Publications

May 2016 (Revised June 2017)
Case

India's Amul: Keeping Up with the Times

By: Rohit Deshpandé, Tarun Khanna, Namrata Arora and Tanya Bijlani

Amul is an Indian dairy cooperative founded in 1947—eight months before India's independence from British rule—and owned by over three million farmers in the state of Gujarat. It is India's largest food product marketing organization, selling 46 products, including... View Details

Keywords: Globalization; Expansion; Dairy; India; Cooperatives; Milk; Leadership; Agriculture; Agribusiness; Competition; Marketing; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; India

November 2005 (Revised September 2007)
Case

Beijing Hualian

By: David E. Bell and Mary L. Shelman

China's fifth largest domestic retailer faced intensifying competition from Wal-Mart and Carrefour with the opening of China's fast-growing retail market in January 2005. In response, Beijing Hualian developed a new "Family Store" format targeted at the nation's... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Product Positioning; Consumer Behavior; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Retail Industry; China

Find at Harvard

April 2012 (Revised February 2013)
Case

H-E-B: Creating a Movement to Reduce Obesity in Texas

By: Jose B. Alvarez, Jason Riis and Walter J. Salmon

In January 2012, H-E-B Grocery Co., a private retail chain with stores located in Texas and Mexico, was introducing its Healthy at H-E-B program to its customers. The program, which started with the company's employees a few years earlier, was an effort to educate and... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Profit; Leading Change; Customer Focus and Relationships; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Texas

February 2008
Case

Campbell Soup Company: Selling Channel Innovation to Customers

Campbell Soup, like most food manufacturers, faced grocery chain and wholesale demand for its goods driven by Campbell's own promotional pricing structure rather than retail consumer demand. Former policies to encourage overstock created huge swings in production and... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Distribution Channels; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

29 Sep 2014
Research & Ideas

Why Do Outlet Stores Exist?

having these stores and just having a sales rack in the back?" As a doctoral student in economics at Columbia, Ngwe was fascinated by the incredible range of products that retailers offer to consumers, and wondered just how this... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Retail; Retail; Retail

October 1994
Case

Campbell Soup Company: A Leader in Continuous Replenishment Innovations

Campbell Soup, like most food manufacturers, faced grocery chain and wholesale demand for its goods driven by Campbell's own promotional pricing structure rather than retail consumer demand. Former policies to encourage overstock created huge swings in production and... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Supply Chain Management; Logistics

31 May 2017
What Do You Think?

Can Amazon Do What Walmart Couldn’t, Stop the 'Wheel of Retailing'?

years later another colleague relies on Amazon for delivery of dog food to a remote location in Maine at a price comparable to the local supermarket.) There is no question that Bezos has built a retailing... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Retail

November 2023
Case

Chai Point

By: Rembrand Koning, Daniel W. Elfenbein and Kanika Jain

Chai Point was an Indian food and beverage company focused on chai. It started in 2010 as a retail store network but soon expanded to corporate offices by developing an IoT-enabled automatic tea and filter coffee machine. By 2023, Chai Point had 170 stores and 5000... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Food; Resource Allocation; Vertical Integration; Expansion; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; India

05 Jun 2007
First Look

First Look: June 5, 2007

roots to the present day, and examines the growth of Whole Foods Market in the context of the broader growth of the organic industry. Also investigates John Mackey's role as a founder and leader of the largest natural-foods View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

10 Apr 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research, April 10, 2018

Spring 2018 MIT Sloan Management Review The Store Is Dead—Long Live the Store By: Bell, David R., Santiago Gallino, and Antonio Moreno Abstract—In this article, we pursue two interconnected themes: the expansion of online-first retailers... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

06 Feb 2013
What Do You Think?

Is ‘Conscious Capitalism’ an Antidote to Income Inequality?

with a new name The ideas are feel good and to be desired but will fail in the market place which gives capital the primary (and therefore only) stake in the outcome of social human enterprise." Jan Fersubg said, "Whole Foods (an example... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

December 2003 (Revised January 2004)
Case

7-Eleven, Inc.

By: David E. Bell and Hal Hogan

Can 7-Eleven United States replicate the successful experience of 7-Eleven Japan in selling fresh foods through convenience stores? Describes the Japanese system and shows the steps the company is taking to try to achieve the same success in the United States. View Details

Keywords: Distribution; Adoption; Success; Sales; Food; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Japan; United States

January 2005 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Stonewall Kitchen

By: Myra M. Hart, Victoria Winston, Kristin Lieb, Kenna Wyllie Baudin, Alison Bell and Leslie Simmons

Jonathan King and Jim Stott, the founders of Stonewall Kitchen, started out in 1992 with a simple business selling jams and jellies at local farmers' markets. By 2004, they had grown the company into a $25 million organization with 250 employees. They expanded their... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Food; Expansion; Business Growth and Maturation; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; United States

December 2021
Case

Green Monday

By: José B. Alvarez, Billy Chan and Dawn H. Lau

This case describes the entrepreneurial journey of David Yeung, from campaigning for plant-based diets to building Green Monday, a purpose-driven business and an ecosystem based in Hong Kong comprising a retail platform, an alternative meat brand (“OmniPork”), a... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Social Enterprise; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Business Model; Mission and Purpose; Growth and Development Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Hong Kong; China; Asia

December 2009 (Revised June 2010)
Case

Ebro Puleva

By: David E. Bell, Antonio Garcia de Castro, Rocio Reina Paniagua and Mary Louise Shelman

Once Spain's largest sugar company, Ebro Puleva has been transformed through a series of international acquisitions into the world's largest package rice company and second largest pasta company. In 2009, Chairman Antonio Hernandez Callejas must decide how to proceed... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Financial Crisis; Globalized Firms and Management; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Brands and Branding; Consumer Behavior; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Spain

December 1980 (Revised February 1998)
Case

Burger King Corp.

By: W. Earl Sasser and David C. Rikert

Describes the operating system of a Burger King unit. The case does not have a decision focus; it is designed for use with McDonald's Corp. Students are asked to compare the operating systems of these two fast food hamburger chains. Careful analysis will detect the... View Details

Keywords: Food; System; Operations; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; United States

June 2024
Case

PRAN-RFL Group: A Diversified Family Business

By: Christina R. Wing, Paul Wuensche and Brittany L. Logan

The PRAN-RFL Group was founded in 1980 by Amjad Khan Chowdhury, and grew to become one of the largest conglomerates in Bangladesh in 2023. Throughout the years, Amjad established fast food chains, production manufacturing lines, retail stores, and his own foundation... View Details

Keywords: Business Conglomerates; Family Business; Management Succession; Family Ownership; Retirement; Bangladesh