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- April 2022 (Revised April 2023)
- Case
Highland Park Wood Co. (Abridged)
By: David E. Bell
A major home builder wishes to purchase lumber (Southern pine). The builder wants delivery in six months but prefers to lock-in the price near current rates. The lumber wholesaler must decide on a pricing and sourcing strategy. Examples include: 1) buy & hold, 2) wait...
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- March 2022 (Revised April 2023)
- Case
Hometown Foods: Changing Price Amid Inflation
During the early part of the 2021 Covid-19 pandemic, Hometown Foods, a large seller of flour-based products, thrived as consumers hoarded baked goods and took up baking to pass the time and find comfort. Then, amid growing shortages in commodities, a vaccine arrived,...
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- January 2022
- Article
Who Creates New Firms When Local Opportunities Arise?
By: Shai Benjamin Bernstein, Emanuele Colonnelli, Davide Malacrino and Timothy McQuade
We examine the characteristics of the individuals who become entrepreneurs when local opportunities arise. We identify local demand shocks by linking fluctuations in global commodity prices to municipality level agricultural endowments in Brazil. We find that the firm...
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- 2021
- Working Paper
Hidden Software and Veiled Value Creation: Illustrations from Server Software Usage
By: Raviv Murciano-Goroff, Ran Zhuo and Shane Greenstein
How do you measure the value of a commodity that transacts at a price of zero from an economic standpoint? This study examines the potential for and extent of omission and misattribution in standard approaches to economic accounting with regards to open source...
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- March 2021
- Article
Targeted Price Controls on Supermarket Products
By: Alberto Cavallo and Diego Aparicio
We study the impact of targeted price controls for supermarket products in Argentina from 2007 to 2015. Using web scraping, we collected daily prices for controlled and non-controlled goods and measured the differential effects on inflation, product availability, and...
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Keywords:
Prices;
Controls;
Price Dispersion;
Economics;
Price;
Cost Management;
Goods and Commodities;
Retail Industry;
Argentina
- August 2020 (Revised May 2021)
- Case
PayPal: The Next Chapter
By: Michael Porter, Mark Kramer and Annelena Lobb
Can a social purpose and stakeholder capitalism confer a powerful competitive advantage in the age of COVID-19? For PayPal, the answer is yes. After spinning off from eBay in a 2015 IPO, the company declared its purpose as "democratizing financial services" by ensuring...
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- July 2020
- Teaching Note
COVID-19: The Global Shutdown
By: Laura Alfaro and Sarah Jeong
In the first months of 2020, a pandemic overwhelmed the world. COVID-19, commonly known as the coronavirus, spread from China and created a severe public health emergency across countries. While an immediate fear of the disease’s impact on human life permeaacted...
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- May 2020 (Revised July 2020)
- Case
COVID-19: The Global Shutdown
By: Laura Alfaro and Sarah Jeong
In the first months of 2020, a pandemic overwhelmed the world. COVID-19, commonly known as the coronavirus, spread from China and created a severe public health emergency across countries. While an immediate fear of the disease’s impact on human life permeated society,...
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- December 2019
- Case
CME Group in 2019
By: José B. Alvarez, Forest Reinhardt and Natalie Kindred
Chicago-based CME Group is the world’s largest futures and options marketplace, with annual trading volume of over 4.8 billion contracts in 2018. This case is set in late 2019, as heightened perceptions of risk stemming from the U.S.-China trade war are driving record...
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- November 2019 (Revised February 2020)
- Case
Hormel Foods
By: David E. Bell and Natalie Kindred
In 2019, CEO Jim Snee is weighing how to shape the image of Hormel Foods, one of the largest U.S. meat and food companies, at a time when the industry faces unprecedented scrutiny. Based in the small town of Austin, Minnesota, the nearly 130-year-old firm is best known...
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- November 2019
- Case
Chile: Unrest in the Copper Nation
By: Laura Alfaro and Sarah Jeong
For decades, Chile was heralded as South America’s pillar of stable economic growth. Chile was the world’s largest producer of copper and enjoyed a long period of over 30 years of world demand for its resources. In 2013, the commodity boom ended and was replaced by a...
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- 2019
- Chapter
From Coast to Hinterland: Fiscal State Formation in British and French West Africa, c. 1880–1960
By: Ewout Frankema and Marlous van Waijenburg
This chapter contrasts and compares the ways different colonial states in West Africa developed local fiscal capacity. We show that per capita revenues were higher in the more commercialised coastal export economies than in remote parts of the interior. We argue that...
