Publications

April 3, 2023
Article

Getting a Clearer View of Your Company’s Carbon Footprint

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Karthik Ramanna and Stefan Reichelstein

E-liability accounting is a new technique that will help customers factor in a product’s environmental footprint into their purchasing decisions and will help create a competition dynamic that leads to reduced carbon outputs. This article describes two pilot studies—by... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Environmental Accounting; Supply Chain; Consumer Behavior

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01 Sep 2010
News

Faculty Books

The New Science of Retailing: How Analytics Are Transforming the Supply Chain and Improving Performance by Marshall Fisher and Ananth Raman (Harvard Business Press) Professor Raman and his coauthor explain... View Details

Keywords: Retail Trade; Water Transportation; Transportation

December 2022
Supplement

Driving Decarbonization at BMW - Video Supplement

By: Shirley Lu, George Serafeim and Michael W. Toffel

Videos of Thomas Becker, Vice President of Sustainability and Mobility at BMW Group, in support of the case "Driving Decarbonization at BMW" (HBS No. 123-008) View Details

December 2006
Case

Vipp A/S

By: Robert D. Austin and Daniela Beyersdorfer

Rapidly growing Vipp sells highly differentiated (and expensive) "designer" versions of a product that most buyers think about in purely functional terms: Trash bins. Examines how the company successfully produces and positions a trash bin so that it is regarded as an... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain Management; Creativity; Product Design; Luxury; Brands and Branding

January 1988 (Revised February 1991)
Case

International Sourcing at Intercon

Describes the many international sourcing initiatives in a multinational connector manufacturing company. Focuses on the domestic operations, international staff, and their initiatives to create cooperative links among and with independent subsidiaries. Students can... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Multinational Firms and Management; Supply Chain Management; Manufacturing Industry; Japan

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May 2023
Case

CMA CGM: Reducing the Carbon Footprint of Container Shipping

By: Willy C. Shih and Emilie Billaud

Marine transport is the most cost-effective way to move large volumes over long distances, and container shipping is the backbone of international trade in goods. Yet shipping contributed 3% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, and the deep-sea segment, which... View Details

Keywords: Container Shipping; Logistic Regression; Trade Links; Decarbonization; Environmental Strategies; Environmental Impact; Globalization; Trade; Environmental Regulation; Logistics; Supply Chain; Governance Compliance; Shipping Industry; European Union; Asia; North America

Article

Creating Value Together

By: Maxim Sytch and Ranjay Gulati

Conventional wisdom suggests that companies should avoid growing dependent on their business partners. If one company, the thinking goes, grows too dependent on a counterpart by getting the entire input for a particular activity from it and is not able to switch... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain Management; Performance Improvement; Partners and Partnerships; Power and Influence; Value Creation

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January 1988 (Revised February 1991)
Case

Intercon Japan

Describes the many international sourcing initiatives in a multinational connector manufacturing company from the standpoint of an independent and very successful subsidiary in Japan. Students can explore the conflicts inherent in the situation and thus the more... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Multinational Firms and Management; Supply Chain Management; Manufacturing Industry; Japan

Fall 2013
Article

Sustainable Operations Management: An Enduring Stream or a Passing Fancy?

By: David Drake and Stefan Spinler

Paul Kleindorfer was among the first to weigh in on and nurture the stream of Sustainable Operations Management. The thoughts laid out here are based on conversations we had with Paul relating to the drivers underlying sustainability as a management issue: population... View Details

Keywords: Sustainable Operations; Sustainability; Environment; Paul Kleindorfer; Management; Environmental Sustainability

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01 Feb 2008
What Do You Think?

How Sustainable Is Sustainability in a For-Profit Organization?

size fits all' legislation." All of this will take time. Adrian Gonzalez commented that "There's a limit to what can be accomplished ... because today's products, manufacturing processes, and supply View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

October 2000 (Revised March 2001)
Case

Firestone/Ford Tire Controversy, The (A)

By: V.G. Narayanan and Roger Orosman Nieves

Examines the high-profile Firestone/Ford product recall/investigation that took place in the summer of 2000. Focuses on the management of supplier relationships and incentives. View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Sharing; Supply Chain Management; Motivation and Incentives; Crisis Management; Corporate Accountability; Product; Service Operations; Auto Industry

08 Jul 2002
Research & Ideas

How to Fashion Your New E-Business Model

Information Age business innovations include: Digital production and distribution technologies (broadband and wireless networks, sophisticated content creation, flexible knowledge management) An operating model (integrated supply View Details

Keywords: by Lynda M. Applegate

August 1994 (Revised October 1996)
Case

MicroFridge

By: Norman A. Berg and James Weber

MicroFridge, a five-year-old, $12 million company based in Sharon, Mass., develops and sells a unique, combination compact refrigerator and microwave oven. All of the manufacturing is done for it by Sanyo in various overseas locations. The founder and president... View Details

Keywords: Production; Competitive Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Supply Chain Management; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Consumer Products Industry; Massachusetts

March 2015 (Revised December 2016)
Case

Evans Food

By: Sunil Gupta

In April 2014, Hector Guerra (GMP 16) was discussing his company's dilemma with his living group of the General Management Program (GMP) at the Harvard Business School. Guerra was Vice President of Operations at Evans Food, a $100 million company, which produced pork... View Details

Keywords: Food; Production; Cost Management; Supply Chain; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

06 Dec 2021
News

Tipping Point

Illustration by Erin Robinson At one end of the global coffee supply chain are the diners who gather for brunch at the sidewalk tables outside Chloe’s Cafe in San Francisco’s Noe Valley neighborhood.... View Details

Keywords: April White; Food Manufacturing; Manufacturing

28 Jul 2014
Research & Ideas

Eyes Shut: The Consequences of Not Noticing

Editor's note: Behavioral economist Max H. Bazerman decided to pursue the subject of noticing after realizing that he wasn't very good at it himself. "The truth is that I was truly terrible at noticing," says Bazerman, the Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of... View Details

Keywords: by Max H. Bazerman; Retail

March 1993
Case

Liz Claiborne, Inc. and Ruentex Industries, Ltd. (Abridged)

By: Roy D. Shapiro and Marie-Therese M. Flaherty

Details the evolution of a value-creating supplier-buyer partnership. Describes the buyer's (Liz Claiborne) manufacturing and marketing strategy, and details the workings of the firm's relationship with an important Taiwanese supplier of piece goods (Ruentex Industries... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Production; Supply Chain Management; Alliances; Value Creation; Manufacturing Industry

October 1996 (Revised April 1997)
Case

Tweeter etc.

By: John T. Gourville and George Wu

In the early 1990s, Tweeter etc., a small regional retailer of higher-end audio and video equipment, faced increasing competitive pricing pressures from several large regional and national consumer electronics chains. In response, in 1993, they introduced "Automatic... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Customer Focus and Relationships; Price; Market Entry and Exit; Supply Chain Management; Competition; Electronics Industry; Retail Industry