Publications

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

Research Summary

Innovations in Logistics: The Impact of Channel Coordination

By: Roy D. Shapiro

Roy D. Shapiro is studying innovative systems and management approaches that integrate and coordinate material and information flows through the supply chain so as to reduce or eliminate the redundant activities that tend to characterize these channels. His research... View Details

May 2005 (Revised January 2008)
Case

Inniskillin and the Globalization of Icewine

By: Geoffrey G. Jones and Jillian Hirasawa

Deals with the growth of the icewine industry and follows Vincor International as it creates an international market for its Inniskillin Icewine--a luxury alcoholic beverage consumed as a dessert wine. Gives the history of the alcoholic beverage industry in Canada and... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Globalized Markets and Industries; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Luxury; Food and Beverage Industry; Canada

August 2002 (Revised January 2003)
Case

Australia-Japan Cable: Structuring the Project Company

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Carrie Ferman

In late September 1999, representatives from Telstri, Japan Telecom, and Teleglobe met to discuss the structure of the Australia-Japan Cable (AJC) project, a $520 million submarine cable system that would run from Australia to Japan. The sponsors, excited by the... View Details

Keywords: Information Infrastructure; Cooperative Ownership; Organizational Structure; Investment; Ownership; Capital; Corporate Governance; Management Teams; Communication Technology; Projects; Compensation and Benefits; Corporate Finance; Telecommunications Industry; Australia; Japan

August 2007 (Revised September 2007)
Case

Gome: Bidding for China Paradise

Gome, China's largest electronics retailer, has the opportunity to acquire China Paradise, the number three player in the Chinese electronic retailer industry. This happened in the general context of a great market development and potential consolidation of the... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Trade; Market Entry and Exit; Performance; Opportunities; Competition; Consolidation; Corporate Strategy; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; China

2025
Working Paper

The Impact of Input Inaccuracy on Leveraging AI Tools: Evidence from Algorithmic Labor Scheduling

By: Caleb Kwon, Antonio Moreno and Ananth Raman

Problem Definition: Considerable academic and practitioner attention is placed on the value of ex-post interactions (i.e., overrides) in the human-AI interface. In contrast, relatively little attention has been paid to ex-ante human-AI interactions (e.g., the... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Employees; Performance Effectiveness

SSRN

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

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

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

October 1996 (Revised April 1997)
Case

Tweeter etc.

By: John T. Gourville and George Wu

In the early 1990s, Tweeter etc., a small regional retailer of higher-end audio and video equipment, faced increasing competitive pricing pressures from several large regional and national consumer electronics chains. In response, in 1993, they introduced "Automatic... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Customer Focus and Relationships; Price; Market Entry and Exit; Supply Chain Management; Competition; Retail Industry; Retail Industry

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

13 Feb 2007
First Look

First Look: February 13, 2007

Working PapersAdding Bricks to Clicks: The Effects of Store Openings on Sales through Direct Channels Authors:Jill Avery, Mary Caravella, John Deighton, and Thomas Steenburgh Abstract We assess the effect of opening physical retail... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

March 2022
Case

GrowSari (A): Design for the Last Mile Customer

By: Brian Trelstad, Cam Carag and Michi Ferreol

Reymund (ER) Rollan and Shivapratim (Shiv) Choudhury, founders of the digital technology platform GrowSari, were at a crossroads. The feedback from their initial product roll-out were not what they had expected, and they needed to decide how to proceed. The pair,... View Details

Keywords: Fast Moving Consumer Goods; Product Launch; Information Technology; Analytics and Data Science; Digital Platforms; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Philippines

Web

Placement - Doctoral

Business, Information, Risk and Operations Management Department Dissertation: Essays on Labor Productivity in Retail Stores Advisors: Ananth Raman (Chair), Antonio Moreno , and Jorge Tamayo Daniel Yue Technology & Operations Management,... View Details

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

23 Jan 2007
First Look

First Look: January 23, 2007

wealth of case studies, in diverse settings, based on actual implementations. Store Manager Incentive Design and Retail Performance: An Exploratory Investigation Authors:Nicole DeHoratius and Ananth Raman Periodical:Manufacturing and... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

04 Feb 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Markets with Price Coherence

Keywords: by Benjamin Edelman & Julian Wright

January 2009 (Revised October 2009)
Case

GLOBALGAP: Food Safety and Private Standards

By: David E. Bell and Mary Louise Shelman

In response to new laws governing liability and several food safety scares in the 1990s, European retailers drove the creation of a universal production standard based on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) for fresh fruit and vegetables and a third-party certification... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Food; Governance Compliance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business and Government Relations; Safety; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Europe