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- September 2024
- Case
Eat App: Building and Monetizing an End-to-End Dining Experience Solution
By: E. Ofek and Ahmed Dahawy
Founded in 2015 in Bahrain, Eat App was an up-and-coming player in the global restaurant management software business. In early 2024, having shifted to a product-led growth strategy, the company’s co-founders faced a host of decisions that could greatly impact their...
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- July 2024
- Case
Jacqueline Cook at Vendasta: Debating an IPO
By: Reza Satchu, Tom Quinn and Andrew Kosc
In May 2021, after a surge in demand for digital services that prompted high valuations for startups across the Canadian tech sector, Saskatchewan-based Vendasta entered the final stages of the initial public offering (IPO) process. COO Jacqueline Cook had invested her...
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Keywords:
Business Growth and Maturation;
Business Startups;
Interpersonal Communication;
Cost vs Benefits;
Forecasting and Prediction;
Business Cycles;
Entrepreneurship;
Fairness;
Capital Markets;
Private Equity;
Investment Banking;
Stock Options;
Financial Markets;
Initial Public Offering;
Institutional Investing;
Price Bubble;
Digital Platforms;
Digital Transformation;
Internet and the Web;
Leadership;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Managerial Roles;
Agreements and Arrangements;
Going Public;
Ownership Stake;
Performance Expectations;
Work-Life Balance;
Strategic Planning;
Business and Stakeholder Relations;
Rank and Position;
Risk and Uncertainty;
Opportunities;
Happiness;
Reputation;
Status and Position;
Well-being;
Information Technology Industry;
Retail Industry;
Canada
- June 2024
- Article
Redistributive Allocation Mechanisms
By: Mohammad Akbarpour, Piotr Dworczak and Scott Duke Kominers
Many scarce public resources are allocated at below-market-clearing prices, and sometimes for free. Such "non-market" mechanisms sacrifice some surplus, yet they can potentially improve equity. We develop a model of mechanism design with redistributive concerns. Agents...
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- May 2024
- Supplement
gWorks (A)
By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff
In January of 2019, Joe Heieck, CEO of gWorks, was deciding whether to proceed with his acquisition of Data Tech, that was a business roughly the same size as gWorks. gWorks, which provided geospatial software to small city and rural county governments, was acquired by...
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Keywords:
Acquisition;
Small Business;
Cost vs Benefits;
Decisions;
Business Education;
Corporate Entrepreneurship;
Leadership Style;
Leading Change;
Business or Company Management;
Problems and Challenges;
Talent and Talent Management;
Customer Relationship Management;
Technology Adoption;
Information Infrastructure;
Digital Platforms;
Growth Management;
Applications and Software;
Risk and Uncertainty;
Technology Industry;
United States
- May 2024
- Supplement
gWorks (B)
By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff
In January of 2019, Joe Heieck, CEO of gWorks, was deciding whether to proceed with his acquisition of Data Tech, that was a business roughly the same size as gWorks. gWorks, which provided geospatial software to small city and rural county governments, was acquired by...
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Keywords:
Acquisition;
Small Business;
Cost vs Benefits;
Decisions;
Business Education;
Corporate Entrepreneurship;
Leadership Style;
Leading Change;
Business or Company Management;
Problems and Challenges;
Talent and Talent Management;
Customer Relationship Management;
Technology Adoption;
Information Infrastructure;
Digital Platforms;
Growth Management;
Applications and Software;
Risk and Uncertainty;
Technology Industry;
United States
- May 2024
- Case
Naked Wines: The Profit vs. Growth Decision
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Edward A. Meyer
Nick Devlin faced a difficult strategic decision in October 2022. As the CEO of a UK-based subscription business connecting wine drinkers in the US, UK, and Australia with winemakers from around the world (which one journalist called the “Netflix of Wine”), he had to...
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Keywords:
Profit Vs. Growth;
Platform Business;
Economies Of Scale;
Subscription Business;
Wine;
Scaling;
Racing;
Value Creation;
Network Effects;
Business Startups;
Small Business;
Financial Management;
Financial Strategy;
Growth Management;
Business Strategy;
Competitive Advantage;
Expansion;
Profit;
E-commerce;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry;
Food and Beverage Industry;
United States;
Australia;
United Kingdom
- March 2024 (Revised May 2024)
- Case
Amperity: First-Party Data at a Crossroads
By: Elie Ofek, Hema Yoganarasimhan and Alexis Lefort
In the summer of 2023, Amperity management was facing a critical decision on its future direction. Given the dramatic changes occurring within the digital advertising ecosystem, as concerns over consumer privacy placed limits on the ability to engage in third-party...
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- March 2024
- Teaching Note
CoPilot(s): Generative AI at Microsoft and GitHub
By: Frank Nagle and Maria P. Roche
This teaching note is the companion to case N9-624-010 CoPilot(s): Generative AI at Microsoft and GitHub, which takes place in late 2021. The case briefly describes the history of both GitHub and Microsoft with a particular focus on open source software (OSS)—software...
