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• Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2020

  Reinventing Retail: The Novel Resurgence of Independent Bookstores

  Ryan Raffaelli

  This study examines how community-based brick-and-mortar retailers can achieve sustained market growth in the face of online and big box retail competition.
  

  The appearance of Amazon.com in 1995 led to a significant decline in the number of in-dependent bookstores in the United States, leading many analysts to predict the demise of the sector. However, between 2009 and 2018 independent bookstores proved to be far more resilient than expected. The American Booksellers Association (ABA) reported a 49% percent growth in the number of “indie” booksellers, from 1,651 in 2009 to 2,470 in 2018.
  

  This study identifies “3C’s” that contributed to the independent bookstore resurgence:
  COMMUNITY: Independent bookstore owners promoted the idea of consumers supporting their local communities by shopping at neighborhood businesses. Independent bookstores won customers back from Amazon and other big box players by stressing a strong connection to local community values.
  CURATION: Independent booksellers began to focus on curating inventory that allowed them to provide a more personal and specialized customer experience. Rather than recommending only bestsellers, they developed personal relationships with customers by helping them discover up-and-coming authors and unexpected titles.
  CONVENING: Independent booksellers started to promote their stores as intellectual centers for convening customers with likeminded interests—offering lectures, book signings, game nights, children’s story times, young adult reading groups, even birthday parties. Some bookstores routinely host over 500 events a year.
  

  Simultaneously, the ABA played an important role in disseminating best practices and data, reinforcing the sector’s core values, setting up external partnerships, and advocating on behalf of its independent bookstore members.
  

  Given these findings, the study’s main takeaways and recommendations are:
  1. Communicate the value of community and encourage customers to participate in a broader movement to shop local.
  2. Compete primarily on experience and quality, not on price and inventory.
  3. Establish the bookstore as a gathering place by offering events that consumers view as unique experiences. Events should cater to local tastes and the specific interests of the community.
  4. Contribute to (and utilize) industry data on emerging independent retail trends.
  5. Share leading practices with other independent retailers (e.g., through industry/ small business associations, local Chambers of Commerce/institutes, etc.).
  

  Citation:

  Raffaelli, Ryan. "Reinventing Retail: The Novel Resurgence of Independent Bookstores." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-068, January 2020.  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | September 2019

  Earth Bank of Codes: Making Nature's Biological Assets Visible and Valuable for the Benefit of All

  Tarun Khanna, Raffaella Sadun and Susie Ma

  In 2019, entrepreneur Juan Carlos Castilla-Rubio was developing a project he hoped could generate and share wealth from the natural resources of the Amazon without destroying those resources. His idea, called Earth Bank of Codes (EBC), would create a library of the genomic codes of all known species that could be tapped for discovery and innovation, from new medical interventions to more efficient manufacturing processes. He proposed to use blockchain technology to make the data both accessible and trackable so that its use could be monitored. Castilla-Rubio envisioned a time when a company in the U.S. could access a biological asset from the Peruvian Amazon, develop and commercialize a product based on the asset, and have a fraction of the resulting sales land directly in the bank account of various beneficiaries, including the Peruvian government and indigenous communities. Now he was facing major decisions about how to structure EBC to achieve his goals. Should he start at the top and build partnerships with national governments and inter-governmental organizations as the cornerstone of EBC? Or would it be better to forge ahead with a few stakeholders in an entrepreneurial project?

  Keywords: Decision Making; Development Economics; Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention; Intellectual Property; Emerging Markets; Market Design; Marketplace Matching; Science; Genetics; Natural Environment; Environmental Sustainability; Weather and Climate Change; Social Enterprise; Strategy; Strategic Planning; Technology; Ownership; Social Psychology; Trust; Society; Biotechnology Industry; South America; Amazon Basin;

  Citation:

  Khanna, Tarun, Raffaella Sadun, and Susie Ma. "Earth Bank of Codes: Making Nature's Biological Assets Visible and Valuable for the Benefit of All." Harvard Business School Case 720-356, September 2019.  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | September 2019

  Cooking Down a Storm: Changing Culture at Pasta Serafina (A)

  Susanna Gallani, Francesca Gino and Raffaella Sadun

  Plant management at Pasta Serafina, a pasta producer in the south of Italy, is struggling to contain employee absenteeism. While the misbehavior is concentrated in a minority of the workers, its effects impact not only the plant’s performance, but also the climate and work environment. Embedded in an institutional and legal environment that allows very little room for corrective action, and already dealing with persistent low margins, management decides to address the issue by asking the employees themselves to find a solution to the problem. The case exposes students to managerial challenges associated with curbing moral hazard and changing the company culture in a setting where standard legal and contractual tools, such as firing workers for performance or using incentives to influence behaviors, are not available.

  Keywords: absenteeism; moral hazard; Employees; Behavior; Problems and Challenges; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation;

  Citation:

  Gallani, Susanna, Francesca Gino, and Raffaella Sadun. "Cooking Down a Storm: Changing Culture at Pasta Serafina (A)." Harvard Business School Case 120-013, September 2019.  View Details

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