Publications

Philippe van der Beck

Philippe van der Beck is an Assistant Professor in the Finance Unit at Harvard Business School. He teaches the Finance I course in the MBA required curriculum. Philippe’s research interests are in empirical asset pricing, sustainable finance, and structural estimation.... View Details

August 2000
Case

AMVESCAP in 1999

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Kathleen E. E Danoher

Deals with the problems faced by a major mutual fund company as it attempts to respond to the threats and opportunities posed by the explosion of the Internet and the changing landscape of retail financial services. View Details

Keywords: Trends; Investment Funds; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Problems and Challenges; Alignment; Internet; Financial Services Industry

Find at Harvard

15 Jan 2020
Video

Cem Boyner

Cem Boyner, Chair of Boyner Holdings, one of the largest retail groups in Turkey, describes how salespeople in his stores are instilled with a sense of how to serve customers in order to retain customer... View Details

May 2018
Case

Sagacity Tea: What Direction for Growth?

By: John A. Quelch and Amy Handlin

Kate Moran, CEO and cofounder of Sagacity Tea, a small, Vermont-based ready-to-drink tea brand, is considering a consumer-product group (CPG) broker's proposal for the product's launch in several cities along the East Coast of the United States. The commitments in the... View Details

Keywords: Product Launch; Marketing; Distribution; Growth Management; Marketing Channels; Decision Choices and Conditions

December 2010 (Revised January 2012)
Case

Zespri

By: Jose B. Alvarez and Mary Louise Shelman

Grower-owned Zespri is the sole exporter of New Zealand-grown kiwifruit outside of Australia and New Zealand. Facing growing international competition, Zespri invested in consumer branding and innovation, which has led to new types of kiwifruit that taste better and... View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Globalized Firms and Management; Innovation and Invention; Patents; Brands and Branding; Cooperative Ownership; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; New Zealand

27 Jun 2019
Working Paper Summaries

The Effect of Payment Choices on Online Retail: Evidence from the 2016 Indian Demonetization

Keywords: by Chaithanya Bandi, Toni Moreno, Donald Ngwe, and Zhiji Xu; Retail

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

Research Summary

Overview

By: Kris Johnson Ferreira

Professor Ferreira's research primarily focuses on how retailers can use algorithms to make better revenue management decisions, including pricing, product display, and assortment planning. In the retail industry, anticipating consumer demand is arguably one of the... View Details

Keywords: E-commerce; Analytics; Revenue Management; Pricing; Assortment Planning; Field Experiments; Operations; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Retail Industry

October 2005 (Revised May 2007)
Case

Friona Industries: Delivering Better Beef

By: Ray A. Goldberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Mary L. Shelman

CEO James Herring of Friona Industries, a leading U.S. cattle feedlot operator, has a history of leadership in the highly fragmented and often contentious U.S. beef industry. Friona has established relationships up and down the beef production chain to provide... View Details

Keywords: Production; Quality; Leadership; Price; Partners and Partnerships; Sales; Food and Beverage Industry; Texas; United States

31 Aug 2020
Blog Post

Five Important Steps before Taking the Entrepreneurial Leap

Dia&Co as well as their private label business. At Hilma, Nina leverages her expertise launching innovative products in the DTC and retail space, her Harvard MBA, and personal experiences of being raised by two doctors. Nina... View Details

2002
Case

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

By: Vijay Govindarajan and Julie Lang

Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart in 1962, had the vision for his store to sell low cost, branded products. By setting up its own distribution system and truck fleet, and evaluating retail stores as separate investment centers, Wal-Mart's control systems helped to build... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Retail Industry; United States

February 2019 (Revised November 2024)
Case

Theranos: Who Has Blood on Their Hands? (A)

By: Nien-hê Hsieh, Christina R. Wing, Emilie Fournier and Anna Resman

This case covers the rise and fall of Theranos, the company founded by Elizabeth Holmes in 2004 to revolutionize the blood testing industry by creating a device that could provide from a small finger prick the same results and accuracy as intravenous blood draws. As... View Details

Keywords: Health Testing and Trials; Corporate Accountability; Organizational Culture; Misleading and Fraudulent Advertising; Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Entrepreneurship; Lawsuits and Litigation

27 Jun 2019
News

Low online prices are great for shoppers. But they're killing small businesses

August 2008 (Revised June 2010)
Case

Concha y Toro

By: Rohit Deshpande, Gustavo A. Herrero and Ezequiel Reficco

Chile's largest wine producer faces a price versus value positioning problem. Its highest quality wines are not priced competitively at retail because "Made in Chile" connotes great value and low price. View Details

Keywords: Price; Brands and Branding; Product Positioning; Value; Food and Beverage Industry; Chile

February 1994
Case

Kathryn McNeil (A)

By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr.

Charles Foley, vice president of the computer retailing firm Sayer MicroWorld, must decide whether or not to fire his employee, Kathryn McNeil, a 37-year-old product manager who has been unable to work as many hours as her colleagues due to her status as a single... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Values and Beliefs; Employees; Work-Life Balance; Resignation and Termination; Mergers and Acquisitions; Retail Industry

March 1997
Case

Sensormatic Electronics Corporation-1995

By: Krishna G. Palepu and James Chang

Sensormatic is a leading provider of security systems to the retail industry. The company relies on customer financing as a key component of its strategy. The company's growth strategy and accountingis attacked by short-sellers and the financial press. View Details

Keywords: Analysis; Valuation; Financial Reporting; Financing and Loans; Financial Statements; Business Strategy

September 2002 (Revised July 2003)
Case

Silhouette v. Hartlauer

Silhouette, an Austrian eyeglass frame manufacturer, sued Hartlauer, an Austrian retail discounter, for reselling Silhouette frames within the European Union (EU) that Hartlauer had purchased outside the EU. Does the EU follow the principle of exhaustion of trademarks? View Details

Keywords: Lawsuits and Litigation; Trademarks; Manufacturing Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; European Union