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- Faculty Publications (45)
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- All HBS Web (222)
- Faculty Publications (45)
- November 2017
- Teaching Note
Amazon.com, 2016
By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth
Teaching Note for HBS No. 716-402.
On January 28, 2016, Amazon announced record 2015 operating profits of $2.2 billion on $107 billion of sales, and the markets responded with cautious optimism. For years, founder and CEO Jeffrey Bezos had prioritized growth and...
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Keywords:
Strategic Analysis;
Retail;
E-commerce;
Amazon;
Amazon.com;
AmazonFresh;
Jeff Bezos;
Cloud Computing;
Marketplaces;
Streaming;
E-reader Market;
Digital Media;
Mobile App;
Online Retail;
Shipping;
Database;
Tablet;
Kindle;
Kindle Fire;
Smartphone;
Delivery;
Market Platforms;
Two-Sided Platforms;
Competition;
Internet;
Corporate Strategy;
Online Advertising;
Business Growth and Maturation;
Business Model;
Business Organization;
For-Profit Firms;
Film Entertainment;
Games, Gaming, and Gambling;
Music Entertainment;
Television Entertainment;
Profit;
Revenue;
Global Strategy;
Multinational Firms and Management;
Taxation;
Business History;
Human Resources;
Resignation and Termination;
Books;
Human Capital;
Working Conditions;
Business or Company Management;
Goals and Objectives;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Growth Management;
Management Practices and Processes;
Industry Growth;
Industry Structures;
Media;
Distribution;
Distribution Channels;
Order Taking and Fulfillment;
Infrastructure;
Logistics;
Product Development;
Supply Chain;
Supply Chain Management;
Organizational Culture;
Public Ownership;
Work-Life Balance;
Problems and Challenges;
Labor and Management Relations;
Strategy;
Adaptation;
Business Strategy;
Competitive Strategy;
Diversification;
Expansion;
Integration;
Horizontal Integration;
Vertical Integration;
Hardware;
Information Technology;
Mobile Technology;
Online Technology;
Technology Networks;
Technology Platform;
Web;
Web Sites;
Price;
Software;
Marketing;
Marketing Strategy;
Working Capital;
Customer Focus and Relationships;
Customer Value and Value Chain;
Retail Industry;
Advertising Industry;
Distribution Industry;
Electronics Industry;
Entertainment and Recreation Industry;
Information Technology Industry;
Manufacturing Industry;
Motion Pictures and Video Industry;
Music Industry;
Publishing Industry;
Shipping Industry;
Technology Industry;
Video Game Industry;
Web Services Industry;
United States;
Washington (state, US);
Seattle
- June 1983 (Revised April 1991)
- Case
Dominion Engineering Works
Dominion Engineering Works faces important strategic decisions about whether to continue its focused strategy of selling newsprint machines to the Canadian paper industry or whether recent changes in industry conditions and the emergence of three global competitors...
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Keywords:
Machinery and Machining;
Globalized Markets and Industries;
Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques;
Partners and Partnerships;
Competitive Strategy;
Customization and Personalization;
Diversification
Bartlett, Christopher A. "Dominion Engineering Works." Harvard Business School Case 383-184, June 1983. (Revised April 1991.)
- July 2008
- Case
eHarmony
By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, Hanna Halaburda and Troy Smith
eHarmony's CEO needs to decide how to react to imitations of its business model, encroachment by competing models, and ascendance of free substitutes. The case provides four options to address these threats and asks students to choose one after they analyzed the...
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Keywords:
Business Model;
Decision Choices and Conditions;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Industry Structures;
Competitive Strategy;
Competitive Advantage;
Service Industry
Piskorski, Mikolaj Jan, Hanna Halaburda, and Troy Smith. "eHarmony." Harvard Business School Case 709-424, July 2008.
- July 2013
- Case
Montreaux Chocolate USA: Are Americans Ready for Healthy Dark Chocolate?
By: John A. Quelch and Diane Badame
Andrea Torres, director of new product development at a high-end chocolate confectionery company, leads her team through a carefully sequenced program of market research to support the development and launch of a new product, healthy dark chocolate with fruit. This is...
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Keywords:
Competition;
Food;
Consumer Behavior;
Nutrition;
Product Launch;
Product Development;
Food and Beverage Industry;
Switzerland;
United States
Quelch, John A., and Diane Badame. "Montreaux Chocolate USA: Are Americans Ready for Healthy Dark Chocolate?" Harvard Business School Brief Case 914-501, July 2013.