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Keywords:
Fiscal Capacity;
Public Debt;
French West Africa;
British West Africa;
Geography;
History;
Africa
- September 2019 (Revised May 2020)
- Supplement
Keroche (C): The Excise Tax Increase
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Pippa Tubman Armerding
This case discusses the Kenyan government’s decision to increase excise taxes on wines in 2007. The tax increase would cause an average increase in price of 367% on Keroche’s fortified wines. Meanwhile, Keroche’s competitor EABL had effectively lobbied the government...
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Keywords:
Keroche;
Alcohol;
Alcoholic Drinks;
Alcoholic Beverages;
Beverages;
Drinks;
Wine Industry;
Wine;
Fortified Wine;
Business Ventures;
Business Exit or Shutdown;
Business Growth and Maturation;
Business Startups;
Small Business;
Family Business;
Crime and Corruption;
Customer Focus and Relationships;
Decisions;
Income;
Demographics;
Geographic Scope;
Geographic Location;
Goods and Commodities;
Government Legislation;
Growth and Development;
Business History;
Lawsuits and Litigation;
Laws and Statutes;
Lawfulness;
Goals and Objectives;
Consumer Behavior;
Market Entry and Exit;
Problems and Challenges;
Safety;
Social Issues;
Poverty;
Strategy;
Competition;
Entrepreneurship;
Manufacturing Industry;
Food and Beverage Industry;
Kenya;
Nairobi;
Africa
- January 2016
- Case
Haiti Hope: Innovating the Mango Value Chain
By: Amy C. Edmondson and Jean-François Harvey
This case study examines a market-based approach to economic development through the eyes of NGO TechnoServe's project manager, implementing a US$9.5 million five-year public-private partnership between Coca-Cola, IDB, and USAID. The case ends at the beginning of the...
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Keywords:
Sustainability;
Economic Development;
Corporate Social Responsibility;
Emerging Country;
Teaming;
Public-private Partnership;
Inter-organizational Relationships;
Collaboration;
Strategy Implementation;
Agricultural Commodity;
Plant-Based Agribusiness;
Public Sector;
Supply Chain Management;
Customer Value and Value Chain;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Learning;
Partners and Partnerships;
Private Sector;
Developing Countries and Economies;
Social Enterprise;
Food and Beverage Industry;
Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry;
Haiti
- October 2015 (Revised August 2018)
- Case
Ozark Feed and Ag Corporation: The ERP Decision
By: Jan Hammond, Paul Kalmbach and Eric Bernstein
This case describes a medium-sized business that manufactures animal feed for commercial and companion animals. The company has been growing rapidly and is considering whether or not to implement an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Ozark currently uses an IT...
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- 2015
- Working Paper
The Wisdom of Crowds in Operations: Forecasting Using Prediction Markets
By: Achal Bassamboo, Ruomeng Cui and Antonio Moreno
Prediction is an important activity in various business processes, but it becomes difficult when historical information is not available, such as forecasting demand of a new product. One approach that can be applied in such situations is to crowdsource opinions from...
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- December 2013
- Case
Grupo Beta San Miguel
By: David E. Bell and Natalie Kindred
In November 2013, Dr. Jose Pinto, head of Grupo Beta San Miguel (BSM), Mexico's largest private sugar producer, is weighing the future prospects of the Mexican sugar industry as he considers whether BSM should bid on one of the state-owned sugar mills slated for...
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- July 2013
- Technical Note
Competition Simulator Exercise: Questions
In the Competition Simulator Exercise, students explore through trial and error some important economic foundations of competitive strategy and managerial economics. In particular, the simulator lets students explore horizontal differentiation with and without price...
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- June 2013 (Revised November 2022)
- Exercise
Competition Simulator Exercise
In the Competition Simulator Exercise, students explore through trial and error some important economic foundations of competitive strategy and managerial economics. In particular, the nine simulator exercises let students explore horizontal differentiation with and...
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Keywords:
Competition;
Economics;
Game Theory;
Competitive Strategy;
Learning;
Mathematical Methods;
Analysis
- June 2013 (Revised June 2013)
- Teaching Note
Brazil's Enigma: Sustaining Long-Term Growth & Currency Wars
By: Laura Alfaro and Hilary White
Over the past decade, Brazil's future as a leading world economic power appeared certain. An expanding middle class and commodity boom had fueled economic growth, with GDP growth hitting a peak of 7.5% in 2010. However, the high cost of conducting business in Brazil,...
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Keywords:
Exchange Rate;
Inflation;
Inflation Targeting;
Industrialization;
Infrastructure;
Currency;
Capital Controls;
Stimulus;
Commodity Prices;
Manufacturing Costs;
Globalization;
Productivity Growth;
Economics;
Economic Slowdown and Stagnation;
Inflation and Deflation;
Macroeconomics;
Public Sector;
Brazil;
South America;
Latin America