to coverage on CNBC. The effort is led by NBA Africa CEO Victor Williams (MBA 1998), who described the organization’s strategy to accelerate the development of the... View Details

Keywords: Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries; Arts, Entertainment

December 2009 (Revised March 2010)
Teaching Note

LeBron James

By: Anita Elberse

Teaching Note for [509050]. View Details

Keywords: Sports; Talent and Talent Management; Sports Industry

June 1996
Case

Black Magic and the America's Cup: The Victory

Chronicles New Zealand's participation in successive America's Cup regattas, culminating in its decisive 1995 victory. Allows for discussion of how an organization from a small nation can beat the world's best in a technologically, organizationally, and managerially... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Sports; Business and Government Relations; Sports Industry; New Zealand

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30 Nov 2019
News

Land of the Rising Scrum

told him I’d never played any organized sports in my life, he asked me if I liked to drink beer,” O’Donnell said. It was the only qualification for a spot on the roster. Forty-four years later, O’Donnell is still playing rugby (and... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Myers

01 Mar 2013
News

A United Front

is no active coach in the highest echelons of the world of soccer—or, to my knowledge, in sports as a whole—who comes even close to such a lengthy tenure, let alone the number of titles and trophies he has accumulated," says HBS professor... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne; Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries; Arts, Entertainment; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management

01 Feb 1998
News

A Player's View: Gord Kluzak (MBA '98)

"Unfortunately," he says, "hockey is the one sport that aggravates my old injury. Fans hear about big contracts but they should remember that careers like mine can be cut short in an instant. These days," he smiles, "the only... View Details

Keywords: James E. Aisner

26 Jul 2018
News

Running the Numbers

sport where women’s teams were still a novelty, was in keeping with an attitude that has since served Gelman well as a game-changing executive in the male-dominated sports industry. “I’ve always been drawn... View Details

Keywords: Deborah Blagg

07 Jan 2020
News

Models of Success

education and support they needed to use sports as a lever to change their lives,” Feickert says. That revelation led her to cofound Trey Athletes, a social enterprise that creates cohorts of high-potential high school athletes and... View Details

November 1981 (Revised December 1992)
Case

Gotham Giants

The owner of a professional baseball team is trying to figure out if promotions are having an effect on ticket sales, and if televising games is hurting attendance. He considers renegotiating the television contract. View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Sports; Television Entertainment; Sports Industry

February 1999 (Revised August 2004)
Case

Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)

By: Stephen A. Greyser

Chronicles the background of the founding of the WNBA, its basic business concept, some of the key research information used by the NBA in launching it, and other related information. Students must analyze the "basic business model" involved and compare it to that of... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Research; Outcome or Result; Sports; Gender; Sports Industry

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December 2019
Case

Small-Market Teams and Big Stars: The Milwaukee Bucks and Giannis Antetokounmpo

By: Anita Elberse and Melcolm Ruffin

In October 2019, National Basketball Association (NBA) team the Milwaukee Bucks are about to tip off their first home game in the 2019–2020 NBA season. Peter Feigin, president of the Milwaukee Bucks, and Jon Horst, the league’s youngest general manager, could look back... View Details

Keywords: Superstars; Talent and Talent Management; Sports; Strategy; Sports Industry