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- November 2017 (Revised April 2019)
- Case
Summa Equity: Building Purpose-Driven Organizations
By: George Serafeim and David Freiberg
In 2015, Reynir Indahl left top Nordic private equity firm Altor Equity Partners to found Summa Equity (Summa). After long contemplation following the financial crisis, Indahl was convinced the financial system was producing negative externalities and that the current... View Details
Keywords: Corporate Purpose; ESG; ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; Social Impact; Investment Management; Management Practices; Innovation; Voice; Environmental Impact; Private Equity; Social Enterprise; Finance; Capital Markets; Management Practices and Processes; Innovation Leadership; Leadership; Innovation and Management; Entrepreneurship; Mission and Purpose; Value Creation; Financial Services Industry; Norway; Sweden; Scandinavia
- September 2017 (Revised April 2022)
- Supplement
Tempur Sealy International (A)
By: Benjamin C. Esty
This case explores the long-term relationship between Tempur Sealy (TPX, a mattress manufacturer) and Mattress Firm (MFRM, a bedding retailer and TPX's largest customer). For almost 20 years, the firms enjoyed a mutually beneficial and commercially prosperous... View Details
Keywords: Porter's 5 Forces; Bargaining Power; Buyer Power; Customer Power; Supplier Power; Negotiations; Value Capture; Private Equity; Consumer Durables; Consumer Discretionary; Mattresses; B-2-B; Industry Dynamics; Leadership; Compensation; Corporate Strategy; Business Strategy; Value Creation; Competition; Cooperation; Distribution; Negotiation; Industry Structures; Customers; Relationships; Distribution Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Retail Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States; South Africa
- September 2017 (Revised April 2022)
- Case
Tempur Sealy International (A)
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Lauren G. Pickle
This case explores the long-term relationship between Tempur Sealy (TPX, a mattress manufacturer) and Mattress Firm (MFRM, a bedding retailer and TPX's largest customer). For almost 20 years, the firms enjoyed a mutually beneficial and commercially prosperous... View Details
Keywords: Porter's 5 Forces; Bargaining Power; Buyer Power; Customer Power; Supplier Power; Negotiations; Value Capture; Consumer Durables; Consumer Discretionary; Mattresses; B-2-B; Industry Dynamics; Compensation; Corporate Strategy; Business Strategy; Value Creation; Competition; Cooperation; Private Equity; Distribution; Negotiation; Industry Structures; Customers; Relationships; Leadership; Distribution Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Retail Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States; South Africa
- September 2017 (Revised June 2021)
- Supplement
Tempur Sealy International (B)
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Lauren G. Pickle
Analyzes the commercial relationship between Tempur Sealy and Mattress Firm following the events discussed in the (A) case. View Details
Keywords: Porter's 5 Forces; Bargaining Power; Buyer Power; Customer Power; Supplier Power; Negotiations; Value Capture; Consumer Durables; Consumer Discretionary; Mattresses; B-2-B; Industry Dynamics; Compensation; Corporate Strategy; Business Strategy; Value Creation; Competition; Cooperation; Private Equity; Distribution; Negotiation; Industry Structures; Customers; Relationships; Leadership; Distribution Industry; Manufacturing Industry
- September 2017 (Revised June 2021)
- Supplement
Tempur Sealy International (C)
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Lauren G. Pickle
Analyzes the commercial relationship between Tempur Sealy and Mattress Firm following the events discussed in the (B) case. View Details
Keywords: Porter's 5 Forces; Bargaining Power; Buyer Power; Customer Power; Supplier Power; Negotiations; Value Capture; Consumer Durables; Consumer Discretionary; Mattresses; B-2-B; Industry Dynamics; Compensation; Corporate Strategy; Business Strategy; Value Creation; Competition; Cooperation; Private Equity; Distribution; Negotiation; Industry Structures; Leadership; Customers; Relationships; Distribution Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States; South Africa
- July 2017
- Case
Magpie: Developing and Using Buyer Personas
The founders of a start-up platform for publishers have developed preliminary personas of target customers and are evaluating the implications for initial target buyers, messaging, and marketing programs. The case is useful for discussing the process of developing... View Details
- March 2017 (Revised July 2019)
- Case
Interline Brands: Don't Stop Believing
By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Ricardo Andrade
Interline Brands, a leading distributor of residential housing maintenance and repair parts and equipment in the U.S., had just held its November 2014 board meeting. The meeting had been productive but not without some soul searching for both the company’s management... View Details
- 2016
- Working Paper
Delaying Firearm Purchases Reduces Gun Violence
By: Michael Luca, Deepak Malhotra and Christopher Poliquin
Handgun waiting periods are laws that impose a two to seven-day delay between the purchase and delivery of a firearm. While states might institute waiting periods for different reasons (e.g., to allow for background checks), these delays also create a “cooling off”... View Details
