Publications

April 2009 (Revised June 2010)
Case

Supply Chain Partners: Virginia Mason and Owens & Minor (A)

By: V.G. Narayanan and Lisa Brem

Virginia Mason Medical Center (VM) hired Owens & Minor (O&M) as its alpha vendor for medical/surgical supplies in 2004. By 2005, O&M was performing Just-in-Time and Low Unit of Measure services for VM, but they believed the pricing model in the industry was outdated.... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Price; Distribution; Supply Chain Management; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

June 2011
Case

Reed Supermarkets: A New Wave of Competitors

By: John A. Quelch and Carole Carlson

Reed Supermarkets is a high-end supermarket chain with operations in several Midwestern states. Meredith Collins, vice president of marketing, visits stores located in Columbus, Ohio, an important region with the largest market and the greatest impact on revenue... View Details

Keywords: Product Positioning; Marketing Strategy; Business Growth and Maturation; Competitive Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Brands and Branding; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Ohio

15 Jul 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Trade Policy and Firm Boundaries

Keywords: by Laura Alfaro, Paola Conconi, Harald Fadinger & Andrew F. Newman

Research Summary

Consumer Decision Making and Behavioral Research

By: John T. Gourville

John Gourville’s research focuses on consumer behavior, especially in the areas of pricing and consumer decision making. In the area of pricing, for instance, he has looked at the role of time on how consumers interpret and react to product costs and prices.... View Details

November 2010 (Revised December 2010)
Case

Mid-Missouri Energy: Ethanol from Corn

By: Forest L. Reinhardt, Noel Michele Holbrook, James Weber and Karla Sartor

Mid-Missouri Energy (MME) is a farmer-owned cooperative that produces ethanol from corn. The cooperative has performed well in comparison to other producers, but margins in the industry had declined as industry production levels neared market demand limits. MME farmers... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Renewable Energy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Growth and Development Strategy; Cooperative Ownership; Business and Government Relations; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; United States

February 1985 (Revised September 1988)
Case

Komatsu Ltd.

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Reviews and updates the structure and characteristics of the earth-moving equipment industry presented in the companion case, Caterpillar Tractor Co. After revealing that CAT has suffered major financial losses during the period from 1981 through 1984, the case... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Machinery and Machining; Price; Growth and Development; Brands and Branding; Product Development; Production; Competitive Strategy; Global Strategy; Manufacturing Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Industrial Products Industry

2023
Article

Digital Health Reimbursement Strategies of 8 European Countries and Israel: Scoping Review and Policy Mapping

By: Robin van Kessel, Divya Srivastava, Ilias Kyriopoulos, Giovanni Monti, David Novillo-Ortiz, Ran Milman, Wojciech Wilhelm Zhang-Czabanowski, Greta Nasi, Ariel Dora Stern, George Wharton and Elias Mossialos

Background: The adoption of digital health care within health systems is determined by various factors, including pricing and reimbursement. The reimbursement landscape for digital health in Europe remains underresearched. Although various emergency reimbursement... View Details

Keywords: Technology Adoption; Health Care and Treatment; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Price; Health Industry; Europe; Israel

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February 1998 (Revised December 1998)
Case

Atlantic Energy/Delmarva Power & Light (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Mathew M Millett and Tracy Aronson

Delmarva Power & Light and Atlantic Energy are neighboring electric utilities based in Delaware and New Jersey, respectively. In early 1996, they entered into merger negotiations, but were unable to reach an agreement on price because they could not agree on what... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Negotiation Offer; Government Legislation; Risk and Uncertainty; Mergers and Acquisitions; Contracts; Utilities Industry; Delaware; New Jersey

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10 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

Retailing Revolution: Category Killers on the Brink

intragenerational differences in shopping behavior to accelerate the decline of store asset productivity even more. Although these trends are felt hardest by category killers, they are by no means the only retailers feeling the pain. The View Details

