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- 2021
- Working Paper
Dynamic Competition for Customer Memberships
By: Cristian Chica and Jorge Tamayo
A competitive two-period membership (subscription) market is analyzed. Two symmetric firms charge a “membership” fee that allows consumers to buy products or services at a given unit price for both periods. Firms can choose between long- or short-term memberships. When...
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- 2021
- Article
The Virtues and Limitations of Dynamic Capabilities
By: Bharat Anand and David J. Collis
Dynamic capabilities have been identified as a key determinant of competitive advantage. This paper explores the foundations of dynamic capabilities, and the limits to their effectiveness, first theoretically and then through the case of Danaher, the most successful...
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- Article
Soul and Machine (Learning)
By: Davide Proserpio, John R. Hauser, Xiao Liu, Tomomichi Amano, Burnap Alex, Tong Guo, Dokyun (DK) Lee, Randall Lewis, Kanishka Misra, Eric Schwarz, Artem Timoshenko, Lilei Xu and Hema Yoganarasimhan
Machine learning is bringing us self-driving cars, medical diagnoses, and language translation, but how can machine learning help marketers improve marketing decisions? Machine learning models predict extremely well, are scalable to “big data,” and are a natural fit to...
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- June 2020 (Revised October 2020)
- Case
What Went Wrong with Boeing's 737 Max?
By: William W. George and Amram Migdal
This case describes the development of the Boeing 737 Max airplane model and the events leading up to two tragic plane crashes, in which a total of 346 people died: the crash of Lion Air flight 610 on October 29, 2018, in Indonesia, and the crash of Ethiopian Airlines...
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Keywords:
Communication;
Communication Intention and Meaning;
Communication Strategy;
Forms of Communication;
Announcements;
Decision Making;
Decision Choices and Conditions;
Judgments;
Ethics;
Moral Sensibility;
Values and Beliefs;
Globalization;
Global Strategy;
Governance;
Corporate Accountability;
Governance Controls;
Human Resources;
Resignation and Termination;
Leadership;
Leadership Style;
Management;
Business or Company Management;
Crisis Management;
Management Practices and Processes;
Management Skills;
Management Style;
Management Systems;
Risk Management;
Time Management;
Markets;
Demand and Consumers;
Market Platforms;
Supply and Industry;
Duopoly and Oligopoly;
Industry Structures;
Operations;
Product Development;
Organizations;
Organizational Change and Adaptation;
Organizational Culture;
Outcome or Result;
Failure;
Success;
Planning;
Strategic Planning;
Problems and Challenges;
Relationships;
Business and Community Relations;
Business and Government Relations;
Business and Stakeholder Relations;
Risk and Uncertainty;
Safety;
Strategy;
Transportation;
Air Transportation;
Aerospace Industry;
Air Transportation Industry;
Africa;
Ethiopia;
Asia;
Indonesia;
North and Central America;
United States;
Seattle;
Chicago
- Spring 2020
- Article
From Disruption to Collision: The New Competitive Dynamics
By: Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani
- March 2020
- Case
Sizmek Chapter 11: Surviving Walled Gardens in Their Ad Tech Empire
By: Ayelet Israeli, Danilo Tauro and Sarah Gulick
This case provides a post-mortem of the advertising technology (adtech) company Sizmek. Sizmek grew via multiple acquisitions, with the vision of becoming an integrated adtech company that could leverage AI to buy digital media, while creating and serving display and...
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- February 2020
- Technical Note
Talent Management and the Future of Work
By: William R. Kerr and Gorick Ng
The nature of work is changing—and it is changing rapidly. Few days go by without industry giants such as Amazon and AT&T announcing plans to invest billions of dollars towards retraining nearly half of their respective workforces for jobs of the future. What changes...
