Publications

25 Mar 2018
News

When consumer packaged goods start acting like software

04 Mar 2024
What Do You Think?

Do People Want to Work Anymore?

selection is less important, training is reduced, along with compensation, and as a result, there is a high rate of turnover with more time spent on recruiting (but not necessarily training). Within weeks of the publication of the article, we received a letter from the... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

2007
Working Paper

A Taste For Obscurity: An Individual-Level Examination of 'Long Tail' Consumption

By: Anita Elberse

Because online retailers are often able to provide products in a more cost-efficient manner than bricks-and-mortar stores, online channels are characterized by a vast assortment of products. Proponents of the "long tail" principle recently argued that the demand for... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Consumer Behavior; Distribution Channels; Product; Renting or Rental; Online Technology; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Retail Industry

March 2018 (Revised March 2018)
Teaching Note

OpenInvest

By: Boris Vallee and Caitlin Reimers Brumme

Founded by a team of hedge fund and NGO alumni, OpenInvest launched its platform in 2015 to enable retail investors to tailor their portfolio to their personal values in an automated way, for instance by screening out weapon manufacturers stocks or overweighting LGBTQ... View Details

Keywords: Socially Responsible Investing; Investing For Impact; Robo-advisors; Investment; Values and Beliefs; Customization and Personalization; Technology; Financial Services Industry

09 Mar 2009
Research & Ideas

How to Revive Health-Care Innovation

networks arise, disrupting the old. Hence, disruptive business models such as value-adding process clinics, retail clinics, and facilitated networks must be married with disruptive innovations in insurance and reimbursement in order to... View Details

Keywords: by Clayton M. Christensen, Jerome H. Grossman, M.D. M.D. & Jason Hwang; Health

20 Nov 2012
First Look

First Look: November 20

Movement to Reduce Obesity in Texas Jose B. Alvarez, Jason Riis, and Walter J. SalmonHarvard Business School Case 512-034 In January 2012, H-E-B Grocery Co., a private retail chain with stores located in Texas and Mexico, was introducing... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

August 2001 (Revised November 2001)
Case

Vicinity Corporation: Turning Web Traffic into Store Traffic

By: Frances X. Frei, David Margalit and Amanda Yelsh

Vicinity uses its Internet and m-commerce technology to help drive traffic into its customers' physical distribution outlets. The company has terrific technology and is seemingly successful in getting more consumers into its customers' stores, yet it is in a precarious... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Consumer Behavior; Mobile and Wireless Technology

November 2022 (Revised October 2024)
Case

'A Marshall Plan for Africa': James Mwangi and Equity Group Holdings

By: Caroline M. Elkins, Debora L. Spar, Zeke Gillman and Julia M. Comeau

Financial Inclusion. Dignity. Trust. These were the core principles driving James Mwangi’s transformation of Equity Building Society, insolvent in 1991, into what is, today, Equity Group Holdings, East and Central Africa’s largest retail banking institution. Raised in... View Details

Keywords: Income Inequality; Micro Finance; Microcredit; Microfinance; Banks and Banking; Equality and Inequality; Mission and Purpose; Business Model; Social Entrepreneurship; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; Africa; Kenya

Web

Placement - Doctoral

(Chair), Ryan W. Buell , and Jordan Tong Caleb Kwon Technology & Operations Management, 2024 Placement: University of Texas at Austin, McCombs School of Business, Information, Risk and Operations Management Department Dissertation: Essays on Labor Productivity in View Details

2007
Working Paper

The 'Fees → Savings' Link, or Purchasing Fifty Pounds of Pasta

By: Michael I. Norton and Leonard Lee

Many consumers have had the experience of entering discount membership clubs to make a few purchases, only to leave with enough pasta to outlast a nuclear winter. We suggest that the presence of membership fees can lead consumers to infer a "fees → savings" link,... View Details

Keywords: Price; Profit; Spending; Consumer Behavior; Retail Industry

Read Now

July 2017
Article

What Do Measures of Real-Time Corporate Sales Tell Us About Earnings Surprises and Post-announcement Returns?

By: Kenneth A. Froot, Namho Kang, Gideon Ozik and Ronnie Sadka

We develop real-time proxies of retail corporate sales from multiple sources, including approximately 50 million mobile devices. These measures contain information from both the earnings quarter (within quarter) and the period between that quarter's end and the... View Details

Keywords: Announcements; Business Earnings; Sales; Retail Industry

Find at Harvard

November 2016 (Revised July 2018)
Case

Selling on Amazon at Tower Paddle Boards

By: Thales S. Teixeira and David Lopez-Lengowski

By June 2012, Stephan Aarstol felt that he had successfully passed the first critical stage of his ecommerce business. As the founder and CEO of a standup paddleboard (SUP) business, he had built a strong relationship with Asian manufacturers, built a small warehouse... View Details

Keywords: Tower Paddle Boards; Amazon; E-commerce; Online Shopping; Distribution; Internet and the Web; Business Growth and Maturation; Marketing Channels; Distribution Channels; Decision Choices and Conditions; Retail Industry; Retail Industry

December 1995 (Revised February 1999)
Case

Toys "R" Us Japan

By: Debora L. Spar

Documents the American retailer's process of entry into the Japanese toy market. Discusses the history of Toys "R" Us in the United States as well as the history of the Japanese toy market, distribution, wholesaling, and retailing systems. Eager to enter the world's... View Details

Keywords: Market Entry and Exit; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Retail Industry; Japan; United States

09 Apr 2024
Book

Why Work Rituals Bring Teams Together and Create More Meaning

bonds. IDEO, for example, has asked employees to meet for a weekly tea time as a way to encourage workers to collaborate, connect, and deepen relationships. And Walmart founder Sam Walton started leading workers in morning chants to spell out the name of the View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

2015
Working Paper

The U.S. Experiment with Fair Trade Laws: State Police Powers, Federal Antitrust, and the Politics of 'Fairness,' 1890-1938

By: Laura Phillips Sawyer

Prior to the Great Depression and President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal programs, considerable pressure for antitrust revision came from trade associations of independent proprietors. A perhaps unlikely leader, Edna Gleason, organized California's retail pharmacists... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Fairness; Laws and Statutes; Supply and Industry; Business and Government Relations

Read Now

November 2000 (Revised July 2001)
Case

Intuit QuickBooks

By: Rajiv Lal and Punima P Kochikar

Internet QuickBooks, a successful product with a strong brand and an 85% share of retail sales, was faced with the challenge of meeting market growth expectations in a mature, slowing market segment. Generating recurring revenues by providing value-added online... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Decisions; Growth and Development; Brands and Branding; Market Participation; Problems and Challenges; Internet and the Web; Value; Web Services Industry

14 Feb 2011
Research & Ideas

Clay Christensen’s Milkshake Marketing

Updated to clarify a failure rate figure included in an earlier version. When planning new products, companies often start by segmenting their markets and positioning their merchandise accordingly. This segmentation involves either dividing the market into product... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail; Retail; Retail; Retail

November 2024
Case

Demond Martin and WellWithAll

By: Hise Gibson, Archie L. Jones and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone

This case study chronicles the transformative entrepreneurial path of Demond Martin, co-founder and CEO of WellWithAll, a health and wellness startup. Motivated by a pivotal life experience and deep concern for racial health inequities, Martin transitions from a... View Details