Distribution Industry - Publications - Faculty & Research

November 2024 (Revised July 2025)
Case

Polish Agro: Where Do We Grow From Here?

By: Willy C. Shih, Lena Duchene and Daniela Beyersdorfer

By July 2024, Polish Agro had grown into one of Poland’s fastest-growing agribusinesses, with €230 million in revenue, 82 employees, and operations across Northern Poland. The company supported farmers with essential agricultural inputs like fertilizers and seeds,... View Details

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05 Nov 2007
Research & Ideas

The Changing Face of American Innovation

new research based on patent and trademark data by Harvard Business School professor William Kerr drills down to further identify the probable ethnic composition of U.S. inventors, the industries they influence, and the geographies they... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Technology

20 Mar 2007
First Look

First Look: March 20, 2007

firm-size distribution and de jure and de facto measures of international capital integration. We then explore causal channels through which foreign capital may encourage entrepreneurship. We find evidence that entrepreneurial activity in... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

March 2014
Teaching Note

Oral Rehydration Therapy

By: Nava Ashraf and Natalie Kindred

This Teaching Note accompanies the case "Oral Rehydration Therapy" (911-035). The case highlights the puzzlingly high rate of diarrhea-related child mortality in developing countries despite the existence of a simple, effective treatment: oral rehydration therapy... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Innovation Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Developing Countries and Economies; Technological Innovation; Distribution Channels; Emerging Markets; Consumer Behavior; Performance Consistency; Performance Evaluation; Health Industry; Africa; Asia

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November 2011
Case

Comfort Class Transport: Does Customer Service Need an Overhaul?

By: Michael J Roberts and Paul E. Morrison

The general manager of a chauffeured limousine transport company is concerned about underperformance at the company's customer service call center. The eight-person call center handles almost all customer interaction including discussing company services with... View Details

Keywords: Capacity Utilization; Supply ＆ Demand; Operations Management; Customer Service; Management; Demand and Consumers; Service Operations; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Performance Capacity; Customer Satisfaction; Transportation Industry

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09 Sep 2008
First Look

First Look: September 9, 2008

Schoar, Jialan Wang Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/09-024.pdf The Contingent Nature of Public Policy and Growth Strategies in the Early Twentieth-Century U.S. Banking Industry Authors:Christopher Marquis, Zhi Huang... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

August 1996 (Revised August 1997)
Case

TNT Limited's Logistics Services in Asia (A): The Strategy

By: Michael Y. Yoshino and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Meredith Hellicar's mission as general manager of corporate development is to make TNT Ltd. one of the biggest and most diverse transport and logistic companies in the world, with approximately $5 billion in turnover in 1993, a leading provider of logistics services in... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Managerial Roles; Distribution; Logistics; Mission and Purpose; Partners and Partnerships; Strategy; Diversification; Transportation Industry; Asia; China; Indonesia; Thailand

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04 Oct 2004
What Do You Think?

Does Speed Trump Intellectual Property?

these responses, is the value of intellectual property in all but a few instances or industries vastly overrated? Is the appropriate response to this dilemma to rethink processes to achieve speed as both a defense and an offense against... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

18 Oct 2011
First Look

First Look: October 18

the effective allocation of work. Cases & Course MaterialsSotheby's & Christie's Inc. Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and C.J. WiseHarvard Business School Case 710-412 The fine art auction business has remained a duopoly over its 250 year history. The View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

19 Feb 2008
Research & Ideas

Radical Design, Radical Results

the competitive advantage gained by how a product "speaks" to a customer is clear. Just think about how Apple began its resurrection in 1998 with the unthinkable design of computers made of translucent blue, orange, and pink plastic, the original iMac.... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Consumer Products

03 Mar 2008
First Look

First Look: March 4, 2008

of the recommended measures and sent the bill to the Governor for his signature. The life insurance industry objected, however, claiming that some of the new rules would reduce consumer choice and unnecessarily lower returns on company... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

