Publications

November 2011 (Revised December 2012)
Case

Rent the Runway

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Laura Winig

Two months after a successful launch in November 2009, the cofounders of Rent the Runway (RTR), a website that rented designer dresses, are debating whether to grow their startup at a measured pace and focus on improving operational effectiveness, or raise a new round... View Details

Keywords: Lean Startup; Electronic Commerce; Fashion; Expansion; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; E-commerce; Fashion Industry

June 2013 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Hennes & Mauritz, 2012

By: John R. Wells and Galen Danskin

In 2012, Hennes & Maurtiz (H&M) was the second-largest specialty apparel retailer in the world. Sales for fiscal 2012 were $18.1 billion and operating profits were $3.3 billion. H&M operated 2,776 stores, 93% of them outside its home base of Sweden. Over the past... View Details

Keywords: Fashion; Strategic Decision Making; Strategy; Supply Chain; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Fashion Industry; Europe; Sweden

01 Dec 2014
News

Instilling Production with Principles

competitors in an industry often known for low wages and dismal environmental records. “We can be a catalyst of change,” says Yang, who is planning sustainability conferences View Details

Keywords: April White; fashion; Manufacturing

October 2015 (Revised October 2016)
Case

Paez

By: Jill Avery, Maria Fernanda Miguel and Laura Urdapilleta

Paez, an Argentine start-up fashion brand, sold traditional alpargatas, a sleepy shoe category that suddenly woke up when U.S. company TOMS borrowed the traditional alpargata design, covered it with fashionable colors and prints, and tied it to a social cause. Paez's... View Details

Keywords: Brands; Brand Management; Brand Positioning; Entrepreneurship In Emerging Markets; Retailing; Fashion; Competitive Strategy; Marketing; Advertising; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Competition; Fashion Industry; Fashion Industry; Argentina; Spain

March 2019
Case

Wattpad

By: John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

How to run a platform to match four million writers of stories to 75 million readers? Use data science. Make money by doing deals with television and filmmakers and book publishers. The case describes the challenges of matching readers to stories and of helping writers... View Details

January 2015
Case

The Blonde Salad

By: Anat Keinan, Kristina Maslauskaite, Sandrine Crener and Vincent Dessain

In 2014, Chiara Ferragni, a globe-trotting founder of the world's most popular fashion blog The Blonde Salad, and Riccardo Pozzoli, her co-founder and business partner, had to decide how to best monetize her blog as well as her shoe line called the "Chiara Ferragni... View Details

20 Apr 2017
Blog Post

Why I Love My Job: Ching Ching Chen On Her Passion For the Music Industry

Name and Graduation Year: Ching Ching Chen, 2017 What inspires you to want to make an impact in the music industry? I grew up studying violin, piano, and opera and my mother... View Details

Keywords: Entertainment / Media / Sports

26 Feb 2014
News

The First Five Years: Morgan Hermand-Waiche (MBA 2010)

entrepreneur Fabrice Grinda and worked with him on various ventures. We found that there was a big opportunity in the intimates industry, which is what eventually led to the launch of Adore Me." How did you come up with the idea? "My... View Details

Keywords: online shopping; fashion; Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores; Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores; Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores; Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores

25 Sep 2000
Research & Ideas

More Than the Sum of Its Parts: The Impact of Modularity on the Computer Industry

a manageable set of objectives. The design rules ensure that the results of this division of labor can be reassembled into a functioning, improved—and improvable—whole. What's more, the value of both the parts and the whole continually... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Computer; Consumer Products; Technology

July 2016
Case

Spotify

By: Anita Elberse and Alexandre de Pfyffer

In November 2014, Spotify's chief content officer Ken Parks learns that record label Big Machine Records has requested the immediate removal of superstar artist Taylor Swift's entire catalogue from Spotify's music streaming service. Is it time for Spotify to reconsider... View Details

Keywords: Entertainment; Marketing; Superstar; Music; Entertainment Marketing; Media; Digital Technology; Creative Industries; Product Portfolio Management; General Management; Management; Strategy; Internet and the Web; Open Source Distribution; Creativity; Music Entertainment; Product Marketing; Music Industry

2012
Article

The Internalization of Advertising Services: An Inter-Industry Analysis

By: Sharon Horsky, Steven C. Michael and Alvin J. Silk

This study investigates the extent to which U.S. advertisers use in-house rather than independent advertising agencies and examines inter-industry variation in such internalization. Contrary to the widely held impression that use of an in-house advertising agency is... View Details

Keywords: Advertisers; In-house Advertising; Inter-industry Variation; Internalization; Scale Economies; Transaction Costs; Vertical Integration; Advertising Costs; Creative Industries; Marketing Strategy; Advertising Industry; Europe; North and Central America

Read Now

01 Dec 2014
News

Creating the Shopping Experience of the Future

my daughter’s opinion. I call her up, and she can see through my eyes what I’m seeing,” says Ross. “The uses are endless. It’s really as creative as you are. Where Glass becomes magical is when you get to... View Details

Keywords: Christine Lejeune; fashion; technology

08 Oct 2020
Research & Ideas

Keep Your Weary Workers Engaged and Motivated

complicated them: Cost-cutting and remote work mean that both the acquisition and bonding drives are harder to meet via traditional means such as raises and team outings.... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

January 2015 (Revised April 2018)
Case

CJ E&M: Creating a K-Culture in the U.S.

By: Elie Ofek, Sang-Hoon Kim and Michael Norris

Buoyed by the success of K-pop music and K-drama television shows in Asian countries, Chairman Jay Lee, of the South Korean conglomerate CJ Group, believed that the time was ripe for taking Korean cultural content to the West. One initiative, carried out by the Group's... View Details

Keywords: Cultural Consumption; Media Businesses; International Marketing; Event Marketing; Creative Industries; Cross-cultural Adaptation; Ethnic Marketing; South Korea; Marketing Strategy; Entertainment; Global Strategy; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States; South Korea

01 Apr 1997
News

The Businesslike Gourmet: Karen Page on America's Foodservice Industry

whose innovations and creativity greatly influence the direction of the industry. How big is the foodservice industry? Sales for restaurants alone are projected to top $320 billion in 1997. Restaurants are a... View Details

December 2018
Case

Choosy

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Julia Kelley

Founded in 2017, Choosy is a data-driven fashion startup that uses algorithms to identify styles trending on social media. After manufacturing similar items using a China-based supply chain, Choosy sells them to consumers through its website and social media pages.... View Details

2011
Other Unpublished Work

Medium and Message: The Role of the Media in Establishing Institutional Logics

By: Mukti Khaire and Erika Richardson

Research on industry institutional logics has provided insights into the factors that influence organizational behavior and actions. However, we still lack a detailed understanding of how industry logics emerge from societal-level values, get disseminated, and become... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Values and Beliefs; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Media; Organizations; Behavior; Societal Protocols; Fashion Industry; India

22 May 2017
Lessons from the Classroom

A Luxury Industry Veteran Teaches the Importance of Aesthetics to Budding Business Leaders

healthy thirst for competition. Dubbed “Aesthetic Idol,” the project asks students to split into small groups and choose a true-life business challenge, and to come up with a solution that combines View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Beauty & Cosmetics; Apparel & Accessories; Auto; Tourism

November 2017
Teaching Note

Predicting Consumer Tastes with Big Data at Gap

By: Ayelet Israeli and Jill Avery

CEO Art Peck was eliminating his creative directors for The Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic brands and promoting a collective creative ecosystem fueled by the input of big data. Rather than relying on artistic vision, Peck wanted the company to use the mining of big... View Details