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- August 2016 (Revised January 2017)
- Case
Accounting for the iPhone Upgrade Program (A)
By: Jonas Heese, Krishna G. Palepu, H. David Sherman and Monica Baraldi
On September 9, 2015, Apple Inc. announced the “iPhone Upgrade Program,” a new way to purchase iPhone models 6s and 6s Plus in Apple’s retail stores throughout the U.S. Next to the strategic implications of the Upgrade Program, financial analysts tried to understand... View Details
- April 2016 (Revised June 2017)
- Teaching Note
Dollar General Bids for Family Dollar
By: Jonas Heese, Paula A. Price and Suraj Srinivasan
In spring 2015, Dollar General CEO Rick Dreiling was looking ahead to retiring at year's end but worried about ensuring continued growth for the company he had built since 2008 into a market leader in the U.S. discount retail world. Dollar General operated over 11,500... View Details
- April 2016 (Revised December 2016)
- Case
The Container Store
By: Tatiana Sandino, Zeynep Ton and Aldo Sesia
The Container Store (TCS) is a Texas-based retailer of organization and storage solutions. The company prides itself in taking care of its employees first, and its cofounder and CEO Kip Tindell practices Conscious Capitalism. Since its beginnings in 1978, TCS grew to a... View Details
- February 2016
- Supplement
Go Mobile: Aligning District Managers and Store Teams Video Supplement (1)
By: Tatiana Sandino
- February 2016
- Supplement
Go Mobile: Aligning District Managers and Store Teams Video Supplement (2)
By: Tatiana Sandino
- February 2016 (Revised February 2017)
- Case
Greening Walmart: Progress and Controversy
By: Rebecca Henderson and James Weber
In 2005, Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, launched a sustainability initiative aimed at reducing waste and making the company more environmentally and socially conscious. By 2015, the company had made progress on multiple dimensions: energy efficiency in its... View Details
- 2019
- Working Paper
Who Should Select New Employees, Headquarters or the Unit Manager? Consequences of Centralizing Hiring at a Retail Chain
By: Carolyn Deller and Tatiana Sandino
We examine how changing the allocation of hiring decision rights in a multiunit organization affects employee-firm match quality, contingent on a unit’s circumstances. Our research site, a US retail chain, switched from a decentralized hiring model (hiring by business... View Details
- December 2015
- Article
Does Planning Regulation Protect Independent Retailers?
By: Raffaella Sadun
Regulations aimed at curbing the entry of large retail stores have been introduced in many countries to protect independent retailers. Analyzing a planning reform launched in the United Kingdom in the 1990s, I show that independent retailers were actually harmed by the... View Details
- November 2015
- Case
Katherine Schuler at Boxes & Bins, Inc.
By: Linda A. Hill and James Kindley
This case is about Katherine Schuler, soon to become senior vice president of marketing at a fast-growing retail organization, Boxes & Bins (B&B). Part of Schuler's success has been due to her "fit" into a company with clear values and principles. In particular, B&B... View Details
- November 2015 (Revised October 2017)
- Case
Dollar General Bids for Family Dollar
By: Jonas Heese, Paula A. Price, Suraj Srinivasan and David Lane
In spring 2015, Dollar General's CEO Rick Dreiling was looking ahead to retiring at year's end but worried about ensuring continued growth for the company he had built since 2008 into a market leader in the U.S. discount retail world. Dollar General operated over... View Details
- September 2015 (Revised February 2017)
- Case
MOD Pizza: A Winning Recipe?
By: Boris Groysberg, John D. Vaughan and Matthew Preble
Scott and Ally Svenson, the founders of MOD Pizza, had to make a number of decisions in planning how to scale their small company. They wanted to grow MOD from 45 stores as of May 2015 to 200 stores by the end of 2016, and while the two believed that MOD could manage... View Details
- September 2015
- Teaching Note
Sustainability at IKEA Group
Can IKEA Group double its global sales within a decade by expending in emerging markets while implementing on its ambitious sustainability strategy that included focusing on raw material sourcing and suppliers’ production processes? The case focuses on IKEA Group’s... View Details
- September 2015 (Revised June 2018)
- Case
Macy's: Evolution in the Sunshine State
In 2009, Lee O'Rourke was promoted to district vice president in charge of Macy's newly created North Florida district. This district consisted of 11 stores located in the greater Orlando area and in the east coast towns of Daytona, Melbourne, Merritt Island, and Vero... View Details
- September 2015
- Teaching Note
J.C. Penney's 'Fair and Square' Strategy (Abridged), (B), and (C)
By: Elie Ofek, Jose B. Alvarez and Michael Norris
This teaching note is for "J.C. Penney's 'Fair and Square' Strategy (Abridged), (B), and (C)," which tells the story of Ron Johnson's tenure as CEO of the U.S. department store J.C. Penney, his 2013 firing, and the rehiring of former CEO Myron E. "Mike" Ullman to try... View Details
- August 2015 (Revised December 2016)
- Case
Apple Pay
By: Sunil Gupta, Shelle Santana and Margaret L. Rodriguez
On September 9, 2014, in front of a packed audience in Cupertino, CA, Tim Cook, the chief executive officer of Apple, announced the much anticipated launch of Apple Pay. "Our vision is to replace this [wallet] and we are going to start with payments." Cook then invited... View Details
Keywords: Technology; Digital Services And Strategy; Launch; Mobile; Mobile Payments; Apple; Payments; Smartphone; Apple Pay; Eddy Cue; Jennifer Bailey; iOS; Iphone; Marketing; Product; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Product Launch; Finance; Credit Cards; Technology Industry; Banking Industry; United States; United Kingdom
- August 2015
- Case
Kjell & Company: Electronics Accessories Retail in the Nordics
By: Krishna Palepu, Das Narayandas and Kerry Herman
Swedish electronics accessories retailer Kjell is considering several issues as it plots its next stage of growth. How should it balance opportunities to expand retail stores into a new market (Oslo, Norway) with additional growth in its home market—Sweden—with... View Details
- July 2015 (Revised July 2016)
- Case
SF Express: From Delivery to E-Commerce
By: Feng Zhu and David Lane
Shunfeng Express (SF), China's leading express delivery firm, in May 2014 opened the first 500 of several thousand Heike stores, which allowed consumers to buy and try out SF's own e-commerce offerings, in addition to other services. As an example of China's... View Details
Keywords: Shunfeng Express; Heike; Express Delivery; Alibaba; Tencent; JD.com; China; O2O; Logistics; Strategy; Service Delivery; China
- July 2015
- Exercise
An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Fultons Department Stores
By: Guhan Subramanian and Kait Szydlowski
A three party, multiple-issue negotiation exercise dealing with a potential merger between two leading department stores, called for by an activist investor hedge fund in a letter to both companies. Company management will now attempt to navigate next moves, which are... View Details
- 2015
- Article
Testing Strategy with Multiple Performance Measures: Evidence from a Balanced Scorecard at Store24
We analyze balanced scorecard data from a convenience store chain, Store24, during the implementation of an innovative, but ultimately unsuccessful, strategy. Quarterly strategic reviews, based in part on the firm's balanced scorecard, led executives at Store24 to... View Details