Publications

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July 1997
Case

Walt Disney's Dennis Hightower: Weaving Together the European Operations

By: Ashish Nanda

The case describes the actions taken by Dennis Hightower as president of Disney Consumer Products in Europe and the Middle East from 1988 to 1994. It focuses on how he has gone about establishing a regional office and knitting local operations closer together, the... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business or Company Management; Multinational Firms and Management; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Middle East; Europe

February 2009 (Revised November 2010)
Case

Marquee: The Business of Nightlife

By: Anita Elberse, Ryan Barlow and Sheldon Wong

In December 2008, nightlife impresario Noah Tepperberg is celebrating the fifth anniversary of his New York City nightclub Marquee. While most clubs are over within their first one-and-a-half years, Tepperberg has succeeded in keeping Marquee one of NYC's hottest clubs... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Customer Focus and Relationships; Cost; Marketing Strategy; Competition; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; New York (city, NY)

October 1997 (Revised March 1998)
Case

Appalachian Mountain Club: Transforming Governance

By: Walter J. Salmon and Jaan Elias

Starting in 1988, the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) began a controversial transformation in management and governance. For its first 112 years, the AMC's structure had resembled that of a country club--volunteer leaders directed the club's operations and its small,... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Transformation; Corporate Governance; Employee Relationship Management; Recruitment; Leading Change; Organizational Culture; Labor and Management Relations; Nonprofit Organizations; Education Industry; Education Industry

01 Jun 2004
News

Download This

Downloading music from the Internet doesn’t kill CD sales after all, concludes a surprising new study by HBS associate professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Associate Professor Koleman Strumpf of the University of North Carolina at Chapel... View Details

Keywords: file sharing; Amusement, Gambling, and Recreation Industries; Amusement, Gambling, and Recreation Industries

Web

2024 Reunion Presentations - Alumni

entertainment industry and outline the most effective business strategies and biggest entrepreneurial opportunities in these sectors. The Future... View Details

01 Mar 2004
News

Toy Story

kid-pleasing category of electronic toy. The LeapPad took the dusty, flash-card connotations out of the term “educational toy” and launched a new, highly successful product line of “smart toys.” LeapFrog did what no other new player in... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young; toys; Amusement, Gambling, and Recreation Industries; Amusement, Gambling, and Recreation Industries

01 Mar 2006
News

Karaoke Anyone?

karaoke by launching Limelight Stage + Studios (www.limelightboston.com). Limelight’s proprietary software allows for easy browsing of a digital song library, real-time vocal processing, LED lighting control, video channels using a live video feed, View Details

Keywords: Amusement, Gambling, and Recreation Industries; Amusement, Gambling, and Recreation Industries

January 2023 (Revised April 2025)
Case

Peloton Interactive (A)

By: Suraj Srinivasan, Lynn S. Paine and David Lane

Early in February 2022, the board of Peloton Interactive faced some knotty challenges. Immense pandemic demand for its stationary exercise bicycles and treadmills had prompted the firm to scale up production rapidly. But as gyms reopened and the virulence of the virus... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Growth Management; Investment Activism; Leadership; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States

March 2011 (Revised August 2012)
Case

Caesars Entertainment: CodeGreen

By: George Serafeim, Robert G. Eccles and Tiffany A. Clay

The case describes the development of Caesar's sustainability initiative program, the effect of the initiative on employee engagement and motivation, and on customer satisfaction. View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Employees; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Motivation and Incentives; Accommodations Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

July 2003 (Revised October 2003)
Case

Ottawa Voyageurs, The

By: Thomas J. DeLong, Scott Baldwin, Chris Strong, Andrew Feng, Eliza Moody and David Ager

Manuel Tertuliano, head coach of a professional soccer club, must make some difficult decisions about the compensation of six of his players. Specifically, he must decide how to allocate $850,000 among these six players in a way that will benefit his team, which has... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Compensation and Benefits; Performance; Motivation and Incentives; Sports; Groups and Teams; Sports Industry; Sports Industry; Canada

December 2004 (Revised October 2005)
Case

Hasbro Games -- POX (A)

By: David B. Godes and Elie Ofek

Hasbro's newest toy is so unique it requires a unique launch strategy. Comparing traditional media (TV, print) with a non-traditional viral campaign, Matt Collins must weigh the risks and benefits of doing things the way they've always been done or blazing a new path... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Cost vs Benefits; Marketing Strategy; Advertising Campaigns; Product Launch; Innovation and Invention; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

26 Feb 2007
Research & Ideas

The Power of the Noncompete Clause

important for regional development as well: "Given the many and mostly unsuccessful attempts to recreate Silicon Valley in various areas, understanding whether noncompetes play a role could be of help... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

March 2024 (Revised July 2024)
Case

AMC: The Zero Revenue Case

By: C. Fritz Foley and Donal O'Cofaigh

The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic put theatre company AMC’s already perilous financial situation under even further strain. The company’s high levels of debt resulted in a monthly cash-burn which left it facing an imminent Chapter-11 filing in the absence of... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Public Equity; Stock Shares; Health Pandemics; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

May 2020 (Revised November 2021)
Supplement

Valuing Peloton

By: E. Scott Mayfield

Peloton Interactive, a well-known unicorn in the connected fitness space, had gone public with a market capitalization of over $8.0 billion. In the weeks following its public debut, Peloton’s stock price fell by over 25%. Taylor Knox, a stock analyst and enthusiastic... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Disruptive Innovation; Risk and Uncertainty; Stocks; Price; Valuation; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

September 2022 (Revised November 2023)
Case

Wordle

By: Karen G. Mills, Christina Wallace, Ebehi Iyoha, Gabriella Elanbeck and Morgane Herculano

After sourdough bread, countertop chive gardens, and vaccine selfies came a pandemic-era trend that everyone seemed to be in on: one daily chance to guess a five-letter word and crow about your success on social media via little green and yellow squares. From a... View Details

Keywords: Games; Innovation; General Management; Mergers and Acquisitions; Trends; Entrepreneurship; Bids and Bidding; Consumer Behavior; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

June 2008
Case

Threadless: The Business of Community (Instructor's Version)

By: Karim R. Lakhani and Zahra Kanji

The instructor version of Threadless includes the Threadless student version multimedia case as well as four additional videos that can be used to enhance class discussion. The first video presents community reaction to the proposal from the large retailer. The next... View Details

Keywords: Debates; Decisions; Strategic Planning; Society; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

May 2017
Supplement

Betfair (C)

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, John Heilbron and Neil Campbell

Prompted by a takeover bid from CVC, Betfair reassesses the strengths and weaknesses of the exchange model. View Details

Keywords: Betfair; Exchange; Betting; Betting Markets; Diversification; Market Design; Business Model; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Europe

July 2008 (Revised September 2009)
Case

Betfair vs. UK Bookmakers

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Neil Campbell

Betting exchanges provide an electronic platform that allows ordinary consumers to not only back teams to win, but also to lay odds for other punters to back. This business model allows punters to cut out the middleman of the bookmaker and leads to a much more... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Decision Choices and Conditions; Two-Sided Platforms; Market Transactions; Competition; Entertainment and Recreation Industry