Publications

30 Jan 2022
News

From Just-In-Time To Just-In-Case: Is Excess And Obsolete Next?

01 Apr 2020
News

Facebook May Be Hit Harder Than You Think by COVID-19

August 1988 (Revised December 2000)
Case

Dunkin' Donuts (E): 1988 Distribution Strategies

Dunkin' Donuts is exploring various methods of increasing distribution. Possibilities involving new outlets include area development contracts, subfranchising, regional rollout strategies, and an increase in company owned stores. Possibilities focusing on existing... View Details

Keywords: Expansion; Franchise Ownership; Distribution Channels; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; United States

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

October 2006 (Revised October 2007)
Case

Information Technology and Innovation at Shinsei Bank

Shinsei Bank was rebuilt from the ashes of a failed predecessor, and pioneered new levels of customer service in retail banking in Japan. The bank's information technology, however, was vestigial at best and not well suited to the new service models Shinsei was... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Banks and Banking; Innovation and Invention; Banking Industry; Japan

02 Feb 2016
News

Hiring Star Salespeople Isn’t the Best Way to Grow

John D. Dionne

John D. Dionne has been a Senior Lecturer of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School since 2014 and is a recently retired Senior Managing Director and Senior Advisor to Blackstone. He is also Managing Partner of Franconia Capital, a... View Details

Myra M. Hart

Myra Hart's research focus is high potential entrepreneurship. She has taught MBA and executive programs, co-chaired the entrepreneurship unit, and led several HBS initiatives. As a founding memberView Details

Keywords: retailing; retailing; retailing; retailing; retailing

October 2023 (Revised March 2024)
Case

KOKO Networks: Bridging Energy Transition and Affordability with Carbon Financing

By: George Serafeim, Siko Sikochi and Namrata Arora

The problem was massive: two million hectares of African forests were lost annually to charcoal production for cooking, an area equivalent to 13 times Greater London, resulting in one billion tons of carbon emissions yearly. At the same time, an estimated 700,000... View Details

March 2022
Article

Learning to Rank an Assortment of Products

By: Kris Ferreira, Sunanda Parthasarathy and Shreyas Sekar

We consider the product ranking challenge that online retailers face when their customers typically behave as “window shoppers”: they form an impression of the assortment after browsing products ranked in the initial positions and then decide whether to continue... View Details

Keywords: Online Learning; Product Ranking; Assortment Optimization; Learning; Internet and the Web; Product Marketing; Consumer Behavior; E-commerce

February 2001
Case

BarnesandNoble.com (C)

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Dickson Louie and William A. Sahlman

At the end of 1999, Steve Riggio, the vice chairman and acting CEO of barnesandnoble.com, wonders what his company should do next against Amazon.com, the online retailer who is the leading online book seller in the United States. While barnesandnoble.com has been... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Internet and the Web; Diversification; Brands and Branding; Retail Industry

07 Nov 2016
HBS Seminar

Vishal Gaur, Johnson, Cornell University

10 Jul 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, July 10, 2018

Teixeira Abstract—Online retail accounts for a rapidly growing proportion of revenues in many industries. While selling online broadens firms’ access to consumers, operating margins are often lower in online stores than in physical... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

April 2021
Supplement

Buy Online, Pickup in Store: CEO Supplement

By: Antonio Moreno, Santiago Gallino and Amy Klopfenstein

In April 2019, Sylvarella CEO Sylvia Coparella must assess the impact of the company’s Buy Online, Pickup in Store (BOPS) program on her company’s overall sales. To do so, she must review analyses of both e-commerce and brick-and-mortar sales data and compare the... View Details

Keywords: Operations; Service Delivery; Logistics; Infrastructure; Distribution Channels; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Analysis; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; United States; Canada

January 2013 (Revised April 2013)
Case

Mutti S.p.a.

By: Jose B. Alvarez, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Mary Shelman

Francesco Mutti, owner, CEO, and great-grandson of the founder of Mutti Spa, ran the 113-year old Parma, Italy-based tomato-processing company. Mutti sales grew from €11 million in 1995 to €185 million in 2011, without producing for store brands in a market in which... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Strategy; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Family Business; Competitive Strategy; Global Strategy; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Italy

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

July 2007 (Revised August 2010)
Case

JP Morgan Partners - Cabela's Inc.

JP Morgan Partners (JPMP), the private equity arm of JP Morgan Chase, owned 15% of Cabela's, Inc., a hunting and fishing equipment retailer in the U.S. In June of 2003, founders Dick and Jim Cabela wanted to liquidate some of their holdings. However, Cabela's was not... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Private Equity; Financial Liquidity; Investment; Ownership Stake; Retail Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

March 2024
Teaching Note

Madrigal: Conducting a Customer-Base Audit

By: Eva Ascarza, Peter S. Fader, Bruce Hardie and Michael Ross

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 524-046. This case presents a scenario where Madrigal, a U.S. retailer with a rich 20-year history and a solid loyalty program, faces a turning point with the arrival of a new CEO. This leadership change reveals a critical gap in... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Analytics and Data Science; Growth and Development Strategy; Customer Value and Value Chain; Retail Industry; United States