Publications

September 2019 (Revised July 2021)
Case

Gap, Inc., 2019

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In 2000, The Gap, Inc. (Gap) was the world’s largest player in specialty fashion retailing, and companies such as Inditex of Spain, H&M of Sweden, and Fast Retailing of Japan were less than a quarter of Gap’s size. But after two decades of growth, Gap’s progress... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Change; Fashion; Multinational; Brands; Fast Fashion; Competition; Multinational Firms and Management; Performance Improvement; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Change Management; Strategy; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Sweden; Spain; United States

16 Apr 2019
News

How Best Buy's outgoing CEO, Hubert Joly, rescued the company

15 Jan 2020
Video

Cem Boyner

Cem Boyner, Chair of Boyner Holdings, one of the largest retail groups in Turkey, discusses the introduction of his company's innovative Advantage card and how this increased the consumer's ability to spend more. View Details

January 1998 (Revised March 1998)
Case

Staples (C)

By: Myra M. Hart, Marco Iansiti and Barbara Feinberg

The search for appropriate hardware and software to support the launch of a new large-scale retail operation forces the management team to define their goals at a very detailed level and to make all underlying assumptions explicit. View Details

Keywords: Goals and Objectives; Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software; Business Startups; Management Teams; Retail Industry

May 2016 (Revised June 2017)
Case

India's Amul: Keeping Up with the Times

By: Rohit Deshpandé, Tarun Khanna, Namrata Arora and Tanya Bijlani

Amul is an Indian dairy cooperative founded in 1947—eight months before India's independence from British rule—and owned by over three million farmers in the state of Gujarat. It is India's largest food product marketing organization, selling 46 products, including... View Details

Keywords: Globalization; Expansion; Dairy; India; Cooperatives; Milk; Leadership; Agriculture; Agribusiness; Competition; Marketing; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; India

26 Mar 2008
First Look

First Look: March 26, 2008

http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=808107 Parks Capital-Investment in US Retail, Inc. Harvard Business School Case 208-104 Parks Capital acquired a Children's Apparel Manufacturer, American Child Clothing Manufacturers, Inc. (ACCM), in 2001.... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

January 2007 (Revised November 2007)
Case

Organic Growth at Wal-Mart

By: Jan W. Rivkin and Troy Smith

In 2005, an executive vice president at Wal-Mart must decide whether to expand the retailer's selection of organic food. The decision is made in the context of wider attempts to move the giant retailer slightly upscale and to focus on environmental sustainability. View Details

Keywords: Food; Growth and Development Strategy; Product; Business Processes; Environmental Sustainability; Expansion; Retail Industry; United States

April 2017 (Revised October 2017)
Case

Wal-Mart Update, 2017

By: David B. Yoffie and Eric Baldwin

In 2017 Wal-Mart was still the world’s largest company, with over $480 billion in annual revenue and operations in 28 countries. Although it had mostly vanquished its rival discount retailers in the U.S., it was struggling to find the right growth strategy. Facing a... View Details

Keywords: E-Commerce Strategy; Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Business Growth and Maturation; Growth and Development Strategy; Global Range; Business Strategy; Corporate Strategy; E-commerce; Retail Industry

December 2004 (Revised December 2005)
Case

Nectar: Making Loyalty Pay

By: John A. Deighton

Loyalty Management UK (LMUK) manages British supermarket chain Sainsbury's frequent-shopper card program, called Nectar. LMUK uses Sainsbury's sponsorship as the magnet to attract other retailers into a profitable, multisponsor loyalty network. Examines the economics... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Business or Company Management; Supply Chain Management; Marketing Strategy; Networks; Marketing Channels; Advertising Campaigns; Outcome or Result; Growth and Development; Retail Industry; Great Britain

March 2003
Case

Zara

Fashion retailer ZARA has achieved spectacular growth via a distinctive design-on-demand operating model. This case describes this model and outlines a number of challenges facing the company, with a particular emphasis on its international expansion. Includes color... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Globalized Firms and Management; Production; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Retail Industry; Retail Industry

January 2011 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Paydiant

By: Jose B. Alvarez, Elizabeth C. Williamson and James Weber

Kevin Laracey, founder of Paydiant, needed to figure out how to launch a payment processing company with a new technology based on smart phones. Consumers had increasingly turned to electronic payment methods such as credit cards and debit cards to make purchases.... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Credit Cards; Product Marketing; Product Launch; Market Entry and Exit; Industry Structures; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Cooperation; Technology Adoption; Retail Industry

27 Mar 2014
News

Report: Brookstone headed for bankrupcy

26 Sep 2024
HBS Case

If a Car Can Drive Itself, Can It Make Life-or-Death Decisions?

What would Aristotle think about self-driving cars? As the abilities of artificial intelligence systems to automate complex tasks accelerate, warnings about the dangers of outsourcing life-and-death decisions to machines are pumping the brakes on the powerful... View Details

Keywords: by Tom Quinn; Auto; Technology

14 Oct 2011
News

The big businesses learning how to think small

July 2000 (Revised May 2002)
Case

Gateway: Moving Beyond the Box

By: Frances X. Frei, Youngme E. Moon and Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar

Gateway has opened retail stores to differentiate itself from its competitors (e.g., Dell). Describes how the company has created an excellent service experience, but has struggled financially as a result. View Details

Keywords: Transition; Change Management; Valuation; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Distribution Channels; Computer Industry; Electronics Industry; United States

February 2018 (Revised August 2023)
Case

Nykaa.com: A Passion for Beauty

By: Paul Gompers, Anjali Raina and Rachna Chawla

Being an entrepreneur was a childhood dream for Falguni Nayar. The opportunity to build Nykaa.com, a woman-centered business, with a multi-brand retail format in the beauty and wellness space, and the fact that she was doing it with her daughter Adwaita (HBS MBA 2013)... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Leadership; Organizational Culture; Information Technology; Human Resources; Brands and Branding; Operations; Marketing; Decision Making

July 7, 2022
Other Article

Are Online Prices Higher Because of Pricing Algorithms?

By: Zach Y. Brown and Alexander J. MacKay

This article reviews recent work examining pricing strategies of major online retailers and the potential effects of pricing algorithms. We describe how pricing algorithms can lead to higher prices in a number of ways, even if some characteristics of these algorithms... View Details

Keywords: Pricing Algorithms; Online Marketplace; Digital Strategy; Internet and the Web; Retail Industry