Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(2,442)
- Faculty Publications (815)
- May 2000 (Revised April 2003)
- Case
Contractual Innovation in the UK Energy Markets: Enron Europe, The Eastern Group, and the Sutton Bridge Project
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Peter Tufano
In December 1996, Enron Europe and The Eastern Group were on the verge of signing an innovative transaction in the utility industry. Eastern was going to buy a long-term option to convert natural gas into electricity from Enron, thereby giving it the economic right to... View Details
- April 2000
- Background Note
Market Failures
Examines the role of transaction costs in impeding the functioning of markets and shows how the concept of transaction costs sheds light on a broad range of issues in strategy. View Details
- April 2000 (Revised November 2003)
- Case
H. E. Butt Grocery Company: The New Digital Strategy (A)
By: F. Warren McFarlan and Melissa Dailey
Shows how the company's IT priorities have moved from primary supply chain restructuring to e-commerce. Shows the new organization structure created by the company. View Details
- April 2000
- Background Note
Aligning Incentives for Supply Chain Efficiency
By: V.G. Narayanan and Ananth Raman
Introduces students to the basics of principal-agency theory as it applies to supply chains. Operational problems in supply chains can often be traced to incentive issues. Students and managers lack frameworks to analyze incentive problems in supply chains. This note... View Details
- April 2000
- Article
The Fable of Fisher Body
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Daniel F. Spulber
General Motors' (GM) acquisition of Fisher Body is the classic example of market failure in the literature on contracts and the theory of the firm. According to the standard account, GM merged vertically with Fisher Body in 1926, a maker of auto bodies, because of... View Details
- February 2000 (Revised March 2000)
- Case
Owens & Minor, Inc. (B)
By: V.G. Narayanan and Lisa Brem
After a manager at Owens & Minor, a national medical and surgical distribution company, proposes and develops a formalized activity-based pricing and activity-based management approach to sales and service provision, this case explore the outcome. View Details
- February 2000 (Revised December 2000)
- Case
Staples.com
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Joanna M. Jacobson and Gillian Morris
Staples.com, the online unit of the U.S. office supplies retailing chain Staples, faces a range of strategic and organizational issues as it accelerates its growth. Should it pursue only existing Staples customers or consumers who do not shop in Staples stores? How... View Details
- February 2000 (Revised February 2002)
- Case
Owens & Minor, Inc. (A)
By: V.G. Narayanan and Lisa Brem
A forward-thinking manager at Owens & Minor (O&M), a large national medical and surgical distribution company, enlisted the help of both logistics and cost managers to develop an innovative pricing schedule based on the customer's activities instead of the price of the... View Details
- February 2000 (Revised March 2000)
- Case
Pet Doctors: 1999
By: Paul A. Gompers and David James Alexander Grant
Describes the decisions confronting David Hodges and Garret Turley about whether to grow their chain of veterinary clinics in the United Kingdom. Turley and Hodges must decide whether to attempt to speed up their acquisition pace and raise venture capital. View Details
- February 2000 (Revised November 2002)
- Case
QuickenInsurance: The Race to Click and Close (A)
ES Technologies started in 1976 as a storefront in Tempe, Arizona selling personal computer kits to hobbyists. Twenty years later, revenues exceeded $3.5 billion, and the business had evolved from a computer store to a master reseller and full-line integrator of... View Details
- January 2000
- Article
Coordinating and Managing Supply Chains: The General Manager's Role
By: A. Raman
- January 2000
- Article
Retailing and Supply Chains in the Information World
By: J. H. Hammond, F.A. Abernathy, J.T. Dunlop and D. Weil
- December 1999 (Revised January 2002)
- Background Note
Overview of the Project Finance Market, An
By: Benjamin C. Esty, Suzanne I. Harris and Kathleen G. Krueger
This case introduces the field of project finance and supplies a statistical overview of the project finance market as of the mid=to late 1990s. It consists of four sections. The first section defines project finance and contrasts it with other well-known forms of... View Details
- December 1999 (Revised November 2001)
- Background Note
Note on Private Equity Securities, A
By: G. Felda Hardymon and Josh Lerner
Provides an overview of the primary securities used in private equity, their structures, and the economic motivation behind their designs. View Details
- November 1999 (Revised June 2002)
- Case
Debate Over Unbundling General Motors: The Delphi Divestiture and Other Possible Transactions, The
Ever since General Motors (GM) announced in February 1997 its intention to divest Delphi Automotive Systems--its upstream parts manufacturing operations--Wall Street had called for further unbundling, and various stakeholders competed for their claim of value... View Details
- August 1999 (Revised January 2002)
- Case
Brita Products Company, The
By: John A. Deighton
Clorox's Brita skillfully exploits a tide of water safety concerns, growing a home water (filtration) business from inception to a 15% U.S. household penetration in ten years. The dilemma in the case arises as the period of increasing returns seems to be drawing to a... View Details
- May 1999 (Revised August 1999)
- Case
Victory Supermarkets: Expansion Strategy?
By: David E. Bell and Ann Leamon
Jay DiGeronimo, president of a 16-store supermarket chain, is trying to decide the timing and method for expanding his chain. The family-owned company could continue in a maintenance mode, with each family member running one store. It could expand slowly using a new... View Details
- May 1999 (Revised March 2001)
- Case
Marshall Industries
Confounding predictions that the Internet would "disintermediate" commerce, making "middle man" companies all but obsolete, Marshall Industries, a leading electronics distributor, used the Internet and digital technologies to reinvent itself. Marshall continued to sell... View Details
- April 1999 (Revised June 1999)
- Case
1-800 Buy Ireland
By: Willis M. Emmons III, Adele S. Cooper and J. Richard Lenane
After decades of poor economic performance, the Irish government adopted major changes in economic policy in 1987. By the end of the 1990s, Ireland's real GDP growth rate of almost 10% per year exceeds that of all member nations of the European Union (EU). A key... View Details
- March 1999 (Revised January 2000)
- Background Note
A Note on Microeconomics for Strategists
By: Kenneth S. Corts and Jan W. Rivkin
Summarizes the core ideas about the microeconomics of markets that are most relevant to business strategy. Sections I and II develop two basic building blocks of any market, demand and supply. Section II discusses how demand and supply interact to determine the... View Details