Publications

May 1984 (Revised May 1988)
Background Note

Retail Financial Services Industry--1984

March 2017 (Revised March 2022)
Case

Flashion: Art vs. Science in Fashion Retailing

By: Kris Ferreira and Karim R. Lakhani

Kate Wilson, retail analytics manager at Flashion, a fashion flash-sale site, is tasked with developing analytics to optimize pricing for first-exposure products on the site. Many in the industry have relied on years of experience and intuition to determine pricing—can... View Details

Keywords: Analytics; Pricing; Data; Service Operations; Forecasting and Prediction; Internet and the Web; Technology Adoption; Mathematical Methods; Decision Making; E-commerce; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; United States

19 Nov 2018
Sharpening Your Skills

E-Santa: Is Retail Ready for Digital Christmas?

carlballou Most industries are in major digital upheaval, but retail particularly seems in some kind of disruptive spin-cycle. As the retail season eneters its most crucial time of year, we take a deep... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

May 2003
Background Note

How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts?

By: V.G. Narayanan

Describes how the lack of incentive alignment between retailers and their vendors can lead to stockouts. Also describes various means to reduce incentive misalignment and hence stockouts. View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Supply Chain Management; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Distribution; Alignment; Business Strategy; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Retail Industry

July 2005 (Revised February 2011)
Case

Tanpin Kanri: Retail Practice at Seven-Eleven Japan

By: Rajiv Lal and Arar Han

Toshifumi Suzuki, chairman and CEO of Seven and I Holding Co., was widely credited as the mastermind behind Seven-Eleven Japan's spectacular rise. Although Seven-Eleven Japan began as a small licensee of U.S. convenience store chain 7-Eleven, Inc. (then Southland... View Details

Keywords: Framework; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Practices and Processes; Demand and Consumers; Distribution; Logistics; Technology; Retail Industry; Japan

02 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

Retail Reaches a Tipping Point—Which Stores Will Survive?

In this three-part series, we start with an overview of why retail experts Rajiv Lal, José B. Alvarez, and Dan Greenberg believe retail is at an inflection point. In Part Two, coming next week, they identify... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

Research Summary

The Role of Suggested Pricing in Retail

Does a $100 shirt seem more valuable when its price tag shows a 50 discount off an original price of $200? Pricing information in retail settings often has three components: an original price, a percent discount, and the final price. Little empirical evidence exists... View Details

March 2011
Background Note

Customer Loyalty Schemes in the Retail Sector

By: Jose B. Alvarez and Aldo Sesia

Customer loyalty schemes (or programs) are explicit efforts by retailers to gain long-term patronage from customers. Loyalty schemes are developed for a variety of reasons: to reward loyal customers, to generate more robust information about customer behavior, to... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Consumer Behavior; Business Strategy; Retail Industry; United Kingdom; United States

Article

Regulation and UK Retailing Productivity: Evidence from Microdata

By: Jonathan Haskel and Raffaella Sadun

We explore the effects of planning regulation on the UK retail sector between 1997 and 2003 using micro-data from the UK census. We document a shift to smaller shops following a 1996 regulatory change that increased the costs of opening large stores. Our analysis... View Details

Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Performance Productivity; Growth and Development; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Change; Cost; Retail Industry; United Kingdom

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January 2021
Exercise

E-Commerce Analytics for CPG Firms (B): Optimizing Assortment for a New Retailer

By: Ayelet Israeli and Fedor (Ted) Lisitsyn

The E-Commerce Analytics group at the traditional CPG firm was in charge of compiling various online sales reports, as well as making data-driven recommendations for sales and marketing tactics. In a series of exercises, students address different data challenges for... View Details

December 1981 (Revised October 1985)
Case

Computer Retailing at Macy's California

By: Hirotaka Takeuchi

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Marketing; Retail Industry; California

07 May 2018
Research & Ideas

Why Online Retailers Should Hide Their Best Discounts

New advice for online retailers suggests bargain items should not be too easy for shoppers to find. (Matjaz Slanic) Retailers have long known where to put the bargain bin—in the back of the store, where... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Retail

10 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

The Surprising Winners and Losers in the Retail Revolution

The new book Retail Revolution: Will Your Brick-and-Mortar Store Survive? lays out the thesis that traditional store-front retailing is at an inflection point, under tremendous pressure from ecommerce and... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

July 2020
Article

Who Should Select New Employees, Headquarters or the Unit Manager? Consequences of Centralizing Hiring at a Retail Chain

By: Carolyn Deller and Tatiana Sandino

We examine how changing the allocation of hiring decision rights in a multiunit organization affects employee-firm match quality, contingent on a unit’s circumstances. Our research site, a U.S. retail chain, switched from a decentralized hiring model (hiring by... View Details

Keywords: Control; Selection; Decentralization; Company Values; Retail Chains; Employees; Selection and Staffing; Local Range; Business Headquarters; Decision Making

2019
Working Paper

Who Should Select New Employees, Headquarters or the Unit Manager? Consequences of Centralizing Hiring at a Retail Chain

By: Carolyn Deller and Tatiana Sandino

We examine how changing the allocation of hiring decision rights in a multiunit organization affects employee-firm match quality, contingent on a unit’s circumstances. Our research site, a US retail chain, switched from a decentralized hiring model (hiring by business... View Details

Keywords: Control; Selection; Decentralization; Company Values; Retail Chains; Decision Making; Economics; Geography; Employees; Selection and Staffing; Organizational Design; Situation or Environment; Retail Industry

SSRN

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fall 1991
Article

Restoring Credibility to Retail Pricing

By: G. K. Ortmeyer, J. A. Quelch and W. J. Salmon

Keywords: Sales; Price

01 Aug 2016
Research & Ideas

Retail Execs Underplay Current Performance to Investors--but Why?

Retail executives aren’t always giving stockholders the straight scoop about the financial standing of their companies in comments around earnings announcements—and some may be providing misleading information, potentially for their own... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Financial Services

2014
Book

Retail Revolution: Will Your Brick & Mortar Store Survive?

By: Rajiv Lal, Jose B. Alvarez and Dan Greenberg

In Retail Revolution, the authors go beyond the common belief of retail as a monolithic industry and provide a framework that any brick-and-mortar retailer can use to respond to the eCommerce threat. Through six examples, this book demonstrates how this... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Internet and the Web; Marketing Strategy; Distribution Channels; Retail Industry