Publications
Publications
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(8,041)
- Faculty Publications (2,480)
- August 2018
- Case
MISHA: Modernizing the World of Shisha
By: William R. Kerr and Gamze Yucaoglu
The case opens in 2017 with two of the five co-founders of MISHA telling the company’s CEO Michal Portz that they believe it is time for the global venture to shut down its operations and cease investments. Portz and another co-founder believe MISHA can still... View Details
Keywords: Innovation And Management; Entrepreneurship; Private Sector; For-profit Firms; Business Strategy; Decision; Business Startups; Emerging Markets; Business Model; Marketing Strategy; Distribution Channels; Market Entry and Exit; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Value Creation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Technology Industry; Qatar; United States
- August 2018 (Revised October 2020)
- Case
Tailor Brands: Artificial Intelligence-Driven Branding
By: Jill Avery
Using proprietary artificial intelligence technology, startup Tailor Brands set out to democratize branding by allowing small businesses to create their brand identities by automatically generating logos in just minutes at minimal cost with no branding or design skills... View Details
Keywords: Startup; Services; Artificial Intelligence; Machine Learning; Digital Marketing; Brand Management; Big Data; Internet Marketing; Analytics; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Information Technology; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Business Model; Consumer Behavior; AI and Machine Learning; Analytics and Data Science; Advertising Industry; Service Industry; Technology Industry; United States; North America; Israel
- 2018
- Working Paper
Detecting Anomalies: The Relevance and Power of Standard Asset Pricing Tests
By: Malcolm Baker, Patrick Luo and Ryan Taliaferro
The two standard approaches for identifying capital market anomalies are cross-sectional coefficient tests, in the spirit of Fama and MacBeth (1973), and time-series intercept tests, in the spirit of Jensen (1968). A new signal can pass the first test, which we label a... View Details
- August 2018 (Revised February 2023)
- Case
Hubble Contact Lenses: Data Driven Direct-to-Consumer Marketing
By: Jill Avery and Ayelet Israeli
As its Series A extension round approaches, the founders of Hubble, a subscription-based, social-media fueled, direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand of contact lenses, are reflecting on the marketing strategies that have taken them to a valuation of $200 million and debating... View Details
Keywords: DTC; Direct To Consumer Marketing; Health Care; Mobile; Attribution; Experimentation; Experiments; Churn/retention; Customer Lifetime Value; Internet Marketing; Big Data; Analytics; A/B Testing; CRM; Advertising; Marketing; Marketing Channels; Marketing Strategy; Media; Brands and Branding; Marketing Communications; Digital Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Acquisition; Growth and Development Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; Social Media; E-commerce; Analytics and Data Science; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States; North America; Europe
- July 2018 (Revised January 2019)
- Teaching Note
MC Tool
By: Richard S. Ruback, Royce Yudkoff and Ahron Rosenfeld
Sean Witty and Jason Premo acquired MC Tool, a machine shop located in South Carolina in 2007 with the intent to transform it into a precision manufacturer. Witty and Premo were able to more than double revenue to $6 million in their first year of managing MC by... View Details
- July 2018
- Case
LIXIL Group Corporation: Building a New Company in an Old Industry
By: Boris Groysberg and Akiko Kanno
In the spring of 2018, Kinya Seto, president and CEO of LIXIL Group Corporation, a major housing and building products and services company, called a meeting at the company’s head office in central Tokyo to discuss how to implement the new three-year strategic plan.... View Details
- July 2018
- Case
Hironobu Tsujiguchi and His Sweet Revolution
By: Boris Groysberg and Naoko Jinjo
Hironobu Tsujiguchi, a Japanese chocolatier, had chosen an unusual path to success as a pastry chef. Instead of spending most of his time in his kitchen and focusing on one or two confectionery categories like most pastry chefs, he chose to work on diverse projects and... View Details
- July 2018 (Revised November 2018)
- Case
Hidrovias do Brasil: Navigating Unchartered Waters
By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott
Since its founding eight years earlier, Hidrovias do Brasil (“Hidrovias”), an integrated logistics provider serving corporate customers exporting products from South America via the Atlantic Ocean, had grown to 900 employees and $253 million in annual revenues.... View Details
- July 2018 (Revised June 2020)
- Case
The Boston Cranberry Company
By: Alan MacCormack
This case describes the operations of a fictitious company that processes Cranberries. The case contains data that allows students to calculate the bottleneck stage in production, and to evaluate alternative investment options for increasing cranberry processing... View Details
- July 2018
- Teaching Note
The Perfect Storm: What Happens When the Market Moves Four Standard Deviations?
