Publications

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02 Jun 2020
Research & Ideas

Coronavirus Careers: Cloud Kitchens Are Now Serving

started out supplying a service to restaurants; now cloud kitchens are supplying a service to delivery firms. The appearance of cloud kitchens as suppliers for these delivery services has been sudden View Details

Keywords: by Lena Ye and Geoffrey Jones; Food & Beverage

April 2001 (Revised January 2003)
Case

Robert Shapiro and Monsanto

Traces Monsanto's efforts to become a global biotech powerhouse under Shapiro's leadership. Examines how his crusade to save the world through genetic modification foundered. View Details

Keywords: Genetics; Supply Chain Management; Alliances; Global Strategy; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Biotechnology Industry

December 2012 (Revised July 2013)
Case

The “Chongqing Model” and the Future of China

By: Meg Rithmire

Since opening to the global economy in 1979, but especially since entering the WTO in 2001, China's economy grew at rates around 10% annually by attracting FDI and promoting exports. After the financial crisis that began in 2008 and depressed demand in the United... View Details

Keywords: China; Public Sector; Private Sector; Developing Countries and Economies; Macroeconomics; Public Administration Industry; China

September 2023
Supplement

Accelerating with Caution: Forecasting and Managing birddogs’ Growth (B)

By: Mark Egan

As 2017 was drawing to a close, birddogs’ founder and CEO, Peter Baldwin, was working with his CFO Jack Sullivan to prepare for 2018. Their task at hand? To predict the demand for their product in the coming season, determine the appropriate investments in working... View Details

Keywords: Working Capital; Forecasting and Prediction; Expansion; Production; Apparel and Accessories Industry

March 2025 (Revised March 2025)
Case

Good for the Seller, Good for the Buyer and Good for Society: Sampo-yoshi, Sustainability and Trust at ITOCHU

By: Sandra J. Sucher and Bethelehem Y Araya

In 2024, ITOCHU CEO Masahiro Okafuji was at a crossroads. As the thirteenth CEO since ITOCHU’s founding in 1858, he had fueled the company’s growth since 2011 by bringing ITOCHU’s founding philosophy of Sampo-yoshi (good for the seller, good for the buyer and... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Trust; Profit; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Mission and Purpose; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Japan

15 Jun 2009
Research & Ideas

GM: What Went Wrong and What’s Next

government. This is a great deal for Magna, but terrible for Chevrolet. GM's best small cars are engineered (and some are manufactured) by Opel in Europe. But it's not just about design and engineering. The View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Auto

January 1990 (Revised November 1992)
Case

Product Proliferation and Preemption

Examines whether product proliferation can be used as a preemptive device--as alleged in the FTC's 1982 complaint against four manufacturers of ready-to-eat cereals. View Details

Keywords: Competition; Supply and Industry; Product Marketing; Consumer Products Industry

Drug copayment coupons to reduce patient cost-sharing have become nearly ubiquitous for high-priced brand-name prescription drugs. Medicare bans such coupons on the grounds that they are kickbacks that induce utilization, but they are commonly used by... View Details

01 Sep 2003
News

Incentives and Operational Excellence

on the retailer’s shelf, however, is less than $3. Demand for an individual movie is highly uncertain and usually declines rapidly after the first few weeks, Narayanan said. One contracting solution to... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools

17 Jun 2017
Research & Ideas

Amazon, Whole Foods Deal a Big Win for Consumers

Source: 400tmax Editor's Note. Online retailing behemoth Amazon announced June 16 that it would acquire upscale grocery chain Whole Foods Market in a deal valued at more than $13 billion. Though the company has dabbled with the idea of a brick-and-mortar footprint in... View Details

Keywords: by Jose Alvarez and Len Schlesinger; Retail

August 2019
Case

Kazakhstan Railways: From the Middle of Nowhere to a Center of Trade?

