Publications

September 2000 (Revised February 2007)
Case

Freeport Studio

By: Rajiv Lal and James Weber

Describes the start-up and first-year difficulties of Freeport Studio, a unit of L.L. Bean, founded in 1998 to sell women's clothing by catalog. First-year sales were far below plan, and projected profits did not materialize. Fran Philip must identify the problems and... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Profit; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Strategic Planning; Problems and Challenges; Creativity

2007
Report

The Role of Clusters in the Chemical Industry

By: Christian H.M. Ketels

The European Chemical Industry, still in the leading position globally, is under intense competitive pressure from emerging locations in Asia and the Middle East. After first reacting by efficiency upgrading within companies and then pursuing outsourcing and aggressive... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Industry Clusters; Business and Government Relations; Competitive Strategy; Chemical Industry; Asia; Europe; Middle East

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September 2017
Teaching Note

Dick's Sporting Goods

By: Jose B. Alvarez and Matthew G. Preble

This is the teaching note to accompany Rajiv Lal, Jose B. Alvarez, and Matthew G. Preble, “Dick’s Sporting Goods,” HBS No. 517-007 (Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2017). View Details

10 Jan 2018
Research & Ideas

Working for a Shamed Company Can Hurt Your Future Compensation

compensation discount is driven by a lack of information in the marketplace. Since hiring companies have little to go on outside a CV, they may not want to take the risk of... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

March 2025 (Revised April 2025)
Case

WallStreetBets: Democratizing Retail Investing

By: Joseph Pacelli and Alexis Lefort

In summer 2024, Jaime Rogozinski anticipated the launch of a day-trading eSports event, a vision he had nurtured for years. Rogozinski, the founder of the influential subreddit WallStreetBets (WSB), created the forum in 2012 as a space for retail traders to explore... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Emerging Markets; Market Participation; Financial Strategy; Lawsuits and Litigation; Social and Collaborative Networks; Financial Markets; Financial Services Industry; United States

27 Apr 2010
First Look

First Look: April 27

our results suggest that the predictive value of accruals and market participants' ability to process it are a significant driver of accrual-based anomalies. Consumer Policy Author:J. Gunnar Trumbull... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

27 Oct 2021
Blog Post

HBS Impact Investing Fund Course: An Experiential Education in Social Financing

course of the semester, each group will conduct financial, commercial, and operational diligence on prospective investments. The diligence is intended to be mutually beneficial: students will gain investing experience and entrepreneurs... View Details

September 2018
Case

ProdEng: Services for Oil & Gas Extraction

By: Frank V. Cespedes, Maria Fernanda Miguel and Mariana Cal

ProdEng is a venture created as part of a PE fund and provides oil field services in Argentina. In 2016, an industry-wide unforeseen oil and gas demand slump drove ProdEng’s average service rates down by more than 37%, with EBITDA margins falling from 50% to 24% in the... View Details

Keywords: Pricing; Entrepreneurship; Sales; Marketing; Price; Strategy; Latin America; Argentina

02 Jan 2019
What Do You Think?

SUMMING UP: Do We Need an Artificial Intelligence Czar?

incompetent entrepreneur that wants to steal from the better firm and distort the market is accountable only to his bank account and ethics. So we need someone capable enough... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Technology

17 Feb 2016
Blog Post

Through The Eyes of The Patient: A Recap of The 13th Annual Health Care Conference

markets, to changing the drug discovery process to be more patient-centric. A highlight of the panel sessions was when Adam Koppel, EVP of Strategy and Corporate Development at... View Details

Keywords: Health Care

09 Jul 2013
Research & Ideas

Catching Up With Boards--Jay Lorsch

just get rid of that CEO and go find another one? I think that depends upon the judgment of the directors and their understanding of why a particular strategy is not successful. But the board certainly has a... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner

Profile

Debora Lehrer

Why was earning your MBA at HBS important to you? When I graduated from Dartmouth College in 2005, I would have said that my chances of going to graduate school were close... View Details

Keywords: Entertainment / Media

April 1993 (Revised May 1994)
Case

General Dynamics and Computer Sciences Corporation: Outsourcing the IS Function (A)

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Katherine Seger

Designed to generate discussion on the issues of outsourcing from the perspective of a firm thinking about turning over its IS activities to a third-party vendor. View Details

Keywords: Management Systems; Management Style; Information Technology; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Business Strategy; Economic Systems; Business or Company Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business Processes; Employment; Emerging Markets; Activity Based Costing and Management; Information Technology Industry; Consulting Industry

06 Nov 2013
What Do You Think?

Is Top-Down Resource Allocation on the Rise?

the unit level." Saravanan introduced the old/new, product-market 2X2 matrix to argue that top-down resource allocation is most appropriate when both products and markets are new. But he reminded us... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

May 2022
Article

Complex Disclosure

By: Ginger Zhe Jin, Michael Luca and Daniel Martin

We present evidence that unnecessarily complex disclosure can result from strategic incentives to shroud information. In our lab experiment, senders are required to report their private information truthfully, but can choose how complex to make their reports. We find... View Details

Keywords: Disclosure; Experiments; Naiveté; Overconfidence; Corporate Disclosure; Policy; Information; Complexity; Strategy; Consumer Behavior

September 1998 (Revised May 1999)
Case

Arnold Communications

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Jeremiah Weinstock

The new owner and CEO of Arnold Advertising, a relatively small regional agency, aims to build it into Arnold Communications--a much larger, stronger firm competing successfully for national accounts. As part of this growth strategy, the agency develops a process for... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Creativity; Entrepreneurship; Advertising; Business Processes; Brands and Branding; Growth and Development Strategy; Advertising Industry