Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(2,383)
- Faculty Publications (1,120)
- January 2022
- Case
Walmart USA—Searching for Growth
By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Maria P. Roche
In 2022, Doug McMillon, president and CEO of Walmart, and his team looked back at a difficult but ultimately successful past year. The global pandemic had posed enormous challenges, but the company had weathered the storm successfully, raising same-store sales growth,... View Details
- December 2021 (Revised May 2025)
- Case
Bed Bath & Beyond: The New Strategy to Drive Shareholder Value
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel W. Fisher
At one time, Bed Bath & Beyond was one of the most successful specialty retailers in the United States—its growth and profit margins far exceeded both peer retailers in the home goods market as well as many other discount retailers. But in 2014, its stock price peaked,... View Details
- December 2021 (Revised September 2022)
- Case
Moleskine: Daniela Riccardi Turns the Page
By: Ryan Raffaelli and Sarah Gulick
Newly appointed CEO Daniela Riccardi needed to develop and present an action plan to the board of the company that owned Moleskine. Riccardi was hired because Moleskine had recently overextended its reach and needed more focus and discipline. Having previously served... View Details
- December 2021 (Revised May 2022)
- Case
Troverie (A)
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Lindsay N. Hyde and Olivia Graham
Six months after the August 2018 launch of Troverie, a U.S.-based online retailer of luxury watches, the average cost of acquiring a customer is much higher than originally projected, and the startup is incurring a substantial loss on each sales transaction. Could... View Details
- November 2021 (Revised November 2023)
- Case
Hitting Home: Amazon and Mary's Place
By: Paul M. Healy, Debora L. Spar and Amy Klopfenstein
In 2020, Amazon, the $386 billion online retail behemoth, built an eight-story shelter for women and families experiencing homelessness on its expanding headquarters in Seattle, Washington. The shelter, operated in partnership with a non-profit organization known as... View Details
- November 2021 (Revised December 2022)
- Case
Farfetch: Digital Transformation for Luxury Brands
By: Sunil Gupta, Jill Avery, Elena Corsi and Federica Gabrieli
Farfetch, a global luxury technology platform and digital marketplace had been surfing the wave of digital transformation in the luxury fashion industry since 2008. While the company’s stock price and market valuation had fluctuated since its IPO in 2018, it had... View Details
Keywords: Digital Marketing; Marketplaces; Retailing; Internet Marketing; E-Commerce Strategy; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Marketing Channels; Brands and Branding; Luxury; Growth and Development Strategy; Digital Transformation; E-commerce; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United Kingdom; Europe; Portugal; China
- November 2021
- Case
Tommy Hilfiger Adaptive: Fashion for All
By: Elizabeth A. Keenan, Sandra J. Sucher and Shalene Gupta
In Fall 2017, Tommy Hilfiger launched Tommy Hilfiger Adaptive, a line of adaptive and inclusive fashion apparel intended to make dressing easier. Now, Tommy Hilfiger is planning to launch Tommy Hilfiger Adaptive internationally in early 2020. The prospect of making... View Details
Keywords: Marketing And Society; Brands; Fashion; Inclusion; Consumer; Corporate Social Responsibility; Retail; Apparel; Disability; Accessibility; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Communications; Product Marketing; Social Marketing; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Marketing Strategy; Social Enterprise; Society; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Issues; Consumer Behavior; Fashion Industry; Fashion Industry; Fashion Industry; Fashion Industry; United States; North America
- November 2021 (Revised March 2022)
- Case
Kwame Spearman at Tattered Cover: Reinventing Brick-and-Mortar Retail
By: Ryan Raffaelli and Kerry Herman
The case spotlights Kwame Spearman’s career-shifting decision to leave a NYC-based consulting job to return to his hometown of Denver, Colorado, and take over an iconic independent bookstore, The Tattered Cover. The case lays out ways Spearman envisions a new approach... View Details
- November 2021 (Revised December 2021)
- Supplement
PittaRosso (B): Human and Machine Learning
By: Ayelet Israeli
This case supplements the "PittaRosso: Artificial Intelligence-Driven Pricing and Promotion" case, and provides major highlights on what happened at the company since the first case. View Details
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Pricing; Pricing Algorithm; Pricing Decisions; Pricing Strategy; Pricing Structure; Promotion; Promotions; Online Marketing; Data-driven Decision-making; Data-driven Management; Retail; Retail Analytics; Price; Advertising Campaigns; Analytics and Data Science; Analysis; Digital Marketing; Budgets and Budgeting; Marketing Strategy; Marketing; Transformation; Decision Making; AI and Machine Learning; Retail Industry; Italy
- November 2021 (Revised February 2022)
- Case
Advent International and Walmart Brazil's Deal
By: Victoria Ivashina, Ruth Costas and Pedro Levindo
Advent International, one of the world’s leading private equity firms, must decide whether to acquire Walmart’s subsidiary in Brazil or not. Although Walmart Brazil is losing cash at a rapid pace, Advent thinks it has a solid plan to recover the company’s finances.... View Details