Keywords: by Rajiv Lal & Jose B. Alvarez; Retail

2025
Working Paper

Turning Points in Inflation: A Structural Breaks Approach with Micro Data

By: Alberto Cavallo and Gastón García Zavaleta

We introduce a novel methodology for detecting inflation turning points that combines high-frequency, disaggregated price data with standard structural break techniques to provide policymakers with more precise and timely signals of inflation dynamics. The methodology... View Details

Keywords: Inflation and Deflation; Global Range; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Analysis; Price

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December 2021
Article

India's Food Supply Chain during the Pandemic

By: Matt Lowe, G.V. Nadhanael and Benjamin N. Roth

We document the impact of India’s COVID-19 lockdown on the food supply chain. Food arrivals in wholesale markets dropped by 69% in the three weeks following the lockdown and wholesale prices rose by 8%. Six weeks after the lockdown began, volumes and prices had fully... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Supply Chain; Health Pandemics; Food; Policy; System Shocks; Food and Beverage Industry; India

06 Mar 2018
First Look

First Look at Research and Ideas, March 6, 2018

not receive such evidence. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=45842 Targeted Price Controls on Supermarket Products By: Cavallo, Alberto, and Diego Aparicio Abstract—We study the View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

18 Feb 2009
First Look

First Look: February 18, 2009

who need them most, but unrestricted transfers might threaten the Internet's routing system. I suggest policies to create an IP address "market" while avoiding major negative externalities—mitigating the worst effects of v4 scarcity, while obtaining View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

January 2023 (Revised January 2023)
Case

Belden and Digital Transformation: From Product Sales to Solutions Sales

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Amy Klopfenstein

This case concerns the industrial automation division at Belden, a hardware manufacturer. While Belden historically sold products such as cables, wires, and other networking devices, EVP of Industrial Automation Ashish Chand recognized that IT vendors were entering the... View Details

Keywords: Implementation; Sales Cycle; Digital Transformation; Sales; Product Positioning; Business Model; Market Entry and Exit; Customer Focus and Relationships; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Supply and Industry; Technology Industry; North America; United States

October 2020 (Revised June 2021)
Case

Francisco Partners Private Credit Opportunity Fund

By: Luis M. Viceira, John D. Dionne, Soracha Prathanrasnikorn and Ari Sunshine

In April 2020, Scott Einsenberg, the Head of Credit at the private equity firm Francisco Partners, is deciding whether to go ahead with extending a private lending agreement to Eventbrite, Inc. (NYSE: EB), a leading global event management and online ticketing... View Details

Keywords: Private Debt; Private Credit; Industry Evolution; Private Equity; Investment; Analysis

March 2008
Article

Market Reactions to Export Subsidies

By: M. A. Desai and James R. Hines Jr.

This paper analyzes the economic impact of export subsidies by investigating stock price reactions to a critical event in 1997. On November 18, 1997, the European Union announced its intention to file a complaint before the World Trade Organization (WTO), arguing that... View Details

Keywords: Economic Systems; Trade; Development Economics; Financial Markets; Profit; Taxation; Volume; Value Creation; Market Design; Business Subsidiaries; Utilities Industry; Financial Services Industry; Europe; North and Central America

SSRN

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16 Feb 2023
HBS Case

ESG Activists Met the Moment at ExxonMobil, But Did They Succeed?

The impact-investment hedge fund Engine No. 1 made a big splash in May 2021 when it managed to get three nominees elected to the ExxonMobil board of directors. It was an open effort to prod the oil giant toward renewable energy and test whether activist investing could... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Financial Services

December 2001 (Revised February 2004)
Case

Argentina's Convertibility Plan

By: Rafael M. Di Tella and Ingrid Vogel

Describes the political and economic development in Argentina from 1989 to 1995, with a focus on the role of the currency board. Culminates in Argentine policy makers (Menem in particular) contemplating how to respond to the tequila crisis in the middle of 1995.... View Details

Keywords: Currency Exchange Rate; Government and Politics; Interest Rates; Balance and Stability; Developing Countries and Economies; Financial Crisis; Crisis Management; Policy; Currency; Macroeconomics; Argentina