Publications

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August 2016 (Revised November 2016)
Case

C.W. Dixey & Son

By: Anat Keinan and Michael B. Beverland

C.W. Dixey & Son is about to be relaunched as a luxury eyewear brand after a fifty-year absence from the marketplace. This case focuses on reviving a dormant brand with a 200-year plus heritage of innovation, craft excellence, and luxury. Drawing on extensive... View Details

Keywords: Luxury Branding; Authenticity; Inconspicuous Consumption; Brand Positioning; Brand Revitalization; Eyeyewear; Market Entry and Exit; Luxury; Market Participation; Brands and Branding; Consumer Products Industry

13 Apr 2016
Research & Ideas

Why Your Company Wants to be a 'Cognitive Referent' (Hint: SpaceX)

mature industries, nascent markets offer little certainty and plenty of ambiguity—undefined customers, unclear products or features, uncertain customer demand, and even an ill... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Aerospace; Food & Beverage; Retail

January 1994 (Revised April 1995)
Case

Judo Economics

The early 1990s saw a new wave of start-ups in the U.S. airline business. One entrant, Kiwi International Air Lines, took to the skies in September 1992 with a strategy of attracting small-business travelers looking to save money but lacking the flexibility to book in... View Details

Keywords: Market Entry and Exit; Competitive Advantage; Business Startups; Air Transportation Industry; Financial Services Industry

30 Oct 2019
Research & Ideas

How to Recover Gracefully After Shutting Down Your Startup

startup leader can do is exit abruptly, leaving the messy endgame for others to manage, says Eisenmann. “A founder might realize, ‘I’m not going to make any money from this venture,’ and simply move on to... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

January 2025 (Revised April 2025)
Case

Duolingo: On a 'Streak'

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Nicole Tempest Keller and Nicole Luo

In December 2024, Severin Hacker, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Duolingo, reflected on the remarkable evolution of the language-learning app he helped launch in 2011. As the #1 most downloaded education app in the world, Duolingo had over 100 million... View Details

Keywords: Learning; AI and Machine Learning; Growth and Development Strategy; Motivation and Incentives; Diversification; Business Model; Market Entry and Exit; Technology Industry; Education Industry; United States

February 1995 (Revised August 1995)
Case

Microsoft in the People's Republic of China, 1993

By: Tarun Khanna

Explores some of the economic and political tradeoffs that need to be negotiated by a firm seeking to influence industry structure. The setting is the nascent personal computer software industry in the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1993. Microsoft has to localize... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Product Marketing; Market Entry and Exit; Market Transactions; Industry Structures; Partners and Partnerships; Vertical Integration; Software; Information Technology Industry; China

12 Sep 2007
Op-Ed

Building Sandcastles: The Subprime Adventure

market that seemed to promise endless double-digit returns. Typically, an investor bought a bundle of subprime loans from a mortgage bank. Investment banking houses such as Bear Sterns organized hedge funds. The Industrial View Details

Keywords: by Nicolas P. Retsinas; Banking; Construction; Real Estate

January 2009
Case

Supersonic Business Jets

By: Dennis A. Yao and Julia Rozovsky

In the fall of 2002, Brian Barents, ex-CEO of Galaxy Aerospace, faced an important decision: whether or not to enter the supersonic business jet (SSBJ) industry. Supersonic flight-flight faster than the speed of sound-had long tantalized leaders of commercial aerospace... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Governance Compliance; Market Entry and Exit; Business Strategy; Cooperation; Aerospace Industry

November 2024
Case

Dr. Bombay Ice Cream

By: William R. Kerr, Alexis Brownell and Michael Liu

This case examines the creation, launch, and rapid growth of Dr. Bombay Ice Cream, a joint venture between Happi Co., a consumer packaged goods incubator, and entertainment mogul Snoop Dogg, with his son, Cordell Broadus. The brand was inspired by a Bored Ape Yacht... View Details

Keywords: Joint Ventures; Growth Management; Brands and Branding; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Market Entry and Exit; Distribution Channels; Disruptive Innovation; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

26 Sep 2006
First Look

First Look: September 26, 2006

received extraordinary support from its oversized Scientific Advisory Board; it had developed and secured a strong intellectual property portfolio that creates high barriers to entry for any new View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

22 Jan 2013
First Look

First Look: Jan. 22

a premium to accommodate expectations shocks from extrapolative traders, but markets are not efficient. Download the paper: http://papers.nber.org/papers/w18686 These Are the Good Old Days: Foreign Entry... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2009 (Revised June 2010)
Case

TOTO: The Bottom Line

TOTO, the leading manufacturer of toilets in Japan, is struggling to penetrate the U.S. market with its premier bidet-toilets, which are present in 63% of homes in Japan. The case examines the behavioral, cultural, and institutional barriers that TOTO faces in gaining... View Details

Keywords: Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Disruptive Innovation; Product Positioning; Market Entry and Exit; Organizational Culture; Consumer Products Industry; Japan; United States

23 Jul 2024
Cold Call Podcast

Transforming the Workplace for People with Disabilities

Keywords: Re: Lakshmi Ramarajan; Consulting

19 Jul 2016
First Look

July 19, 2016

proposals on material versus immaterial issues affect firms’ subsequent ESG performance and market valuation. We find that 58% of the shareholder proposals in our sample are filed on immaterial issues. We... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

08 Nov 2016
First Look

November 8, 2016

approaches on the subject in terms of longitudinal and geographical scope. We suggest that the straightforward association of the general environmental settings of market immaturities View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2003 (Revised May 2006)
Case

Eyeblaster: Enabling the Next Generation of Online Advertising

By: Elie Ofek

Eyeblaster management has to decide on the best course of action to sustain its momentum from enabling online rich media advertising. Pressure from competitors is forcing the company to re-evaluate its previous marketing strategy that focused primarily on getting... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Marketing Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Performance Evaluation; Digital Marketing; Growth and Development Strategy