- September 2011 (Revised February 2013)
- Case
Trucost: Valuing Corporate Environmental Impacts
By: Michael W. Toffel and Stephanie van Sice
Trucost provided corporate environmental performance data and analysis to institutional investors and corporate managers, but after operating for a decade had yet to achieve profitability. Trucost was struggling to effectively differentiate its high quality products...
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Keywords:
Competitive Strategy;
Knowledge Use and Leverage;
Distribution Channels;
Investment;
Measurement and Metrics;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Information;
Value;
Environmental Sustainability;
Financial Services Industry
Toffel, Michael W., and Stephanie van Sice. "Trucost: Valuing Corporate Environmental Impacts." Harvard Business School Case 612-025, September 2011. (Revised February 2013.)
- August 1982 (Revised September 1991)
- Case
Rockwell International (A)
Describes the competitive situation facing Rockwell International, the market leader in the U.S. water meter industry. The industry is undergoing structural change, and competitor activity is intensifying. Rockwell must decide what, if any, actions are necessary to...
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Keywords:
Transformation;
Decisions;
Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques;
Markets;
Industry Structures;
Business Strategy;
Competition;
Manufacturing Industry;
United States
Porter, Michael E. "Rockwell International (A)." Harvard Business School Case 383-019, August 1982. (Revised September 1991.)
- 2022
- Case
A Sweet Dilemma: Sourcing Palm Oil with Ferrero SpA and Nestlé
This case focuses on Ferrero SpA's sustainable palm oil sourcing strategy in light of its acquisition of Nestlé's U.S. confectionery brands, which in many ways does not comply with Ferrero's sustainable sourcing commitments. The case reviews Ferrero's rich family...
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Hoffman, Andrew J. "A Sweet Dilemma: Sourcing Palm Oil with Ferrero SpA and Nestlé." William Davidson Institute Case 7-951-326, 2022.
- May 2013
- Case
Altius Golf and the Fighter Brand
By: Robert J. Dolan and Sunru Yong
Altius Golf is the clear leader in the golf ball market despite a long-term decline in the number of golfers and a drop in sales following the financial crisis. The firm has maintained its position by introducing generations of advanced, super-premium golf balls that...
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Keywords:
Governing and Advisory Boards;
Competitive Advantage;
Decision Choices and Conditions;
Distribution Channels;
Sports;
Financial Crisis;
Brands and Branding;
Segmentation;
Sports Industry;
Entertainment and Recreation Industry
Dolan, Robert J., and Sunru Yong. "Altius Golf and the Fighter Brand." Harvard Business School Brief Case 913-578, May 2013.
- June 2015 (Revised August 2016)
- Case
Qualcomm Inc., 2009-2015
By: David B. Yoffie
In the years after 2009, Qualcomm navigated the wireless industry's transition from 3G to 4G, retaining its technological leadership and experiencing dramatic growth in revenue and profit. In March 2014, Qualcomm appointed a new CEO, Steve Mollenkopf, who had to...
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Keywords:
Communication Technologies;
Technology;
Wireless Technologies;
Mobile and Wireless Technology;
Strategy;
Communication Technology;
Competitive Strategy;
Change Management;
Electronics Industry;
Telecommunications Industry;
California
Yoffie, David B. "Qualcomm Inc., 2009-2015." Harvard Business School Case 715-467, June 2015. (Revised August 2016.)
- 2009
- Working Paper
Gray Markets and Multinational Transfer Pricing
By: Romana L. Autrey and Francesco Bova
Gray markets arise when a manufacturer's products are sold outside of its authorized channels, for instance when goods designated for a foreign market are resold domestically. One method multinationals use to combat gray markets is to increase internal transfer prices...
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Keywords:
Price;
Multinational Firms and Management;
Demand and Consumers;
Distribution Channels;
Business and Government Relations;
Sales;
Competitive Strategy
Autrey, Romana L., and Francesco Bova. "Gray Markets and Multinational Transfer Pricing." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 09-098, February 2009. (Revised October 2009.)
- January 2014
- Case
In a Bind: Peak Sealing Technologies' Product Line Extension Dilemma
By: Robert J. Dolan and Heather Beckham
Peak Sealing Technologies (PST), a manufacturer of premium carton sealing tapes, stresses technological innovation as the company's core value. But when a new regional competitor introduces a less expensive and inferior product, PST is faced with a decision that could...
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Dolan, Robert J., and Heather Beckham. "In a Bind: Peak Sealing Technologies' Product Line Extension Dilemma." Harvard Business School Brief Case 914-533, January 2014.
