Publications

June 2021
Technical Note

SPAC Space

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In 2020, over half of all initial public offerings (IPOs) in the United States were special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), blank-check companies that typically had two years to find a business to take public, usually through a reverse merger. Together, 248... View Details

Keywords: Special Purpose Acquisition Companies; SPACs; Mergers and Acquisitions; Going Public; Initial Public Offering; Investment; Strategy

Web

Podcast - Business & Environment

them easier to disassemble and repair, how secondhand retail pilot programs at IKEA stores are reaching new customers, and how investments like RetourMatras are developing circular solutions for end-of-life mattresses. Karen also describes how policy, design, and View Details

January 2021 (Revised March 2021)
Case

Jumia's Path to Profitability

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Pippa Tubman Armerding and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in September 2019 as Sacha Poignonnec and Jeremy Hodara, co-founders and co-CEOs of Jumia, the leading Pan-African e-commerce platform, are contemplating the company’s path to profitability in the aftermath of a fragile investor sentiment, as the company... View Details

07 Apr 2022
Research & Ideas

Giving Back: Consumers Care More About How Companies Donate Than How Much

Companies donate billions of dollars every year, hoping their generosity will not only help important causes, but also attract socially conscious consumers to their brands. What companies might not realize is that people focus less on the View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

14 May 2018
Research & Ideas

Amazon vs. Whole Foods: When Cultures Collide

Walmart, which had entered the organic space. By 2017, Whole Foods had started closing stores. Turning data into customer value Amazon, by contrast, had always been about low costs and efficiency, pursuing a... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Food & Beverage

17 Aug 2020
Research & Ideas

What the Stockdale Paradox Tells Us About Crisis Leadership

immediate and long-term goals in mind. One respondent summed up the challenge in a particularly apt way: “Shifting existing organizational structures from ‘peacetime’ value creation to ‘wartime/survival’ in a very short period of time As... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

December 2007 (Revised April 2008)
Case

Alltech...naturally

By: David E. Bell and Mary L. Shelman

Entrepreneur Pearse Lyons had built Alltech into the fastest growing company in the global animal health industry through innovative technology, creative marketing, and strong branding. Sel-Plex, a proprietary Alltech product, had shown important health benefits for... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Leadership Development; Customer Focus and Relationships; Expansion; Technological Innovation; Intellectual Property; Sales; Value Creation; Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; Health Industry

Research Summary

Overview

The overarching goal of my research is to produce works that are influential and informative to both academics and practitioners in the field of operations management. To accomplish this, I collaborate with industry partners who provide knowledge about their field,... View Details

November 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Technical Note

Rechargeable Batteries, 2017: Gigafactory Wars in the Offing?

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In 2017, the global market for rechargeable lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries was 126 gigawatt-hours (GWh) valued at $37 billion, growing by $10 billion in two years. Once confined largely to consumer electronics and appliances, the rapid increase in demand was spurred by... View Details