Publications

January 2016 (Revised May 2016)
Supplement

IKEA in Saudi Arabia (C)

By: Karthik Ramanna, Jerome Lenhardt and Marc Homsy

Supplements the (A) Case. View Details

Keywords: Corporate Values; Islam; Multinationals; Globalization; Leadership; Equality and Inequality; Multinational Firms and Management; Religion; Organizational Culture; Gender; Consumer Products Industry; Saudi Arabia; Sweden

August 2023 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Arla Foods: Data-Driven Decarbonization (A)

By: Michael Parzen, Michael W. Toffel, Susan Pinckney and Amram Migdal

The case describes Arla’s history, in particular its climate change mitigation efforts, and how it implemented a price incentive system to motivate individual farms to implement scope 1 greenhouse gas emissions mitigation measures and receive a higher milk price. The... View Details

August 2023 (Revised January 2024)
Supplement

Arla Foods: Data-Driven Decarbonization (A)

By: Michael Parzen, Michael W. Toffel, Amram Migdal and Susan Pinckney

Arla implemented a data-based price incentive system to measure, track, and influence climate friendly changes to reduce CO2 emissions across the world’s fourth largest dairy cooperative. View Details

Keywords: Dairy Industry; Business Earnings; Earnings Management; Environmental Accounting; Agribusiness; Animal-Based Agribusiness; Acquisition; Mergers and Acquisitions; Decision Making; Decisions; Voting; Environmental Management; Climate Change; Environmental Regulation; Environmental Sustainability; Green Technology; Pollution; Moral Sensibility; Values and Beliefs; Financial Strategy; Price; Profit; Revenue; Food; Geopolitical Units; Global Strategy; Ownership Type; Cooperative Ownership; Performance Efficiency; Performance Evaluation; Problems and Challenges; Natural Environment; Science-Based Business; Business Strategy; Commercialization; Cooperation; Corporate Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Europe; United Kingdom; European Union; Germany; Denmark; Sweden; Luxembourg; Belgium

March 2016
Case

IC Group A/S

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

IC Group owned several of Scandinavia's leading premium fashion brands. How should it respond to the decline of its primary wholesale distribution channels (independent fashion boutiques and department stores)? Should it open more physical stores or focus on... View Details

July 1987 (Revised May 1993)
Case

Atlas Copco (A): Gaining and Building Distribution Channels

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

Atlas Copco, a Swedish company, holds the highest market share for air compressors worldwide. However, its attempts to enter U.S. markets have been unsuccessful. The case describes a series of strategic distribution maneuvers implemented by the company which enable it... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development; Marketing Channels; Market Entry and Exit; Market Participation; Distribution Channels; Failure; Industrial Products Industry; Sweden; United States

14 Apr 2008
Research & Ideas

The Surprising Right Fit for Software Testing

another under construction in Scotland, and branches being planned in Sweden and India. Its niche, according to the case, is testing when the cost of establishing automated testing is too expensive and complex. In March 2008 Sonne was... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Video Game; Web Services; Computer

01 Nov 2010
Research & Ideas

How IT Shapes Top-Down and Bottom-Up Decision Making

trust tend to be systematically more decentralized than those in areas with low levels of trust. Sweden and Portugal, for example, seem to be on opposite ends of the trust spectrum. "There's huge cross country heterogeneity in the... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

April 2025 (Revised June 2025)
Supplement

Arla Foods: Data-Driven Decarbonization (A) and (B) PowerPoint Supplement

By: Michael Parzen, Michael W. Toffel and Susan Pinckney

Arla implemented a data based price incentive systems to measure, track, and influence climate friendly changes to reduce CO2 emissions across the world’s fourth largest dairy cooperative. View Details

Keywords: Dairy Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Europe; European Union; United Kingdom; Germany; Denmark; Sweden; Netherlands; Luxembourg; Belgium

01 Jun 2014
News

What’s Next

Executive Education developing over the next 20 years? What role does it play in the development of HBS? Bo Ekelund (TGMP 15, 2005), Bjärred, Sweden NN: The impact of our Executive Education programs, which today engage nearly 10,000... View Details

Keywords: HBS Campaign; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

22 Mar 2017
Research & Ideas

What's the Ideal Frequency for a Sales Quota?

in Sweden. For decades, the company had compensated sales people with a base salary and a monthly quota. But anecdotes from regional managers indicated it might be time for a change—largely thanks to the weather. “In Sweden what happens... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

23 Jun 2016
Op-Ed

Brexit: Should Britain Stay or Go?

Europe is seething with nationalism and racism. There are large and growing extreme right wing parties from Sweden to Greece, many of which enjoy waving Nazi flags. Fascist parties are in power in Hungary and Poland. There is a huge... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey G. Jones & Dante Roscini

May 2013 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Gap, Inc., 2012

By: John R. Wells and Galen Danskin

Between 2000 and 2012, Gap, Inc. (Gap) ceded its world leadership position in specialty fashion retailing to Inditex of Spain and H&M of Sweden. These two companies, each less than a quarter of Gap's size in 2000, were now setting the pace in the global mass fashion... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Change; Fashion; Multinational; Brands; Competition; Multinational Firms and Management; Performance Improvement; Strategy; Brands and Branding; Change Management; Retail Industry; Fashion Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Sweden; Spain; United States

12 Sep 2011
Research & Ideas

The Untold Story of ‘Green’ Entrepreneurs

In the 1920s, on pitch black nights in rural eastern Montana, the farmhouse owned by the parents of brothers Marcellus and Joe Jacobs stood out for one reason: it had light, although located far from power lines and gasoline supplies. It was a beacon in the dark that... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

January 2019 (Revised March 2021)
Case

SoundCloud: Subscription Streaming?

By: Ashish Nanda, Eric Van den Steen, Andy Wu, Jeffrey Boyar and Bonnie Bennett Slater

Established in 2007, SoundCloud already boasted the second largest number of active music listeners among all streaming services and was recognized as the go-to platform for new artists by early 2014. Yet, its founders were questioning the robustness of the firm’s... View Details