Publications

January 2001
Background Note

Online Brokers

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Alastair Brown

Describes online brokers, companies that use the Internet to help clients identify prospective trading partners and sometimes help their clients complete transactions. First, summarizes the various ways that online brokers create value for their clients. Then analyzes... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Web Services Industry

May 1999 (Revised August 1999)
Case

Victory Supermarkets: Expansion Strategy?

By: David E. Bell and Ann Leamon

Jay DiGeronimo, president of a 16-store supermarket chain, is trying to decide the timing and method for expanding his chain. The family-owned company could continue in a maintenance mode, with each family member running one store. It could expand slowly using a new... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Cost vs Benefits; Trade; Investment; Market Entry and Exit; Supply Chain Management; Private Ownership; Competition; Expansion; Retail Industry

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March 1999 (Revised January 2000)
Background Note

A Note on Microeconomics for Strategists

By: Kenneth S. Corts and Jan W. Rivkin

Summarizes the core ideas about the microeconomics of markets that are most relevant to business strategy. Sections I and II develop two basic building blocks of any market, demand and supply. Section II discusses how demand and supply interact to determine the... View Details

Keywords: Microeconomics; Cost; Cost of Capital; Market Entry and Exit; Business Strategy; Competition; Corporate Strategy

1996
Working Paper

The Cost of International Equity Trading

By: André Perold and Erik R. Sirri

June 1996 (Revised November 1996)
Background Note

Economic Gains from Trade: Comparative Advantage

By: Robert E. Kennedy and Nancy F. Koehn

How nations trade and whether they benefit from it are two of the oldest and most important questions in political economy. In the 170 years since David Ricardo formally developed the theory of comparative advantage, it has become one of the principles most widely... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Microeconomics; Trade; Cost Management; Business and Government Relations

March 1996 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Global Equity Markets: The Case of Royal Dutch and Shell

By: Kenneth A. Froot and Andre F. Perold

Royal Dutch and Shell common stocks are securities with linked cash flow, so that the ratio of their stock prices should be fixed. In fact, the ratio is highly variable, moving with the markets where the securities are intensively traded. Royal Dutch trades more... View Details

Keywords: International Equity Markets; International Cost Of Capital; Cross-border Valuation; International Finance; Equity; Cost of Capital; Valuation; Cash Flow

May 1994
Background Note

Designing Channels of Distribution

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

Presents a framework and a method for addressing the new product channel choice decision. Offers a six-step method that involves: 1) disaggregating and prioritizing a distribution channel by customers' channel function requirements; 2) obtaining and combining... View Details

Keywords: Distribution Channels; Framework; Cost; Customers; Cost vs Benefits; Management

October 1993 (Revised March 2023)
Case

Conflict on a Trading Floor (A)

By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. and Jerry Useem

A junior salesperson on FirstAmerica Bank's trading floor is assisting a top salesperson, Linda, on a deal to finance the construction of a new cruise ship for Poseidon Cruise Lines. While the terms of the deal are being worked out, he realizes Linda has taken... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Ethics; Values and Beliefs; Profit; Knowledge Use and Leverage

October 1988
Case

Harris Seafoods Leveraged Buyout

By: William A. Sahlman

Describes set of issues confronting Alison Lassiter, who is trying to help Charlie Harris arrange a leveraged buyout of the shrimp company he runs, a division of a publicly traded company, Katy Industries. Lassiter has prepared a memorandum discussing and analyzing the... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Venture Capital; Financing and Loans; Equity; Cost vs Benefits; Negotiation Tactics; Negotiation Preparation; Financial Management; Strategy; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Planning; Food and Beverage Industry; Industrial Products Industry

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1987
Book

Trade Promotion and Food Distribution Costs

By: R. Buzzell, J. Quelch and W. Salmon

October 1986 (Revised November 1988)
Case

B-W Footwear

By: David B. Yoffie

As import penetration into the American footwear market reached 81% in 1986, B-W Footwear, along with all of its American competitors, was struggling. Supply lines were deteriorating, retailers and importers were gaining power, and the government had rejected two... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Management; Globalization; Government and Politics; Business Strategy; Trade; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United States

April 1983 (Revised October 1990)
Background Note

Textiles and the Multi-Fiber Arrangement

By: David B. Yoffie

What happens to an industry with millions of employees that loses its comparative advantage? This note examines this question by looking at the global textile and apparel industry. With the Multi-Fiber Arrangement coming up for renewal in December 1981, the United... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Cost vs Benefits; Developing Countries and Economies; Manufacturing Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United States; Europe