Publications

June 2015 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Accor: Strengthening the Brand with Digital Marketing

By: Jill Avery, Chekitan S. Dev and Peter O'Connor

Accor, the world's leading hotel operator with a portfolio of fourteen hospitality brands (including Sofitel and Novotel) in 92 countries, prided itself on living up to its motto, "To open new frontiers in hospitality." Accor was indeed contemplating how to do just... View Details

Keywords: Digital; Hospitality; Branding; Brand Management; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Channels; Marketing Communications; Marketing Strategy; E-commerce; Accommodations Industry; Accommodations Industry; Accommodations Industry; Europe; France

June 2000
Case

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts

Four Seasons has a love/hate relationship with technology, including the best Web site in the industry. This case examines how a leading service delivers high-tech/high-touch, and looks at its progressive human resource strategy. View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Service Operations; Accommodations Industry

04 Feb 2022
Book

Beyond the Cold War: Reinventing Socialism in 5 Countries

global capitalist crisis,” which affected the Left by slowing its progress toward democratic power and “produced a revitalized extreme Left.” As the rise of industrial capitalism, aided by new technologies of transportation and... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

27 Nov 2000
Research & Ideas

The Dynamics of Standing Still: Firestone Tire & Rubber and the Radial Revolution

independent. "Firestone's historical excellence and disastrous response to global competition and technological innovation," writes Sull, "posed a paradox for industry observers: Why had the industry's best managed company... View Details

Keywords: by Donald N. Sull; Manufacturing; Transportation

09 Aug 2016
First Look

August 9, 2016

this case: https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/816702-HTM-ENG Harvard Business School Case 216-075 Reworking Office Space: Industry City, Brooklyn Jamestown is contemplating how to best lease a portion of their new development along... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

12 Nov 2013
First Look

First Look: November 12

an organizational innovation still in progress can be taken elsewhere and maintain essential ingredients while also accommodating local and state differences. It raises questions about the necessary conditions for diffusion and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 2016 (Revised March 2017)
Technical Note

Disintermediation in Two-Sided Marketplaces

By: Benjamin Edelman and Philip Hu

Two-sided marketplaces often risk disintermediation: users may rely on the marketplace to find each other but then perform related future transactions—or even the current transaction—without the platform’s involvement and without paying any fees the platform may... View Details

Keywords: Disintermediation; Strategic Behavior; Circumvention; Undercutting; Uber; Airbnb; Handy; Upwork; Etsy; eBay; Monster.com; Google; Competitive Strategy; Multi-Sided Platforms; Marketplace Matching; Transportation Industry; Transportation Industry; Transportation Industry; Transportation Industry

September 2013 (Revised August 2015)
Background Note

Leadership and Teaming

By: Ethan Bernstein

Small differences in the leadership of teams can have large consequences for the success of their efforts. Many initiatives fail not because of a fatal error in judgment or insufficient ideas, knowledge, motivation, or capabilities to deliver a solution. They fail... View Details

02 Aug 2016
First Look

August 2, 2016

than the underlying assets, funds engage in substantial liquidity management. Specifically, they hold substantial amounts of cash, which they use to accommodate inflows and outflows rather than transacting in the underlying portfolio... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

22 Jul 2019
Book

How to Be a Digital Platform Leader

century? Today, the world’s largest taxi company (Uber) owns no cars; the world’s largest provider of accommodations (Airbnb) owns no real estate; and the world’s largest retailer (Alibaba) owns no inventory. Modern platform thinking has... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

September 1992 (Revised March 1994)
Case

Warsaw Marriott: New Competition for Warsaw's Marriott Hotel

A very successful luxury hotel in Warsaw, Poland is faced with its first serious competition as new luxury hotels enter the Warsaw market. The case raises the general issue of how to sustain a competitive advantage in an international service business. A variety of... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Globalized Markets and Industries; Accommodations Industry; Poland

October 2001 (Revised November 2001)
Case

Club Med (C): The "Re-New" Plan

By: Frances X. Frei, Daniel Rethazy and Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar

Supplements the (A) and (B) cases. View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Industry Structures; Competitive Advantage; Organizational Culture; Cost; Customer Satisfaction; Accommodations Industry; United States

September 2020
Case

Getaway

By: Ryan W. Buell and Amy Klopfenstein

Since its founding, Getaway’s service offering – tiny, modern cabins in the woods, located within a two-hour drive of major metropolitan areas – had been met with tremendous demand. Overworked and overconnected city dwellers reveled in the opportunity to take a break... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Service Operations; Management; Demand and Consumers; Marketing; Strategy; Accommodations Industry

September 2017 (Revised January 2018)
Case

Innovation at Parker Hotels

By: Srikant M. Datar and Caitlin Bowler

In this case students explore challenges changing demographics and preference pose to global hotel brands. Students then use human-centered design tools to generate concepts hoteliers might embrace to win over Millennials who tend to seek out local over global options. View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Innovation and Invention; Problems and Challenges; Demographics; Strategy; Accommodations Industry

November 2012 (Revised November 2013)
Case

Generator Hostels: The Way Out

By: Nicolas P. Retsinas and Lisa Strope

Josh Wyatt, Director of Patron Capital Partners, needs to make an exit decision for a successful investment in Generator Hostels. After five years of explosive growth and in the middle of a financial crisis, Wyatt needs to evaluate Patron's alternatives: IPO the... View Details

Keywords: Hotel; Real Estate; Finance; Property; Accommodations Industry; European Union

November 2001 (Revised October 2017)
Supplement

GuestFirst Hotel (B): Taking Advantage of Panel Data

By: Frances X. Frei and Dennis Campbell

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Accommodations Industry

September 1992
Teaching Note

Fairfield Inn (A) TN

By: James L. Heskett

Teaching Note for (9-689-092). View Details

Keywords: Accommodations Industry

July 1991 (Revised May 1993)
Case

Fairfield Inn (B)

By: James L. Heskett

The manager of a Fairfield Inn located near a family entertainment center is requesting special consideration for a falling quality rating caused, in his opinion, by unusually high occupancy rates at his unit. The case raises questions about quality measurement,... View Details

Keywords: Entertainment; Measurement and Metrics; Performance Consistency; Quality; Strategy; Accommodations Industry

June 1989 (Revised May 1993)
Case

Fairfield Inn (A)

By: James L. Heskett

The Fairfield Inn, an economy hotel venture by the Marriott Corp., has developed a novel method for selecting and measuring the performance of its hotel personnel that fits the company's strategy. Because it faces the need to grow rapidly, questions have arisen as to... View Details

Keywords: Selection and Staffing; Innovation and Invention; Growth and Development Strategy; Franchise Ownership; Performance Evaluation; Corporate Strategy; Accommodations Industry