Publications

October 2016
Case

The Quiet Ascension of LA Fitness

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

In 2016, LA Fitness was the largest chain of non-franchised fitness clubs in North America, operating 676 clubs, serving 4.9 million members, and generating revenues of over $1.9 billion. Founded by Chinyol Yi, Louis Welch, and Paul Norris in 1984, the privately held... View Details

Keywords: LA Fitness; Health Clubs; Fitness; Gyms; Chain; Exercise; Personal Training; Retention; Bally Total Fitness; 24 Hour Fitness; Planet Fitness; Buildings and Facilities; Acquisition; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Customers; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Demographics; Age; Gender; Income; Residency; Borrowing and Debt; Capital; Capital Structure; Cash; Cash Flow; Cost; Private Equity; Financial Condition; Financial Liquidity; Financing and Loans; Investment Return; Price; Profit; Revenue; Geographic Location; Geographic Scope; Multinational Firms and Management; Business History; Employees; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Human Capital; Contracts; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Operations; Service Operations; Leasing; Private Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Sales; Salesforce Management; Situation or Environment; Opportunities; Sports; Strategy; Business Strategy; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Segmentation; Information Technology; Mobile Technology; Technology Platform; Health Industry; United States; California; Los Angeles

September 2007
Case

Metro International S.A.

By: Tarun Khanna, Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Vincent Marie Dessain, Ane Damgaard Jensen and Anders Sjoman

Explores the business model of Metro International, a company publishing 70 editions of its free newspaper in 20 countries. Metro had been a pioneer in the free newspaper market, fighting incumbent publishers distributing traditional paid-for newspapers. Looks at the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Digital Marketing; Advertising; Expansion; Globalized Firms and Management; Journalism and News Industry; Spain

Find at Harvard

26 Jun 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, June 26, 2018

but this article shows it has never been true historically. Using longitudinal data on individual firms from the nineteenth century onwards, it reveals evidence of how entrepreneurs and firms with multinational activity faced by market... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

March 2022 (Revised May 2022)
Case

Winning Business at Russell Reynolds (A)

By: Ethan Bernstein and Cara Mazzucco

In an effort to make compensation drive collaboration, Russell Reynolds Associates’ (RRA) CEO Clarke Murphy sought to re-engineer the bonus system for his executive search consultants in 2016. As his HR analytics guru, Kelly Smith, points out, that risks upsetting–and... View Details

21 Oct 2013
Working Paper Summaries

How Major League Baseball Clubs Have Commercialized Their Investment in Japanese Top Stars

Keywords: by Isao Okada & Stephen A. Greyser; Sports

05 Dec 2011
Research & Ideas

It’s Alive! Business Scholars Turn to Experimental Research

you may not be able to learn anywhere else," says Alvin E. Roth, a professor in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets (NOM) Unit at HBS and a longtime champion of experimental economics. For example, to track how viewers watch... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

Web

HBS Entrepreneurship Summit - Alumni

Getting to Product Market Fit Hiring Fast and Firing Faster Life as an Entrepreneur Managing Growth vs. Profitability Managing Pivots and Setbacks Negotiating Partnerships Builders - Small Group Discussions: Builder/Founder Relationships... View Details

05 Mar 2013
First Look

First Look: March 5

particularly useful for forecasting bond returns. We show that a significant decline in issuer quality is a more reliable signal of credit market overheating than rapid aggregate credit growth. We use these findings to investigate the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

12 Aug 2019
Research & Ideas

How Scale Changes a Manager's Responsibilities

to answer a few questions about your reading preferences? We know you’re busy, so we'll be brief. Take our survey Establish a high-level product roadmap that extends no more than 12-18 months; you have no idea how your products or the View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin

May 2002 (Revised October 2002)
Case

Telewest Communications plc

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Laure Mougeot Stroock

Created in 1992, Telewest has become the second largest broadband communication provider in the United Kingdom, offering telephone, cable television, and cable Internet services, as well as television and online content to the U.K. entertainment market. The first to... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Industry Structures; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Expansion; Telecommunications Industry; Europe; United Kingdom

Find at Harvard

27 Apr 2009
Research & Ideas

Building Businesses in Turbulent Times

Battered by contracting markets and frozen credit, many businesses today are fighting for survival. Indeed, the current global financial crisis provides a mandate for restructuring. But survival is not the end goal, says Harvard Business... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

09 Nov 2010
First Look

First Look: November 9, 2010

experiments, and surveys of practice. The research has studied the interface among accounting information, capital markets, standard setters, and financial analysts and how managers make accounting choices. But as accounting scholars have focused on understanding how... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

New Venture Competition | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

Competition 31 Student teams participating in 2024 Social Enterprise Track $75 k. Grand Prize 841 Social Enterprise Track teams since 2001 Resources & Benefits Workshops A series of workshops and office hours, covering topics such as how to develop a social enterprise... View Details

September 2002
Case

Align Technology, Inc.: Matching Manufacturing Capacity to Sales Demand

By: H. Kent Bowen and Jonathan P Groberg

Align Technology is a four-year-old medical products company that has invented a new product requiring new manufacturing processes. Demand for the new product has grown more slowly than initial forecasts predicted, and the cost structure is preventing the company from... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Problems and Challenges; Product; Forecasting and Prediction; Marketing Strategy; Sales; Demand and Consumers; Production; Health Industry

2007
Working Paper

Platform Envelopment

By: Thomas Eisenmann, Geoffrey Parker and Marshall Van Alstyne

Due to network effects and switching costs in platform markets, entrants generally must offer revolutionary functionality. We explore a second entry path that does not rely upon Schumpeterian innovation: platform envelopment. Through envelopment, a provider in one... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Market Entry and Exit; Network Effects

Read Now

20 Nov 2019
Research & Ideas

It's No Joke: AI Beats Humans at Making You Laugh

their product recommendations in a personalized way,” says Yeomans, who co-authored the article with Jon Kleinberg of Cornell University and Anuj Shah and Sendhil Mullainathan, both of the University of Chicago. “The fact that the market... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

09 Apr 2007
Research & Ideas

Industry Self-Regulation: What’s Working (and What’s Not)?

wages—when their doing so seems like more of a marketing ploy than a substantive effort to address the underlying problems. Very few of these programs require third-party verification. But I suspect that to really deliver on the promise... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

November 2001
Case

Korea-Tender

By: Das Narayandas and Kate Attea

Korea-Tender is a closed-bidding auction company trying to break even and must select the best opportunity to increase membership and revenue. It can continue its current model with heavy advertising, try to modify its costs, or develop an additional business model... View Details

Keywords: Auctions; Business Model; Advertising; Business Startups; Problems and Challenges; Marketing Strategy; Revenue; Growth and Development Strategy