Publications

December 2003 (Revised April 2004)
Case

Blockbuster Inc. & Technological Substitution (B): Confronting New Digital Formats

Investigates how the rise of digital video formats threatens to make videocassette technology obsolete; how this technological substitution might alter the economics and structure of the video rental and retail industries; and how Blockbuster Inc., the industry leader,... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Decisions; Technological Innovation; Competition; Change Management; Service Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry

October 2022 (Revised December 2022)
Case

Reimagining Enel: Enabling Sustainable Progress

By: Michael L. Tushman and Kerry Herman

CEO Francesco Starace is considering what is next for Enel SpA, one of world's largest energy companies. From 2014 to 2022, he has wrought a dramatic transformation at Enel, restructuring the company's business units; redeploying senior talent across functions and... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Leadership And Change Management; Leadership Style; Leadership Succession; Renewables; Energy; Transformation; Renewable Energy; Business Divisions; Digital Transformation; Restructuring; Organizational Structure; Energy Industry; Europe; Latin America; North America; Spain; Italy

Web

Strategy - Faculty & Research

Retail in MENA By: Juan Alcacer and Noor Al Qadhi May 2025 | Teaching Note | Faculty Research Boutiqaat, a Kuwait-based e-commerce platform, scaled an influencer-driven beauty retail model across MENA and... View Details

Shunyuan Zhang

Shunyuan Zhang is an associate professor in the Marketing unit at Harvard Business School. She teaches the first-year Marketing course in the MBA required curriculum.

Professor Zhang studies the sharing economy and the marketing problems that... View Details

Keywords: retailing; retailing; retailing

13 Jul 2016
HBS Case

How Uber, Airbnb, and Etsy Attracted Their First 1,000 Customers

New businesses often struggle finding their first customers. The challenge is even more difficult with startups in the sharing economy that launch as platforms connecting independent service providers with consumers. Take Uber. Its platform is two-sided, connecting... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Retail; Retail; Retail

2024
Case

EPCorp: Sell on Amazon or Invest in Our Data?

By: Jacob M. Cook

Amidst a history of exponential growth, Electronic Products Company (EPCorp) finds itself at a crossroads as its once thriving retail presence faces a downturn, despite hefty investments into a promising new direct-to-consumer e-commerce platform. Shivani, EPCorp s... View Details

Keywords: E-commerce; Technology Adoption; Cost vs Benefits; Organizational Culture; Retail Industry

February 2018
Supplement

Robert K. Steel at Wachovia (B)

By: Gautam Mukunda, Nien-hê Hsieh and David Lane

In September 2008, Robert Steel presided over the sale of Wachovia, a top U.S. bank, less than three months after becoming its CEO. Wachovia’s exposure to risky home loans led depositors and creditors to flee the bank on Friday, September 26, after the FDIC seized and... View Details

August 2017
Article

Catering to Investors Through Security Design: Headline Rate and Complexity

By: Claire Célérier and Boris Vallée

This paper investigates the rationale for issuing complex securities to retail investors. We focus on a large market of investment products targeted exclusively at households: retail-structured products in Europe. We hypothesize that banks strategically use product... View Details

Keywords: Financial Complexity; Catering; Shrouding; Reaching For Yield; Investment

Find at Harvard

27 May 2017
News

The Dumb Politics of Elite Condescension

2022
Working Paper

Institutional Emplacement and the Novel Resurgence of Independent Bookstores

By: Ryan Raffaelli and Ryann Noe

This study reveals how actors leverage physical place as an asset to facilitate organizational adaptation and industry evolution. Through a longitudinal, qualitative analysis of the U.S. independent bookselling industry from 1995 to 2019, we outline how dispersed... View Details

Keywords: Industry Growth; Small Business; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business Processes; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; United States

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02 Aug 2011
Working Paper Summaries

To Groupon or Not to Groupon: The Profitability of Deep Discounts

Keywords: by Benjamin Edelman, Sonia Jaffe & Scott Duke Kominers; Retail; Retail

2008
Working Paper

The Effect of Labor on Profitability: The Role of Quality

By: Zeynep Ton

Determining staffing levels is an important decision in retail operations. While the costs of increasing labor are obvious and easy to measure, the benefits are often indirect and not immediately felt. One benefit of increased labor is improved quality. The objective... View Details

Keywords: Profit; Selection and Staffing; Service Delivery; Business Processes; Quality; Retail Industry

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September 2020
Case

Walmart Health: Scaling During a Pandemic

By: Robert S. Huckman, Yoonjin Min and Marissa Thiel

Amidst the onset of COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, Marcus Obsborne, Vice President for Health and Wellness Transformation at Walmart was planning to scale its new health care clinic business, Walmart Health, to additional locations in Georgia and beyond.... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Health Pandemics; Health; Service Delivery; Growth and Development Strategy; Health Industry; United States; Arkansas; Georgia (state, US); Texas

December 2017
Case

Molino Cañuelas: Serving Customers from Seed Development to the Kitchen Table

By: Jose B. Alvarez, Maria Fernanda Miguel and Mariana Cal

Molino Cañuelas was a vertically integrated food company with a management system that allowed it to innovate and grow systematically. With sales of $2 billion in 2016, the firm not only produced flour, vegetable oil, and packaged food products, it also owned a port... View Details

Keywords: Quality Management System; Food Industry; Molino Cañuelas; Argentina; Vertical Integration; Quality; Management Systems; Expansion; Global Range; Growth and Development Strategy; Agribusiness; Food and Beverage Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Argentina

21 Nov 2022
Research & Ideas

Buy Now, Pay Later: How Retail's Hot Feature Hurts Low-Income Shoppers

Afterpay and tied to the point-of-purchase of a particular product. Paying with BNPL differs from credit cards. Rather than a revolving credit line, consumers take out an installment loan through the retailer at the time of purchase,... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Retail; Retail; Retail

2018
Working Paper

Bank Risk-Taking and the Real Economy: Evidence from the Housing Boom and Its Aftermath

By: Antonio Falato, Giovanni Favara and David Scharfstein

The short-termism of lenders amplifies boom-bust credit cycles, leading in turn to real costs for the aggregate economy. During the U.S. housing credit boom, publicly-traded banks increased mortgage lending activity and relaxed standards much more than privately-held... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Financial Markets; Investment; Corporate Finance; Banks and Banking

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Web

Africa - Global

loans for business purposes, and obtain more credit. May 2025 Case Boutiqaat: Influencing Retail in MENA By: Juan Alcacer and Noor Al Qadhi Boutiqaat, a Kuwait-based e-commerce platform, scaled an influencer-driven beauty View Details

Web

Middle East & North Africa - Global

Office, and MBA Admissions. Watch the videos here . New Research on the Region May 2025 Case Boutiqaat: Influencing Retail in MENA By: Juan Alcacer and Noor Al Qadhi Boutiqaat, a Kuwait-based e-commerce platform, scaled an... View Details

January 2019 (Revised March 2020)
Case

Blackstone Alternative Asset Management in 2018

By: Emil Siriwardane, Luis M. Viceira and Shawn O'Brien

In early 2018, Blackstone announced that John McCormick would succeed Tom Hill as President and Chief Executive Officer of Blackstone Alternative Asset Management (BAAM), the largest fund-of-hedge funds in the world by a sizeable margin. As new CEO, McCormick must... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Expansion; Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Services Industry