Publications

Find at Harvard

Profile

Jennifer Hurford

London, Frankfurt and Cairo, where she helped consumer brands and healthcare companies arrange short term financing for their suppliers, and at IDEO, a design consulting firm in which she designed new business applications for bitcoin and... View Details

Keywords: Financial Services

January 2010 (Revised February 2011)
Case

The Random House Response to the Kindle

By: Bharat N. Anand and Peter Olson

In early 2010, e-readers, like Amazon's Kindle and Apple's impending iPad, threatened to disrupt the book publishing industry. The case provides an overview of the industry, describes the broader trends regarding e-readers, and asks: how should major publishers like... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Trends; Disruptive Innovation; Technological Innovation; Consumer Behavior; Industry Structures; Corporate Strategy; Hardware; Publishing Industry

September 1992 (Revised October 1995)
Teaching Note

Eastman Kodak Co.: Managing Information Systems Through Strategic Alliances TN

By: Lynda M. Applegate

Teaching Note for (9-192-030). View Details

Keywords: Management; Information Technology; Strategy; Alliances; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry

09 Feb 2010
First Look

First Look: Feb. 9

Working PapersThe Architecture of Complex Systems: Do Core-Periphery Structures Dominate? Authors:Alan MacCormack, Carliss Baldwin, and John Rusnak Abstract Any complex technological system can be decomposed into a number of subsystems... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

September 2020 (Revised March 2022)
Case

JOANN: Joannalytics Inventory Allocation Tool

By: Kris Ferreira and Srikanth Jagabathula

Michael Joyce, Vice President of Inventory Management at JOANN, championed an effort to develop and implement an inventory allocation analytics tool that used advanced analytics to predict in-season demand of seasonal items for each of JOANN’s nearly 900 stores and... View Details

Keywords: Analytics; Machine Learning; Optimization; Inventory Management; Mathematical Methods; Decision Making; Operations; Supply Chain Management; Resource Allocation; Distribution; Technology Adoption; Applications and Software; Change Management; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States; Ohio

March 2006
Case

Bringing OTC back to the Exchange: Euronext.liffe's launch of ABC

Euronex.liffe, a derivatives trading exchange, launches matching, clearing, and confirmation services for the over-the-counter market. This combination of services creates a new platform for a market that potentially cannibalizes its current exchange-based services. Is... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Digital Platforms; Consolidation; Financial Markets; Network Effects

2023
Article

Moral Escalation: Contested Category Emergence and Its Consequences in the Toy Industry

By: Ryann Noe

Preexisting research has outlined the cognitive, competitive, and economic barriers to market category emergence. Yet scholars have paid scant attention to the processes and consequences of moral resistance to nascent categories. Through a longitudinal, qualitative... View Details

Keywords: Moral Sensibility; Market Entry and Exit; Product Positioning; Technology Industry; Technology Industry

Register to Read

June 2010 (Revised January 2011)
Case

Scientific Glass Incorporated: Inventory Management

By: Steven C. Wheelwright and William Schmidt

Scientific Glassware is a fast-growing, privately held company that provides specialized glassware for laboratory and research facilities. Excess inventory is tying up extra capital needed to fund the company's expansion plans. The newly hired Manager of Inventory... View Details

Keywords: Inventory Control; Inventory Management; Materials Management; Order Processing; Warehousing; Salesforce Management; Logistics; Operations; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Finance; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry

01 Mar 2025
News

Agenda: Frank Lorenzo (MBA 1963)

would put us out of business. At the end of the hearing, I sat down with the Senate staff, and they said, ‘Frank, we think you’re right. We think there will be a loss of some small airlines, but we also think that’s a small price to pay for bringing low fares to the... View Details

Keywords: April White

Profile

Yaping Wang

"I wanted a job in an industry instead of a PhD." For more than eight years, Yaping worked for Mars in Beijing, conducting research for product innovation. "I probed for consumer insights, then helped translate those... View Details

Keywords: CPG; Healthcare/Biotech; Retail/Hospitality

26 Jan 2004
Research & Ideas

What Developing-World Companies Teach Us About Innovation

When most people think of innovation, they envision developed-world companies such as the U.S.A.'s IBM, Japan's Sony, South Korea's Samsung, Finland's Nokia, or Switzerland's Novartis, technology leaders that have stayed at the cutting... View Details

Keywords: by Donald N. Sull, Alejandro Ruelas-Gossi & Martin Escobari

October 2010 (Revised January 2012)
Background Note

Book Publishing in 2010

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Nancy Bartlett

Legacy book publishers wrangled with ebook retailers over royalty rates, release strategy, and distribution rights as customer demand for cheaper ebooks eroded publishers' profitable print formats. E-readers like Kindle, as well as Apple's iPad that invigorated the... View Details

Keywords: Price; Information Publishing; Books; Disruptive Innovation; Demand and Consumers; Distribution; Strategy; Information Technology; Internet and the Web; Publishing Industry

01 Mar 2016
News

Faculty Q&A: Price Check

inventory. The problem with that is you might have strategic consumers who delay their purchase of a pair of sandals, for example, to take advantage of the discounted price. Whereas if you didn’t use a markdown, then—who knows?—maybe... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Nonstore Retailers; Retail Trade

01 Apr 2002
News

Professorship Brings Brierley's HBS Connection Full Circle

Airlines' AAdvantage program, Brierley pioneered a customer loyalty program that would change the way consumers would select their travel providers. "While the goal of the program was to identify American's best customers, establish a... View Details

Keywords: Charles M. Williams; Epsilon Data Management; Computer Systems Design and Related Services; Professional Services

March 1998 (Revised March 1999)
Case

Dell Online

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Marie Bell

Dell started online commerce for its PCs in 1996, and by 1997 had achieved a sales rate of $3 million a day. The case describes the internal process that led to these dramatic results and poses the question of how the firm should leverage this activity to meet Michael... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Market Transactions; Goals and Objectives; Business Processes; Distribution Channels; Internet and the Web; Information Infrastructure; Competitive Advantage; Computer Industry; Retail Industry