Merchants - Publications - Faculty & Research

July 2020 (Revised September 2021)
Case

Mr. Five Percent: Calouste Gulbenkian and the Origins of Global Oil

By: Geoffrey Jones and Yazeed Al-Rashed

This case describes the business career of Calouste Gulbenkian, a skilled intermediary who was able to secure 5 percent of a vast oil concession covering much of the Middle East that was signed in 1928. Gulbenkian was an ethnic Armenian born in the Ottoman Empire,... View Details

Keywords: Oil; Globalization; Energy Sources; History; Biography; Energy Industry; Turkey; Central Asia; Middle East

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2018
Introduction

Introduction: History and Political Economy

By: Sophus A. Reinert and Robert Fredona

This volume offers a snapshot of the resurgent historiography of political economy in the wake of the ongoing global financial crisis, and suggests fruitful new agendas for research on the political-economic nexus as it has developed in the Western world since the end... View Details

Keywords: Economics; Government and Politics; History

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27 Jul 2021
Op-Ed

What Pirates Can Teach Us About Leadership

In the deep heat of an 18th-century summer, a crew of pirates was sailing off the Virginia coast when a lookout spotted a merchant ship to the south. Springing into action, the pirates launched an attack, rocking the View Details

Keywords: by Francesca Gino

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

It Came in the First Ships: Capitalism in America

from tobacco. Those of the Massachusetts Bay Company cared less about profit than about setting up what their leader John Winthrop called a "City upon a Hill." They wanted to demonstrate for all humanity the virtues of clean Christian living. If some of the... View Details

Keywords: by Thomas K. McCraw

2018
Book

New Perspectives on the History of Political Economy

By: Robert Fredona and Sophus A. Reinert

This volume offers a snapshot of the resurgent historiography of political economy in the wake of the ongoing global financial crisis and suggests fruitful new agendas for research on the political-economic nexus as it has developed in the Western world since the end... View Details

Keywords: Economics; Government and Politics; History

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21 Nov 2022
Research & Ideas

Buy Now, Pay Later: How Retail's Hot Feature Hurts Low-Income Shoppers

with Gen Z shoppers in their teens and 20s. The payment method made up $97 billion—or 2.1 percent—of total US e-commerce sales in 2020, a figure that is expected to double by 2024. BNPL is so lucrative, merchants are paying fintech... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Retail; Financial Services; Technology

01 Nov 1999
Research & Ideas

John H. Patterson and the Sales Strategy of the National Cash Register Company, 1884 to 1922

National Cash Register of the most approved pattern. To appreciate what a help it would be to you, we must see what things you do in your store of which you keep a record. After you have made your proposition clear and feel sure that the View Details

Keywords: by Walter A. Friedman

12 Mar 2006
Research & Ideas

New Research Explores Multi-Sided Markets

the profits come from the other side. Can you give an example or two and explain why these markets are structured like this? A: Dating clubs usually charge only the men, and credit card companies make their revenues mostly from merchants... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

15 Nov 2022
Op-Ed

Why TikTok Is Beating YouTube for Eyeball Time (It’s Not Just the Dance Videos)

Indonesia that enables merchants and creators to showcase and sell products promoted by creators. YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest all have shoppable posts. Longer-form content. TikTok began with a 15-second limit. It announced in... View Details

Keywords: by John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

2007
Book

Accounting: Text and Cases

By: Robert N. Anthony, David F. Hawkins and Kenneth Merchant

Keywords: Accounting

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19 Oct 2021
Research & Ideas

Fed Up Workers and Supply Woes: What's Next for Dollar Stores?

convenience, the quick in-and-out. And they’ve gone into underserved areas. They’re affordable and in low-population-density areas. They’re very successfully serving those. The pressure will be on the small Main Street merchants in these... View Details

Keywords: by Christine Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette; Retail

01 Jul 2015
Research & Ideas

A Bank That Takes Parmesan as Collateral: The Cheese Stands a Loan

the community, cares for the region, and cares for the producers," he says. "Lending is something that people don't really like in Italy. They think of usury, going back to Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. Many people still... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Banking; Food & Beverage

15 Oct 2014
Research & Ideas

Apple Pay’s Technology Adoption Problem

when several other similar services with big name sponsors such as Google have failed to gain much traction? Apple has a chicken-and-egg game to solve. Consumers won't use the service unless it's in use at a compelling number of stores. But View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Technology; Retail

09 Feb 2012
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Online Marketing

ever-improving technology, customer loyalty programs are proving extremely popular among retailers—but merchants are not getting all they should out of them. The reason? Professor José Alvarez says retailers need to see customers as... View Details

Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty; Technology

03 Feb 2014
Research & Ideas

The Tricky Business of Managing Web Advertising Affiliates

If the user makes a purchase, the affiliate is credited. Loyalty programs: Code inserted surreptitiously on a computer sends the user through an affiliate link when the user attempts to visit a merchant directly. Best case, the user... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Advertising; Publishing