Publications

Find at Harvard

22 Nov 2017
News

How to Build a Winning Culture on a Losing Team

season ticket sales and sponsorships, actually improved. O'Neil was recently named CEO of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment or HBSE. A holding company that's comprised of several sports properties... View Details

02 Jun 2021
News

The NBA's African Expansion

basketball being a top sport throughout Africa in 10 years,” according to coverage on CNBC. The effort is led by NBA Africa CEO Victor Williams (MBA 1998), who described the organization’s strategy to accelerate the development of the... View Details

Keywords: Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries; Arts, Entertainment

August 2005 (Revised March 2006)
Case

Moneyball (A): What Are You Paying For?

By: Frances X. Frei, Dennis Campbell and Eliot Sherman

Explores the contextual elements of Major League Baseball and presents data to allow for an analytic examination of alleged market inefficiencies within the sport. View Details

Keywords: Market Design; Performance; Sports; Compensation and Benefits; Sports Industry; United States

November 2009 (Revised September 2010)
Supplement

Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (B)

By: Frances X. Frei and Matthew Todd Perlberg

Supplement to the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Sports; Talent and Talent Management; Sports Industry

April 1990 (Revised March 1992)
Case

Oakland A's: Baseball's Great Transformation

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger

The Oakland A's baseball team underwent a major turnaround during the 1980s, both on the field and in the business office. One of the most significant improvements came in the area of customer service. The A's management believed that if they took care of their fans,... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Customer Focus and Relationships; Sports; Sports Industry; California

07 Jan 2020
News

Models of Success

education and support they needed to use sports as a lever to change their lives,” Feickert says. That revelation led her to cofound Trey Athletes, a social enterprise that creates cohorts of high-potential high school athletes and... View Details

01 Jun 2016
News

3-Minute Briefing: Derek Bouchard-Hall (MBA 2004)

cycling. But to be perfectly frank, the sport was so deeply corrupted by doping, I ultimately concluded it was something I didn’t want to be a part of. I went a more traditional route: consulting. The sport... View Details

Keywords: April White; photographed by Scott Clark

01 Dec 2013
News

Faster, Bigger, Stronger: Supersizing the NFL

demographics of America shift," he explains. With a relatively short season compared to other sports leagues, the NFL has scored by developing the off-season draft and scouting combine into days-long, high-powered media events. This could... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Management; Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries; Arts, Entertainment

09 Nov 2022
News

Part Ownership of a Dream

way to participate in the once-exclusive sport of racing. That model also applies to Flightline, purchased for $1 million by a West Point consortium; by the time he won the Breeders’ Cup, that ownership had extended to four other... View Details

Keywords: horse racing; entpreneurship; leadership; finance; investing; Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries; Arts, Entertainment

Research Summary

Overview

The overarching goal of my research is to produce works that are influential and informative to both academics and practitioners in the field of operations management. To accomplish this, I collaborate with industry partners who provide knowledge about their field,... View Details

April 2005 (Revised May 2005)
Case

New England Patriots, The: Making the Team

Examines the organizational strategy of a professional football team that contributed to the team's sustained success. Considers several aspects of the team's "blueprint" with respect to players: recruitment, retention, task structure, training, culture, and... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Groups and Teams; Sports; Compensation and Benefits; Sports Industry; New England

01 Sep 2017
News

The Biggest Industry You’ve Never Heard Of

acquired by Amazon for nearly $1 billion. The acquisition was viewed with amazement by those unfamiliar with the young and rapidly growing sector. But a year later esports achieved a milestone traditional US sports fans could understand.... View Details

Keywords: April White; illustration by Brian Stauffer; esports; Twitch; Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries; Arts, Entertainment

February 2016 (Revised March 2016)
Case

America's Cup in 2013: Oracle Team USA vs. Emirates Team New Zealand (A)

By: Rory McDonald, Alan MacCormack and Vanessa Ampelas

Four teams across the world are furiously designing, building, testing, and learning to sail a boat that would be one-of-a-kind in order to win the 2013 America's Cup. Choosing the best development path was a challenge as the teams had less than three years to prepare,... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Competition; Innovation and Management; Sports; Sports Industry; New Zealand; United States

05 Jul 2011
News

The Business of Champions

triumph since 1972 hold lessons for other kinds of organizations and companies? Sports and games serve as a handy source of metaphors for business. Performance metrics abound, and success and failure are on the scoreboard for all to see.... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries; Arts, Entertainment

December 2019
Case

Small-Market Teams and Big Stars: The Milwaukee Bucks and Giannis Antetokounmpo

By: Anita Elberse and Melcolm Ruffin

In October 2019, National Basketball Association (NBA) team the Milwaukee Bucks are about to tip off their first home game in the 2019–2020 NBA season. Peter Feigin, president of the Milwaukee Bucks, and Jon Horst, the league’s youngest general manager, could look back... View Details

Keywords: Superstars; Talent and Talent Management; Sports; Strategy; Sports Industry

November 2016
Case

Bayern Munich in China

By: Karim Lakhani, Sascha L. Schmidt, Michael Norris and Kerry Herman

In 2015, German football club Bayern Munich is considering how to enter the Chinese market. Should it build its own infrastructure or rely on third-party partnerships to reach this massive football fan base? View Details

Keywords: Football; Soccer; Bundesliga; Digital Technology; Market Entry; Sports; Global Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Online Technology; Sports Industry; Germany; China