Publications

Read Now

November 1975 (Revised October 1976)
Case

Cross River Products

By: Steven C. Wheelwright

Describes production task of meeting peak seasonal demands in a light manufacturing plant. Information is provided for evaluating the options of overtime, second shift, second production line, and inventory buildup. View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Information; Labor; Demand and Consumers; Production; Supply Chain

April 2006
Case

Big Bazaar

By: Ananth Raman and Laura Winig

Describes a high-growth Indian retailer, Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd., and two of the company's formats--Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar. Challenges students to debate the company's concept, its strategic decision on how quickly it would like to grow, and some key... View Details

Keywords: Business Units; Transformation; Growth and Development Strategy; Emerging Markets; Market Entry and Exit; Supply Chain Management; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Retail Industry; India

December 2012 (Revised August 2013)
Case

Nestlé: Agricultural Material Sourcing Within the Concept of Creating Shared Value (CSV)

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Lorin A. Fries

Corporate Head of Agriculture Hans Jöhr's mind raced in anticipation of the executive board meeting that afternoon. Jöhr recognized the meeting as a key opportunity to strategize far into the future, reexamining how his team's efforts in sustainable agricultural... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Value Creation; Quality; Supply Chain Management; Social Issues; Environmental Sustainability; Problems and Challenges; Growth and Development Strategy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Health Industry

Web

Harvard Business School Archives | Baker Library

body of his professional correspondence. Wartime Schools Collection During World War II, the U.S. military was facing an increased need for officers trained in statistics and supply chain logistics. The HBS Archives holds records related... View Details

01 Dec 2022
News

3-Minute Briefing: Yla Eason (MBA 1977)

in June, when retailers had made their purchasing decisions in February. Sales is often about education. I asked chain retailers where they were selling dark pantyhose and makeup for brown skin, then cross-referenced that information with... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; entrepreneurship; diversity; leadership; Miscellaneous Manufacturing; Manufacturing

December 2002 (Revised October 2006)
Case

Tesco Plc.

By: David E. Bell

Tesco, a supermarket chain, has been transformed from a third-rate retailer to a global leader in the past ten years. This case describes how that was accomplished. Interviews with Tesco employees explain the company's approach to understanding customers, motivating... View Details

Keywords: History; Motivation and Incentives; Leadership; Internet and the Web; Supply Chain Management; Global Strategy; Globalization; Customer Focus and Relationships; Business Strategy; Retail Industry

August 1994 (Revised October 1996)
Case

MicroFridge

By: Norman A. Berg and James Weber

MicroFridge, a five-year-old, $12 million company based in Sharon, Mass., develops and sells a unique, combination compact refrigerator and microwave oven. All of the manufacturing is done for it by Sanyo in various overseas locations. The founder and president... View Details

Keywords: Production; Competitive Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Supply Chain Management; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Consumer Products Industry; Massachusetts

19 Apr 2004
Research & Ideas

Ground-Floor Opportunities for Retail in India

store chain with twenty-four locations in fifteen cities. The traditional consumer model in the market is the family jeweler, he explained, with a relationship between parties carrying on for generations. The consumer in India is far more... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Consumer Products; Retail

06 Jun 2013
Op-Ed

How to Do Away with the Dangers of Outsourcing

challenge of managing relationships with "partners" or "associates." Yet as the Rana Plaza disaster and too many other examples show, every outsourced stop along the supply and production chains holds the potential for... View Details

Keywords: by Ranjay Gulati; Manufacturing; Apparel & Accessories; Fashion

2020
Working Paper

Contract Duration and the Costs of Market Transactions

By: Alexander MacKay

The optimal duration of a supply contract balances the costs of reselecting a supplier against the costs of being matched to an inefficient supplier when the contract lasts too long. I develop a structural model of contract duration that captures this tradeoff and... View Details

Keywords: Vertical Relationships; Transaction Costs; Contract Duration; Identification; Supply Chain; Cost; Contracts; Auctions; Mathematical Methods

SSRN

Read Now

03 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

Transforming Manufacturing Waste into Profit

It's been said that "one man's trash is another man's treasure." HBS Assistant Professor Deishin Lee, however, has taken that old adage a step further in her recent working paper Turning Waste into By-Product by showing how it's possible for companies to turn... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Manufacturing

November 1990
Case

Techsonic Industries, Inc.: Humminbird - New Products

By: Melvyn A. Menezes

After several new product failures, the company began using customer input to help develop new products. In 1989, the fishing electronics industry is experiencing a downturn, and the company's sales and profits are slipping. The company, which has one product line... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Marketing Reference Programs; Product Development; Electronics Industry

Find at Harvard

05 Oct 2022
News

Inside the Chip Shortage

Photo via Digital Chosun Photo via Digital Chosun The shortage of semiconductors that has hamstrung the automotive industry since 2020 isn’t over yet, and Renesas CEO Hidetoshi Shibata (MBA 2001) predicts the shortage will continue well into the middle of 2023,... View Details

Keywords: Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing; Manufacturing

October 2017 (Revised April 2018)
Case

Improving Worker Safety in the Era of Machine Learning (A)

By: Michael W. Toffel, Dan Levy, Jose Ramon Morales Arilla and Matthew S. Johnson

Managers make predictions all the time: How fast will my markets grow? How much inventory do I need? How intensively should I monitor my suppliers? Which potential customers will be most responsive to a particular marketing campaign? Which job candidates should I... View Details

Keywords: Machine Learning; Policy Implementation; Empirical Research; Inspection; Occupational Safety; Occupational Health; Regulation; Analysis; Forecasting and Prediction; Policy; Operations; Supply Chain Management; Safety; Manufacturing Industry; Construction Industry; United States

2002
Chapter

Cooperative Customer Management: Is There Strategic Potential for a New Relationship between Retail and Industry?

By: Christian H.M. Ketels, Dirk Seifert and Alexander Kracklauer

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Cooperation; Supply Chain Management; Retail Industry; Manufacturing Industry

2008
Chapter

Models of Customer Value

By: Sunil Gupta and Donald R. Lehmann

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain

Find at Harvard

2003
Chapter

Supply-Chain Coordination: How Companies Leverage Information Flows to Generate Value

By: Susan Kulp, Elie Ofek and Jonathan Whitaker

Keywords: Supply Chain Management; Cooperation; Information Management; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Knowledge Management; Value Creation