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- July 2022
- Teaching Note
The DivaCup: Navigating Distribution and Growth
By: Ayelet Israeli
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 519-055. When the mother-daughter founders of DivaCup set out with a mission to disrupt the menstrual care industry with an innovative product form, they initially struggled to gain legitimacy and convince retailers to carry their unique...
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Keywords:
Female;
Female Ceo;
Female Entrepreneur;
Female Protagonist;
Health ＆ Wellness;
Healthcare;
Price Policies;
Minimum Advertised Price;
Differentiation;
Positioning;
Growth;
Health;
Health Care and Treatment;
Price;
Disruption;
Distribution;
Distribution Channels;
Competitive Strategy;
Competition;
Growth Management;
Mission and Purpose;
Product Development;
Product Marketing;
Product Launch;
Product Positioning;
Advertising;
Business Startups;
Internet and the Web;
Entrepreneurship;
Social Entrepreneurship;
Social Issues;
Social Enterprise;
Consumer Products Industry;
Consumer Products Industry;
Consumer Products Industry;
Consumer Products Industry;
Consumer Products Industry;
Consumer Products Industry;
Consumer Products Industry;
Consumer Products Industry;
Canada;
United States;
United Kingdom
- Article
Fighting Bias on the Front Lines
By: Alexandra C. Feldberg and Tami Kim
Most companies aim for exceptional customer service, but too few are attentive to the subtle discrimination by frontline employees that can alienate customers, lead to lawsuits, or even cause lasting brand damage by going viral.
This article presents research... View Details
This article presents research... View Details
- March 2021 (Revised May 2021)
- Case
M-KOPA: Empowering Lives
By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Wale Lawal and Pippa Tubman Armerding
The Pay As You Go solar power company in East Africa had sales of $71 million in 2019. It wished to grow to $300 million by 2025. M-KOPA, founded by three entrepreneurs in 2011, had grown nicely in Kenya and Uganda to reach nearly 750,000 households with an...
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- December 2020
- Case
Château Margaux: Serving Up the Third Wine
By: Elie Ofek
In fall 2019, Corinne Mentzelopoulos, owner of the famous first-growth Château Margaux, is pondering a series of decisions with respect to the chateau's third wine. Margaux du Château Marguax, as this wine was called, was launched in 2013 with a particular goal in mind...
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- 2020
- Working Paper
No Line Left Behind: Assortative Matching Inside the Firm
By: Achyuta Adhvaryu, Vittorio Bassi, Anant Nyshadham and Jorge Tamayo
How do firms pair workers with managers, and which constraints affect the allocation of labor within the firm? We characterize the sorting pattern of managers to workers in a large readymade garment manufacturer in India and then explore potential drivers of the...
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- March 2019 (Revised April 2021)
- Case
The DivaCup: Navigating Distribution and Growth
By: Ayelet Israeli
When the mother-daughter founders of DivaCup set out with a mission to disrupt the menstrual care industry with an innovative product form, they initially struggled to gain legitimacy and convince retailers to carry their unique product. Fifteen years later, the...
View Details
Keywords:
Female;
Female Ceo;
Female Entrepreneur;
Female Protagonist;
Health ＆ Wellness;
Healthcare;
Price Policies;
Minimum Advertised Price;
Differentiation;
Positioning;
Growth;
Health;
Health Care and Treatment;
Price;
Disruption;
Distribution;
Distribution Channels;
Competitive Strategy;
Competition;
Growth Management;
Mission and Purpose;
Product Development;
Product Marketing;
Product Launch;
Product Positioning;
Advertising;
Business Startups;
Internet and the Web;
Entrepreneurship;
Social Entrepreneurship;
Social Issues;
Social Enterprise;
Consumer Products Industry;
Consumer Products Industry;
Consumer Products Industry;
Consumer Products Industry;
Consumer Products Industry;
Consumer Products Industry;
Consumer Products Industry;
Consumer Products Industry;
Canada;
United States;
United Kingdom
- 2018
- Chapter
The Orphan Drug Act at 35: Observations and an Outlook for the Twenty-First Century
By: Nicholas Bagley, Benjamin Berger, Amitabh Chandra, Craig Garthwaite and Ariel Dora Stern
On the 35th anniversary of the adoption of the Orphan Drug Act (ODA), we describe the enormous changes in the markets for therapies for rare diseases that have emerged over recent decades. The most prominent example is the fact that the profit-maximizing price of new...
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- Article
You Can't Always Get What You Want: The Real Exchange Rate and Manufacturing Performance in a World of Global Value Chains
By: Laura Alfaro, Alejandro Cuñat, Harald Fadinger and Yanping Liu
Real exchange rate devaluations are typically seen as a viable development strategy, but the effectiveness of the approach may vary over time and across countries. This column explores this issue by focusing on the microeconomics of firm-level responses to exchange...
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- September–October 2018
- Article
Online MAP Enforcement: Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment
By: Ayelet Israeli
This paper investigates a manufacturer’s ability to influence compliance rates among its authorized online retailers by exploiting changes in the Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) policy and in dealer agreements. MAP is a pricing policy widely used by manufacturers to...
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- 2018
- Working Paper
Ratcheting, Competition, and the Diffusion of Technological Change: The Case of Televisions Under an Energy Efficiency Program
By: Tomomichi Amano and Hiroshi Ohashi
In differentiated goods markets with societal implications, quality standards are commonly implemented to avoid the under-provision of innovation. Firms have clear incentives to engage in strategic behavior because policymakers use market outcomes as a benchmark in...
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- August 2018
- Background Note
Note on Hackathons
By: Ethan Bernstein
Organizations have often sought to meet the pressures of rapid change through novel ways of managing human capital to boost innovation and productivity. Hackathons have emerged as one of the latest approaches to do just that. How can those responsible for managing...