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Keywords:
Human Resource Management;
Human Capital Development;
Human Resource Practices;
Talent;
Talent Acquisition;
Talent Development;
Talent Development And Retention;
Talent Management;
Talent Retention;
Labor Flows;
Labor Management;
Labor Market;
Strategy Development;
Strategy Management;
Strategy Execution;
Strategy And Execution;
Strategic Change;
Transformations;
Organization;
Organization Alignment;
Organization Design;
Organizational Adaptation;
Organizational Effectiveness;
Management Challenges;
Management Of Business And Political Risk;
Change Leadership;
Future Of Work;
Future;
Skills Gap;
Skills Development;
Skills;
Offshoring And Outsourcing;
Investment;
Capital Allocation;
Work;
Work Culture;
Work Force Management;
Work/life Balance;
Work/family Balance;
Work-family Boundary Management;
Workers;
Worker Productivity;
Worker Performance;
Work Engagement;
Work Environment;
Work Environments;
Productivity;
Organization Culture;
Soft Skills;
Technology Management;
Technological Change;
Technological Change: Choices And Consequences;
Technology Diffusion;
Disruptive Technology;
Global Business;
Global;
Workplace;
Workplace Context;
Workplace Culture;
Workplace Wellness;
Collaboration;
Competencies;
Productivity Gains;
Digital;
Digital Transformation;
Digital Transition;
Competitive Dynamics;
Competitiveness;
Competitive Strategy;
Data Analytics;
Data;
Data Management;
Data Strategy;
Data Protection;
Aging Society;
Diversity;
Diversity Management;
Millennials;
Communication Complexity;
Communication Technologies;
International Business;
Work Sharing;
Global Competitiveness;
Global Corporate Cultures;
Intellectual Property;
Intellectual Property Management;
Intellectual Property Protection;
Intellectual Capital And Property Issues;
Globalization Of Supply Chain;
Inequality;
Recruiting;
Hiring;
Hiring Of Employees;
Training;
Job Cuts And Outsourcing;
Job Performance;
Job Search;
Job Design;
Job Satisfaction;
Jobs;
Employee Engagement;
Employee Attitude;
Employee Benefits;
Employee Compensation;
Employee Fairness;
Employee Relationship Management;
Employee Retention;
Employee Selection;
Employee Motivation;
Employee Feedback;
Employee Coordination;
Employee Performance Management;
Employee Socialization;
Process Improvement;
Application Performance Management;
Stigma;
Institutional Change;
Candidates;
Digital Enterprise;
Cultural Adaptation;
Cultural Change;
Cultural Diversity;
Cultural Context;
Cultural Strategies;
Cultural Psychology;
Cultural Reform;
Performance;
Performance Effectiveness;
Performance Management;
Performance Evaluation;
Performance Appraisal;
Performance Feedback;
Performance Measurement;
Performance Metrics;
Performance Measures;
Performance Efficiency;
Efficiency;
Performance Analysis;
Performance Appraisals;
Performance Improvement;
Automation;
Artificial Intelligence;
Technology Companies;
Managerial Processes;
Skilled Migration;
Assessment;
Human Resources;
Management;
Human Capital;
Talent and Talent Management;
Retention;
Demographics;
Labor;
Strategy;
Change;
Change Management;
Transformation;
Organizational Change and Adaptation;
Organizational Culture;
Working Conditions;
Technology;
Technology Adoption;
Disruption;
Economy;
Competition;
Globalization
- 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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- December 2019 (Revised March 2020)
- Case
Impossible Foods
By: Jose B. Alvarez and Natalie Kindred
Impossible Foods founder and CEO Pat Brown started the company out of concern over livestock production’s impact on climate change. Impossible’s mission is to end consumption of animals by 2035, and its strategy is to develop and market plant-based foods so similar to...
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Keywords:
Agribusiness;
Food;
Consumer Behavior;
Behavior;
Venture Capital;
Technological Innovation;
Innovation Strategy;
Entrepreneurship;
Marketing Strategy;
Distribution;
Production;
Product Development;
Product Positioning;
Growth Management;
Global Strategy;
Competition;
Climate Change;
Environmental Sustainability;
Animal-Based Agribusiness;
Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry;
Technology Industry;
Food and Beverage Industry;
Consumer Products Industry;
United States;
China;
Asia;
California;
Hong Kong;
Taiwan
- Article
Economic Principles for Medicare Reform
By: Amitabh Chandra and Craig Garthwaite
In this article, we develop an economic framework for Medicare reform that highlights trade-offs that reform proposals should grapple with but often ignore. Central to our argument is a tension in administratively set prices, which may improve short-term efficiency but...