By: Willy Shih and Esel Çekin

This case describes the evolution of Kazakhstan's rail connectivity strategy post-collapse of the Soviet Union and its now central role in China's Belt and Road Initiative. This meant shifting from a north-south orientation towards an east-west one, as well as the... View Details

Keywords: Geopolitics; China’s Infrastructure Exports: The ‘Belt And Road’ Initiative; Logistics; Trade; Economic Growth; Geopolitical Units; Geography; Rail Transportation; Rail Industry; Transportation Industry; Central Asia; Kazakhstan; China

2014
Chapter

Clusters of Entrepreneurship and Innovation

By: Aaron Chatterji, Edward Glaeser and William R. Kerr

This chapter reviews recent academic work on the spatial concentration of entrepreneurship and innovation in the United States. We discuss rationales for the agglomeration of these activities and the economic consequences of clusters. We identify and discuss policies... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Agglomeration; Clusters; Place Making; Industry Clusters; Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention; United States

June 2022
Article

The Welfare Effects of Peer Entry in the Accommodation Market: The Case of Airbnb and the Accommodation Industry

By: Chiara Farronato and Andrey Fradkin

We study the effects of enabling peer supply through Airbnb in the accommodation industry. We present a model of competition between flexible and dedicated sellers—peer hosts and hotels—who provide differentiated products. We estimate this model using data from major... View Details

Keywords: Peer To Peer; Airbnb; Digital Platforms; Market Entry and Exit; Competition; Accommodations Industry

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February 2004
Case

Bradman and Tendulkar, LLC

By: Ananth Raman and Vishal Gaur

An investment firm is trying to project inventory turns for Radio Shack, a chain of consumer electronics stores. The investment firm has access to public financial data but not to internal operational metrics. It needs to project inventory turns because inventory... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Cash Flow; Demand and Consumers; Distribution Channels; Mathematical Methods; Valuation

February 2025
Case

Abiomed: Clinical Trials and Tribulations

By: Satish Tadikonda, Faith Robertson and William Marks

After receiving 510(k) clearance for the Impella 2.5 device, Abiomed had proceeded to conduct a premarket approval (PMA) process as well to prove clinical superiority, earn greater protection, and extend commercial runway. However, in the middle of the clinical trial... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Disclosure; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Health Testing and Trials; Product Launch; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

Article

The Profits of Power: Commerce and Realpolitik in Eurasia

By: Rawi Abdelal

Although the energy trade is the single most important element of nearly all European countries' relations with Russia, Europe has been divided by both worldview and practice. Why, in the face of the common challenge of dependence on imported Russian gas, have national... View Details

Keywords: Performance; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Globalized Firms and Management; Profit; Framework; Corporate Strategy; Innovation and Invention; Policy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Crisis Management; Government and Politics; Energy Industry; Europe; Russia; France; Germany; Italy

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21 Aug 2000
Research & Ideas

Inside the OR: Disrupted Routines and New Technologies

which surgeons receive information from direct sensation, MICS calls for team members to supply the surgeon with vital information displayed on digital and visual monitors in the OR," write Edmondson,... View Details

Keywords: by Hilah Geer

2012
Working Paper

Information Technology and Boundary of the Firm: Evidence from Plant-Level Data

By: Chris Forman and Kristina McElheran

We study the relationship between different margins of information technology (IT) use and vertical integration using plant-level data from the U.S. Census of Manufactures. Focusing on the short-run decision of whether to allocate production output to downstream plants... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Technology Adoption; Production; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Vertical Integration; Supply Chain; Manufacturing Industry; United States

April 2025
Article

Serving with a Smile on Airbnb: Analyzing the Economic Returns and Behavioral Underpinnings of the Host’s Smile

By: Shunyuan Zhang, Elizabeth Friedman, Kannan Srinivasan, Ravi Dhar and Xupin Zhang

Non-informational cues, such as facial expressions, can significantly influence judgments and interpersonal impressions. While past research has explored how smiling affects business outcomes in offline or in-store contexts, relatively less is known about how smiling... View Details

Keywords: Sharing Economy; Airbnb; Image Feature Extraction; Machine Learning; Facial Expressions; Prejudice and Bias; Nonverbal Communication; E-commerce; Consumer Behavior; Perception