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- 2020
- Working Paper
In the Red: Overdrafts, Payday Lending and the Underbanked
The reordering of transactions from “high-to-low” is a controversial bank practice thought to maximize fees paid by low-income customers on overdrawn accounts. We exploit multiple class-action lawsuits resulting in mandatory changes to this practice, coupled with...
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- September 2020 (Revised April 2021)
- Case
Algramo
By: Michael Chu, Monica Silva and Mariana Cal
Founded in 2013 by José Manuel Moller in Chile, Algramo first became known for addressing the “poverty tax” (the surcharge paid by lower income families for staples sold in smaller sizes) through specially-designed dispensers in low-income neighborhood grocery stores...
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Keywords:
Packaging-as-a-Wallet;
Plastic Waste;
Business At The Base Of The Pyramid;
Reusable Packaging;
Alliances With FMCGs To Meet ESG Goals;
Social Entrepreneurship;
Environmental Sustainability;
Strategy;
Value Creation;
Goals and Objectives;
Business Model;
Consumer Products Industry;
Latin America;
South America;
Chile
- September 2020 (Revised December 2020)
- Case
Hot Wheels at Mattel: Reinventing the Wheel
By: Elie Ofek, Andres Terech and Nicole Tempest Keller
In 2017, Chris Down, Global Brand General Manager for Hot Wheels, and his team from the Advanced Play Group within Mattel, Inc., were considering which innovation path to pursue in order to "future proof" the Hot Wheels franchise going forward. Hot Wheels was the...
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- 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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- 2020
- Working Paper
Inflation with COVID Consumption Baskets
By: Alberto Cavallo
The COVID-19 Pandemic has led to changes in expenditure patterns that can introduce significant bias in the measurement of Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation. I use publicly-available data on credit and debit card transactions to update the official CPI weights and...
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- November 2019 (Revised December 2020)
- Case
Grupo Éxito: Facing Colombia's Competitive Grocery Retail Industry
By: José B. Alvarez, Carla Larangeira, Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago and Miguel Diaz Moreno
Grupo Éxito, a leading South American retailer, faced declining market shares in Colombia in 2019 with the arrival of low-cost competitors and emerging digital trends. Originally founded in Medellín, Éxito had over the course of its seventy-year history evolved from a...
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Keywords:
Grocery;
Market Share;
Technology;
Trends;
Competitive Strategy;
Retail Industry;
Colombia;
Latin America
- September 2019 (Revised May 2020)
- Case
Keroche (A): Fighting for Share in the Kenyan Alcoholic Drinks Market
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Pippa Tubman Armerding
This case discusses the challenges faced by Kenyan alcoholic drinks producer Keroche Industries Limited in 2003, when the Kenyan government accused the company of manufacturing and selling substandard alcoholic drinks, revoked its liquor licenses, and shut down its...
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Keywords:
Keroche;
Alcohol;
Wine;
Manufacturing;
Informal Market;
Regulation;
Illicit;
Illegal;
Shutdown;
Factory;
Low-income Consumers;
Multinational;
Local;
Government;
Allegations;
Accusations;
Negative Press;
EABL;
Tusker;
Beer;
SAB;
Chang'aa;
Naivasha;
Rift Valley;
East Africa;
Lawsuit;
Legal Battle;
Business Ventures;
Business Exit or Shutdown;
Business Growth and Maturation;
Business Startups;
Production;
Safety;
Quality;
Distribution;
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;
Social Issues;
Poverty;
Strategy;
Competition;
Entrepreneurship;
Manufacturing Industry;
Food and Beverage Industry;
Kenya;
Nairobi;
Africa
- September 2019
- Supplement
Keroche (B): Considering Entry into the Kenyan Beer Market
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Pippa Tubman Armerding
This case discusses the situation of the Kenyan alcoholic drinks producer Keroche in July 2004, when co-founder Tabitha Karanja was debating whether to enter the Kenyan beer market. Doing so would mean direct competition with the multinational EABL in an industry and...
