Publications

April 2006 (Revised October 2006)
Case

Best Buy Co., Inc.: Customer-Centricity

By: Rajiv Lal, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Irina Tarsis

With FY2005 sales of $27.3 billion, Richfield, Minn.-based Best Buy Co., Inc. was the leading retailer of consumer electronics, home-office products, and related services in North America. Its operations included the distinct store formats Best Buy, Future Shop in... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Service Operations; Business Earnings; Financial Crisis; Failure; Business Model; Leadership; Segmentation; Value Creation; Electronics Industry; United States; Canada; Mongolia

08 Feb 2011
First Look

First Look: Feb. 8

prices. Implications for research on the substantive and symbolic effects of inter-organizational affiliations are discussed. Management and the Financial Crisis (We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us.)... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 1997 (Revised February 1998)
Case

Finansol

By: James E. Austin, Roberto Gutierrez, Marc Labie and Enrique Ogliastri

Finansol, created to provide loans to micro-entrepreneurs, encountered considerable difficulties after rapidly growing to become the biggest micro-enterprise lender in Colombia. Major restructuring was required to rescue it. View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Microfinance; Crisis Management; Problems and Challenges; Social Enterprise; Financial Services Industry

Find at Harvard

02 Aug 2011
First Look

First Look: August 2

Publication:American Economic Journal: Economic Policy (forthcoming) Abstract We examine the differential response of establishments to the recent global financial crisis with particular emphasis on the role... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

25 Oct 2006
Op-Ed

Fixing Executive Options: The Veil of Ignorance

The latest corporate governance crisis is buried in the details of executive compensation contracts. Don't like the timing of the stock option grant you got or the strike price of the contract? No worries! It turns out that this is... View Details

Keywords: by Mihir Desai & Joshua Margolis

07 Apr 2011
What Do You Think?

When Should the Public Sector Take Over in a Meltdown?

superior," noting that this may be the case only when there is a "threat of widespread panic" or "when a crisis breaks down an entire system (like the banking system)." Elaine Scheye would limit intervention only... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Energy; Utilities

August 26, 2009
Comment

Where Cash for Clunkers Ran Off the Road

By: John A. Quelch

Today, let us celebrate the end of an unjustifiable drain on the U.S. taxpayer: the Cash for Clunkers (C4C) program.

True, C4C greatly boosted the number of consumers visiting car dealers. Doubtless, some new cars were sold to consumers who thought they... View Details

Keywords: Government Programs; Environmental Impact; Government Waste; Customer Behavior; Economic Growth; Economy; Financial Crisis; Government and Politics; Leadership; Marketing; Programs; Value; Auto Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Public Administration Industry; United States

Read Now

March 2010 (Revised May 2013)
Supplement

Chile's Copper Surplus: The Road Not Taken (B)

By: Laura Alfaro, Dante Roscini and Renee Kim

In 2009, Chile's Finance Minister Andres Velasco's fortunes had been reversed. His fiscal policy that had come under attack just a year ago had been used to finance a $4 billion fiscal stimulus package amid the global economic downturn. Velasco was now Chile's most... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Financial Crisis; Financial Strategy; Financing and Loans; Policy; Government and Politics; Chile

June 2013 (Revised September 2015)
Case

Procter & Gamble

By: Jay W. Lorsch and Kathleen Durante

On July 12, 2012, Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management announced publicly that it had purchased about $2 billion of Procter and Gamble (P&G) stock. Shares in the company closed up 3.75% the day the disclosure was made public. Ackman told the New York... View Details

Keywords: Ackman; P＆G; Pershing Square Capital Managment; Disruption; Management Succession; Crisis Management; Acquisition; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry

September 2010 (Revised August 2013)
Case

Liza Davis and the Bargain Hunting Customer

By: Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez and Lisa Brem

Liza Davis, an upscale women's fashion retailer, is reeling from worldwide recession and lower demand. Should the company target the fast-growing bargain hunter segment or hold the line on price discounts to preserve their brand image? Customer profitability... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Price; Product Positioning; Customer Value and Value Chain; Business Cycles; Financial Crisis; Profit; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Fashion Industry; Retail Industry

30 Sep 2014
First Look

First Look: September 30

regimes to meaningful transnational regulation. Publisher's link: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2178540 Working Papers The Real Effects of Capital Controls: Financial Constraints, Exporters, and Firm Investment By: Alfaro, Laura, Anusha... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2010
Case

Target: Responding to the Recession

By: Ranjay Gulati, Rajiv Lal and Cathy Ross

Within 10 months of Gregg Steinhafel's taking over as CEO at Target, the U.S. was mired in the most significant economic downturn in 50 years. Top competitor Wal-Mart had positioned itself well for the crisis, while Target's same store sales began to slide. While... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Strategy; Operations; Brands and Branding; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Competition; Retail Industry; United States

04 Sep 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, September 4, 2018

the universal bank had long been disputed. After 2008, the financial crisis and subsequent Great Recession damaged many global and domestic financial services firms. While the... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

30 Jun 2020
Book

Capitalism Is More at Risk Than Ever

over as Unilever’s CEO less than two years earlier, in January 2009, when the company was reeling from the global financial crisis and its stock price was down 35 percent year-over-year. The company’s... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

June 2010
Teaching Note

Australia: The Riches and Challenges of Commodities (TN)

By: Laura Alfaro and Renee Kim

Teaching Note for 709007. View Details

Keywords: Futures and Commodity Futures; Financial Crisis; Demand and Consumers; Trade; Natural Environment; Business and Government Relations; Policy; Growth and Development Strategy; Australia

11 May 2011
Research & Ideas

Building a Better Board

decisions that come before the board," Kaufman says. "One lesson from the recent global financial crisis was that some financial institution boards had few directors... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

10 Mar 2014
Research & Ideas

Counting Up the Effects of Sarbanes-Oxley

Financial Executives Research Foundation found that 83 percent of large company CFOs agreed that SOX had increased investor confidence, with 33 percent agreeing that it had reduced fraud. And yet—the View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Accounting; Banking

March 2022 (Revised February 2023)
Case

Sunōmi Switchel: Time to Switch?

By: Lindsay N. Hyde, Shani Carter McKinney and Alexandra Horvitz

Nicole Blank has bootstrapped her functional beverage company, Sunōmi Switchel, to contracts with leading grocery retailers. She is now faced with a series of choices for if and how to continue to grow the business. View Details

Keywords: Startup; Start-up; Startup Management; Burnout; Entrepreneur; Entrepreneurial Journey; Bootstrap; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Startups; Crisis Management; Financial Condition; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; District of Columbia