Publications

July 2020
Case

CSL Capital Management: Patriot Proppants (A)

By: Victoria Ivashina and Yury Kapko

This two-part case series follows CSL Capital’s 2009 investment in the greenfield manufacturing company, Patriot Proppants. CSL, a recently established investment firm, employs a unique investment model, funding new ("green field") energy service businesses that serve... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Renewable Energy; Business Model; Decision Making

20 Mar 2000
Research & Ideas

Incubators: The New Venture Capitalists?

sometime incubate those. We sometimes partner with people that have those. But what we do is create economic coalitions between those atomic units in order to provide for the delivery to the customer of a complete solution." With... View Details

Keywords: by Kenneth Liss

16 Aug 2010
Lessons from the Classroom

HBS Introduces Marketing Analysis Tools for Managers

value to the firm. Customer lifetime value is a metric that allows managers to understand the overall value of their customer base and relate it to three View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

March 2021 (Revised February 2025)
Teaching Note

Afterpay U.S.: The Omnichannel Dilemma

By: Antonio Moreno and Anibha Singh

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 519-086. In 2018, Nick Molnar, the founder of the Australia-based online payment service Afterpay began its expansion to the U.S. market. The service had gained a loyal following in Australia by enabling customers to pay for online... View Details

April 2019
Case

Afterpay U.S.: The Omnichannel Dilemma

By: Antonio Moreno, Donald Ngwe and George Gonzalez

In 2018, Nick Molnar, the founder of the Australia-based online payment service Afterpay began its expansion to the U.S. market. The service had gained a loyal following in Australia by enabling customers to pay for online purchases through four interest-free... View Details

2020
Working Paper

Reinventing Retail: The Novel Resurgence of Independent Bookstores

By: Ryan Raffaelli

This study examines how community-based brick-and-mortar retailers can achieve sustained market growth in the face of online and big box retail competition. The appearance of Amazon.com in 1995 led to a significant decline in the number of independent bookstores in the... View Details

Keywords: Bookstores; Competitive Strategy; Business and Community Relations; Customization and Personalization; Growth and Development; Retail Industry; United States

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07 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

Innovation Corrupted: How Managers Can Avoid Another Enron

for natural gas, and to create derivative supply contracts that could help customers manage the risks of demand volatility and price swings more effectively than before. In this way, Skilling and his colleagues solved a major contracting... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Energy; Utilities

January 2021 (Revised July 2022)
Case

Snapp: Scaling Under Sanctions in Iran (A)

By: Meg Rithmire and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in November 2019 as Eyad Alkassar and Mahmoud Fouz, co-founders of Iran’s first and leading ride-hailing platform, Snapp, find out about Apple’s and Google’s decisions to remove all Iranian apps from their respective application stores.
The case... View Details

Keywords: Sanctions; Change Management; Disruption; Volatility; Decision Choices and Conditions; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Government and Politics; International Relations; National Security; Risk Management; Crisis Management; Transportation Industry; Iran; Middle East

June 2015 (Revised February 2017)
Case

Uber and Stakeholders: Managing a New Way of Riding

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Daniel Fox

By 2015, technological innovations—the smartphone and the advanced data connectivity that enabled it—created new opportunities for people to move around cities quickly and conveniently without owning a car, via car-sharing services like Zipcar or new ride-sharing... View Details

Keywords: Uber; Ride-sharing; Sharing Economy; Transportation Network Company; Leadership And Change Management; Stakeholder Management; Managing Change; Leadership; Regulation; Smartphones; Web-enabled Application; Disruptive Technology; Startup Management; Entrepreneurship; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Transportation; Mobile Technology; Transportation Industry; Technology Industry

March 1999 (Revised June 2004)
Case

United States Agency for International Development (USAID): Campfire Program in Zimbabwe

