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• Case | HBS Case Collection | October 2016 (Revised February 2017)

  Essent: From a State Owned Utility to a Commercial Company

  Ananth Raman and Elena Corsi

  A formerly state-owned Dutch energy utility transforms itself to compete in a deregulated environment.

  Keywords: lean management; operation management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; service management; service operations; Commercialization; Energy Industry; Europe;

  Citation:

  Raman, Ananth, and Elena Corsi. "Essent: From a State Owned Utility to a Commercial Company." Harvard Business School Case 617-026, October 2016. (Revised February 2017.)  View Details

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• Article | Manufacturing & Service Operations Management | Winter 2016

  Improving Store Liquidation

  Nathan Craig and Ananth Raman

  This paper introduces methods for increasing the efficiency of retail store liquidation, which we define as the time-constrained divestment of retail outlets through an in-store sale of inventory. The retail industry depends extensively on liquidation, not only as a means for investors to recover capital from failed ventures, but also to allow managers of going concerns to divest stores in efforts to enhance performance and to change strategy. The operations literature has examined product liquidation, but retail store liquidation differs significantly. This paper augments the literature by introducing techniques for improving operating decisions during retail store liquidations and by demonstrating the performance of these methods in the field.

  Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Operations; Investment; Retail Industry;

  Citation:

  Craig, Nathan, and Ananth Raman. "Improving Store Liquidation." Manufacturing & Service Operations Management 18, no. 1 (Winter 2016): 89–103.  View Details

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• Article | Manufacturing & Service Operations Management | Fall 2016

  The Impact of Supplier Inventory Service Level on Retailer Demand

  Nathan Craig, Nicole DeHoratius and Ananth Raman

  To set inventory service levels, suppliers must understand how changes in inventory service level affect demand. We build on prior research, which uses analytical models and laboratory experiments to study the impact of a supplier’s service level on demand from retailers, by testing this relationship in the field. We analyze a field experiment at the supplier Hugo Boss to determine how the supplier’s inventory service level affects demand from its retailer customers. We find increases in historical fill rate to be associated with statistically significant and managerially substantial increases in current retailer orders (i.e., demand, not just sales). Specifically, a one percentage point increase in fill rate, measured over the prior year, is associated with a statistically significant 11% increase in current retailer demand, controlling for other factors that might affect retailer demand. We explore the drivers of this demand increase, including changes in retailer assortment and order frequency. We discuss features of a retail buyer’s decision context identified through our field work that may explain the magnitude of the relationship we observe.

  Keywords: Demand and Consumers; Service Delivery; Supply Chain; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Retail Industry;

  Citation:

  Craig, Nathan, Nicole DeHoratius, and Ananth Raman. "The Impact of Supplier Inventory Service Level on Retailer Demand." Manufacturing & Service Operations Management 18, no. 4 (Fall 2016): 461–474.  View Details

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