Publications

Web

Harvard Business School

Accenture). He became a partner in 1976, specializing in the development of financial control and operating systems in retail and banking industries. In 1985, Gates began to develop commercial and residential real estate. His first... View Details

July 2020
Case

Amanda and Kristen: Mented Cosmetics

By: Steven Rogers, Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Alterrell Mills

The co-founders (Black HBS alumnae) of an e-commerce beauty startup explore the unmet needs within the beauty industry. This case study examines the entrepreneurial opportunities that come from identifying an underserved market, specifically within the Black community... View Details

March 2018 (Revised July 2018)
Case

Whole Foods Under Amazon

By: Dennis Campbell, Tatiana Sandino, James Barnett and Christine Snively

In August 2017, Amazon acquired Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion. Whole Foods was struggling with high costs and faced growing competition from traditional supermarkets offering more organic products. Prior to the acquisition, Whole Foods began rolling out a new... View Details

Keywords: Performance Efficiency; Performance Improvement; Employee Relationship Management; Acquisition; Change Management; Retail Industry; Retail Industry

18 Jul 2019
Lessons from the Classroom

The Internet of Things Needs a Business Model. Here It Is

however, is only the beginning of what is possible through the IoT. “What you see in the consumer domain is interesting, but it’s not where the economic action is,” says Rajiv Lal, the Stanley Roth Sr. Professor of Retailing at Harvard... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Computer

Research Summary

Management Control Systems in Multiunit Companies

By: Tatiana Sandino

Professor Sandino conducts research on early-stage multiunit companies that introduce management control systems to help maintain operations, as well as company culture, as they grow, but also to enable adaptation to the different markets that they serve. Building... View Details

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

13 Nov 2019
Research & Ideas

Don't Turn Your Marketing Function Over to AI Just Yet

factors that influence consumer behavior are so varied and complex, and the data that companies collect is so rich, just modeling how consumers search a single retail website is a monumental task. Each company’s data are so firm and... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

Research Summary

Overview

Professor Vallée focuses on financial innovation, investigating it from different angles. This research thread has led him to relate the methods and insights of corporate finance and banking with those of other subfields, including household finance, public finance,... View Details

February 2022
Case

Toraya

By: Lauren Cohen and Akiko Kanno

Mitsuharu Kurokawa was the 18th generation leader of a family firm that produced and sold premium Japanese sweets, Toraya Confectionery Co., Ltd. He had succeeded the business from his father, Mitsuhiro Kurokawa who had led the firm for thirty years. Mitsuharu was... View Details

Keywords: Branding; Luxury Brand; Succession; Family Business; Management Succession; Brands and Branding; Luxury; Marketing; Expansion; Globalization; Innovation and Invention; Customer Satisfaction; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Japan

25 Mar 2019
Research & Ideas

The Secret Life of Supply Chains

direct-to-consumer or “Main Street” services (think retail and restaurants), which have the lowest average wages, $29,400. “We find that the supply chain economy is a distinct and large segment of the economy, and includes manufacturers... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Manufacturing; Service

01 Mar 2023
News

Step Change

chairwoman. After, the more prevalent mindset was “I’ll just go do it,” the “it” being a new venture addressing any of a host of gaps in the marketplace. At a panel in 2016, Shousha remembers bankers droning on about opening bricks-and-mortar View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; photographed by Abdelrahman Gabr – Koree; entrepreneurship; women; venture capital; Egypt; developing economies; Finance

10 Feb 2016
HBS Seminar

Hong Luo of Harvard Business School and Julie Mortimer of Boston College, Department of Economics

November 1991 (Revised April 1994)
Case

Taco Bell Corp.

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Roger H. Hallowell

John Martin, Taco Bell CEO, brings the company into line with its competitors through incremental change during the 1980s. In the early 1990s, he adopts breakthrough approaches to improve service levels while reducing prices, providing a distinct competitive advantage.... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Food; Competitive Advantage; Innovation and Management; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; United States