Publications

March 2001 (Revised April 2002)
Case

Ginzel et al v. Kolcraft Enterprises et al (A)

By: Michael A. Wheeler

Examines the wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of an infant who died after a portable crib collapsed. The manufacturer, Kolcraft, licensed the Playskool brand name from the co-defendant, Hasbro Industries. Raises difficult questions about what the two... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Product; Negotiation; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Lawsuits and Litigation; Legal Liability; Brands and Branding; Consumer Products Industry; United States

11 May 2020
News

Professor Frances Frei talks Uber, WeWork & more

August 1994 (Revised December 1996)
Case

Astra Sports, Inc. (B)

By: John A. Quelch

Astra executives meet to discuss their options with a Venezuelan company that, for seven years, manufactured and marketed athletic shoes under the Astra name without authorization from Astra. View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Crime and Corruption; Brands and Branding; Manufacturing Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Sports Industry; Venezuela

20 May 2025
Blog Post

How Student-Proposed Internships Can Create Value

internships that wouldn’t exist through traditional recruiting channels. If your organization is contacted by an HBS student with a tailored proposal, it could be the start of a mutually valuable partnership. Read on for one student’s experience designing her own... View Details

Canary Categories—Journal of Marketing Research

Typically, past spending in a category is a positive indicator of future purchasing. In this we show that there exist categories (which we name "canary categories") in which the reverse is true -
When customers purchase... View Details

02 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

‘Retail Revolution’ Excerpt: The Scale of the Ecommerce Threat

book excerpt The Scale Of The Threat From Retail Revolution: Will Your Brick-and-Mortar Store Survive? By Rajiv Lal, José B. Alvarez and Dan Greenberg After years against the ropes, many retailers are fighting out of the corner: revisiting store layouts and shifting... View Details

Keywords: Re: Rajiv Lal; Retail

April 2013
Case

Sterling Household Products Company

By: William E. Fruhan and Craig Stephenson

Sterling Household Products manufactures and markets a broad line of consumer goods from laundry soap and cosmetics to cleaning, disinfecting, and sanitizing products. The company has many highly regarded brand names and consistently reports impressive sales and... View Details

29 Apr 2013
Research & Ideas

Diagnosing the ‘Flutie Effect’ on College Marketing

Boston College's greatest marketing campaign lasted about six seconds. It's called the "Flutie Effect." In a 1984 game against the University of Miami, BC quarterback Doug Flutie threw a last-second "Hail Mary" pass 48 yards that was miraculously... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Education; Advertising; Sports

05 Feb 2014
Research & Ideas

Can Putin Score Olympic Gold?

Rings'—capital T, capital R—are arguably one of the most recognized brand symbols in the world. By definition, companies want to cobrand with the Olympics, at least when they aren't laden with problems. Big View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Sports; Advertising

18 Jun 2014
Research & Ideas

Leading Innovation is the Art of Creating ‘Collective Genius’

Sparks" to develop the brand and a plan to change how employees experienced HCL. The group started with an icon, Thambi, which means "brother" in Tamil, symbolizing "the importance of the individual and the value of the collective" at... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

22 Dec 2020
Blog Post

The Forward Fellowship Convinced Me That I Belong at HBS

Hi, my name is Heather Jackson, and I am not supposed to be at Harvard Business School. No, I don’t mean I was an ‘admissions mistake’ (though every single admit, myself included, has thought this countless times). I mean, by every... View Details

February 2017 (Revised April 2018)
Case

Kameda Seika: Cracking the U.S. Market

By: Elie Ofek, Nobuo Sato and Akiko Kanno

In spring 2016, Kameda’s CEO, Michiyasu Tanaka, is facing difficult questions from board members over the lackluster performance of the company’s U.S. subsidiary. Kameda was the leading player in the Japanese rice cracker market and was looking to expand overseas to... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Adaptation; Performance Improvement; Food and Beverage Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Japan; United States

November 2022 (Revised February 2024)
Case

The Globalization of Manchester City Football Group

By: Maria P. Roche, Tiona Zuzul, Exequiel Hernandez and Amy Klopfenstein

This case describes the efforts of City Football Group (CFG) to purchase Esporte Clube Bahia (Bahia), a Brazilian professional soccer club. CFG’s strategy was to acquire under-performing clubs worldwide, invest money in high-profile players, and improve the teams’... View Details

April 2023 (Revised April 2025)
Case

Eike Batista: Making or Breaking Brazil

By: Geoffrey Jones, Pedro Magalhães, Daniel Tong and Marcel Anduiza

This case explores the meteoric rise and fall of Eike Batista, once Brazil’s richest person and the world’s seventh wealthiest in 2012. Batista began his career by investing in gold mining in the Amazon, using the network his father had built after years serving as... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Entrepreneurship; Investment; Energy Industry; Mining Industry; Brazil

10 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

The Surprising Winners and Losers in the Retail Revolution

three-part interview with Harvard Business School Marketing professors Rajiv Lal and José B. Alvarez, they discuss who is winning this revolution and which brands appear to be losing ground. Sean Silverthorne: Among the retailers you have... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

29 May 2013
Blog Post

Perks of the LVMH Family

we got a healthy dose of the quirky, fun brand’s personality. The reception area alone is a swift transport to all that is pink and sassy. Then we learned about the history of the brand, why its packaging and product names are so witty... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Products / Retail

Bharat N. Anand

Bharat N. Anand is the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning at Harvard University, and the Henry R. Byers Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.

Professor Anand is an expert in digital strategy, media and... View Details

Keywords: broadcasting; entertainment; information; media; motion pictures; music; publishing industry; sports; television

December 1997 (Revised April 1998)
Case

www.springs.com

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Melissa Dailey

Business Week's June 1997 "Rising Star" profile of Springs Industries' president and COO, Crandall Bowles, reported that she was poised to become one of the top two or three women executives in the country. In November 1997, the company announced Bowles' appointment to... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Operations; Product Marketing; Management; Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; South Carolina