Commodity Trading - Publications - Faculty & Research

16 Apr 2020
Research & Ideas

Has COVID-19 Broken the Global Value Chain?

dollars (or perceived that payments would be interrupted). Firms operating in the commodity markets also saw their revenues shrinking, and struggled to meet obligations in (dollar) debt. As a result, most of them turn to banks to obtain... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

02 Oct 2017
What Do You Think?

Do Bitcoin and Digital Currency Have a Future?

first Wall Street firm to do so. For me, the jury is still out. Here’s why. Back in the 1960s, I partnered with a commodities broker at the then-existent Hayden, Stone brokerage firm to form the Comsec Fund, a mutual fund that could View Details

Keywords: by James L. Heskett; Financial Services

21 Jun 2011
First Look

First Look: June 21

Japan after World War II. Trade surpluses with the United States played a major role in propelling growth. But there were two key differences. First, the scale of Chinese currency intervention was without precedent, as were the resulting... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

21 Feb 2012
First Look

First Look: Feb. 21

Business School Case 112-064 Dow Chemical is one of the few major American industrial corporations founded in the late 19th century that is still in existence. From its origins producing bromine out of the brine underneath Midland, Michigan, the company has evolved... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

05 Jun 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, June 5, 2018

strategy—downstream integration, specifically buying up feed companies—which marked a stark departure from the company’s longtime emphasis on organic growth. The decision to buy feed companies had been controversial within Alltech: feed was a low-margin, rather... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

06 Nov 2012
First Look

First Look: November 6

conference calls show less trading volume and price movement following the information releases, after controlling for the actual earnings news. Further, the capital market's response to linguistic complexity is more pronounced when there... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

06 Oct 2003
Research & Ideas

The Problem with Hedge Funds

invested in stocks or in a mutual fund, and as stock prices rose so did his or her account, and when they fell, so did his or her account. With hedge funds money is going to be made, and lost, in arcane positions trading with or against... View Details

Keywords: by D. Quinn Mills

25 Mar 2019
Research & Ideas

The Secret Life of Supply Chains

those in B2C industries: $65,800 versus $38,800. In fact, the highest paying jobs are not in companies that are making parts, but in those providing supply chain traded services, where average wages are $83,500. That fact is ordinarily... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Manufacturing; Service

February 1969
Article

Test of a Product Cycle Model of International Trade: U.S. Exports of Consumer Durables

By: Louis T Wells Jr

Keywords: Global Range; Trade; Product; Goods and Commodities; United States

Citation

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27 Oct 2014
Research & Ideas

The Coffee Economy That Bloomed Out of Nowhere

Near the Guatemalan border in Mexico's Chiapas region, sandwiched between the Sierra Madres and the Pacific Ocean, there's a fertile pocket of land called the Soconusco. While once a hotbed of cacao production for the Aztecs and then the Spanish, the area was decimated... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Food & Beverage; Agriculture & Agribusiness

11 Mar 2014
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt: ’Entrepreneurship and Multinationals’

markets. They have shown that the second half of the nineteenth century witnessed a deeper globalization than ever seen previously using that criterion. By 1914 world capital, commodity and labor markets were closely integrated, and more... View Details

Keywords: Re: Geoffrey G. Jones

03 Nov 2008
HBS Case

Economics of the Ethanol Business

10,000 bushels of corn annually. For the farmers, MME offers a potential hedge against the volatility of commodity prices and the hope of a more stable future for their children. "This is also a fascinating entrepreneurial... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Agriculture & Agribusiness; Energy

July 2000 (Revised April 2001)
Case

Agricultural Biotechnology and its Regulation

By: Forest L. Reinhardt

In the United States, genetically modified corn and soybeans are now widely grown and consumed. In Europe, however, they have been dubbed "Frankenstein foods," shunned by packaged food manufacturers, and subjected to a host of governmental restrictions. This case... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Genetics; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Corporate Strategy; Trade; Law; Goods and Commodities; Safety; Environmental Sustainability; Government and Politics; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Biotechnology Industry; Europe; United States

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05 Jun 2019
Research & Ideas

If Your Customers Don't Care What You Charge, What Should You Charge?

found, in the retail gas markets they studied, was that accounting for increased consumer inertia led to an estimated 3.3 percent post-merger price increase, compared with the 5.9 percent increase predicted by a static model typically used by the Federal View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Energy

November 2003 (Revised March 2004)
Case

Can Florida Orange Growers Survive Globalization?

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Hal Hogan

Florida Citrus Department has to deal with increasing competition from Brazil. What position should the industry take on its existing tariff? Who benefits? Who loses? View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Trade; Price; Globalized Markets and Industries; Goods and Commodities; Competition; Competitive Strategy

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08 Mar 2016
Research & Ideas

Solving an Economic Mystery Surrounding Argentina and Chile

community. Chile is in better shape, but has also undergone traumatic ups and down and is now challenged to grow as its major trading partner, China, slows its growth. What went wrong? A new edited volume by Geoffrey Jones and Andrea... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

06 Aug 2018
Research & Ideas

Supersmart Manufacturing Tools are Lowering Prices on TVs, Bulbs, and Solar Panels

companies, and what can they do to protect themselves? Shih: Companies need to understand their vulnerabilities. If you are a company that uses tools with this kind of high embodiment of know-how and you can’t protect complimentary assets like recipes or View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Manufacturing; Electronics

02 Feb 2010
First Look

First Look: Feb. 2

to Multinationals examines the evolution of multinational trading companies from the eighteenth century to the present day. During the Industrial Revolution, British merchants established overseas branches which became major View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

18 Dec 2012
First Look

First Look: December 18

Commodity Trading Jones, Geoffrey, and Espen StorliHarvard Business School Case 813-020 Examines the career of Marc Rich, the world's leading commodity trader before his... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

December 2007 (Revised March 2013)
Case

Queensland Sugar Limited

By: David E. Bell and Mary L. Shelman

Until industry deregulation in 2006, Queensland Sugar ran Australia's single desk marketing system for raw sugar exports. Since deregulation, eight of the ten Queensland sugar millers have elected to continue collective marketing through QSL. However, several millers... View Details