Publications

December 1992
Supplement

Wal-Mart Ventures into Mexico

By: David B. Yoffie and Jonathan Ginns

Introduces Wal-Mart's initial plans to enter the Mexican retail market. Designed for use with Wal-Mart Stores' Discount Operations. View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Globalization; Retail Industry; United States; Mexico

08 Jul 2013
Research & Ideas

Everything Must Go: A Strategy for Store Liquidation

It's an unhappy yet unavoidable fact: Sometimes, retail chains go out of business. Moreover, even healthy chains periodically must close down some existing stores. When stores have to be liquidated—when "everything must go"—a... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

04 Oct 2010
News

Why Wal-Mart Went Shopping in Africa

December 2010
Case

Leadership, Culture, and Transition at lululemon

By: Michael Tushman, Ruth Page and Tom Ryder

The case examines leadership and organizational change within a strong culture context through a multimedia study of lululemon, a specialty retailer of high-end athletic apparel. Video segments trace the company's history from its founding in 1998 as a single retail... View Details

Keywords: Leading Change; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Transition; Growth Management; Management Teams; Organizational Structure; Governing and Advisory Boards; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Vancouver; United States

July 1999 (Revised June 2000)
Case

Edward Jones

By: Michael E. Porter and Gregory C. Bond

Edward Jones is a leading, highly profitable retail brokerage firm with a unique strategy very different from those of its rivals. The case describes Jones's activities and allows a rich discussion of its positioning choices, supporting activities, and tradeoffs. Jones... View Details

Keywords: Financial Institutions; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Business Strategy; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry

August 2010 (Revised November 2010)
Case

Tesco PLC: Fresh & Easy in the United States

By: John A. Quelch

Tesco, the world's third largest retailer, is facing problems with its launch of a new retail chain in the U.S. View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Marketing; Market Entry and Exit; Retail Industry; United Kingdom; United States

07 Apr 2020
Research & Ideas

What Customers Need to Hear from You During the COVID Crisis

As the COVID-19 virus pandemic began to sweep across the world, Doug McMillon and his team at Walmart watched in horror. Suddenly, they realized, tomorrow would be nothing like “business as usual” and everything in the company’s marketing plan, from retail execution to... View Details

Keywords: by Jill Avery and Richard Edelman

May 1994 (Revised March 2008)
Case

Barilla SpA (A)

By: Janice H. Hammond

Barilla SpA, an Italian manufacturer that sells to its retailers largely through third-party distributors, experienced widely fluctuating demand patterns from its distributors during the late 1980s. This case describes a proposal to address the problem by implementing... View Details

Keywords: Order Taking and Fulfillment; Logistics; Supply Chain; Technology; Food and Beverage Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Italy

19 Nov 2015
Working Paper Summaries

The US Experiment with Fair Trade Laws: State Police Powers, Federal Antitrust, and the Politics of 'Fairness', 1890–1938

Keywords: by Laura Phillips Sawyer; Retail

01 Mar 2016
News

Faculty Q&A: Price Check

How did you come to focus on algorithmic pricing? In my doctoral work at MIT, I was studying optimization, probability, and machine learning, which are essentially mathematical tools that enable us to use data to make better decisions. From there, I realized I wanted... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Nonstore Retailers; Retail Trade

19 Dec 2011
News

Death Knell for the Category Killers?

December 2015
Article

Does Planning Regulation Protect Independent Retailers?

By: Raffaella Sadun

Regulations aimed at curbing the entry of large retail stores have been introduced in many countries to protect independent retailers. Analyzing a planning reform launched in the United Kingdom in the 1990s, I show that independent retailers were actually harmed by the... View Details

Keywords: Small Business; Competition; Retail Industry; United Kingdom

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09 Dec 2015
Research Event

When Hosts Attack: The Competitive Threat of Online Platforms

In the online marketplace, oodles of retailers and developers rely on “platforms” such as Amazon.com, the Apple App Store, Facebook, and Twitter to get their products and services into the hands of users. Retailers, for example, sell... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail; Retail; Retail

18 Apr 2005
Research & Ideas

Tips to Reinvent the Department Store

Here's a snapshot of department stores today: Regional brands have all but disappeared; larger players like Federated and May are merging their multi-brand companies, and consolidation continues. Meanwhile, all sorts of retailers from... View Details

Keywords: by Julie Jette; Retail

2025
Working Paper

How Do Households Suppress the Price of Tail Risk?

By: Laurent Calvet, Claire Célérier, Gordon Liao and Boris Vallée

This paper investigates the effects of the issuance of retail products with non-linear payoffs on option prices. For a given underlying asset, when the outstanding volume of products embedding a short-put position increases, implied volatility at the corresponding... View Details

Keywords: Security Design; Dividend; Options; Structured Products; Market Segmentation; Financial Instruments; Design; Volatility; Markets; Segmentation

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March 2001
Supplement

Francisco de Narvaez at TIA: Selling the Family Business

By: Linda A. Hill and Kristin Doughty

Francisco de Narvaez reflects on the process of selling his family's retail business. View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Business Exit or Shutdown