Publications

September 2003 (Revised January 2004)
Case

Wal-Mart Stores in 2003

By: Pankaj Ghemawat, Stephen P. Bradley and Ken Mark

Examines Wal-Mart's development over three decades and provides financial and descriptive detail of its domestic operations. In 2003, Wal-Mart's Supercenter business has surpassed its domestic business as the largest generator of revenues. Its international operation... View Details

Keywords: Wages; Fairness; Corporate Strategy; Operations; Labor Unions; Problems and Challenges; Gender; Globalized Firms and Management; Competitive Advantage; Retail Industry; United States

January 2022
Case

Walmart USA—Searching for Growth

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Maria P. Roche

In 2022, Doug McMillon, president and CEO of Walmart, and his team looked back at a difficult but ultimately successful past year. The global pandemic had posed enormous challenges, but the company had weathered the storm successfully, raising same-store sales growth,... View Details

Keywords: Health Pandemics; Growth and Development Strategy; Sales; Business Strategy; Business and Shareholder Relations; Retail Industry

01 Aug 2001
News

Richard B. Fisher (MBA '62)

Stanley as a powerful presence in the world of global finance. After graduating from Princeton in 1957 at the age of 20, Fisher worked for a time in the university's admissions office and as a trainee at the Insurance Company of North America in Philadelphia. He then... View Details

Keywords: Richard B. Fisher; Warren A. Law; Alumni Achievement Award; Finance; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management

April 2004 (Revised September 2004)
Case

IKEA Invades America

By: Youngme E. Moon

In 2002, the IKEA Group is the world's top furniture retailer, with 154 stores worldwide. In the United States, IKEA operates 14 stores, all of which have been enormously popular despite their self-service requirements. The company's goal is to have 50 stores in... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Brands and Branding; Product Positioning; Goals and Objectives; Competitive Advantage; Globalized Firms and Management; Retail Industry; United States

16 May 2000
Research & Ideas

Getting the Message: How the Internet is Changing Advertising

according to Forrester Research, a consulting firm specializing in e-commerce. Industry observers are shy to predict just what the future of advertising will look like, but they agree that the pace and enormity of changes that have come... View Details

Keywords: by Susan Young

28 Nov 2005
Research & Ideas

Unilever: Transformation and Tradition

and from its employment of nationals at senior levels. The upshot, seen in the case of the EU, was that Unilever had a "voice" in issues that concerned it, even if it was exercised discreetly through industry and other... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones; Consumer Products

Web

Case Studies - Social Impact Collaboratory

public school teachers (CalSTRS) was mandated by his board to “prioritize engagement with makers and retailers of firearms in California” following a series of gun-related tragedies in schools. While CalSTRS had a long history of... View Details

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

26 Jul 2022
Research & Ideas

Burgers with Bugs? What Happens When Restaurants Ignore Online Reviews

Farronato warns. In an industry with razor-thin margins, a few outdated but prominently displayed reviews could sink a restaurant for good. “One or two reviews can destroy their life,” she says. Plus, reviews aren’t representative of all... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin; Retail; Retail; Retail

15 Mar 2017
Lessons from the Classroom

More Than 900 Examples of How Climate Change Affects Business

This word cloud is composed of blog posts by more than 900 students describing how individual organizations are likely to be affected by climate change. Image by Patrick Clapp Last fall, first-year MBA students at Harvard Business School received a new assignment in... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Green Technology

April 2020 (Revised July 2020)
Case

Amazon in China and India

By: Krishna G. Palepu and Kairavi Dey

Amazon has been unsuccessful in its efforts to develop a business in China. Even though Amazon was an early entrant into China’s e-commerce space, its domestic rivals, especially Alibaba, created innovative business models uniquely suited for the conditions in China. ... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Emerging Markets; Business Strategy; Expansion; Business Model; Retail Industry; China; India; United States

06 Oct 2003
Research & Ideas

The Problem with Hedge Funds

way in which the market is changing against the interest of most investors.281 In 2001 the California Public Employees Retirement System, America's largest pension fund, put $1 billion into hedge funds. It was a major stamp of approval. Yet this is an View Details

Keywords: by D. Quinn Mills

01 Sep 2023
News

Global Outposts Expand HBS’s Intellectual Footprint

Since taking over as CEO of Tata Steel in 2013, T. V. Narendran had sought to transform India’s oldest steel manufacturing firm to ready it for a rapidly evolving business world. He instilled financial discipline, acquired new businesses, and launched digital... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Gillespie

Web

Research - Behavioral Finance & Financial Stability

U.S. checks appear to have increased retail buying and share prices of retail-dominated portfolios. The Hong Kong payments increased overall market turnover and share prices in Hong Kong and mainland Chinese markets, especially in... View Details

05 Feb 2019
News

The First Five Years: Karan Shah (MBA 2016)

further acquisitions to take PCL to the next level! With the ever-changing industry that we operate in, I look forward to the new challenges along this journey.” Can you tell us about MAYU and what motivated you and your wife to launch... View Details

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

November 2019 (Revised April 2020)
Case

Purple Innovation, Inc.: The Online to Offline Marketing Challenge

By: Elie Ofek and Nakisha Williams

This case focuses on Purple Innovation Inc. (Purple), a company that started out in the Direct to Consumer (DTC) mattress space. In late 2018, after a successful launch and IPO with sales predominantly originating from its website, Purple was looking to sustain its... View Details

Keywords: Offline Sales; Marketing Strategy; Digital Marketing; Growth and Development Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry

01 Jan 2012
News

Hiroshi Mikitani, MBA 1993

Chairman and CEO, Rakuten, Inc. Download Mikitani profile (pdf) Return to Alumni Achievement Awards main page TIMELINE 1965 Born, Kobe, Japan 1972 Family moves to United States for two years 1988 Earns commerce degree, Hitotsubashi University 1988 Joins View Details

September 2017 (Revised January 2019)
Case

FJ Management Inc.

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Matthew G. Preble

In late 2015, Crystal Call Maggelet, president and CEO of FJ Management, is working with her investment committee to help set the company’s strategic direction. Maggelet, daughter of the company’s founder, has led FJ Management since 2009 when she stepped in as CEO... View Details