- 2016
- Article
Peer-to-Peer Markets
By: Liran Einav, Chiara Farronato and Jonathan Levin
Peer-to-peer markets such as eBay, Uber, and Airbnb allow small suppliers to compete with traditional providers of goods or services. We view the primary function of these markets as making it easy for buyers to find sellers and engage in convenient, trustworthy... View Details
- 2019
- Working Paper
Improving Working Conditions in Global Supply Chains: The Role of Institutional Environments and Monitoring Program Design
By: Jodi L. Short, Michael W. Toffel and Andrea R. Hugill
Activism seeking to improve labor conditions in global supply chains has led transnational corporations to adopt codes of conduct and monitor suppliers for compliance, but it is unclear whether these formal organizational structures raise labor standards. Drawing on... View Details
Keywords: Monitoring; Supplier Relationship; Sustainability; Sustainability Management; Sustainable Operations; Sustainable Supply Chains; NGO; Globalization; Corporate Accountability; Operations; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Labor; Working Conditions; Business Processes; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance Evaluation; Safety; Risk and Uncertainty; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Electronics Industry; China; Indonesia; India; Bangladesh
- March 2016 (Revised June 2016)
- Case
Gotong Royong: Toward Sustainable Palm Oil
By: Rebecca Henderson, Hann-Shuin Yew and Monica Baraldi
In late 2015, Jeff Seabright, chief sustainability officer at Unilever, had to report to Unilever CEO Paul Polman on the effort to transform palm oil cultivation. Historically, palm oil was produced using unsustainable methods that included burning large tracts of... View Details
- February 2016 (Revised January 2017)
- Case
Bidding for Finansbank
By: David Scharfstein and Esel Çekin
Because of the deepening Greek crisis, in October 2015, National Bank of Greece (NBG) was required to sell one of its most valuable assets, Finansbank, the eighth largest Turkish bank. There were three potential buyers: Garanti Bank, Turkey's second largest private... View Details
- Article
The Ownership and Trading of Debt Claims in Chapter 11 Restructurings
By: Victoria Ivashina, Benjamin Iverson and David C. Smith
What is the ownership structure of bankrupt debt claims? How does the ownership evolve though bankruptcy? And how does debt ownership influence Chapter 11 outcomes? To answer these questions, we construct a data set that identifies the entire capital structure for 136... View Details
- October 2015
- Case
Clearwater Seafoods
Clearwater sought to market value-added shellfish products in a traditionally commodities based industry, while facing supply uncertainties and regulatory, environmental, and foreign exchange challenges. Clearwater harvested lobsters, clams, scallops, shrimp, and other... View Details
- September 2015
- Article
Codes in Context: How States, Markets, and Civil Society Shape Adherence to Global Labor Standards
By: Michael W. Toffel, Jodi L. Short and Melissa Ouellet
Transnational business regulation is increasingly implemented through private voluntary programs—like certification regimes and codes of conduct—that diffuse global standards. But little is known about the conditions under which companies adhere to these standards. We... View Details
- 2015
- Working Paper
Full Substitutability
By: John William Hatfield, Scott Duke Kominers, Alexandru Nichifor, Michael Ostrovsky and Alexander Westkamp
Various forms of substitutability are essential for establishing the existence of
equilibria and other useful properties in diverse settings such as matching, auctions,
and exchange economies with indivisible goods. We extend earlier models' canonical
definitions of... View Details
- March 2015
- Article
Vulnerable Banks
By: Robin Greenwood, Augustin Landier and David Thesmar
We present a model in which fire sales propagate shocks across bank balance sheets. When a bank experiences a negative shock to its equity, a natural way to return to target leverage is to sell assets. If potential buyers are limited, then asset sales depress prices,... View Details
- Article
Doing Business with Strangers: Reputation in Online Service Marketplaces
By: Antonio Moreno and Christian Terwiesch
Online service marketplaces allow service buyers to post their project requests and service providers to bid for them. To reduce the transactional risks, marketplaces typically track and publish previous seller performance. By analyzing a detailed transactional data... View Details
- 2014
- Contribution
Entrepreneurship in Emerging Markets: Contextual Intelligence for the Study of Two Thirds of the World's Population
By: Tarun Khanna
In this paper, I review the concept of "institutional voids" that provides a way to understand the structure of emerging markets. These voids impede would-be buyers from getting together with would-be sellers, and hence compromise the functioning of markets.... View Details
- May 2014
- Article
Cynicism in Negotiation: When Communication Increases Buyers' Skepticism
By: Eyal Ert, Stephanie J. Creary and Max H. Bazerman
The economic literature on negotiation shows that strategic concerns can be a barrier to agreement, even when the buyer values the good more than the seller. Yet behavioral research demonstrates that human interaction can overcome these strategic concerns through... View Details