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Keywords:
Hackathon;
Crowdsourcing;
Hack;
Innovation;
Productivity;
Minimum Viable Product;
Time;
Transparency;
Bootcamp;
Design;
Entrepreneurship;
Human Resources;
Collaborative Innovation and Invention;
Innovation and Management;
Management;
Organizational Structure;
Performance Productivity;
Technology;
Technology Industry
- May 2018 (Revised February 2020)
- Case
Jason Blum's Blumhouse Productions
By: Anita Elberse
In March 2017, Jason Blum, the founder and chief executive officer of film and television production company Blumhouse Productions, has another blockbuster on his hands with the movie Get Out, produced for just $4.5 million. Remarkable returns for its micro-budget...
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Keywords:
Entertainment;
Media;
Film;
Movies;
Creative Industries;
Product-portfolio Management;
Entrepreneurship;
Innovation;
Talent;
General Management;
Strategy;
Marketing;
Blockbusters;
Film Entertainment;
Innovation and Management;
Talent and Talent Management;
Competitive Strategy;
Management Style;
Marketing Strategy;
Motion Pictures and Video Industry
- December 2017
- Case
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture
By: Jose B. Alvarez and Sarah Mehta
It is July 2017, and Dr. Nteranya Sanginga, the director general of the Nigeria-based International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), is making progress toward two of his primary strategic objectives for the nonprofit research Institute: 1) to scale the impact...
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- December 2017 (Revised January 2018)
- Case
NatureSweet
By: Jose Alvarez, Forest Reinhardt and Natalie Kindred
This case describes the business model and workplace philosophy of NatureSweet, a privately owned, vertically integrated greenhouse grower and marketer of fresh tomatoes with sales across the United States and $329 million in 2016 revenues. CEO Bryant Ambelang treated...
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Keywords:
NatureSweet;
Tomatoes;
Agriculture;
Greenhouse;
Ambelang;
Cherry Tomatoes;
Incentives;
Worker Empowerment;
Empowerment;
Toyota Production System;
Leadership;
Branding;
Produce;
Manufacturing;
Organizational Change;
Agribusiness;
Business Model;
Employee Relationship Management;
Working Conditions;
Organizational Culture;
Success;
Problems and Challenges;
Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry;
Manufacturing Industry;
United States;
Mexico;
North America
- August 2017 (Revised March 2020)
- Case
Flex Hungary: Launching Production (A)
By: Willy Shih
This case examines design choices in the construction of flow lines. Flow lines are a popular way of arranging production because they are simple and inherently efficient. Equipment or workstations are arranged according to the sequence of steps in which a product is...
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Keywords:
Manufacturing;
Line-balancing;
Flow Line;
Conveyor-paced Line;
Consumer Goods;
Consumer Products;
Production Management;
Production Planning;
Production Scheduling;
Operations;
Production;
Management;
Supply Chain;
Design;
Analysis;
Goods and Commodities;
Consumer Products Industry;
Consumer Products Industry;
European Union
- May 2017 (Revised October 2017)
- Case
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies: Building Breakthrough Innovations in Crowd-Powered Ecosystems
By: Lynda M. Applegate, Terri L. Griffith and Ann Majchrzak
Dirk Ahlborn, co-founder and CEO of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Inc. (HTT) looks back at the evolving organizational design and community that allows HTT to be crowd-powered. Since the founding in 2013, HTT has dealt with building an organization with less...
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- January 2017 (Revised August 2019)
- Case
X Fire Paintball & Airsoft: Is Amazon a Friend or Foe? (A)
By: Feng Zhu and Angela Acocella
Three years after launching his brick-and-mortar store, X Fire Paintball and Airsoft, Steve Herbert Sr. and his sons began selling products on Amazon.com’s third-party Marketplace, and online sales expanded rapidly. Over time, X Fire noticed that products of which it...
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- January 2017 (Revised August 2019)
- Supplement
X Fire Paintball & Airsoft: Is Amazon a Friend or Foe? (B)
By: Feng Zhu and Angela Acocella
Three years after launching his brick-and-mortar store, X Fire Paintball and Airsoft, Steve Herbert Sr. and his sons began selling products on Amazon.com’s third-party Marketplace and online sales expanded rapidly. Over time, X Fire noticed that products of which it...
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- 2016
- Working Paper
Pivoting Isn't Enough: Principled Pragmatism and Strategic Reorientation in New Ventures
By: Rory McDonald and Cheng Gao
New technology ventures often experience deviations from their original plans that oblige them to reorient in pursuit of better fit between their evolving products and target customers. Yet research is largely silent on how entrepreneurs explain and justify their...
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Keywords:
Strategic Reorientation;
Technology Entrepreneurship;
Innovation;
Product Development Processes;
Organizational Adaptation;
Qualitative Methods (General);
Information Technology;
Organizational Change and Adaptation;
Communication;
Entrepreneurship;
Alignment;
Innovation and Invention;
Product Development
- August 2016 (Revised August 2017)
- Case
AnswerDash (Abridged)
By: Elie Ofek and Jeffrey D. Shulman
It is 2014 and AnswerDash, a startup backed by venture capital, has not seen the widespread adoption of their online self-service customer support solution that they were expecting based on early success in helping clients save and generate substantial amounts of...
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Keywords:
Pricing;
Economic Value Estimation;
Price Metrics;
Organizational Selling;
Innovation Adoption;
Business To Business;
Marketing;
Customer Lifetime Value;
Venture Capital;
Customer Relationship Management;
Price;
Marketing Strategy;
Entrepreneurship;
Technology Adoption;
Business Startups;
Sales;
Innovation and Invention;
Product Marketing;
Financial Services Industry