Publications

February 2003 (Revised August 2003)
Case

Disposable Diaper Industry in 2003, The

Updates the continuing developments in the disposable diaper industry from 1994 to 2003. Investigates new product innovation, global expansion, and emerging competitors in the highly competitive diaper industry, including the rise of training pants and ventures into... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Market Entry and Exit; Supply and Industry; Consumer Products Industry

January 1983 (Revised February 1988)
Case

Hospital Corp. of America (B)

By: W. Carl Kester

Focuses on HCAs financing options for reaching its target capital structure. The options include new equity conversion of convertible debentures, a debt-for-equity swap, the sale of assets, and fixed-rate debt. Students must address the problem of market timing and... View Details

Keywords: Assets; Capital Structure; Cash Flow; Equity; Debt Securities; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Health Industry; United States

February 1999 (Revised June 1999)
Case

Bloomberg L.P.

By: Clayton M. Christensen, Richard G. Hamermesh and Jeremy Dann

Michael Bloomberg founded his company to provide customers quick access to financial market data and analytical tools for understanding that data. As Bloomberg L.P. grew quickly,entered the ranks of "large, established companies," it grappled with a whole new range of... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Problems and Challenges

Find at Harvard

18 May 2013
News

Money might buy you happiness, if you spend it right

23 Feb 2011
News

Low Risk, High Reward

December 2010 (Revised January 2012)
Case

Zespri

By: Jose B. Alvarez and Mary Louise Shelman

Grower-owned Zespri is the sole exporter of New Zealand-grown kiwifruit outside of Australia and New Zealand. Facing growing international competition, Zespri invested in consumer branding and innovation, which has led to new types of kiwifruit that taste better and... View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Globalized Firms and Management; Innovation and Invention; Patents; Brands and Branding; Cooperative Ownership; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; New Zealand

February 1992 (Revised September 1995)
Case

Goldman, Sachs & Co.: Nikkei Put Warrants--1989

By: Peter Tufano

Japanese financial institutions' willingness to sell put options on the Nikkei Stock Average provides investment banks with the raw material from which to create a security that would allow U.S. investors to bet on falls in the Japanese Stock Market. The investment... View Details

Keywords: Debt Securities; Investment Banking; Product Design; Globalized Markets and Industries; Japan; United States

14 May 2018
Research & Ideas

Amazon vs. Whole Foods: When Cultures Collide

about Whole Foods customers, really angry customers, regularly encountering empty shelves at their favorite retailer. Then stories surfaced about Whole Foods employees crying over their new performance-driven working conditions imposed by... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Food & Beverage

December 1998
Case

Australian Wheat Board Limited.: Becoming a Grower-owned Corporation

By: Ray A. Goldberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Cate Reavis

In July 1999, the Australian Wheat Board (AWB), a statutory national and international grain marketing organization, would become grower-owned. As a private corporation, the AWB would no longer receive government borrowing guarantees and would have to rely on its own... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Capital Structure; Globalized Markets and Industries; Monopoly; Employee Ownership; Competition

August 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

Zillow Offers: Winning Online Real Estate 2.0

By: Luis Viceira, Marco Di Maggio and Allison Ciechanover

Founded in 2005, Zillow had become the leading online real estate and home-related marketplace. The brand was recognized as a trusted resource for players in the real estate market, providing information and transparency on home prices. Revenue, which was historically... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate; Corporate Culture; Intermediation; Brokerage; Startup; Evaluating Business Investments; Property; Information Technology; Business Model; Expansion; Business Startups; Real Estate Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; United States

November 2005 (Revised December 2016)
Case

Bally Total Fitness (A): The Rise, 1962–2004

By: John R. Wells, Elizabeth A. Raabe and Gabriel Ellsworth

From a single, modest club in 1962, Bally Total Fitness had grown to become—in management’s words—the “largest and only nationwide commercial operator of fitness centers” in the United States in 2004. Bally had faced its share of challenges, but the last couple of... View Details

Keywords: Bally Total Fitness; Fitness; Gyms; Health Clubs; Chain; Securities And Exchange Commission; Paul Toback; Weight Loss; Exercise; Contracts; Personal Training; Retention; Accounting; Accounting Audits; Accrual Accounting; Finance; Advertising; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Customers; Customer Satisfaction; Public Equity; Financing and Loans; Revenue; Revenue Recognition; Geographic Scope; Multinational Firms and Management; Health; Nutrition; Business History; Lawsuits and Litigation; Management; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing; Operations; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Public Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business Strategy; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Segmentation; Trends; Cost Management; Profit; Growth and Development; Leadership Style; Five Forces Framework; Private Ownership; Opportunities; Motivation and Incentives; Competitive Strategy; Health Industry; United States; Illinois; Chicago

21 Oct 2016
News

The barbarian establishment

08 Mar 2016
First Look

March 8, 2016

rhetoric and symbolic activities in the process of creating new markets. This study analyzes how entrepreneurial firms use these cultural strategies to position themselves in a nascent market category they... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

14 Dec 2016
Working Paper Summaries

The State of Small Business Lending: Innovation and Technology and the Implications for Regulation

Keywords: by Karen Gordon Mills and Brayden McCarthy; Financial Services

October 1994
Case

Bankers Trust: Global Investment Bank

By: Andre F. Perold and Kuljot Singh

In October 1992, Eugene Shanks, president of Bankers Trust New York Corp., and Brian Walsh, head of the Global Investment Bank (GIB) business unit, are considering a proposal for a large and complex financing involving the North Sea Oil Co. (NSOC). The financing... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Risk Management; Value Creation; Business History; Capital Markets; Financing and Loans; Financial Markets; Corporate Finance; Banking Industry; Energy Industry

09 Jan 2020
Book

Rethinking Business Strategy in the Age of AI

fundamental in fact, Iansiti and Lakhani argue that it’s crucial for firms to reinvent themselves around these new technologies and capabilities to not only grow, but compete and survive. ”It’s not disruption. Rather, it’s a completely... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

January 2009 (Revised February 2010)
Case

Necessity and Invention: Monetary Policy Innovation and the Subprime Crisis

By: Aldo Musacchio and Dante Roscini

This case describes the efforts of Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, to improve liquidity in money markets during the subprime crisis. The case explains the four main new tools for monetary policy (or quantitative easing) the Federal Reserve has used... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Money; Financial Liquidity; Central Banking; Policy; Business and Government Relations