Publications

February 2001 (Revised January 2004)
Case

Michael Dell: Winning on the Demand Side of the Information Revolution

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Leadership; Innovation and Invention; Computer Industry

February 2001 (Revised October 2002)
Background Note

Entrepreneurial History: A Conceptual Overview

Analyzes HBS cases on five entrepreneurs and the companies they built: Josiah Wedgwood, Henry Heinz, Marshall Field, Howard Schultz of Starbucks, and Michael Dell. These five cases and their accompanying teaching notes comprise a course module on entrepreneurial... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Demand and Consumers; Competition; Business History; Entrepreneurship; Customer Focus and Relationships; Business Strategy; Society

February 2001 (Revised February 2002)
Case

Estee Lauder and the Market for Prestige Cosmetics

Opens with a brief history of the U.S. cosmetics market and its rapid development in the 1920s. Also recounts Lauder's initial involvement in the sector, making skin care products and selling them in Manhattan beauty parlors during the Great Depression. Pays particular... View Details

Keywords: Fluctuation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Market Entry and Exit; Entrepreneurship; Luxury; Business Strategy; Society; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; United States

February 2001 (Revised December 2002)
Case

Marshall Field and the Rise of the Department Store

Analyzes Marshall Field's efforts to develop a market for mass retailing in late 19th-century Chicago. Examines Chicago's expansion in the 1860s and, within this context, how Field struck out on his own to, build a wholesale and retail business. Concentrates on the... View Details

Keywords: Fluctuation; Industry Growth; Corporate Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Brands and Branding; Society; Distribution Industry; Retail Industry; Chicago

February 2001 (Revised August 2001)
Case

Henry Heinz: Making Markets for Processed Foods

Outlines many of the supply-side innovations, such as improved transportation, communication, and technological developments, that greatly expanded the productive capacity of the United States in the late 19th century. Explores a range of demand-side shifts, including... View Details

Keywords: Demand and Consumers; Competitive Advantage; Corporate Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Supply and Industry; Innovation and Invention; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

October 30, 2000
Article

Building a Powerful Prestige Brand

Keywords: Brands and Branding

December 7, 1999
Article

Henry Heinz and Brand Creation in the Late Nineteenth Century

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Food and Beverage Industry

Article

Henry Heinz and Late Nineteenth-Century Brand Creation: Making Markets for Processed Food

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Markets; Food; History; Consumer Products Industry; United States

1999
Working Paper

Henry Heinz, 1844-1919: Connecting with Customers during Great Economic Change

1999
Working Paper

Josiah Wedgwood, 1730-1795: Brand Creation in the First Consumer Society

1999
Working Paper

Marshall Field, 1834-1906: The Retail Brand as a Customer Experience

1999
Working Paper

Michael Dell: Winning on the Demand Side of the Information Revolution

May – June 1999
Article

The Wired Society: A Harvard Magazine Roundtable

Keywords: Higher Education; Media; Society; Technology

Book Review

Review of Consuming Power: A Social History of American Energies, by David E. Nye

Keywords: Society; History; United States

July 1996
Case

Williams-Sonoma, Inc.--1990

By: Nancy F. Koehn and Michael Dearing

Howard Lester, chairman and CEO, has just completed a second offering of common stock in Williams-Sonoma, Inc. ($218.2 million 1989 sales). Having targeted $500 million in retail sales, Lester's challenge is to: 1) prioritize growth investments in five existing catalog... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Alignment; Customer Value and Value Chain; Competitive Strategy; Retail Industry

June 1996 (Revised November 1996)
Background Note

Economic Gains from Trade: Comparative Advantage

By: Robert E. Kennedy and Nancy F. Koehn

How nations trade and whether they benefit from it are two of the oldest and most important questions in political economy. In the 170 years since David Ricardo formally developed the theory of comparative advantage, it has become one of the principles most widely... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Microeconomics; Trade; Cost Management; Business and Government Relations