By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Sayiddah Fatima McCree
Adam Carter was the portfolio manager for Tate Modern Finance III, L.P. (“Tate” or the “Fund”), the third in a series of U.S. commercial real estate debt funds sponsored by the London-based Tate Partners. The Fund was capitalized with $700 million of equity... View Details
Keywords: CMBS; CLO; Repo Financing; Real Estate; Financial Strategy; Investment Funds; Financing and Loans
- June 2018 (Revised October 2020)
- Case
Global Brand Management of Anheuser Busch InBev's Budweiser
By: Jill Avery
Brian Perkins, chief architect of the $6 billion Budweiser brand, was excited about 2018, in which the company would launch Budweiser into several new markets in Africa and Latin America. He was feeling the pressure to finalize a global brand strategy that would define... View Details
Keywords: Brand Management; Global Brands; Brand Positioning; Brand Extension; Brand Storytelling; Brand Equity; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Advertising; Global Strategy; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Consumer Behavior; Marketing Communications; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Africa; China; United States; North America; South Africa; Nigeria; Kenya; Cameroon; Canada
- June 2018
- Teaching Note
Kvadrat: Leading for Innovation
By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott
In 2013, Anders Byriel, CEO of the family-owned Danish textiles company, Kvadrat, considered the firm's strategic plan. In 2000, Byriel and Mette Bendix, Kvadrat's Product Director, had taken over management of the company from their fathers, who had founded Kvadrat in... View Details
- June 2018 (Revised January 2020)
- Case
Voice War: Hey Google vs. Alexa vs. Siri
By: David B. Yoffie, Liang Wu, Jodie Sweitzer, Denzil Eden and Karan Ahuja
By early 2018, voice-controlled intelligent assistants had become a major new front in the battle between the giants of the technology sector. "Voice War" focuses on Alphabet’s strategy for Google Assistant, its entrant in the voice assistant space, and asks how the... View Details
- June 2018 (Revised October 2019)
- Case
Back to the Roots
By: Elizabeth A. Keenan and Leslie K. John
Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.
Back to the Roots (BTTR) is a start-up with a social mission to “undo food”—to reconnect people to where their food comes from. In late 2017, Back to the Roots cofounders... View Details
Back to the Roots (BTTR) is a start-up with a social mission to “undo food”—to reconnect people to where their food comes from. In late 2017, Back to the Roots cofounders... View Details
- June 2018 (Revised January 2020)
- Case
Sony
By: Stefan Thomke, Atsushi Osanai and Akiko Kanno
Sony used to be synonymous with "innovation" and "cool products." The case reveals how the company lost its edge and describes the leadership initiatives to restore its former glory. In 2012, Kazuo (Kaz) Hirai becomes CEO and successfully transforms Sony, including a... View Details
- June 2018 (Revised April 2021)
- Case
Valuing Snap After the IPO Quiet Period (A)
By: Marco Di Maggio, Benjamin C. Esty and Gregory Saldutte
Snap, the disappearing message app, went public at $17 per share on March 2, 2017, making its two 20-something founders the youngest self-made billionaires in the country. Over the next three weeks, 14 analysts made investment recommendations on Snap: two with buy... View Details
Keywords: Sell-side Analysts; Underwriters; Investment Banking; Social Network; Discounted Cash Flow; Cost Of Capital; Conflicts Of Interest; Corporate Governance; Advertising; Quiet Period; ＂DCF Valuation,＂; Business Startups; Digital Marketing; Initial Public Offering; Information Infrastructure; Valuation; Venture Capital; Forecasting and Prediction; Social Media; Advertising Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Web Services Industry; United States; California
- 2018
- Working Paper
Learning to Become a Taste Expert
By: Kathryn A. Latour and John A. Deighton
Evidence suggests that consumers seek to become more expert about hedonic products to enhance their enjoyment of future consumption occasions. Current approaches to becoming an expert center on cultivating an analytic mindset. In the present research the authors... View Details
- May 2018
- Supplement
Video Supplement to Toyota Motor Manufacturing, U.S.A. case (693-019): An updated video of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky, Georgetown, KY site showing seat installation
By: Willy C. Shih
This is an updated video of the Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky (TMMK) assembly facility in Georgetown, KY. It is meant to be paired with the 693-019 Toyota Motor Manufacturing U.S.A. case, but with higher quality video. The vidoe shows a line tour of Assembly Two... View Details
- May 2018
- Case
Sagacity Tea: What Direction for Growth?
By: John A. Quelch and Amy Handlin
Kate Moran, CEO and cofounder of Sagacity Tea, a small, Vermont-based ready-to-drink tea brand, is considering a consumer-product group (CPG) broker's proposal for the product's launch in several cities along the East Coast of the United States. The commitments in the... View Details
- May 2018 (Revised February 2020)
- Case
Jason Blum's Blumhouse Productions
By: Anita Elberse
In March 2017, Jason Blum, the founder and chief executive officer of film and television production company Blumhouse Productions, has another blockbuster on his hands with the movie Get Out, produced for just $4.5 million. Remarkable returns for its micro-budget... View Details
Keywords: Entertainment; Media; Film; Movies; Creative Industries; Product-portfolio Management; Entrepreneurship; Innovation; Talent; General Management; Strategy; Marketing; Blockbusters; Film Entertainment; Innovation and Management; Talent and Talent Management; Competitive Strategy; Management Style; Marketing Strategy; Motion Pictures and Video Industry