- January 2008
- Article
The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy
This article includes a one-page preview that quickly summarizes the key ideas and provides an overview of how the concepts work in practice along with suggestions for further reading. In 1979, a young associate professor at Harvard Business School published his first...
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Keywords:
Profit;
Five Forces Framework;
Industry Growth;
Industry Structures;
Business and Government Relations;
Competitive Strategy
Porter, Michael E. "The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy." Special Issue on HBS Centennial. Harvard Business Review 86, no. 1 (January 2008): 78–93.
- 11 Sep 2008
- Working Paper Summaries
Competing Complements
- 2020
- Working Paper
A Preliminary Framework for Product Impact-Weighted Accounts
By: George Serafeim and Katie Trinh
While there has been significant progress in the measurement of an organization’s environmental and social impacts from its operations, metrics to evaluate the impact of products once they come to market lag far behind. In this paper, we provide a framework for...
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Keywords:
Social Impact;
Product Life Cycle;
Environment;
Sustainability;
Measurement;
Metrics;
Impact Investing;
ESG;
ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance;
ESG Reporting;
Product;
Environmental Sustainability;
Measurement and Metrics;
Framework;
Financial Statements
Serafeim, George, and Katie Trinh. "A Framework for Product Impact-Weighted Accounts." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-076, January 2020. (Revised October 2020.)
- July 2006
- Article
Dynamic Mixed Duopoly: A Model Motivated by Linux vs. Windows
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Pankaj Ghemawat
This paper analyzes a dynamic mixed duopoly in which a profit-maximizing competitor interacts with a competitor that prices at zero (or marginal cost), with the cumulation of output affecting their relative positions over time. The modeling effort is motivated by...
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Keywords:
Open Source Software;
Demand-side Learning;
Network Effects;
Linux;
Mixed Duopoly;
Competitive Dynamics;
Business Models;
Duopoly and Oligopoly;
Information Technology;
Applications and Software;
Business Model;
Mathematical Methods;
Digital Platforms;
Profit;
Balance and Stability;
Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques;
SWOT Analysis;
Competition;
Price;
Information Technology Industry
Casadesus-Masanell, Ramon, and Pankaj Ghemawat. "Dynamic Mixed Duopoly: A Model Motivated by Linux vs. Windows." Management Science 52, no. 7 (July 2006): 1072–1084.
- 10 Jun 2013
- Research & Ideas
How Numbers Talk to People
The problem with big data is that there is, well, so much of it. Analyzing it is like trying to sip from a firehose. Just in time, a new book on the art and science of quantitative analysis arrives this week. In Keeping Up with the...
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- 12 Sep 2006
- First Look
First Look: September 12, 2006
the footprint are outsourced—module boundaries are redrawn and interfaces designed for this purpose. The result is an invested capital advantage, which can be used to drive the returns of competitors below their cost of capital. We...
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Keywords:
Sean Silverthorne
- Fall 2016
- Article
How Do Customers Respond to Increased Service Quality Competition?
When does increased service quality competition lead to customer defection, and which customers are most likely to defect? Our empirical analysis of 82,235 customers exploits the varying competitive dynamics in 644 geographically isolated markets in which a nationwide...
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Keywords:
Service Quality Competition;
Retail Banks;
Empirical Operations;
Retention;
Service Operations;
Quality;
Competition;
Banking Industry;
United States
Buell, Ryan W., Dennis Campbell, and Frances X. Frei. "How Do Customers Respond to Increased Service Quality Competition?" Manufacturing & Service Operations Management 18, no. 4 (Fall 2016): 585–607.
- Article
Are Self-service Customers Satisfied or Stuck?
This paper investigates the impact of self-service technology (SST) usage on customer satisfaction and retention. Specifically, we disentangle the distinct effects of satisfaction and switching costs as drivers of retention among self-service customers. Our empirical...
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Keywords:
Service Delivery;
Information Technology;
Customer Satisfaction;
Competition;
Cost;
Banks and Banking;
Behavior;
Market Transactions;
Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques
Buell, Ryan W., Dennis Campbell, and Frances X. Frei. "Are Self-service Customers Satisfied or Stuck?" Production and Operations Management 19, no. 6 (November–December 2010). (Awarded the Decision Sciences Institute Stan Hardy Award for Outstanding Paper Published during 2010 in the Field of Operations Management.)
- 18 Oct 2011
- First Look
First Look: October 18
giving a subsidy as a lump sum to offset capital costs is more effective. This has different regulatory implications for urban and rural settings where the environmental objectives may differ. Bouncing Out of the Banking System: An Empirical View Details
Keywords:
Sean Silverthorne