Publications

28 Apr 2003
Research & Ideas

Supply Chain Risk: Deal With It

president of strategy and new business development for books and entertainment retailer Borders Group (Ann Arbor, Mich.). "There's not as much slack as there once was." "Slack" in the supply chain refers primarily to... View Details

Keywords: by David Stauffer

August 1992 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Euro Disney: The First 100 Days

By: Gary W. Loveman and Leonard A. Schlesinger

The Walt Disney Co. theme parks historically have thrived on the basis of a formula stressing excellent customer service and a magnificent physical environment. The formula has proven successful in Japan, as well as the United States. With the controversial opening of... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Corporate Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Japan; France; United States

29 Jan 2021
Op-Ed

How Influencers, Celebrities, and FOMO Can Win Over Vaccine Skeptics

reinforce the positive consequences of taking the vaccine, such as the ability to visit family, go to work, and have more entertainment options. With those factors in mind, we offer three customer-centric recommendations to speed adoption... View Details

Keywords: by Rohit Deshpandé, Ofer Mintz, and Imran S. Currim

01 Sep 2009
News

Don’t Mess with His Texas

WATERS: Betting the ranch on posterity. Lost Maples State Natural Area in the Hill Country of Texas is noted for its beautiful limestone canyons and native bigtooth maple trees. The park recently grew by 700 acres thanks to Lou Waters (MBA ’66), who, for a bargain... View Details

Keywords: Arts, Entertainment; Arts, Entertainment

06 Aug 2019
Cold Call Podcast

Super Bowl Ads Sell Products, but Do They Sell Brands?

Kenny: : "This flat tire needs a man," says the narrator of the Goodyear Tire commercial that aired during the inaugural Super Bowl between the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs in 1967. The ad featured a damsel in distress with a blown tire on a... View Details

Keywords: Entertainment & Recreation; Entertainment & Recreation; Entertainment & Recreation; Entertainment & Recreation

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; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; North and Central America; United States

December 2019
Case

Steemit: A New Social Media?

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Alexander White and Karen Elterman

This case discusses the alternative social media site Steemit, including the principles it was founded on in 2016 and the challenges it faced in 2019. Steemit was a blockchain-based platform that aimed to differentiate itself from other social media companies by... View Details

Web

Harvard Business School

served as director of BET Holdings, the parent company of Black Entertainment Television. Franklin Anderson MBA 1971 Franklin Anderson co-founded and led Cleveland's Hough Area Community Development Corporation (HADC). Before coming to... View Details

August 2014
Case

Netflix: Designing the Netflix Prize (A)

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Wesley M. Cohen, Kynon Ingram, Tushar Kothalkar, Maxim Kuzemchenko, Santosh Malik, Cynthia Meyn, Greta Friar and Stephanie Healy Pokrywa

In 2006, Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, was looking for a way to solve Netflix's customer churn problem. Netflix used Cinematch, its proprietary movie recommendation software, to promote individually determined best-fit movies to customers. Hastings determined that a... View Details

Keywords: Crowdsourcing; Prizes; Digitization; Algorithms; Recommendation Software; Disruption; Transformation; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Knowledge Sharing; Applications and Software; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States

25 Mar 2015
HBS Case

Tate’s Digital Makeover Transforms the Traditional Museum

then. Today, as entertainment becomes increasingly digital and spare time is in ever-shorter supply, art museums and cultural institutions have been put in a bind. Do they stick to their tried-and-true format and cater to loyal devotees... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Education

07 Apr 2020
Research & Ideas

What Customers Need to Hear from You During the COVID Crisis

memes proliferated after a group of celebrities, including Gal Gadot, Jimmy Fallon, Natalie Portman, Cara Delevingne, and Will Ferrell, came together virtually to sing an inspirational version of John Lennon’s "Imagine." Instead of providing the soothing... View Details

Keywords: by Jill Avery and Richard Edelman

13 Apr 2009
Research & Ideas

Kind of Blue: Pushing Boundaries with Miles Davis

What." Since 2009 marks the 50th anniversary of the release of Kind of Blue, it's a good time to ask: How did he do it? One of the answers is "radical simplicity," according to HBS professor Robert D. Austin and Carl Størmer, founding principal of... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Music

01 May 2019
What Do You Think?

What Should the Leadership of YouTube Do?

littleny Can YouTube’s Users Help the Company Deal With Its “Moral” Problem?* This month’s mini-case described the dilemma faced by Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube: how far to promote “sustainability,” viewership, and (to some) free speech at the risk of losing what is... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Entertainment & Recreation; Entertainment & Recreation

01 Mar 2018
News

Every Trick in the Book

after he took the helm. Starting this May, Parneros plans to grow the number of physical Barnes & Noble stores. The company has also launched five new-format stores to test different retail strategies, among them a smaller selection of books, paired with more extensive... View Details

Keywords: April White

September 2013 (Revised August 2015)
Background Note

Leadership and Teaming

By: Ethan Bernstein

Small differences in the leadership of teams can have large consequences for the success of their efforts. Many initiatives fail not because of a fatal error in judgment or insufficient ideas, knowledge, motivation, or capabilities to deliver a solution. They fail... View Details

01 Jun 2005
News

Power Couple

Richard Sarnoff (MBA ’87), a group president at Random House, is one forward-looking media exec who has some impressive links to the industry’s past: His great-uncle, former RCA chairman David Sarnoff, was instrumental in developing the first commercial radio station... View Details

Keywords: Arts, Entertainment; Arts, Entertainment; Arts, Entertainment; Arts, Entertainment; Arts, Entertainment; Arts, Entertainment; Arts, Entertainment

Web

2024 Reunion Presentations - Alumni

Media, and Sports Professor Anita Elberse No additional materials available + More Info – Less Info What does the future of entertainment look like? Fueled by advances in digital technology, will a select few superstars in media and... View Details

29 Jan 2013
Research & Ideas

Creating the Perfect Super Bowl Ad

question whether ads, including the over-the-top Super Bowl spots, have become too entertaining, says Thales S. Teixeira, an assistant professor in the Marketing unit at Harvard Business School. In upcoming research, Why, When and How Much to View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Advertising; Media & Broadcasting

October 2012
Case

Lin TV Corp

By: David Scharfstein, Erik Stafford and Joel Heilprin

This case considers the valuation of Lin TV, a publicly-traded company with 30 TV stations. The case highlights how a change in operating strategy can enhance the firm's value, and considers the effect of consolidation within the industry on firm value. View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Acquisitions; Synergy; Broadcasting; Entertainment; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; North and Central America