Publications

Article

Strategic Management of Product Recovery

By: Michael W. Toffel

Manufacturers of an expanding range of durable products are facing regulatory and market pressures to manage the products they manufactured upon their end of life (EOL). In part, this attention is motivated by a growing number of countries—especially across Europe and... View Details

Keywords: Product; Environmental Sustainability; Cost Management; Government Legislation; Logistics; Risk and Uncertainty; Strategy; Europe; Asia; United States

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02 Feb 2015
Research & Ideas

Disruptors Sell What Customers Want and Let Competitors Sell What They Don’t

not going to compete by building a car manufacturing supply chain, a telephony network or a big retail footprint. We are going to use that available infrastructure to our advantage. These startups are like fleas on the backs of dinosaurs... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

02 Mar 2015
News

To Market, To Market

building an agricultural and market infrastructure in places—like parts of Nepal, Romania, Haiti, and Guatemala—where little or none has previously existed. “The way we do this is through value-based development, where we engage farmers in wealth-creating value View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley; Agriculture; Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations; Personal Services

18 Jul 2018
Blog Post

Amira Rashad: An Ambidextrous Mind Meets Consumer Needs in the Middle East

focusing the consumer experience on the shopping list, "we know what the customer is going to buy 70 to 80 percent of the time," says Amira. That knowledge informs BulkWhiz's supply chain management, giving... View Details

13 May 2019
Research & Ideas

The Unexpected Way Whistleblowers Reduce Government Fraud

Business School Working Knowledge. [Image: FangXiaNuo] Related Reading: Can Decades of Military Overspending be Fixed? The Secret Life of Supply Chains Can Paying Firms Quicker Affect Aggregate Employment?... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Service; Construction

05 Aug 2008
First Look

First Look: August 5, 2008

http://papers.nber.org/papers/w14189 Cross-Functional Alignment in Supply Chain Planning: A Case Study of Sales and Operations Planning (revised) Authors:Rogelio Oliva and Noel H. Watson Abstract In most... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

29 Jun 2007
First Look

First Look: June 29, 2007

will be correlated with their types to achieve separation. The model's results have implications for various marketing communication tools such as advertising and sales forces. Motivating Supply Chain... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

01 Mar 2009
News

Damon Silvers

policymaker in Europe last week, and he confirmed the Japanese auto industry’s belief that its supply chain in the United States would be disrupted should the three automakers fail. That’s because key... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; Administration of Economic Programs; Government; Transportation Equipment Manufacturing; Manufacturing; Transportation

23 Aug 2019
Blog Post

A Summer of Peaks and Swells: Interning at Patagonia

company -- we’re fighting the good fight. This past year Patagonia changed its mission to: “we’re in business to save our home planet.” The company is constantly working to improve its supply chain and... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Consumer Products / Retail

2019
Working Paper

Golden Opportunity? Voluntary Sustainability Standards for Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

By: Kristin Sippl

While much is known about voluntary sustainability standards' contributions to certain issues in certain sectors, less is known about their contributions to the realization of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper helps balance the... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability Standards; Gold; Certification; Eco-labeling; International Law; Extractive Industries; Fair Trade; United Nations; Sustainable Development; Environmental Sustainability; Standards; Adoption; Governance; Global Range; Luxury; Mining Industry

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2003
Article

Closing the Loop: Product Take-back Requirements and their Strategic Implications

By: Michael W. Toffel

In Asia, Europe, and North America, regulators are seeking to reduce waste disposal and develop recycling markets by requiring manufacturers to manage the end-of-life disposition of products they produce. Such policies attempt to "close the loop" for products ranging... View Details

Keywords: Wastes and Waste Processing; Energy Conservation; Product Development; Strategy; Policy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Manufacturing Industry; Asia; Europe; North and Central America

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July 2009 (Revised January 2014)
Case

Sustainability at Millipore

By: Michael W. Toffel and Katharine Lee

This case describes Millipore Corporation's approach to becoming a more environmentally sustainable company. As he prepared for his quarterly meeting with the CEO, the Director of Sustainability needed to develop positions on several issues. Tactically, he needed to... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Corporate Disclosure; Operations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Organizational Structure; Natural Environment; Environmental Sustainability; Pollutants

04 Oct 2004
What Do You Think?

Does Speed Trump Intellectual Property?

decision-empowered, and experienced teams with limited senior management review and oversight. Fast competitors were often "leaders" of supply chains in which speed was emphasized over cost,... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

November 2024
Case

Fyffes International SA

By: David E. Bell, Damien McLoughlin and Tonia Labruyère

Helge Sparsoe, CEO of Fyffes since 2020, had taken the tropical produce importer and distributor back to a path of stable level of profitability since he joined in 2020. He was now thinking about next steps for the business, which mainly traded in bananas. He was... View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Change Management; Environmental Sustainability; Brands and Branding; Demand and Consumers; Supply Chain; Competition; Price; Value Creation; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Switzerland; United Kingdom; Republic of Ireland; Colombia; Guatemala; Costa Rica; Ecuador

May 2016 (Revised December 2016)
Case

Camposol

By: David E. Bell and Natalie Kindred

With $289 million in 2015 revenues, Camposol is a Peruvian grower, exporter, and marketer of fruits and vegetables, with a focus on the high-growth, high-margin blueberry category. Camposol aspires to become Peru’s first multinational branded produce company. It... View Details

March 2019 (Revised May 2019)
Case

Fetchr: A New Way of Last Mile Delivery

By: V.G. Narayanan and Eren Kuzucu

By mid-2016, five years of aggressive growth had transformed Fetchr from a small logistics startup to a 1,000-employee, full-fledged last-mile delivery company operating across four countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Already beneficiaries of the... View Details