Retailing Industry - Publications - Faculty & Research

28 Oct 2008
First Look

First Look: October 28, 2008

important predictor of product performance, product variety, process flexibility and industry evolution. We explore this relationship in the software industry by use of a technique called Design Structure... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

01 Sep 2012
News

High Honors

Anglo American in 2007, one of the world’s largest mining companies, Cynthia Carroll determined that increased transparency was important if the company—and the industry as a whole—was going to improve its safety record. “People responded... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Miscellaneous Store Retailers

14 Feb 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: February 14

the scientists themselves. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=52220 January 2017 American Economic Review Are Online and Offline Prices Similar? Evidence from Large Multi-Channel Retailers By: Cavallo,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

17 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: January 17

products survive in equilibrium, even with competition. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/12-055.pdf Got Local Food? Authors:Baris Ata, Deishin Lee, and Mustafa H. Tongarlak Abstract We study the operational tradeoffs of a View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

03 Oct 2017
First Look

First Look at Research and Ideas, October 3, 2017

Philippines, found himself at a crucial turning point in his young company’s development. In just three years, Zalora had come from entering the Philippine fashion retail industry as an unknown quantity to... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

01 Dec 2019
News

Capitalizing the Corner Shop

Amazon of Africa”; at the time of its IPO last April, it was valued at $1.3 billion. A year later, Kehinde and fellow Jumia executive Ercin Eksin went on to found Africa Courier Express (ACE), a logistics company meant to meet the growing last-mile delivery needs of... View Details

Keywords: Dan Morrell

25 Feb 2020
News

Alumni and Faculty Books for March 2020

who is invested in keeping it that way. The book presents a new vision of how health care could work if it were truly designed to meet consumer needs, creating a call to action on how to demand and help create such a system. A wake-up call to an View Details

17 Oct 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, October 17, 2017

Employees, the Head Office or the Unit Manager? Consequences of Centralizing Hiring at a Retail Chain By: Deller, Carolyn, and Tatiana Sandino Abstract—We examine whether centralized hiring (in this study, by the head office of a U.S.... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

23 Aug 2019
Blog Post

A Summer of Peaks and Swells: Interning at Patagonia

Patagonia has been using 100% organic cotton in its products since 1996, it is now part of a pilot program to grow regenerative organic certified cotton and mango for its apparel and food. Patagonia has had a tremendous impact on the apparel and outdoor View Details

Keywords: Consumer Products / Retail; Consumer Products / Retail

01 Dec 2005
News

Trillion-Dollar Fixer-Upper

The commercial real estate business was in a shambles fifteen years ago, but just look at it now. After a complete rehab, the industry has become the darling of investors eager for alternatives to lackluster stocks and bonds. But will the... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; Real Estate

09 Jun 2015
First Look

First Look: June 9, 2015

instance, estimates of U.S. annual losses indicate $1 trillion paid in bribes, $270 billion lost due to unreported income, as well as $42 billion lost in retail due to shoplifting and employee theft. In this article we draw on insights... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

20 Mar 2007
First Look

First Look: March 20, 2007

Working PapersIncorporating Price and Inventory Endogeneity in Firm-Level Sales Forecasting Authors:Saravanan Kesavan, Vishal Gaur, and Ananth Raman Abstract As numerous papers have argued, sales, inventory, and gross margin for a View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

27 Aug 2019
Blog Post

Meet the PRIDE Club

came from a tech background after working in operations and product in Uber and ofo (a bike-sharing tech company) for four years. Alex decided to attend HBS to take a break from the hectic startup life and to explore different industries... View Details

28 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Six Lessons from Mobile Money Ventures in Developing Countries

business strategy 101 for most entrepreneurs, so why have so many mobile money service offerings failed? It’s a question being studied by Rajiv Lal, the Stanley Roth, Sr. Professor of Retailing at Harvard Business School. “You would think... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Financial Services; Telecommunications

Career Coach

Ellen Harris

Extension School, interested in coaching across industries and functions. Clients include: Boston Bruins, Biogen, Novartis, Bain Capital, BCG, McKinsey, Harvard departments as well as graduate programs, MIT, INSEAD Business School, Hult... View Details

Keywords: Retail; Retail; Retail; Retail; Retail; Retail; Retail

May 2024 (Revised February 2025)
Case

Lowe's: Improving the Total Home Strategy

By: Elie Ofek, K. Shelette Stewart and Alicia Dadlani

In 2023, Marvin Ellison, CEO of Lowe’s, contemplated enhancements to the company’s Total Home Strategy to accelerate performance and grow market share. In the last five years since becoming CEO, Ellison had championed a turnaround of the company, completing a... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; E-commerce; Competition; Brands and Branding; Business Strategy; Retail Industry; United States; North Carolina

Citation

Educators

Purchase

December 1985 (Revised October 1986)
Case

J.C. Penney (A)

An assistant treasurer at J.C. Penney is looking at various alternatives for financing the company's $2.5 billion store expansion and modernization program. The case provides a listing of different ways/capital markets issues to obtain this financing. Designed to be... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Expansion; Capital Markets; Financing and Loans; Retail Industry; United States

Citation

Educators

Purchase

March 2019
Supplement

KITEA (D): Further Changes

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in February 2016, when the official date of IKEA’s store opening (March 16, 2016) is announced after a five-month delay. It reviews the changes that Amine and Othman Benkirane had made to KITEA’s workforce in the extra five months afforded by the delay... View Details

Keywords: Private Sector; For-Profit Firms; Business Strategy; Strategic Planning; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Corporate Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Retail Industry; Africa; North Africa; Morocco

Citation

Purchase

March 2019
Supplement

KITEA (C): A Surprise Delay

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Gamze Yucaoglu

This case describes the delay of IKEA’s store opening in Morocco in 2015. After Sweden ordered an internal review of its position on the independence of Western Sahara, a territory Morocco regarded as part of its own, the Moroccan government declared that IKEA did not... View Details