Publications

January 2024
Case

Sprouts Farmers Market

By: Rajiv Lal, Forest L. Reinhardt and Natalie Kindred

Sprouts Farmers Markets (Sprouts) is a Phoenix, Arizona-based chain of 400-plus natural foods stores in 23 U.S. states and $6.4 billion in sales as of 2022. In its product assortment, brand image, and store environment, Sprouts emphasizes freshness, health, innovation,... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; Brands and Branding; Strategic Planning; Sales; Business Strategy; Expansion; Product Positioning; Marketing Strategy; Competition; Retail Industry; United States; Arizona

November 2022 (Revised February 2024)
Case

The Globalization of Manchester City Football Group

By: Maria P. Roche, Tiona Zuzul, Exequiel Hernandez and Amy Klopfenstein

This case describes the efforts of City Football Group (CFG) to purchase Esporte Clube Bahia (Bahia), a Brazilian professional soccer club. CFG’s strategy was to acquire under-performing clubs worldwide, invest money in high-profile players, and improve the teams’... View Details

01 Dec 2023
News

Rounding the Bend

Illustration by Fernando Cobelo To help people visualize what a circular economy could look like and bring the challenges down to a closet-sized scale, Emily Bolon (MBA/MPA 2007) recommends the following exercise. First, make a mental tally of the number of garments... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Retail Trade; Apparel Manufacturing; Manufacturing

August 2021
Case

Yummy: Delivering Value to Venezuela

By: Ayelet Israeli, Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago and Carla Larangeira

By June 2021, Yummy had become Venezuela’s first and largest food delivery app and last-mile logistics company. In Caracas, the nation’s capital, Yummy held a 55% market share, while operations in other cities had already started to take place, including in three of... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Health Pandemics; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Expansion

March 2016 (Revised May 2018)
Case

Reinventing Best Buy

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

On March 1, 2017, Best Buy Company, Inc., North America’s largest retailer of consumer electronics and appliances, announced a third year of comparable-store sales increases and a 20.8% increase in domestic comparable online sales. These results were in marked contrast... View Details

Keywords: Best Buy; Hubert Joly; Renew Blue; Showrooming; Webrooming; E-commerce; E-Commerce Strategy; Online Retail; Multichannel Retailing; Omnichannel; Marketplaces; Turnaround; Consumer Electronics; Consumer Electronics Accessories; Appliances; Stores-within-stores; Store Experience; Store Size; Store Pickup; Store Management; Delivery; Delivery Models; Amazon; Amazon.com; Pricing Strategy; Business Subsidiaries; Business Units; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Entertainment; Film Entertainment; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Music Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Theater Entertainment; Price; Profit; Revenue; Geographic Scope; Multinational Firms and Management; Business History; Cost; Selection and Staffing; Reports; Technological Innovation; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Human Capital; Leading Change; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Product Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Demand and Consumers; Media; Distribution; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Distribution Channels; Infrastructure; Product; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Public Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Programs; Groups and Teams; Sales; Salesforce Management; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Information Technology; Information Infrastructure; Information Technology; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Internet and the Web; Applications and Software; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Resource Allocation; Computer Industry; Electronics Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Information Technology Industry; Retail Industry; Service Industry; Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Video Game Industry; United States; Minnesota; Minneapolis; Saint Paul; St. Paul

Web

Advisory Board - Entrepreneurship

before it went public. He then led Open Market's expansion into business-to-business applications. In 1999, he founded and ran PurchasingCenter.com, a "My Yahoo" portal for industrial purchasing agents who purchase $2-$10 million of... View Details

Web

Research Design - Impact Investments

Research Design Research Design The Project on Impact Investments uses multi-method research to build insight that is both expansive in its focus and detailed in its analysis. We combine the study of the larger universe of impact... View Details

Web

Research - Behavioral Finance & Financial Stability

In their model, monetary expansion cannot end secular stagnation in an economy and may have "beggar-thy-neighbor" effects, while large fiscal interventions can eliminate secular stagnation and also carry positive externalities. See... View Details

25 Jun 2024
Research & Ideas

How Transparency Sped Innovation in a $13 Billion Wireless Sector

which a supplier could act independently of a buyer. Potential innovations were also achieved through a very specific mechanism: expansion of firms’ ability to do business with others. For instance, when a large Wi-Fi firm opened up, such... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald; Technology

2015
Working Paper

Corporate Sponsorship in Culture—A Case of Partnership in Relationship Building and Collaborative Marketing by a Global Financial Institution and a Major Art Museum

By: Ragnar Lund and Stephen A. Greyser

Purpose: This paper examines cultural sponsorship from a partnership and relationship marketing perspective. It studies a case of how a partnership between two international institutions, a bank and a museum, adds value to both in terms of interaction with... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Partners and Partnerships; Marketing Strategy; Culture; Banks and Banking

Read Now

26 Mar 2014
HBS Seminar

Brian Kahin, MIT

29 Apr 2010
Working Paper Summaries

The Great Leap Forward: The Political Economy of Education in Brazil, 1889-1930

Keywords: by André Martínez-Fritscher, Aldo Musacchio & Martina Viarengo; Education

17 Aug 2006
Working Paper Summaries

Corporate Governance and Networks: Bankers in the Corporate Networks of Brazil, Mexico, and the United States circa 1910

Keywords: by Aldo Musacchio

Business of Platforms

The Business of Platforms is an in-depth look at platform strategy and digital innovation. In this book, we explore how a small number of companies have come to exert extraordinary influence over every dimension of our personal, professional and political... View Details

09 Mar 2022
Research & Ideas

War in Ukraine: Soaring Gas Prices and the Return of Stagflation?

and 2000s, and particularly about the expansion of NATO. We are at a genuine impasse, and I fear that a much more thorough and destructive military operation in Ukraine is ahead. Forman: Will this conflict worsen COVID-19 supply chain... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman; Energy

October 2007 (Revised March 2008)
Case

Dove: Evolution of a Brand

By: John A. Deighton

Examines the evolution of Dove from functional brand to a brand with a point of view after Unilever designated it as a masterbrand, and expanded its portfolio to cover entries into a number of sectors beyond the original bath soap category. The development causes the... View Details

Keywords: History; Expansion; Marketing Strategy; Social Marketing; Digital Marketing; Brands and Branding; Consumer Products Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

06 Oct 2016
HBS Seminar

Edward Fertik, Yale University

2024
Case

Christiana Figueres and the Paris Climate Negotiations: Figueres the Negotiator (C)

By: James K. Sebenius, Laurence A. Green, Hannah Riley-Bowles, Lara SanPietro and Mina Subramanian

This three-part, stop action case study, structured for classroom discussion, centers on Harvard’s Program on Negotiation 2022 Great Negotiator, Christiana Figueres, and her efforts as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change... View Details

Keywords: Climate Change; Negotiation; Environmental Management; International Relations; Leadership