Publications

June 2000
Case

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts

Four Seasons has a love/hate relationship with technology, including the best Web site in the industry. This case examines how a leading service delivers high-tech/high-touch, and looks at its progressive human resource strategy. View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Service Operations; Accommodations Industry

14 Jul 2022
Research & Ideas

When the Rubber Meets the Road, Most Commuters Text and Email While Driving

sensors. Cars will likely become more automated over time as new technologies and features are introduced, the researchers note. "There is clearly a lot to do in car design, but perhaps even more broadly, to accommodate the fact that we... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

07 May 2020
Research & Ideas

The One Good Thing Caused by COVID-19: Innovation

The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly influenced the lives of most people on the planet. It has changed daily activities; something as simple as a walk in the park is perceived very differently now. The same is true for businesses. Many businesses have shut down or... View Details

Keywords: by Hong Luo and Alberto Galasso

February 2022 (Revised January 2023)
Case

Huazhu: A Chinese Hotel Giant's Journey of Digital Transformation

By: Feng Zhu, Yulin Fang, Bonnie Yining Cao and Duan Yang

Based in Shanghai, China, Huazhu Group, the world’s third-largest hotel operator, was known for its standardized IT system. It helped the company boost efficiency during the COVID-19 pandemic. Chief Digital Officer Xinxin Liu also faced some longer-term challenges:... View Details

Keywords: Hotel Industry; COVID-19 Pandemic; Labor; Business or Company Management; Emerging Markets; Information Technology; Operations; Strategy; Digital Transformation; Accommodations Industry; China; United States; Singapore; Germany; Hong Kong

June 2016 (Revised March 2017)
Technical Note

Disintermediation in Two-Sided Marketplaces

By: Benjamin Edelman and Philip Hu

Two-sided marketplaces often risk disintermediation: users may rely on the marketplace to find each other but then perform related future transactions—or even the current transaction—without the platform’s involvement and without paying any fees the platform may... View Details

Keywords: Disintermediation; Strategic Behavior; Circumvention; Undercutting; Uber; Airbnb; Handy; Upwork; Etsy; eBay; Monster.com; Google; Competitive Strategy; Multi-Sided Platforms; Marketplace Matching; Accommodations Industry; Accommodations Industry; Accommodations Industry; Accommodations Industry

October 2014 (Revised August 2018)
Case

Caesars Entertainment

By: Janice H. Hammond and Aldo Sesia

This case describes the introduction of a regression analysis model for forecasting guest arrivals to Caesars Palace hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. The company will use the forecast to staff the front desk in the hotel. The staff is unionized and the company has little... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting; Staffing; Gaming; Gaming Industry; Hotel Industry; Decision Making; Forecasting and Prediction; Human Resources; Selection and Staffing; Entertainment; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Operations; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Accommodations Industry; Accommodations Industry; Accommodations Industry; Accommodations Industry; Las Vegas

17 Feb 2022
Book

When Employees Feel a Sense of Purpose, Companies Succeed

existing, conformist cultures. The results are not terribly compelling. These organizational cultures seem mismatched and contradictory—like a car whose front door has been replaced with one of a different color. But many other companies haven’t even tried to View Details

Keywords: by Ranjay Gulati

04 Dec 2019
Book

Creating the Experimentation Organization

When customers log onto Booking.com—the world’s largest online accommodations platform—they might naturally assume they are seeing the same website as every other customer logged on at the same time. In fact, Booking is running... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

04 Feb 2022
Book

Beyond the Cold War: Reinventing Socialism in 5 Countries

exchange whose impacts have endured beyond the bipolar competition. Despite these burgeoning fields of scholarship, however, it is unclear how our overall picture of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries has actually changed to View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

July 2017
Case

Centerbridge Partners and Great Wolf Resorts: Buying from a Highly Regarded Competitor

By: Josh Lerner, John D. Dionne and Amram Migdal

The case examines the March 2015 Centerbridge Partners investment decision regarding whether to acquire Great Wolf Resorts, a North American family-oriented indoor water parks and hotel operator, from a private equity (PE) competitor, Apollo Global Management. The case... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity Financing; Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities; CMBS; Secondary Buyouts; Business Ventures; Acquisition; Finance; Borrowing and Debt; Cost; Cost of Capital; Equity; Private Equity; Financial Instruments; Debt Securities; Accommodations Industry; Accommodations Industry; Accommodations Industry; North and Central America; United States

April 2020 (Revised June 2020)
Case

Oriental Land Co., Ltd.—Tokyo Disney Resort

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Akiko Kanno

This case describes the history of Oriental Land Co. Ltd.’s (OLC's) Tokyo Disney Resort (TDR), its operations, the extent of vertical integration, and the challenges it faced in 2018 as OLC's chairman and CEO, Toshio Kagami, contemplated how best to deal with... View Details

Keywords: Strategy For Multi-business Firm; Business Models; Growth; Theme Parks; Disney; Disney Parks; Licensing; Royalties; Two-part Tariffs; Oriental Land Co.; Tokyo Disneyland; Tokyo DisneySea; Tokyo Disney Resort; Tokyo Disney; Growth Strategy; Hotels; Hotel Industry; Partnership; Development; Attractions; Rides; Urayasu; Kagami; Congestion; Pricing; Amusement Parks; Amusement Park Industry; Brand; Branding; History; OLC; Corporate Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Business History; Price; Retention; Growth and Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Brands and Branding; Agreements and Arrangements; Contracts; Operations; Vertical Integration; Problems and Challenges; Partners and Partnerships; Business Strategy; Expansion; Rail Transportation; Transportation Networks; Accommodations Industry; Accommodations Industry; Accommodations Industry; Asia; Japan; Tokyo; United States

01 May 2020
What Do You Think?

Does Remote Work Mix with Organizational Culture?

coverage from Working Knowledge Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, Critical Mass for some months was in the process of implementing a new program for remote work called Liquid. Nearly 10 percent of its talent now works from home. The intent is to View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

27 Nov 2000
Research & Ideas

The Dynamics of Standing Still: Firestone Tire & Rubber and the Radial Revolution

production equipment, and Firestone increased its capital spending in tires in 1968 and 1969, retooling its factories to accommodate belted bias production.9 The records of Firestone's board meetings demonstrate no systematic evaluation... View Details

Keywords: by Donald N. Sull; Manufacturing; Transportation

16 May 2000
Research & Ideas

The Simple Economics of Open Source

will emerging languages continue to accommodate this modularization? Lerner and Tirole also wonder whether open source projects can handle so many contributors jumping on the bandwagon. How will project leaders sift through all the... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Technology

February 2018 (Revised October 2020)
Case

The Marriott-Starwood Merger: Navigating Brand Portfolio Strategy and Brand Architecture

By: Jill Avery, Chekitan S. Dev and Laure Mougeot Stroock

In September 2016, Marriott completed its $13.3 billion acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts, which added 11 brands to its already robust 19 hotel brand portfolio. Tina Edmundson, Marriott's global brand officer, was charged with making sense of the brand portfolio... View Details