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• Case | HBS Case Collection | November 2018

  Nike: Changing the Sneakers Game

  Anita Elberse, Bryce Aiken and Howard Johnson

  “Our goal is to be the kind of start-up that would terrify Nike—if Nike didn’t already own us.” Ron Faris, general manager of S23NYC, a Manhattan-based digital studio owned by sports apparel giant Nike, is on the phone with Adam Sussman, Nike’s chief digital officer. It is June 1, 2018. Two years earlier, Sussman was behind Nike’s push to acquire Virgin Mega, a startup comprised of Faris and his small team, which has since morphed into a studio that plays a pivotal role in Nike’s digital strategy. With the studio’s mobile app, SNKRS (pronounced ‘sneakers’), specifically, Nike seeks to strengthen its connection with the most fanatical of its fans—the sneakerheads—and “bring back the fun and emotion of buying,” as Sussman put it. Is Nike on the right path with its digital strategy and, in particular, with how it seeks to change the sneakers game and compete with rivals such as Adidas and Puma? Does it make sense for the company to pursue the kinds of innovations featured in the SNKRS app? And what kind of campaigns and activations should it prioritize in the future?

  Keywords: digital strategy; Digital technology; Apparel; fashion; superstar; innovation; general management; Mobile Technology; Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Innovation and Invention; Management; Sports; Entertainment; Apparel and Accessories Industry;

  Citation:

  Elberse, Anita, Bryce Aiken, and Howard Johnson. "Nike: Changing the Sneakers Game." Harvard Business School Case 519-039, November 2018.  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | May 2018 (Revised September 2018)

  BuzzFeed—What Future for Native Advertising and Branded Content?

  Felix Oberholzer-Gee

  Jonah Peretti, CEO of digital publishing company BuzzFeed, needs to decide how to respond to Facebook’s announcement that it would prioritize posts from friends over content from publishers.

  Keywords: Information Publishing; Online Technology; Online Advertising; Problems and Challenges; Business Model; Strategy; Publishing Industry; Technology Industry; United States;

  Citation:

  Oberholzer-Gee, Felix. "BuzzFeed—What Future for Native Advertising and Branded Content?" Harvard Business School Case 718-511, May 2018. (Revised September 2018.)  View Details

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• Article | Strategy Science

  Integrated Strategy: Residual Market and Exchange Imperfections as the Foundation of Sustainable Competitive Advantage

  Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Dennis Yao

  Market imperfections are central to understanding the mechanisms that permit firms to capture value. Many of these imperfections are competed away when firms struggle to attain and defend competitive advantages, making markets more efficient in the process. The remaining imperfections can become a primary impetus for government intervention. Hence, an understanding of residual market imperfections—those imperfections that persist after market competition and regulation are accounted for—must inform any assessment of the long-term attractiveness of firm strategies. Our framework provides an integrated view of competition and government intervention, two of the principal forces that influence variation in firm profitability.

  Keywords: integrated strategy; competitive advantage; nonmarket strategy; Market imperfections; Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms;

  Citation:

  Oberholzer-Gee, Felix, and Dennis Yao. "Integrated Strategy: Residual Market and Exchange Imperfections as the Foundation of Sustainable Competitive Advantage." Special Issue on Strategy and the Institutional Environment edited by Ahuja, Capron, Lenox, Yao. Strategy Science 3, no. 2 (June 2018): 463–480.  View Details

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