- October 2021
- Case
Yildiz Holding's Corporate Strategy: Managing Diversification for Growth
By: Juan Alcácer and Esel Çekin
The case opens in May 2018 with Nurtaç Ziyal Afridi, chief strategy and growth officer of Yıldız Holding, a Turkish conglomerate, reflecting on the group’s diversification journey. In ten years, the group had achieved a remarkable growth through diversification: seven... View Details
- October 2021 (Revised December 2021)
- Case
Customer-Centric Design with Artificial Intelligence: Commonwealth Bank
By: Karim R. Lakhani, Yael Grushka-Cockayne, Jin Hyun Paik and Steven Randazzo
As Commonwealth Bank (CommBank) CEO Matt Comyn delivered the full financial year results in August 2021 over videoconference, it took less than two minutes for him to make his first mention of the organization's Customer Engagement Engine (CEE), the AI-driven customer... View Details
- October 2021 (Revised September 2022)
- Case
GoPro: Becoming a Subscription Hero
By: Elie Ofek, Marco Bertini and Nicole Tempest Keller
In 2021, Nick Woodman, founder and CEO of GoPro, was reviewing the company’s subscription offering, considering whether to extend it beyond benefits that were directly related to the company’s iconic camera. Founded in 2002, GoPro had gained renown for its innovative... View Details
- October 2021 (Revised March 2022)
- Supplement
PittaRosso: Artificial Intelligence-Driven Pricing and Promotion
By: Ayelet Israeli and Fabrizio Fantini
PittaRosso, a traditional Italian shoe retailer, is implementing an AI system to provide pricing and promotion recommendations. The system allows them to implement changes that would affect both the top of funnel and bottom of funnel activities for the company: once... View Details
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Pricing; Pricing Algorithm; Pricing Decisions; Pricing Strategy; Pricing Structure; Promotion; Promotions; Online Marketing; Data-driven Decision-making; Data-driven Management; Retail; Retail Analytics; Price; Advertising Campaigns; Analytics and Data Science; Analysis; Digital Marketing; Budgets and Budgeting; Marketing Strategy; Marketing; Transformation; Decision Making; Retail Industry; Italy
- October 2021 (Revised June 2022)
- Case
PittaRosso: Artificial Intelligence-Driven Pricing and Promotion
By: Ayelet Israeli
PittaRosso, a traditional Italian shoe retailer, is implementing an AI system to provide pricing and promotion recommendations. The system allows them to implement changes that would affect both the top of funnel and bottom of funnel activities for the company: once... View Details
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Pricing; Pricing Algorithm; Pricing Decisions; Pricing Strategy; Pricing Structure; Promotion; Promotions; Online Marketing; Data-driven Decision-making; Data-driven Management; Retail; Retail Analytics; AI; Price; Advertising Campaigns; Analytics and Data Science; Analysis; Digital Marketing; Budgets and Budgeting; Marketing Strategy; Marketing; Transformation; Decision Making; AI and Machine Learning; Retail Industry; Italy
- 2021
- Book
Lead and Disrupt: How to Solve the Innovator's Dilemma
By: Charles A. O'Reilly III and Michael Tushman
Why do successful firms find it so difficult to adapt in the face of change—to innovate? In the past ten years, the importance of this question has increased as more industries and firms confront disruptive change. The pandemic has accelerated this crisis, collapsing... View Details
- August 2021 (Revised October 2024)
- Case
Allbirds: Decarbonizing Fashion (A)
By: Michael W. Toffel, Kenneth P. Pucker and Eren Kuzucu
The Allbirds: Decarbonizing Fashion (A) case introduces Allbirds as a footwear startup not only focused on simple design, comfort, and sustainable natural materials but on decarbonizing the wider fashion industry. Background material highlights the growing... View Details
Keywords: Decarbonization; Climate Impact; Environmental Strategy; Innovation; Product Design; Supply Chain Management; Innovation Strategy; Innovation and Management; Product Development; Climate Change; Environmental Management; Environmental Sustainability; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United States; California
- July 2021 (Revised September 2024)
- Case
Supreme: Remaining Cool While Pursuing Growth
By: Jill Avery, Sandrine Crener, Marie-Cecile Cervellon and Ranjit Thind
Following VF Corporation’s acquisition of cult streetwear brand Supreme, consumers and industry pundits were nervous that becoming part of a large, public corporation would put an end to Supreme’s slow and careful growth trajectory as pressure for quarterly results... View Details
- July 2021 (Revised January 2024)
- Case
Fynd
By: Ranjay Gulati, Kairavi Dey and Rachna Tahilyani
Fynd is a fast-growing venture that in 7 years since its founding has become India's largest omnichannel retail company with real-time access to over 9,000 stores' offline inventory. It started as a B2B business supporting retailers who didn’t have an online business,... View Details
- July 2021 (Revised October 2021)
- Case
Allianz Customer Centricity: Is Simplicity the Way Forward?
By: Eva Ascarza and Emilie Billaud
This case explores the tradeoffs between product personalization and simplicity as companies grow. The case presents an opportunity to understand whether and how each of these approaches enables and/or limits companies’ abilities to provide customer satisfaction while... View Details