Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(845)
- Faculty Publications (148)
- April 2010
- Case
Talent Agencies
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Toby E. Stuart and Lauren Barley
The case overviews the talent agency industry in Hollywood in 2009. Focuses on the role of the talent agent, the dynamics of professional service firms, the challenges facing agencies in light of major changes in the entertainment industries, and a possible merger... View Details
- March 2010 (Revised August 2010)
- Case
Systems Infrastructure at Google (A)
By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Stecker
This case describes how a senior vice president of engineering at Google, Bill Coughran, leads a high-performing engineering organization. The case focuses specifically on Coughran's encouraging two teams of engineers to develop competing solutions for application... View Details
- March 2010 (Revised August 2010)
- Supplement
Systems Infrastructure at Google (B)
By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Stecker
This case is a thick description of how a Senior Vice President of Engineering at Google, Bill Coughran, leads a high-performing engineering organization. The case focuses specifically on Coughran's use of encouraging two teams of engineers to develop competing... View Details
- 2010
- Article
Impact of Online Consumer Reviews on Sales: The Moderating Role of Product and Consumer Characteristics
By: Feng Zhu and Michael Zhang
This article examines how product and consumer characteristics moderate the influence of online consumer reviews on product sales using data from the video game industry. The findings indicate that online reviews are more influential for less popular games and games... View Details
- October 2009 (Revised August 2014)
- Case
Tengion: Bringing Regenerative Medicine to Life
By: Elie Ofek and Polly Ross Ribatt
Tengion is a young biotech company that is at the frontier of regenerative medicine—a nascent field that seeks to promote the creation of new cells and tissue to repair or replace tissue or organ function lost due to age, disease, damage, or congenital defects. In late... View Details
- October 2009 (Revised July 2010)
- Case
Roshan: Light at the end of the tunnel in Afghanistan
By: Herman B. Leonard and Qahir Dhanani
Roshan is a highly successful telecommunications company founded by the Aga Khan fund for economic development in Afghanistan during an ongoing civil conflict. Company leaders must now decide financial and market strategy for the next phase of development of the... View Details
- September 2009 (Revised May 2011)
- Case
Sniffing Out Opportunities at PetSmart
By: V.G. Narayanan and Lisa Brem
The pet and pet supply industry was one of the few bright lights in an otherwise dismal retail outlook in 2009. This case gives background pet retail industry information and strategic positioning information for both PetSmart and PETCO to enable students to develop... View Details
- June 2009 (Revised December 2011)
- Case
Colbún—Powering Chile
By: Forest L. Reinhardt, Gustavo A. Herrero and Sanjay Patnaik
This case is about Colbún, Chile's second largest electricity generator, which is facing significant uncertainty regarding the cost and availability of alternative energy sources. Problems with the contracted supply of natural gas and the volatility of oil prices,... View Details
- Article
Households' Willingness to Pay for 'Green' Goods: Evidence from Patagonia's Introduction of Organic Cotton Sportswear
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Michael Crooke, Forest L. Reinhardt and Vishal Vasishth
To shed light on individuals' willingness to pay for "green" goods (i.e., goods that are supposed to have lower adverse environmental impacts either in production or in use), we study data from the introduction by Patagonia, Inc., of organic cotton sportswear in the... View Details
- January 2009
- Supplement
Live Nation Faces the Music (B)
By: Stephen P. Bradley, Frank V. Cespedes and Kerry Herman
In 2008, concert producer and promoter Live Nation, faces a decision about its strategy in light of the tumultuous changes in the music industry and the increasing power of the major artists. As the music business once again recreates itself in response to new... View Details
- January 2009 (Revised March 2013)
- Case
Live Nation Faces the Music
By: Stephen P. Bradley, Frank Cespedes and Kerry Herman
In 2008, concert producer and promoter Live Nation faces a decision about its strategy in light of the tumultuous changes in the music industry and the increasing power of the major artists. As the music business once again recreates itself in response to new... View Details
- September 2008 (Revised June 2011)
- Case
Examining the Adoption of Drug-Eluting Stents
By: Elie Ofek
Marketers are often tasked with exploring the factors that impact the long-run adoption of a new product or technology. The new product under consideration here is the drug-eluting stent: a device which props open a clogged artery to the heart and then releases... View Details
- September 2008
- Case
Israeli Special Forces: Selection Strategy
By: Boris Groysberg, Tal Riesenfeld and Eliot Sherman
Ron Guntz, commander of recruiting for Israel's Special Forces, had been instructed by his superiors to evaluate the process by which he selected solders for a 20-month-long training program. Was the Army conducting this process in an ideal manner? The case examines... View Details
- February 2008 (Revised May 2011)
- Case
The Travails of Rubber: Goodyear or Badyear?
By: Tom Nicholas and Andrew Ferguson
Explores the reason why Charles Goodyear, inventor of rubber vulcanization, was unable to profit from his discovery despite securing international property rights over his invention through a patent in 1844. Considers the utility of patents as an incentive for... View Details
- October 2007
- Article
The Power of Stars: Do Star Actors Drive the Success of Movies?
By: Anita Elberse
Is the involvement of star actors critical to the success of motion pictures? Film studios, which they regularly pay multimillion-dollar fees to star actors, seem driven by that belief. I shed light on the returns on this investment using an event study that considers... View Details
- 2007
- Working Paper
A Taste For Obscurity: An Individual-Level Examination of 'Long Tail' Consumption
By: Anita Elberse
Because online retailers are often able to provide products in a more cost-efficient manner than bricks-and-mortar stores, online channels are characterized by a vast assortment of products. Proponents of the "long tail" principle recently argued that the demand for... View Details
- May 2007 (Revised September 2007)
- Case
Cleveland Clinic
By: Frances X. Frei, Amy C. Edmondson, Christine van Keuren and Eliot Sherman
Cleveland Clinic is consistently ranked among the nation's most eminent hospitals, and for decades has been a leader in pioneering cardiac care. This case evaluates the methods, processes, and personnel that the hospital has cultivated over the years in order to... View Details
- April 2006 (Revised June 2008)
- Case
New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc.
By: H. Kent Bowen, Robert S. Huckman and Carin-Isabel Knoop
Considers whether New Balance, one of the world's five largest manufacturers of athletic footwear, should respond to Adidas' planned acquisition of Reebok--a transaction that would join the second- and third-largest companies in the industry. Highlights the unique... View Details
- June 2005 (Revised August 2013)
- Case
Amazon.com's European Distribution Strategy
By: Janice Hammond and Claire Chiron
Describes how Amazon's distribution system evolved from the company's inception. In 2003, Amazon Europe must decide how to reconfigure its distribution network in light of expected growth, products proliferation, and geographical expansion in Europe. Examines how... View Details
- April 2005
- Case
Handleman Company
By: Janice H. Hammond and Kevin Dolan
Describes the organization and operations of the Handleman Co., an intermediary in the music industry that buys recorded music and resells it to mass retailers such as Wal-Mart. The company provides distribution, inventory management, retail merchandising, and category... View Details