Publications

November 2000
Case

Dean Foods

By: Ray A. Goldberg, David E. Bell, Ann Leamon and Kim Slack

After 50 years of successful growth, mostly by acquisition, Dean Foods, the nation's second-largest dairy processor, has established a division to develop and market branded products nationally. Can a $4 billion company rely on a $300 million growth vehicle? Is this... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Divisions; Transition; Food; Goods and Commodities; Brands and Branding; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Product Development; Value Creation; Food and Beverage Industry; Retail Industry

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23 Jul 2013
First Look

First Look: July 23

Publications 2013 pub Does Social Connection Turn Good Deeds into Good Feelings?: On the Value of Putting the 'Social' in Prosocial Spending By: Aknin, Lara B., Elizabeth W. Dunn, Gillian M. Sandstrom, and Michael I. Norton... View Details

Keywords: Anna Secino

September 1998 (Revised July 1999)
Case

Integral Capital Partners

By: Andre F. Perold and Markus Mullarkey

Integral Capital Partners is a small firm with a very distinctive approach to investing in high-technology stocks. The firm invests privately in small start-ups as well as in publicly traded companies, and it develops important financial and advisory relationships with... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Value Creation; Venture Capital; Asset Management; Partners and Partnerships; Public Sector; Private Sector; Business Startups; Corporate Finance; Financial Services Industry

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01 Jun 2012
News

Plan B: The Brick Bank

Thailand. “A big takeaway for me was the necessity of being on the ground to understand country-to-country differences,” observes Selena Kalvaria (HBS 2013). “It’s not possible to have a catchall ‘emerging markets’ category.” As an alternative for the Vietnamese... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna

June 2024
Case

Arete Research on Unity Software

By: Joseph Pacelli and Tonia Labruyere

Richard Kramer had founded Arete Research, an independent financial research provider, in 2000 after a successful career as a sell-side analyst at Goldman Sachs. He reflects on his team's coverage of Unity Software, a U.S.-based mobile games software company, that... View Details

Keywords: Analysis; Initial Public Offering; Analytics and Data Science; Applications and Software; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Valuation; Value Creation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Model; Reports; Financial Services Industry; Video Game Industry; United Kingdom; United States

Web

Winning with Digital Platforms Online Course | HBS Online

Concepts What Is a Platform? Value Creation and Capture Growth Factors Featured Exercise Articulate dynamic pricing’s benefits and drawbacks Define the most important characteristics of economies of scale... View Details

January 2024 (Revised May 2024)
Case

Pioneer Natural Resources: Enhancing the Capital Return Strategy with Variable Dividends

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Elisabeth Kempf and E. Scott Mayfield

In February 2021, Scott Sheffield, the CEO of Pioneer Natural Resources (an independent oil and gas company based in Texas), was considering the possibility of enhancing the firm’s capital return strategy by introducing a variable dividend tied to cash flows in... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Finance; Cash Flow; Financial Management; Financial Strategy; Value Creation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Investment Return; Profit; Policy; Business and Shareholder Relations; Energy Industry; United States; North America; Texas

June 2023
Teaching Note

Graphic Packaging: Project Cowboy (A, B, C, & D)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Scott Mayfield

Teaching Note for HBS Case Nos. 223-009, 223-066, 223-068, and 223-086. View Details

Keywords: Capital Budgeting; Growth Management; Demand and Consumers; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Expansion; Value Creation; Supply and Industry; Pulp and Paper Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States; North America

June 2023
Supplement

Graphic Packaging: Project Cowboy (D)

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Scott Mayfield and Philipp Chvanov

Analyzes the company's decision on Project Cowboy following the events described in the C Case View Details

Keywords: Capital Budgeting; Growth Management; Demand and Consumers; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Expansion; Value Creation; Supply and Industry; Pulp and Paper Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States; North America

February 2023 (Revised June 2023)
Supplement

Graphic Packaging: Project Cowboy (B)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and E. Scott Mayfield

Analyzes the company’s decision on Project Cowboy following the events described in the A Case. View Details

Keywords: Capital Budgeting; Growth Management; Demand and Consumers; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Expansion; Value Creation; Supply and Industry; Pulp and Paper Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States; North America

February 2023 (Revised March 2025)
Case

Graphic Packaging: Project Cowboy (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and E. Scott Mayfield

In July 2019, Graphic Packaging CEO Michael Doss was proposing a $600 million investment in a new machine to produce coated recycled board (CRB), a type of paper packaging used for consumer products (cups, cereal boxes, beverage boxes, etc.) that utilized recycled... View Details

Keywords: Capital Budgeting; Growth Management; Demand and Consumers; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Expansion; Value Creation; Supply and Industry; Pulp and Paper Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States; North America

May 2019 (Revised September 2019)
Case

Mobike and ofo: Dancing with Titans (A)

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Haibo Zhao

This case address pacing issues – how fast does a company need to scale? It also examines the role of investors in determining company strategy and exit.
Mobike and ofo were two dominant players in China’s emerging dockless bike-sharing market, that allowed users... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Venture Capital; Financing and Loans; Competition; Value Creation; Governance; Economics; Business Startups; Strategy; Business Exit or Shutdown; Entrepreneurship; Infrastructure; Transportation; Bicycle Transportation; China

April 2019
Teaching Note

The a2 Milk Company

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

The a2 Milk Company (a2MC) became the most valuable company listed on the New Zealand stock exchange in 2018 by capitalizing on a biochemical discovery related to the protein composition of cow's milk. Because many people find the A1 protein difficult to digest, and... View Details

Web

Courses by Faculty Unit - Course Catalog

3.0 Strategies for Value Creation - Abridged (SVC-S) (also listed under Strategy) Scott Mayfield Spring 2026 Q3 1.5 Sustainable Investing Vikram Gandhi Shawn Cole Spring 2026 Q4 1.5 General Management Course... View Details

March 2008
Article

Market Reactions to Export Subsidies

By: M. A. Desai and James R. Hines Jr.

This paper analyzes the economic impact of export subsidies by investigating stock price reactions to a critical event in 1997. On November 18, 1997, the European Union announced its intention to file a complaint before the World Trade Organization (WTO), arguing that... View Details

Keywords: Economic Systems; Trade; Development Economics; Financial Markets; Profit; Taxation; Volume; Value Creation; Market Design; Business Subsidiaries; Utilities Industry; Financial Services Industry; Europe; North and Central America

SSRN

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August 2000
Case

Developing Nurse Practitioners at the College of St. Catherine

By: Clayton M. Christensen and Sarah S. Khetani

Margaret McLaughlin has just begun her new appointment as the Dean of Health Professions at the College of St. Catherine in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota. As an education leader, her charge is to develop Minnesota's health care workforce for the future. She is... View Details

Keywords: Trends; Debates; Decision Choices and Conditions; Higher Education; Teaching; Growth and Development; Technological Innovation; Leading Change; Goals and Objectives; Value Creation; Health Industry