Publications

June 1999 (Revised August 2004)
Case

The American Basketball League: The Last Chapter

By: Stephen A. Greyser and Elizabeth (Lisa) Smyth

Provides information on the demise of the American Basketball League (ABL) in December 1998. Reviews the League's attendance, television activity, and competitive positioning versus the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). In conjunction with earlier cases... View Details

Keywords: Product Positioning; Failure; Finance; Sports Industry

Find at Harvard

November 2018
Case

Sportradar (A): From Data to Storytelling

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Karen Elterman and Oliver Gassmann

In 2013, the Swiss sports data company Sportradar debated whether to expand from its core business of data provision to bookmakers into sports media products. Sports data was becoming a commodity, and in the future, sports leagues might reduce their dependence on... View Details

05 Oct 2010
First Look

First Look: October 5, 2010

level of accountability for that performance. Furthermore, the influence of senior minority managers on hiring practices may differ substantially, depending on where a manager sits in the firm's hierarchy. Examining hiring practices on coaching staffs of teams in... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 2022
Case

The NFL’s $110-Billion Media Rights Deals

By: Anita Elberse and Elizabeth Warner

On March 18, 2021, Brian Rolapp, chief media and business officer at the National Football League (NFL) presented the results of a months-long effort to renegotiate rights deals with the NFL’s current partners in television—the media conglomerates behind the networks... View Details

Keywords: Sports; Entertainment; Media; Marketing; Strategy; General Management; Negotiation; Partners and Partnerships; Competition; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Sports Industry

December 1998
Case

NHL 1998: "The Coolest Game in Nagano"

By: Stephen A. Greyser and Kirk A. Goldman

Explores the National Hockey League's participation in the 1998 Winter Olympics, for which a "winter break" was taken from the regular schedule. The benefits and risks associated with the NHL's Olympic participation are one specific focus. In addition, the case address... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Brands and Branding; Marketing Communications; Opportunities; Competitive Strategy; Expansion

February 2006 (Revised March 2006)
Case

Negotiating on Thin Ice: The 2004-2005 NHL Dispute (A)

By: Deepak Malhotra and Maly Hout

On September 15, 2004, the existing collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the National Hockey League (NHL) and the National Hockey League Players' Association (NHLPA) expired. Because the two sides had failed to negotiate a new CBA by that date, NHL... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Tactics; Negotiation Participants; Trust; Sports; Compensation and Benefits; Sports Industry; United States

21 Oct 2012
News

Why There Are So Many Conflicts in Pro Sports (And What to Do About Them)

March 2025
Case

YouTube: Bidding for NFL Sunday Ticket

By: Anita Elberse and Crystal Yao

In December 2022, Erin Teague, a senior director and the global head of sports, movies and shows at YouTube, technology giant Alphabet Inc.’s video- sharing platform, received the news that Sundar Pichai, the chief executive officer of Alphabet and its subsidiary... View Details

Keywords: General Management; Entertainment; Media; Sports; Marketing; Management; Business Strategy; Bids and Bidding

26 Oct 2015
Research & Ideas

What’s the Value of a Win in College Athletics?

talking about academic institutions of higher education.” Even though the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) stresses the amateur nature of intercollegiate sports, college programs have grown into a multibillion-dollar... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Sports; Education

10 Sep 2013
News

Ferguson’s Formula

04 Jan 2016
News

What Podcasts Do Professors Listen To?

September 2022 (Revised January 2025)
Case

The Pokémon Company: Evolving into an Everlasting Brand

By: Tomomichi Amano and Masaki Nomura

Super Bowl 50, the fiftieth annual championship game of the American National Football League played in February 2016, featured 52 commercials, and brands spent more than six million dollars each for a 30-second commercial slot. Surprisingly, the commercial that... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Growth and Development Strategy; Video Game Industry; Japan

2010
Working Paper

Reversing the Queue: Performance, Legitimacy, and Minority Hiring

By: Andrew Hill and David A. Thomas

Studies of minority hiring have found that poor-performing firms or firms in highly competitive contexts are more likely to hire minority candidates. However, most work has examined hiring for entry and mid-level positions, not senior management. Management positions... View Details

Keywords: Diversity; Selection and Staffing; Leadership; Managerial Roles; Performance Effectiveness; Sports Industry; United States

Read Now

14 Dec 2015
Research & Ideas

Deflategate and the Sustained Success of the New England Patriots

discussions that we’ve had” The case study, written by HBS’s Marco Iansiti, the David Sarnoff Professor of Business Administration and head of the Technology and Operations Management unit, focuses on the data analysis used by the View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Sports

14 Dec 2010
First Look

First Look: Dec. 14

the market for post-season college football bowls. Together these will illustrate that unraveling can occur in markets with competitive prices, that it can result in substantial inefficiencies, and that marketplace institutions play a... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

12 Jan 2009
Research & Ideas

The Value of a ‘Portable’ Career

League in the MIT Sloan Management Review. "As research on the National Football League reveals, sometimes the specific nature of a job... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Sports

08 Jan 2020
Research & Ideas

NFL Head Coaches Are Getting Younger. What Can Organizations Learn?

Rams would also seem to suggest wisdom in the strategy. While taking the league by storm in his first two seasons, McVay has shown some of the qualities we outlined in our previous piece, What Football... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg, Evan M.S. Hecht, and Abhijit Naik; Sports

October 2004 (Revised October 2013)
Case

In Search of Global Regulation

By: Geoffrey Jones, Mona Rahmani and Alexis Gendron

The history of the international regulation of global capitalism is surveyed, addressing the challenges facing firms confronting international, national, and regional regulation. Follows the history of global regulation after 1914, from the League of Nations'... View Details

Keywords: History; Multinational Firms and Management; International Relations; Laws and Statutes; Corporate Governance; Business and Government Relations

March 2022 (Revised April 2022)
Case

In Search of Global Regulation

By: Geoffrey Jones and Mona Rahmani

The history of the international regulation of global capitalism is surveyed, addressing the challenges facing firms confronting international, national, and regional regulation. Follows the history of global regulation after 1914, from the League of Nations;... View Details

Keywords: History; Multinational Firms and Management; International Relations; Laws and Statutes; Corporate Governance; Business and Government Relations