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- February 2024
- Case
FIGS: Scrubbing the Status Quo
By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Nicole Tempest Keller
In October 2023, FIGS had revolutionized the medical scrubs industry with its fashionable and functional designs, but the venture was at a critical juncture. The digitally native vertical brand (DNVB) had gone public in a successful IPO in 2021 and reached $500 million...
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- January 2024 (Revised June 2024)
- Case
School of Rock: Tuning into Structured Empowerment (A)
By: Tatiana Sandino, Jeffrey Rayport, Samuel Grad and Stacy Straaberg
In summer 2021, School of Rock was a youth-oriented music education company with 291 franchise- and company-owned schools globally. Before CEO Rob Price’s hire in 2017, School of Rock’s nonconformist rock ‘n’ roll culture led to variability in teaching styles,...
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Keywords:
Business Growth and Maturation;
Business Plan;
Change Management;
Transformation;
Communication Strategy;
Decisions;
Curriculum and Courses;
Teaching;
Employee Relationship Management;
Knowledge Sharing;
Leadership Style;
Business or Company Management;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Management Style;
Marketing Strategy;
Mission and Purpose;
Organizational Change and Adaptation;
Organizational Culture;
Organizational Structure;
Franchise Ownership;
Performance Expectations;
Performance Improvement;
Strategic Planning;
Attitudes;
Conflict Management;
Corporate Strategy;
Applications and Software;
Technology Adoption;
Education Industry;
Music Industry;
Massachusetts;
United States
- January 2024 (Revised May 2024)
- Case
Pioneer Natural Resources: Enhancing the Capital Return Strategy with Variable Dividends
In February 2021, Scott Sheffield, the CEO of Pioneer Natural Resources (an independent oil and gas company based in Texas), was considering the possibility of enhancing the firm’s capital return strategy by introducing a variable dividend tied to cash flows in...
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- 2023
- Working Paper
Do Active Funds Do Better in What They Trade?
By: Marco Sammon and John J. Shim
We develop two new, simple measures to quantify active fund decisions at the individual position level. The intuition is to separate passive rebalancing induced by flows and position changes from active rebalancing decisions. We find that additive active rebalancing --...
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- 2023
- Working Paper
The Optimal Stock Valuation Ratio
By: Sebastian Hillenbrand and Odhrain McCarthy
Trailing price ratios, such as the price-dividend and the price-earnings ratio, scale prices by trailing cash flow measures. They theoretically contain expected returns, yet, their performance in predicting stock market returns is poor. This is because of an omitted...
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- October 2023 (Revised January 2024)
- Case
Ball: EVA Driving the World's Leading Can Manufacturer (A)
By: Jonas Heese and Susan Pinckney
The case describes Ball’s multi decade history of using Economic Value Added to drive decision making and workforce compensation. In 2016, the company acquired Rexam PLC and became the world’s leading metal beverage container company. Consumer demand for varied...
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Keywords:
Budgets and Budgeting;
Cost Accounting;
Financial Reporting;
Financial Statements;
Buildings and Facilities;
Green Building;
Mergers and Acquisitions;
Customer Satisfaction;
Decisions;
Forecasting and Prediction;
Machinery and Machining;
Asset Pricing;
Corporate Finance;
Capital;
Cost;
Financial Management;
Goods and Commodities;
Compensation and Benefits;
Executive Compensation;
Employee Relationship Management;
Goals and Objectives;
Resource Allocation;
Business Strategy;
Corporate Strategy;
Food and Beverage Industry;
United States;
Arizona;
California;
Texas
- October 2023 (Revised January 2024)
- Case
McDonald's Board of Directors (A)
By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz
In October 2019, the McDonald’s Corporation board of directors, chaired by Enrique Hernandez, Jr., gathered to learn the results of their outside counsel’s investigation into the conduct of the CEO. On the surface, the iconic fast-food chain was thriving as growing...
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Keywords:
Board Of Directors;
Board Chair;
Board Decisions;
Business Ethics;
Corporate Boards;
Fast Food;
Franchising;
Legal Aspects Of Business;
Legal Battle;
Legal Settlement;
Misconduct;
Regulation;
Reorganization;
Restaurant Industry;
Sexual Harassment;
Shareholders;
Stakeholder Management;
Strategy And Execution;
Turnaround;
Corporate Accountability;
Corporate Governance;
Culture;
Executive Compensation;
Leadership;
Management;
Ethics;
Governing and Advisory Boards;
Business and Stakeholder Relations;
Food and Beverage Industry;
Illinois;
United States
- September 2023 (Revised March 2024)
- Case
ReMo Energy: Sizing Up Investors
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Tom Quinn
In 2023, executives with ReMo Energy (founded 2020) were deciding which size ammonia plant to build as their first project. Their innovative model produced ammonia—useful for making fertilizer and for energy storage—from renewable energy, and they had received funding...