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- 2018
- Working Paper
The Limitations of Dynamic Capabilities
By: David J. Collis and Bharat Anand
The concept of dynamic capabilities draws its theoretical basis from two classic traditions within the strategy field—the resource-based view of the firm (RBV) (Wernerfelt, 1984) and market positioning (Porter, 1996). A dynamic capability qualifies as a source of...
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- 2020
- Working Paper
Pushed into a Crowd: Repositioning Costs, Resources, and Competition in the RTE Cereal Industry
By: Young Hou and Dennis Yao
This paper exploits a natural experiment involving self-regulation in the ready-to-eat (RTE) breakfast cereal industry to evaluate how firms respond to entry in light of changes in competition and to estimate the value of brand equity as products are repositioned....
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- July 2019 (Revised November 2019)
- Case
Osaro: Picking the Best Path
By: William R. Kerr, James Palano and Bastiane Huang
The founder of Osaro saw the potential of deep reinforcement learning to allow robots to be applied to new applications. Osaro targeted warehousing, already a dynamic industry for robotics and automation, for its initial product—a system which would allow robotic arms...
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- May 2019
- Technical Note
Nascent Platform Strategy: Overcoming the Chicken-or-Egg Dilemma
By: Andy Wu, David R. Clough and Sasha Kaletsky
This note provides a framework for addressing the classic chicken-or-egg dilemma facing entrepreneurs launching nascent multi-sided platforms. There are several conditions that lead to a difficult chicken-or-egg problem: strong network effects, high multi-homing costs,...
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- 2021
- Working Paper
Consumer Inertia and Market Power
By: Alexander MacKay and Marc Remer
We study the pricing decision of firms in the presence of consumer inertia. Inertia, which can arise from habit formation, brand loyalty, and switching costs, generates dynamic pricing incentives. These incentives mediate the impact of competition on market power in...
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- March 2019
- Article
A Structural Analysis of the Role of Superstars in Crowdsourcing Contests
By: Shunyuan Zhang, Param Singh and Anindya Ghose
We investigate the long-term impact of competing against superstars in crowdsourcing contests. Using a unique 50-month longitudinal panel data set on 1677 software design crowdsourcing contests, we illustrate a learning effect where participants are able to improve...
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- January 2019 (Revised February 2020)
- Case
Jay Gould, 'The Most Hated Man in America'
By: Tom Nicholas, John Masko and Matthew G. Preble
Railroad magnate Jay Gould, a controversial figure in the history of U.S. capitalism, was a disruptive influence on an industry that had previously relied on formal and informal agreements to move traffic long distances across lines operated by different companies....
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- May 2018 (Revised June 2018)
- Case
Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry
By: Alexander Braun, Lauren H. Cohen, Christopher J. Malloy and Jiahua Xu
Connecting life insurance policyholders with potential investors (called Life Settlement Providers), Ashar Group plays a pivotal role in the industry. Its current position is, however, increasingly being challenged by consumer-direct models, led by major providers...
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- March 2018
- Article
Making the Numbers? 'Short Termism' and the Puzzle of Only Occasional Disaster
By: Hazhir Rahmandad, Rebecca Henderson and Nelson P. Repenning
Much recent work in strategy and popular discussion suggests that an excessive focus on "managing the numbers"—delivering quarterly earnings at the expense of longer-term investments—makes it difficult for firms to make the investments necessary to build competitive...
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- October 2017
- Article
Elevating Repositioning Costs: Strategy Dynamics and Competitive Interactions
By: Anoop R. Menon and Dennis Yao
This paper proposes an approach for modeling competitive interactions that incorporates the costs to firms of changing strategy. The costs associated with strategy modifications, which we term “repositioning costs,” are particularly relevant to competitive interactions...
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