Publications

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March 2009 (Revised November 2021)
Case

The Walt Disney Company and Pixar Inc.: To Acquire or Not to Acquire?

By: Juan Alcacer, David J. Collis and Mary Furey

Soon after Robert Iger took over as CEO of the Walt Disney Company in late 2005, he turned his attention toward Pixar, the animation studio with which Disney had worked since 1991 and was responsible for producing hits such as Toy Story and Finding Nemo. Disney's own... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Decision Making; Animation Entertainment; Film Entertainment; Contracts; Distribution; Partners and Partnerships; Vertical Integration; Motion Pictures and Video Industry

August 2021
Case

Wymsee

By: Julia Austin, Sarah Mehta and Tom Quinn

Wymsee was a company that aimed to develop a mobile application (app) that would allow television audience members to identify and purchase clothing or accessories worn by characters in the program they were watching, with the Wymsee founders taking a percentage of... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Plan; Business Startups; Film Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Technological Innovation; Knowledge Acquisition; Product Positioning; Opportunities; Adaptation; Mobile Technology; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States; New York (city, NY)

January 2021
Case

Cinépolis

By: Joshua D. Margolis and Fernanda Miguel

Two weeks after Cinepolis released a documentary film about corruption, a judge ordered its provisional suspension, claiming it had to be edited before it continued to be shown, against Mexican cinematography laws. Cinépolis, Latin America’s largest movie theater chain... View Details

Keywords: Movies; Entertainment; Corruption; Risk Assessment; Communication Strategy; Crime and Corruption; Decision Making; Film Entertainment; Ethics; Leadership; Risk Management; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Mexico; Latin America; North and Central America

17 Oct 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, October 17, 2017

Digital Agility: The Impact of Software Portfolio Architecture on IT System Evolution By: MacCormack, Alan, Robert Lagerström, Martin Mocker, and Carliss Y. Baldwin Abstract—The modern industrial firm increasingly relies on software to... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 2017 (Revised April 2020)
Case

Raj Kapoor: The Socialist Showman

By: Geoffrey Jones and Snigdha Sur

This case examines the career of Raj Kapoor, the legendary Bollywood filmmaker of the postwar decades. It explores how Kapoor built RK studios after 1948 by releasing a series of movies that combined romance with social messages focused on the fate of the common man in... View Details

Keywords: Film Entertainment; History; Personal Development and Career; Social Issues; Gender; Problems and Challenges; Values and Beliefs; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; India; Soviet Union

February 2009 (Revised June 2010)
Case

Mibanco: Meeting the Mainstreaming of Microfinance

By: Michael Chu and Gustavo A. Herrero

Mibanco, Peru's leading microfinance bank, faces intense competition as the banking industry rushes into low income segments. Companion video clips bring into the classroom the contemporary reality of a world-class microfinance institution, where the unpaved streets... View Details

Keywords: Microfinance; Profit; Business History; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Marketing Strategy; Service Operations; Performance; Competition; Banking Industry; Peru

31 May 2016
First Look

May 31, 2016

dominates the negative within-firm effect post IPO. We build a firm industry model with endogenous entry to quantify the importance of two competing selection mechanisms: an increasing share of R&D–intensive firms in the overall... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 1992 (Revised January 2002)
Case

Process Control at Polaroid (A)

By: H. Kent Bowen and Steven C. Wheelwright

Describes the initial efforts at a film production plant to shift from a traditional QC inspection mentality to a worker-based process control mentality. Students can prepare SPC charts, propose actions needed, and combine steps into an overall action plan. View Details

Keywords: Management Systems; Operations; Quality; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Business Processes; Change Management; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry

Research Summary

Research Questions

By: Anita Elberse

One overarching question drives my research: What are effective marketing strategies for managers in creative industries?

I focus on three sub-questions:

How can managers in creative industries effectively manage products and product... View Details

October 2006 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Production I.G: Challenging the Status Quo

By: Andrei Hagiu, Tarun Khanna, Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Masako Egawa and Chisato Toyama

In July 2006, Mitsuhisa Ishikawa wondered how he could further enhance the success and visibility of his animation production company headquartered in Tokyo, Production I.G. For the year ended May 2006, Production I.G. had sales of 5,439 million yen ($47.3 million),... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Competitive Advantage; Markets; Animation Entertainment; Going Public; Growth and Development Strategy; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Tokyo

March 1991
Supplement

Black Caucus Groups at Xerox Corp., January 1991, Video (Abridged)

Eight of the founding members of the black caucus movement at Xerox speak about their experiences. The film vividly shows the individuals who made the caucus system happen, how they interact together, and their commitment to performance, mutual support, and the black... View Details

Keywords: Networks; Race; Organizations; Technology Industry

05 Jul 2006
Working Paper Summaries

The Power of Stars: Do Stars Drive Success in Creative Industries?

Keywords: by Anita Elberse; Entertainment & Recreation; Motion Pictures & Video; Financial Services

24 Jul 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, July 24, 2018

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... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

August 2012 (Revised August 2013)
Background Note

Competency-Destroying Technology Transitions: Why the Transition to Digital Is Particularly Challenging

By: Willy Shih

Some technology transitions are exceedingly difficult for incumbent firms to execute. The bankruptcy filing by the Eastman Kodak Company highlighted the difficulty companies faced when their core business transitioned from an analog to a digital world. Kodak's business... View Details

March 2007 (Revised April 2007)
Case

Fujifilm: A Second Foundation

Fujifilm was the second largest manufacturer of photographic film in the world when digital imaging began to substitute for its core business. In contrast to some photography incumbents, such as Polaroid, Fuji had a relatively successful transition to digital imaging.... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Transition; Mission and Purpose; Globalized Markets and Industries; Opportunities; Electronics Industry; Electronics Industry

09 Jan 2024
In Practice

Harnessing AI: What Businesses Need to Know in ChatGPT’s Second Year

crowdsource diverse viewpoints and innovative solutions to their most complex solutions. Take the Netflix challenge. In 2006, Netflix launched an open competition for the best collaborative filtering algorithm to predict user ratings for View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Information Technology

September 2017
Case

Tencent

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

Tencent had undergone many transformations since it was founded in 1998 as a simple messaging service. In 2017, it was the largest online games provider in China with a wide range of game types, China’s largest social networking service provider with several of the... View Details

August 1986 (Revised February 1991)
Supplement

Population Services International: The Social Marketing Project in Bangladesh, Video

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

Population Services International, a not-for-profit agency founded to promote family planning information and to market birth control products, had an agreement with the government of Bangladesh to conduct a social marketing program using modern marketing techniques to... View Details

Keywords: Social Marketing; Health; Advertising; Marketing; Nonprofit Organizations; Government and Politics; Agreements and Arrangements; Health Industry; Bangladesh

December 2007 (Revised August 2014)
Case

Xanadu on Broadway

By: Anita Elberse

Can one of Hollywood's biggest flops magically turn into a Broadway hit? Xanadu, an adaptation of a 1980 Olivia Newton-John roller-disco film described by one critic as "the epic failure to end all epic failures," opened on Broadway in July 2007. Producer Rob Ahrens,... View Details

Keywords: Theater Entertainment; Product Marketing; Product Launch; Demand and Consumers; Risk and Uncertainty; Creativity; Entertainment and Recreation Industry