Publications

Teaching Interest

MBA Required Curriculum—Strategy

By: Benjamin C. Esty

The objective of this course is to help students develop the skills for formulating strategy. It provides an understanding of:

A firm's operative environment and how to sustain competitive advantage.
How to generate superior... View Details

September 1998 (Revised July 1999)
Case

Costco Companies, Inc.

By: David E. Bell and Ann Leamon

Costco Companies, one of the major players in the wholesale club industry, has developed a new class of membership that offers discounted services--auto, health, and home insurance, business credit card processing, real estate services--in exchange for a higher annual... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Cost Management; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Supply and Industry; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Risk and Uncertainty; Retail Industry

Teaching Interest

MBA Required Curriculum-- Strategy Course

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell

The objective of this course is to help students develop the skills for formulating strategy. It provides an understanding of:

A firm's operative environment and how to sustain competitive advantage.
How to generate superior value for customers... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage

April 2025
Case

Breezm: Innovative 3D-Printed Eyewear (A)

By: Juan Alcácer, Brian Mao Fu and Adina Wong

In 2023, Breezm, a South Korean startup, faced a strategic decision about how to grow its innovative 3D-printed, custom-fit eyewear business. Co-founded in 2017 by Zenma Park and Wooseok Sung, Breezm combined facial scanning, AI, and in-house production to solve the... View Details

Keywords: 3D Printing; Eyeyewear; Growth; Business Startups; AI and Machine Learning; Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Risk and Uncertainty; Expansion; South Korea

Teaching Interest

Strategy

By: Jan W. Rivkin

The objective of this course is to help students develop the skills for formulating strategy, and provides an understanding of:

A firm's operative environment and how to sustain competitive advantage.
How to generate superior value for... View Details

23 Apr 2012
Research & Ideas

How to Brand a Next-Generation Product

Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, Daniel Craig—without destroying the franchise Whereas with Rocky, you're pretty much stuck with Sylvester Stallone." Risk Vs. Reward Companies also must assess risk... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

24 Jun 2013
Research & Ideas

Is Your iPhone Turning You Into a Wimp?

monitor? The answer may determine whether you'll play the wimp or the hero in your next office meeting. The body posture inherent in operating everyday gadgets affects not only your back, but your demeanor, reports a new experimental... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Technology; Consumer Products

22 Jun 2009
Research & Ideas

“Too Big To Fail”: Reining In Large Financial Firms

system to an entirely new level," he warns. But Moss has a fix: The federal government should slap tough new regulations on all firms that pose "systemic risk" —the risk that a failure of one institution could wreak havoc across the... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson; Banking; Financial Services

January 2021 (Revised July 2022)
Case

Snapp: Scaling Under Sanctions in Iran (A)

By: Meg Rithmire and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in November 2019 as Eyad Alkassar and Mahmoud Fouz, co-founders of Iran’s first and leading ride-hailing platform, Snapp, find out about Apple’s and Google’s decisions to remove all Iranian apps from their respective application stores.
The case... View Details

Keywords: Sanctions; Change Management; Disruption; Volatility; Decision Choices and Conditions; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Government and Politics; International Relations; National Security; Risk Management; Crisis Management; Transportation Industry; Iran; Middle East

February 2000 (Revised June 2003)
Case

Pepcid AC: Racing to the OTC Market

By: Charles King III, Alvin J. Silk, Ernst R. Berndt and Lisa R. Klein

Pepcid management must decide whether to risk all in a race to be first in the over-the-counter market with a new heartburn remedy. View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Product Positioning; Markets; Research; Marketing Strategy; Product Development; Decision Choices and Conditions; Pharmaceutical Industry

September 2024
Case

TechEnergy Ventures: Innovating Through Corporate Venture Capital

By: Rebecca Karp and Lena Duchene

This case examines TechEnergy Ventures, the corporate venture capital (CVC) arm of the Techint Group, and its role in scaling innovation within the energy sector. Founded in 2021, TechEnergy Ventures operates with a mandate to invest in disruptive technologies to... View Details

23 Mar 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Do US Market Interactions Affect CEO Pay? Evidence from UK Companies

Keywords: by Joseph J. Gerakos, Joseph D. Piotroski & Suraj Srinivasan

September 2024
Case

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners: Leading the Energy Transition

By: John Macomber and Maxwell Nii Laryea

A leading global infrastructure fund debates whether and when to become engaged in the electrolysis and distribution of hydrogen, as part of the hydrogen economy and the global transtion to a net zero energy world. The proposed billion dollar project consists of ... View Details

Keywords: Energy; Infrastructure; Energy Generation; Renewable Energy; Project Finance; Energy Industry; Spain

19 May 2011
Research & Ideas

Empathy: The Brand Equity of Retail

There's a famous line from the movie The Godfather, which is often repeated in corporate settings: "This is business, not personal." Ironically, though, that statement is actually bad business advice. During the Consortium for Operational... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Health

February 2003 (Revised May 2003)
Case

Mobile Energy Services Company

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Aldo Sesia

When Al "Chainsaw" Dunlap became CEO of the Scott Paper Co., the company owned a large, vertically integrated production facility in Mobile, Alabama. Dunlap sold part of the production facility, a cogeneration power plant (later known as Mobile Energy Services Co.), to... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Risk and Uncertainty; Contracts; Agreements and Arrangements; Investment; Projects; Vertical Integration; Energy Sources; Bonds; Ownership; Restructuring; Energy Industry; Alabama

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Article

Managing Climate Change: Lessons from the U.S. Navy

By: Forest Reinhardt and Michael W. Toffel

The U.S. Navy operates on the front lines of climate change. It manages tens of billions of dollars in assets on every continent and on every ocean, which take many years to design and build and then have decades of useful life. This means that it needs to understand... View Details

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2016
Chapter

Forward Guidance in the Yield Curve: Short Rates versus Bond Supply

By: Robin Greenwood, Samuel Gregory Hanson and Dimitri Vayanos

We present a model of the yield curve in which the central bank can provide market participants with forward guidance on both future short rates and on future Quantitative Easing (QE) operations, which affect bond supply. Forward guidance on short rates works through... View Details

Keywords: Central Banking; Financial Markets