Publications

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April 2025 (Revised April 2025)
Case

Radical Transformation at Bayer: Dynamic Shared Ownership

By: Boris Groysberg and Gamze Yucaoglu

In 2023, Bill Anderson became CEO of Bayer AG, a 160-year-old life sciences giant looking to strengthen its pharma pipeline, manage debt, and cut through bureaucracy. His bold response: Dynamic Shared Ownership (DSO), a radical model replacing traditional hierarchies... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Business Strategy; Alignment; Innovation and Management; Organizational Structure; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

2014
Working Paper

Bio-Piracy or Prospering Together? Fuzzy Set and Qualitative Analysis of Herbal Patenting by Firms

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury and Tarun Khanna

Since the 1990s, several Western firms have filed patents based on medicinal herbs from emerging markets, evoking protests from local stakeholders against 'bio-piracy'. We explore conditions under which firms and local stakeholders share rents from such patents. Our... View Details

Keywords: Rents From New Technology; Local Stakeholders; Herbal Patents; QCA; Fuzzy Set Analysis; Qualitative Case Studies; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Patents; Emerging Markets; Health Care and Treatment; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

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December 2013 (Revised July 2015)
Case

VP Group: Vegpro Grows Beyond Kenya

By: Jose Alvarez and Natalie Kindred

In 2013, Kenyan horticulture producer and exporter VP Group is weighing potential expansion opportunities against the growing risks in its production and export markets. With $121 million in 2012 revenues, VP Group has grown rapidly in recent years by expanding its... View Details

October 2012
Supplement

Aqua Bounty Courseware

By: Lucy White and Steve Burn-Murdoch

Valuation of a pre-revenue biotech company at IPO using probability trees and real option techniques. Company is based in Massachusetts and lists in London on AIM. Products are genetically-modified fast-growing salmon for fish farmers and disease-prevention drugs and... View Details

Keywords: IPO; Valuation; Real Options; Decision Tree; Biotech; Genetically Modified; Salmon; Entrepreneurship; Finance; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; North and Central America; Europe; South America

February 2001 (Revised August 2003)
Case

United Grain Growers Limited (A)

By: Peter Tufano and Joshua Musher

United Grain Growers Ltd. (UGG), a Canadian grain distributor, audited its exposure to a number of key risks, especially the impact of weather on grain volumes and operating income. Understanding these risks was crucial because the company was in the midst of a major... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Weather; Distribution Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Canada

February 1999
Teaching Note

Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.: Supply Management TN

By: Francis Aguilar, Paul Clark and Xin Xi He

Teaching Note for (9-898-238) and (9-898-239). View Details

Keywords: Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

November 1994 (Revised September 1996)
Case

RiceSelect

By: Alvin J. Silk and Mary Shelman

In August 1994, Robin Andrews, President of RiceTec, Inc., faces a critical decision that will affect his firm's future: what policy should RiceTec follow for supplying grocery retailers with private label merchandise? RiceTec, a small privately owned firm engaged in... View Details

Keywords: Cash Flow; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Supply Chain Management; Private Ownership; Research and Development; Conflict Management; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

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01 Jun 2000
News

The Business of Biotech

Goldberg, the School's George M. Moffett Professor of Agriculture and Business, Emeritus, suggest that traditional boundaries between businesses will continue to dissolve, resulting in "the largest industry in the world: the life-sciences... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna

01 Jun 2012
News

Made in the USA

Jim Knott's Aquamesh lobster traps set a new standard for durability, quickly supplanting the wooden traps used by generations of lobstermen. Chinese knockoffs failed to match Aquamesh's patented process. Will business leaders reconnect with their communities and do... View Details

Keywords: Blagg, Deborah; cheese; lobster fishing; Agriculture; Agriculture; Agriculture; Agriculture; Agriculture; Agriculture

February 2014
Case

BGI: Data-driven Research

By: Willy Shih and Sen Chai

BGI has the largest installed gene-sequencing capacity in the world, and to Zhang Gengyun, general manager of the Life Sciences Division, this represented an opportunity to apply his training as a plant breeder and his early career work as a biochemist to improving... View Details

December 2020 (Revised April 2021)
Case

Arcos Dorados: A QSR Recovery Plan

By: Forest Reinhardt, José B. Alvarez, Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago and Mariana Cal

Arcos Dorados—McDonald’s largest independent franchisee, covering Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)—faced a pandemic that was disrupting the entire consumer foodservice business in 2020. With the exclusive right to own, operate, and sub-franchise McDonald’s... View Details

April 2020
Background Note

U.S. Food Retail During the Pandemic: March 2020

By: José B. Alvarez and Natalie Kindred

This note, written in late March 2020 and mainly U.S. focused, looks at the unfolding impact of the coronavirus pandemic on food retailers and their suppliers. It allows student to consider the challenges facing food retail executives as they navigate urgent supply... View Details

Keywords: Coronavirus Pandemic; Risk and Uncertainty; Risk Management; Food; Supply Chain; Consumer Behavior; Demand and Consumers; Trade; Crisis Management; Health Pandemics; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; United States

09 Apr 2021
News

Building a Resilient, Sustainable, and Nourishing Global Food System

Keywords: Agriculture; Agriculture; Agriculture; Agriculture; Agriculture

06 Aug 2007
Research & Ideas

High Hills, Deep Poverty: Explaining Civil War in Nepal

Everest, the hilly regions, and then the Himalayan foothills, which contains most of the good agricultural land. Economically there are huge variations, too. Nepal is a poor country: GDP is only around $270 a year, and right before the... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

19 Dec 2017
First Look

New Research and Ideas, December 19, 2017

term scale and scope. Though tractors are now used in nearly every agricultural field operation and in the production of nearly all crops, they first developed with much more limited application. Early diffusion was accordingly rapid in... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

20 Oct 2015
First Look

October 20, 2015

board. The fund had previously published a public letter addressed to shareholders outlining its proposal to break the company into three areas: agriculture and nutrition, industrial materials, and performance chemicals and criticizing... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 2006
Supplement

Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (B)

By: James K. Sebenius and Ellen Knebel

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

December 1986 (Revised March 1991)
Supplement

Caterpillar-Komatsu in 1986

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Provides an update to the global competitive interaction between Caterpillar and Komatsu described in companion cases Caterpillar Tractor and Komatsu Ltd. Caterpillar's response to Komatsu's growing market share is outlined, then the impact of rapidly changing... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Currency Exchange Rate; Price; Global Strategy; Policy; Market Participation; Strategy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry