Publications

Web

Black New Venture Competition and Black Tech Master Series Recap - MBA

Sciences Partners & Families Peek SVMP Social Enterprise Student Life Student Loans Student Profile Sustainability Video Blog Industries Industries Architecture Construction Consulting Consumer Packaged... View Details

Web

Introducing LivelyHood, A Volunteer Nonprofit Founded in Response to COVID-19 - MBA

Sciences Partners & Families Peek SVMP Social Enterprise Student Life Student Loans Student Profile Sustainability Video Blog Industries Industries Architecture Construction Consulting Consumer Packaged... View Details

01 Jan 2012
News

Hiroshi Mikitani, MBA 1993

Chairman and CEO, Rakuten, Inc. Download Mikitani profile (pdf) Return to Alumni Achievement Awards main page TIMELINE 1965 Born, Kobe, Japan 1972 Family moves to United States for two years 1988 Earns commerce degree, Hitotsubashi University 1988 Joins View Details

Web

Black Visionary Leadership and Redefining What's Possible - MBA

Sciences Partners & Families Peek SVMP Social Enterprise Student Life Student Loans Student Profile Sustainability Video Blog Industries Industries Architecture Construction Consulting Consumer Packaged... View Details

Web

8 Stories from PRIDE for National Coming Out Day - MBA

Sciences Partners & Families Peek SVMP Social Enterprise Student Life Student Loans Student Profile Sustainability Video Blog Industries Industries Architecture Construction Consulting Consumer Packaged... View Details

March 2011 (Revised June 2011)
Case

QuikTrip

QuikTrip, a large convenience store chain with over 500 stores, was known for its outstanding labor practices and fast, reliable, and friendly customer service. In November 2010, the CEO Chet Cadieux, had to decide how many new locations to open when QuikTrip entered a... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Employees; Growth and Development Strategy; Logistics; Service Delivery; Performance Effectiveness; Expansion; Retail Industry; United States

16 Dec 2021
Blog Post

African American Student Union Spotlight on STEM

The HBS African American Student Union (AASU) strives to be an extended family for its members from the moment they decide to attend HBS, through the transition to second year, and beyond graduation. Here we profile four AASU members with STEM backgrounds about their... View Details

Web

When Ideas Become Reality: Entrepreneurship at HBS - MBA

Sciences Partners & Families Peek SVMP Social Enterprise Student Life Student Loans Student Profile Sustainability Video Blog Industries Industries Architecture Construction Consulting Consumer Packaged... View Details

June 2004 (Revised September 2007)
Case

Zara: IT for Fast Fashion

In 2003, Zara's CIO must decide whether to upgrade the retailer's IT infrastructure and capabilities. At the time of the case, the company relies on an out-of-date operating system for its store terminals and has no full-time network in place across stores. Despite... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Customer Value and Value Chain; Information Management; Infrastructure; Supply Chain Management; Information Technology; Retail Industry

September 2003 (Revised January 2004)
Case

Wal-Mart Stores in 2003

By: Pankaj Ghemawat, Stephen P. Bradley and Ken Mark

Examines Wal-Mart's development over three decades and provides financial and descriptive detail of its domestic operations. In 2003, Wal-Mart's Supercenter business has surpassed its domestic business as the largest generator of revenues. Its international operation... View Details

Keywords: Wages; Fairness; Corporate Strategy; Operations; Labor Unions; Problems and Challenges; Gender; Globalized Firms and Management; Competitive Advantage; Retail Industry; United States

28 Nov 2005
Research & Ideas

Unilever: Transformation and Tradition

and from its employment of nationals at senior levels. The upshot, seen in the case of the EU, was that Unilever had a "voice" in issues that concerned it, even if it was exercised discreetly through industry and other... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones; Consumer Products

October 2017 (Revised November 2017)
Case

Lovepop

By: Robert F. White, Ramana Nanda and Olivia Hull

As they prepare to graduate from Harvard Business School, the co-founders of greeting card company startup Lovepop need capital to cover the company’s operating costs and must choose between two seed financing offers. One offer is from an angel group and the other from... View Details

Keywords: Accelerator; Incubator; Seed Financing; Convertible Debt; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Financing and Loans; Borrowing and Debt; Growth and Development Strategy; Valuation; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Boston; Massachusetts; United States

08 Dec 2015
First Look

December 8, 2015

increased service quality competition lead to customer defection, and which customers are most likely to defect? Our empirical analysis of 82,235 customers exploits the varying competitive dynamics in 644 geographically isolated markets in which a nationwide View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Sep 2023
News

Global Outposts Expand HBS’s Intellectual Footprint

at the company. He then turned his attention to the e-commerce platform the firm launched in 2018 to sell products directly to retail consumers. Now, as the case “Digital Transformation at Tata Steel” explains, Narendran had to decide... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Gillespie

16 May 2000
Research & Ideas

Getting the Message: How the Internet is Changing Advertising

according to Forrester Research, a consulting firm specializing in e-commerce. Industry observers are shy to predict just what the future of advertising will look like, but they agree that the pace and enormity of changes that have come... View Details

Keywords: by Susan Young

January 2022
Case

Walmart USA—Searching for Growth

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Maria P. Roche

In 2022, Doug McMillon, president and CEO of Walmart, and his team looked back at a difficult but ultimately successful past year. The global pandemic had posed enormous challenges, but the company had weathered the storm successfully, raising same-store sales growth,... View Details

Keywords: Health Pandemics; Growth and Development Strategy; Sales; Business Strategy; Business and Shareholder Relations; Retail Industry

Web

Relocating to Boston with Your Partner - MBA

Sciences Partners & Families Peek SVMP Social Enterprise Student Life Student Loans Student Profile Sustainability Video Blog Industries Industries Architecture Construction Consulting Consumer Packaged... View Details

April 2004 (Revised September 2004)
Case

IKEA Invades America

By: Youngme E. Moon

In 2002, the IKEA Group is the world's top furniture retailer, with 154 stores worldwide. In the United States, IKEA operates 14 stores, all of which have been enormously popular despite their self-service requirements. The company's goal is to have 50 stores in... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Brands and Branding; Product Positioning; Goals and Objectives; Competitive Advantage; Globalized Firms and Management; Retail Industry; United States