Publications

January 2018 (Revised October 2021)
Case

Walmart Inc. takes on Amazon.com

By: David Collis, Andy Wu, Rembrand Koning and Huaiyi CiCi Sun

This case explores how Walmart should compete with Amazon. View Details

Keywords: Competitive Analysis; Strategy; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Retail Industry

02 Jun 2020
Research & Ideas

Coronavirus Careers: Cloud Kitchens Are Now Serving

The restaurant industry is one of those most devastated by COVID-19, and social distancing will continue to make many small restaurants unviable. Reduced revenue flows will never cover the rent. But not all is lost. In our research, one... View Details

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

January 2017 (Revised May 2019)
Case

Kjell and Company: Motivating Salespeople with Incentive Compensation (A)

By: Doug J. Chung

Kjell & Company was a Swedish retail electronics chain. The company’s products consisted of home electronics and accessories. The company was noted for its excellent customer service and a fair “one-for-all” HR policy. Historically, the salespeople had been compensated... View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management; Compensation and Benefits; Change; Decision Making; Electronics Industry; Sweden

July – August 2009
Article

The Descent of Finance

What if the current recession turns out to be like the Great Depression of 1929-1933? Four years from now, the United States might find itself with a still-shrinking economy, half as many banks as in 2009, a third as many hedge funds, and retail banking resembling a... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; International Finance; Globalized Economies and Regions; Business and Government Relations; Financial Services Industry

January 2024
Background Note

Evaluating Innovations in the Organization of Primary Care: What Type of Innovation Is It and How Well Does It Align with the Six Factors?

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and James Wallace

How can we evaluate if innovative health care ventures can do good—benefit society—and do well—become financially viable? This question is the topic of the first module in the Innovating in Health Care course book.

This note and "Health Stop (A): What Type... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Health Care and Treatment; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Mission and Purpose; Alignment; Health Industry

25 Feb 2020
News

Task Force

had experience with retail in emerging markets: Monroy, who is Colombian, worked for Procter & Gamble in Mexico for seven years, while Campbell held a number of positions at Walmart, with stints in India and China (which was “like going... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; gig economy; Retail Trade

11 Jul 2019
Sharpening Your Skills

Deconstructing 'Customer Experience'

Legendary Harvard Business School marketing professor Theodore Levitt warned his students and industry executives against “marketing myopia”—that is, adopting an insular marketing approach where the business puts its own needs ahead of... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail; Retail

28 Apr 2009
First Look

First Look: April 28, 2009

Industry Location and International Regulatory Variation Author:Arthur A. Daemmrich Publication:Chap. 16 in Ways of Regulating: Therapeutic Agents between Plants, Shops, and Consulting Rooms. Vol. 363, 271-290. Berlin, Germany: Max Planck... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

26 Oct 2022
Research & Ideas

How Paid Promos Take the Shine Off YouTube Stars (and Tips for Better Influencer Marketing)

desired outcome.” Deep dive into YouTube The influencer marketing machine is huge and growing. The industry was reportedly valued at $6 billion in 2020 and is projected to climb to $85 billion by 2028, the paper says, citing Globe... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin; Technology; Media & Broadcasting

08 Apr 2019
Sharpening Your Skills

The Life of Luxury and How to Sell It

Helena Rubinstein Used Tall Tales to Turn Cosmetics into a Luxury Brand Using guile, brilliant branding, and more than a few falsehoods, Helena Rubinstein lifted cosmetics from an accessory item for prostitutes to a great luxury product. A Luxury View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail; Retail; Retail

15 Jul 2014
First Look

First Look: July 15

(Search-Based Peers or SBPs) are fundamentally similar on multiple dimensions. In direct tests, SBPs dominate GICS6 industry peers in explaining cross-sectional variations in base firms' out-of-sample (a) stock returns, (b) valuation... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

Web

Impact of the New Medium - Edwin H. Land & Polaroid | Harvard Business School

introduced the Polaroid Land Camera, Model 95, and Land Film, Type 40, to the public. Edwin Land stood at a precipice, wondering whether the significant investment and research in his new product would pay off. Land had wisely kept his costs down by operating in the... View Details

October 2011
Case

Levendary Cafe: The China Challenge

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Arar Han

Just weeks into her new job, Mia Foster, a first time CEO with no international management experience, is faced with a major challenge at Levendary Cafe, a $10 billion US-based fast food chain. Strategically, many of her corporate staff have become concerned that the... View Details

Keywords: Globalization; International Management; Foreign Subsidiaries; General Managers; Strategy; Management Style; Strategic Planning; Business Subsidiaries; Multinational Firms and Management; Adaptation; Entrepreneurship; Relationships; Standards; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; China; United States

17 Dec 2008
Lessons from the Classroom

‘Ted Levitt Changed My Life’

later: "What business are you really in?" "An industry begins with the customer and his or her needs, not with a patent, a raw material, or a selling skill," wrote Levitt, citing the railroads as one example of a... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail; Retail

October 1992 (Revised September 1993)
Case

L.L. Bean, Inc.: Item Forecasting and Inventory Management

By: Arthur Schleifer Jr.

L.L. Bean must make stocking decisions on thousands of items sold through its catalogs. In many cases, orders must be placed with vendors twelve or more weeks before a catalog lands on a customer's doorstep, and commitments cannot be changed thereafter. As a result,... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Risk Management; Cost Management; Risk and Uncertainty; Demand and Consumers; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Retail Industry; United States

August 2013 (Revised July 2014)
Case

Coffee Wars in India: Café Coffee Day Takes On the Global Brands

By: David B. Yoffie and Tanya Bijlani

Café Coffee Day (CCD) is contemplating how to respond to the entry of Starbucks into the Indian coffee chain market. The case study describes the emergence of CCD as the leading coffee chain in India, with over 1,400 cafes in India. In early 2013, Starbucks, the... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Competitors; Competition; Market Entry and Exit; Retail Industry; India

24 Dec 2013
First Look

First Look: December 24

country-level factors that, by intensifying scrutiny on firms and diffusing global norms to their headquarters countries, limit firms' use of selective disclosure. We test our hypotheses using a novel panel dataset of 4,750 public companies across many View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

2020
Working Paper

Overcoming the Cold Start Problem of CRM Using a Probabilistic Machine Learning Approach

By: Eva Ascarza

The success of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) programs ultimately depends on the firm's ability to understand consumers' preferences and precisely capture how these preferences may differ across customers. Only by understanding customer heterogeneity, firms can... View Details

Keywords: Customer Management; Targeting; Deep Exponential Families; Probabilistic Machine Learning; Cold Start Problem; Customer Relationship Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Consumer Behavior; Analytics and Data Science; Mathematical Methods; Retail Industry

SSRN

January 2021 (Revised May 2021)
Case

Amazon Shopper Panel: Paying Customers for Their Data

By: Eva Ascarza and Ayelet Israeli

This case introduces a new Amazon program that has consumers upload their receipts from transactions outside of Amazon, in exchange for money. Through the discussion, the case aims to explore issues in customers’ privacy in the digital age, the value of customers’ own... View Details