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Keywords:
Factories, Labs, and Plants;
Business Startups;
Cost vs Benefits;
Design;
Energy Conservation;
Energy Generation;
Renewable Energy;
Venture Capital;
Investment Return;
Goods and Commodities;
Size;
Infrastructure;
Risk and Uncertainty;
Science-Based Business;
Commercialization;
Technological Innovation;
Chemical Industry;
Energy Industry;
Green Technology Industry;
United States;
Boston
- August 2023 (Revised January 2024)
- Supplement
Arla Foods: Data-Driven Decarbonization (A)
By: Michael Parzen, Michael W. Toffel, Amram Migdal and Susan Pinckney
Arla implemented a data-based price incentive system to measure, track, and influence climate friendly changes to reduce CO2 emissions across the world’s fourth largest dairy cooperative.
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Keywords:
Dairy Industry;
Business Earnings;
Earnings Management;
Environmental Accounting;
Agribusiness;
Animal-Based Agribusiness;
Acquisition;
Mergers and Acquisitions;
Decision Making;
Decisions;
Voting;
Environmental Management;
Climate Change;
Environmental Regulation;
Environmental Sustainability;
Green Technology;
Pollution;
Moral Sensibility;
Values and Beliefs;
Financial Strategy;
Price;
Profit;
Revenue;
Food;
Geopolitical Units;
Global Strategy;
Ownership Type;
Cooperative Ownership;
Performance Efficiency;
Performance Evaluation;
Problems and Challenges;
Natural Environment;
Science-Based Business;
Business Strategy;
Commercialization;
Cooperation;
Corporate Strategy;
Food and Beverage Industry;
Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry;
Europe;
United Kingdom;
European Union;
Germany;
Denmark;
Sweden;
Luxembourg;
Belgium
- August 2023 (Revised March 2024)
- Case
Arla Foods: Data-Driven Decarbonization (A)
By: Michael Parzen, Michael W. Toffel, Susan Pinckney and Amram Migdal
The case describes Arla’s history, in particular its climate change mitigation efforts, and how it implemented a price incentive system to motivate individual farms to implement scope 1 greenhouse gas emissions mitigation measures and receive a higher milk price. The...
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Keywords:
Dairy Industry;
Business Earnings;
Agribusiness;
Animal-Based Agribusiness;
Acquisition;
Mergers and Acquisitions;
Decision Making;
Decisions;
Voting;
Environmental Management;
Climate Change;
Environmental Regulation;
Environmental Sustainability;
Green Technology;
Pollution;
Moral Sensibility;
Values and Beliefs;
Financial Strategy;
Price;
Profit;
Revenue;
Food;
Geopolitical Units;
Global Strategy;
Ownership Type;
Cooperative Ownership;
Performance Efficiency;
Performance Evaluation;
Problems and Challenges;
Natural Environment;
Science-Based Business;
Business Strategy;
Commercialization;
Cooperation;
Corporate Strategy;
Food and Beverage Industry;
Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry;
Europe;
United Kingdom;
European Union;
Germany;
Denmark;
Sweden;
Luxembourg;
Belgium
- August 2023 (Revised January 2024)
- Supplement
Arla Foods: Data-Driven Decarbonization (B)
By: Michael Parzen, Michael W. Toffel, Susan Pinckney and Amram Migdal
The case describes Arla’s history, in particular its climate change mitigation efforts, and how it implemented a price incentive system to motivate individual farms to implement scope 1 greenhouse gas emissions mitigation measures and receive a higher milk price. The...
View Details
Keywords:
Dairy Industry;
Earnings Management;
Environmental Accounting;
Animal-Based Agribusiness;
Mergers and Acquisitions;
Decisions;
Voting;
Climate Change;
Environmental Regulation;
Environmental Sustainability;
Green Technology;
Pollution;
Moral Sensibility;
Values and Beliefs;
Financial Strategy;
Price;
Profit;
Revenue;
Food;
Geopolitical Units;
Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues;
Global Strategy;
Cooperative Ownership;
Performance Efficiency;
Performance Evaluation;
Problems and Challenges;
Natural Environment;
Science-Based Business;
Business Strategy;
Commercial Banking;
Cooperation;
Corporate Strategy;
Motivation and Incentives;
Food and Beverage Industry;
Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry;
Europe;
United Kingdom;
European Union;
Denmark;
Sweden;
Luxembourg;
Belgium
- 2023
- Working Paper
Algorithm Failures and Consumers' Response: Evidence from Zillow
By: Isamar Troncoso, Runshan Fu, Nikhil Malik and Davide Proserpio
In November 2021, Zillow announced the closure of its iBuyer business. Popular media largely attributed this to a failure of its proprietary forecasting algorithm. We study the response of consumers to Zillow’s iBuyer business closure. We show that after the iBuyer...
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