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Jay Sinha

Raises the issue of customer definition in economic development. Because of the multiple stakeholders and their varying interests, understanding where and how value is created is critical to understanding the customer. View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Development Economics; Marketing Strategy; Programs; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Value Creation; Zimbabwe; United States

09 Apr 2007
Research & Ideas

Industry Self-Regulation: What’s Working (and What’s Not)?

accusations that it claimed to do something but then failed to deliver on it. This charge is called greenwashing when the claims are related to the environment, but similar charges are also being levied at firms that adopt codes of... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

Research Summary

Managing Marketspace Service Interfaces

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport

Jeffrey F. Rayport is focusing on the strategic challenges that face businesses selling information-intensive products and services. A key strategic issue in such businesses is the dematerialization of information-intensive products and services as a consequence of... View Details

10 Nov 2008
What Do You Think?

How Much Can You Ask of Your Customers?

And Gerald Nanninga posed the interesting question: "Have we limited our potential by not only mislabeling potential partners as 'customers' but in mislabeling everyone in the entire supply chain?" What do you think? Original Article The Internet and View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

April 2006 (Revised October 2006)
Case

Best Buy Co., Inc.: Customer-Centricity

By: Rajiv Lal, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Irina Tarsis

With FY2005 sales of $27.3 billion, Richfield, Minn.-based Best Buy Co., Inc. was the leading retailer of consumer electronics, home-office products, and related services in North America. Its operations included the distinct store formats Best Buy, Future Shop in... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Service Operations; Business Earnings; Financial Crisis; Failure; Business Model; Leadership; Segmentation; Value Creation; Electronics Industry; United States; Canada; Mongolia

November 2009
Article

Organizational Design and Control across Multiple Markets: The Case of Franchising in the Convenience Store Industry

By: Dennis Campbell, Srikant M. Datar and Tatiana Sandino

Many companies operate units that are dispersed across different types of markets, and thus serve significantly diverging customer bases. Such market-type dispersion is likely to compromise the headquarter's ability to control its local managers' behavior and satisfy... View Details

Keywords: Market Dispersion; Decentralization; Incentives; Business Headquarters; Geographic Location; Governance Controls; Distribution; Organizational Design; Franchise Ownership; Retail Industry

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05 May 2008
Research & Ideas

Connecting with Consumers Using Deep Metaphors

Think of famous brands you know: Hallmark cards and Coca-Cola soft drinks, for example. What do these products have in common for consumers? An emotional meaning that taps into thoughts and feelings related to the positive aspects of... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Consumer Products

Article

Reimagining the Balanced Scorecard for the ESG Era

By: Robert S. Kaplan and David McMillan

Companies are increasingly aware that their customers and society in general expect businesses to adopt and work towards social and environmental objectives as well as the traditional financial ones. This involves not only re-evaluating firms’ models but re-imagining... View Details

Keywords: ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; Business Ecosystems; Balanced Scorecard; Adaptation; Business Model; Business and Stakeholder Relations

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Article

Financial Shame Spirals: How Shame Intensifies Financial Hardship

By: Joe J. Gladstone, Jon M. Jachimowicz, Adam Eric Greenberg and Adam D. Galinsky

Financial hardship is an established source of shame. This research explores whether shame is also a driver and exacerbator of financial hardship. Six experimental, archival, and correlational studies (N = 9,110)—including data from customer bank account histories and... View Details

Keywords: Financial Hardship; Financial Decision-making; Shame; Guilt; Personal Finance; Financial Condition; Decision Making; Emotions

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August 2023 (Revised December 2023)
Case

Money Fellows: The Quest for Expansion

By: Álvaro Rodríguez Arregui, Michael Chu and Ahmed Dahawy

This case explores the opportunities and challenges associated with expanding the operations of a complex entrepreneurial business model. It highlights how cultural aspects of different geographies impact a startup's operational and economic models. The case also... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Developing Countries and Economies; Geographic Scope; Business Strategy; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Business and Shareholder Relations; Financial Services Industry; Banking Industry; Egypt