Publications

September 2014
Case

Marquee: Reinventing the Business of Nightlife

By: Anita Elberse

Keywords: Marketing; Business Growth and Maturation; Distribution Channels; Product Marketing; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

01 Mar 2013
News

Delivering the Power to Dream Big

technology will not only increase solar adoption in the United States, but help people in the developing world as well. In industrialized countries, "you can imagine the impact on portable electronics—it can give you freedom from the... View Details

Keywords: solar power; Electric Power Generation, Transmission, Distribution; Electric Power Generation, Transmission, Distribution

April 2021
Supplement

Buy Online, Pickup in Store: CEO Supplement

By: Antonio Moreno, Santiago Gallino and Amy Klopfenstein

In April 2019, Sylvarella CEO Sylvia Coparella must assess the impact of the company’s Buy Online, Pickup in Store (BOPS) program on her company’s overall sales. To do so, she must review analyses of both e-commerce and brick-and-mortar sales data and compare the... View Details

Keywords: Operations; Service Delivery; Logistics; Infrastructure; Distribution Channels; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Analysis; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; United States; Canada

April 2021
Case

Buy Online, Pickup in Store: Evaluating an Omnichannel Intervention in Retail

By: Antonio Moreno, Santiago Gallino and Amy Klopfenstein

In October 2018, fashion, wellness, and beauty retailer Sylvarella implemented a Buy Online, Pickup in Store (BOPS) program in an attempt to counteract a sales decline. While BOPS had the potential to meet customer expectations for a seamless order and fulfillment... View Details

Keywords: Operations; Service Delivery; Logistics; Infrastructure; Distribution Channels; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Analysis; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; United States; Canada

July 2006
Teaching Note

Strategic Planning at United Parcel Service (TN)

By: David A. Garvin

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Distribution Industry

August 2003
Teaching Note

United Parcel Service's IPO (TN)

By: Paul M. Healy

Teaching Note for (9-103-015). View Details

Keywords: Distribution Industry

February 1984 (Revised March 1984)
Teaching Note

Southwest Lumber Distributors, Teaching Note

By: David E. Bell

Keywords: Distribution Industry

February 1991
Teaching Note

Imperial Distributors, Inc. (A), Teaching Note

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Keywords: Distribution Industry

July 1995 (Revised February 1998)
Teaching Note

Star Distributors, Inc. (A) and (B) TN

By: David A. Thomas

Teaching Note for (9-493-015) and (9-493-016). View Details

Keywords: Distribution Industry

April 2021
Supplement

Buy Online, Pickup in Store: Vice President of Store Operations Supplement

By: Antonio Moreno, Santiago Gallino and Amy Klopfenstein

In April 2019, Sylvarella VP of Store Operations Axley Vega must review an analysis of her department’s sales data to determine the impact of the company’s Buy Online, Pickup in Store (BOPS) program. BOPS implementation created significant problems for the store... View Details

Keywords: Operations; Service Delivery; Logistics; Infrastructure; Distribution Channels; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Analysis; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; United States; Canada

November 2006 (Revised December 2006)
Case

Pitney Bowes Inc.

By: Clayton M. Christensen and Ho Howard Yu

Pitney Bowes, the world's dominant maker of equipment used in generating and handling mail, is facing flattening growth in its core businesses and needs to create new growth products and businesses. Describes how a group of employees use state-of-the-art techniques for... View Details

Keywords: Expansion; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Distribution Channels; Growth and Development Strategy; Manufacturing Industry

After her husband’s death in 1995, Ingram successfully managed the family business, making a series of bold moves, including the spin-off and public offering of Ingram Micro, the United States’ largest computer wholesaler. Today, Ingram View Details

Keywords: Services

Other Unpublished Work

Cross Sectional Analysis of Phantom Products at Retail Stores

By: Zeynep Ton and Ananth Raman

Keywords: Distribution; Logistics; Retail Industry

August 2018
Teaching Note

Magpie: Developing and Using Buyer Personas

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Teaching Note for HBS No. 818-013. Magpie is a startup with a platform that allows publishers to natively tag the products discussed in their content and thus allows consumers to purchase those products without needing to leave that publisher’s web page. A key aspect... View Details

Keywords: Buying Process; Marketing; Sales; Distribution Channels; Segmentation; Entrepreneurship; Social Media; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

21 Nov 2017
News

Alumni Peer into the Future of Energy

Justin Dawe (MBA 2007), president, Scoot Networks (photo courtesy of Scoot Networks) What do you think the state of the energy industry will be in 2030? HBS students in the Energy and Environment Club asked alumni working in the field to... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley; solar power; wind power

15 Dec 2024
News

Forward Thinking

centers run around the clock. Some industry observers wonder if AI’s potential returns can outweigh these rising electric bills—and the cost to the climate from the widespread use of fossil fuels in the sector. But Bill Nussey (MBA 1996),... View Details

Keywords: Janine White; Illustrations by Richard Borge; Electric Power Generation, Transmission, Distribution; Electric Power Generation, Transmission, Distribution

April 2015 (Revised March 2017)
Case

Instacart and the New Wave of Grocery Startups

By: John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

Instacart is testing an Uber-style solution to the challenge of building a home-delivered grocery business. It is backed by $220 million of venture funding. Will this model succeed where businessses like Webvan failed? What are the questions that this exploratory... View Details

Keywords: Food Retailing; Outsourced Grocery Delivery; Online Ordering; Dynamic Pricing; Data Analytics; Marketing Strategy; Food; Distribution Channels; Business Startups; Food and Beverage Industry; California