13 Mar 2014
Research & Ideas

Can We Get To Where We Need To Go?

first time a wide range of top industry CEOs, government leaders, and customers of transportation services, was designed to help provide that purpose by assessing the state of the industry, identifying innovations both in technology and... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Transportation; Air Transportation; Auto

26 Jan 2016
First Look

January 26, 2016

stocks. Hold-to-maturity accounting of portfolio net asset value eliminates the majority of measured risk. A passive portfolio of small, low EBITDA multiple stocks with modest amounts of leverage and hold-to-maturity accounting of net asset value produces an... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

31 Mar 2002
Research & Ideas

You’re Wasting Your Employees! What You Can Do About It

companies today, capital is not the resource that constrains growth. Global capital markets have opened up the supply side, while widespread excess industry capacity has reduced the demand side. The recent reversals in some sectors... View Details

Keywords: by Christopher A. Bartlett & Sumantra Ghoshal

November 2014
Teaching Note

Marketing Marijuana in Colorado

By: John A. Quelch

The case, set in the middle of 2014, reviews the first six months of marketplace activity in Colorado, following the legalization of marijuana for recreational use and the expansion of marijuana retailing from medical dispensaries to recreational stores. The case... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Innovations; Retail Government Services; Public Health; Agribusiness; Customers; Goods and Commodities; Government and Politics; Health; Marketing; Society; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; North and Central America

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June 1999 (Revised May 2000)
Case

EndoSonics

EndoSonics is a manufacturer of a sophisticated medical device--a catheter that can take ultrasonic images within the blood vessels of the heart. The company deals with a series of challenges that relate to implementing a difficult technology in the face of a complex... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Distribution; Decision Choices and Conditions; Corporate Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Health Care and Treatment; Problems and Challenges; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry

Citation

Find at Harvard

May 25, 2016
Comment

How Consumers and Businesses are Reshaping Public Health

By: John A. Quelch

Healthcare and education are two issues in which citizens around the world, rich and poor, are passionately interested. It has long been appreciated that the way that a society treats its youngest and oldest members says much about its moral maturity. Economic... View Details

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09 Apr 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, April 9, 2019

Swiss Watchmaking By: Raffaelli, Ryan, and Richard DeJordy Abstract—This study examines how influential institutional leaders in the Swiss watch industry responded to its precipitous decline after the introduction of quartz technology.... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

August 2024
Case

Quickmart: Sustaining Growth in a Challenging Economic Environment

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Kuria Kamau

In July 2023, Peter Kang’iri, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Quickmart, Kenya’s second-largest retail chain, sat in his Nairobi office reviewing the company’s first half financial results before the weekly executive committee (EXCO) meeting. The company was in... View Details

Keywords: Distribution; Supply Chain; Logistics; Business Strategy; Expansion; Business Earnings; Growth and Development Strategy; Strategic Planning; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Africa; Kenya; Nairobi

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25 Sep 2007
First Look

First Look: September 25, 2007

Obscurity: An Individual-Level Examination of 'Long Tail' Consumption Author:Anita Elberse Abstract The idea that online channels facilitate the distribution of a vast assortment of products is undisputed, but what consequence the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

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Polish Agro: Where Do We Grow From Here?

The Changing Face of American Innovation

First Look: March 20, 2007

Oral Rehydration Therapy

Comfort Class Transport: Does Customer Service Need an Overhaul?

First Look: September 9, 2008

TNT Limited's Logistics Services in Asia (A): The Strategy

Does Speed Trump Intellectual Property?

First Look: October 18

Radical Design, Radical Results

First Look: March 4, 2008

Can We Get To Where We Need To Go?

January 26, 2016

You’re Wasting Your Employees! What You Can Do About It

Marketing Marijuana in Colorado

EndoSonics

How Consumers and Businesses are Reshaping Public Health

New Research and Ideas, April 9, 2019

Quickmart: Sustaining Growth in a Challenging Economic Environment

First Look: September 25, 2007

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