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Keywords:
Keroche;
Alcohol;
Alcoholic Drinks;
Alcoholic Beverages;
Beverages;
Drinks;
Wine Industry;
Wine;
Fortified Wine;
Viena;
Beer;
Beer Market;
Manufacturing;
Production Capacity;
Capacity;
Growth;
Regulated;
Unregulated;
Informal;
Informal Market;
Regulation;
Illicit;
Illegal;
Substandard;
Dangerous;
Shutdown;
Factory;
Safe;
Affordable;
Low-income Consumers;
Business Growth and Maturation;
Business Startups;
Production;
Investment;
Safety;
Quality;
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;
Social Issues;
Poverty;
Strategy;
Competition;
Entrepreneurship;
Marketing;
Manufacturing Industry;
Food and Beverage Industry;
Kenya;
Nairobi;
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
- February 2019
- Article
The Market for Financial Adviser Misconduct
By: Mark Egan, Gregor Matvos and Amit Seru
We construct a novel database containing the universe of financial advisers in the United States from 2005 to 2015, representing approximately 10% of employment of the finance and insurance sector. We provide the first large-scale study that documents the economy-wide...
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- Summer 2017
- Article
Measuring Consumer Preferences for Video Content Provision via Cord-Cutting Behavior
By: Jeffrey Prince and Shane Greenstein
The television industry is undergoing a generational shift in structure; however, many demand-side determinants are still not well understood. We model how consumers choose video content provision among over-the-air (OTA), paid subscription to cable or satellite, and...
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- September 2016 (Revised March 2021)
- Case
DBL Partners: Double Bottom Line Venture Capital
By: Shawn Cole, Mark Kramer, Tony L. He, Anshul Maudar and T. Robert Zochowski
This case explores the origins and current practices of DBL, a San Francisco–based venture capital fund and one of the first impact investment funds to achieve significant financial returns to scale. This case allows for a competitive analysis of DBL's investment...
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- May 2016 (Revised June 2017)
- Case
India's Amul: Keeping Up with the Times
By: Rohit Deshpandé, Tarun Khanna, Namrata Arora and Tanya Bijlani
Amul is an Indian dairy cooperative founded in 1947—eight months before India's independence from British rule—and owned by over three million farmers in the state of Gujarat. It is India's largest food product marketing organization, selling 46 products, including...
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- September 2012 (Revised September 2015)
- Case
Doing Business in Ghana
By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Elena Corsi
An entrepreneur considered investing in tomato paste manufacturing in Ghana, an emerging economy, and pondered the opportunities and challenges of investing here. Ghana's economy had been growing over the last decade, reaching a peak of 14.4% growth rate in 2011. Now a...
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- April 2012
- Article
Bouncing Out of the Banking System: An Empirical Analysis of Involuntary Bank Account Closures
By: Dennis Campbell, F. Asis Martinez-Jerez and Peter Tufano
Using a new database, we document the factors that relate to the extent of involuntary consumer bank account closure resulting from excessive overdraft activity. Consumers who have accounts involuntarily closed for overdraft activity may have limited or no access to...
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- June 2011
- Article
Segmenting the Base of the Pyramid
By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Michael Chu and Djorjiji Petkoski
The bottom of the economic pyramid is a risky place for business, but decent profits can be made there if companies link their financial success with their constituencies' well-being. To do that effectively, you must understand the nuances of people's daily lives, say...
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- February 2011 (Revised March 2021)
- Case
Hindustan Unilever's 'Pureit' Water Purifier
By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Mona Sinha
The case asks students to formulate a strategy to respond to various competitive threats to its Pureit Water purifier, launched in 2008, targeted at millions of low-income Indian consumers who did not have access to safe drinking water. The case describes in detail the...
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- February 2009
- Background Note
An Introduction to Consumer Credit
By: Peter Tufano
This note reviews a variety of shorter-term consumer credit products in the U.S. with an emphasis on the types of products that low- and moderate-income consumers use. Included here are the following: credit cards, bank overdraft products, payday lending, personal...
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- October 2005 (Revised December 2006)
- Case
Magazine Luiza: Building a Retail Model of "Courting the Poor"
By: Frances X. Frei and Ricardo Reisen de Pinho
Describes the innovative retail model of the Brazilian firm Magazine Luiza. Magazine Luiza enables low-income consumer credit by applying a flexible and nuanced evaluation system. Additionally, its dedication to customer service, employee motivation, and progressive...
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- Research Summary
Business and Low Income Sectors: The Creation of Economic and Social Value
By: Michael Chu
In the last three decades, innovative commercial solutions have emerged in developing nations focusing on providing effective responses to the hugely underserved needs of low-income populations, both as consumers as well as active participants in productive value...
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