Beyoncé to Feature in New HBS Case Study

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A Harvard Business School professor who has become something of a rock star by studying rock stars is rolling out her latest case study next week, on none other than a musical force of nature, Beyoncé.

The case study was written by Anita Elberse and a former HBS MBA student Stacie Smith. It focuses on the star’s 2013 surprise release of her fifth solo album and will be taught in Elberse’s ‘Strategic Marketing in Creative Industries’ course starting next month.

The self-titled 14-song collection was released on iTunes just after midnight on December 13 without any advance publicity, taking everyone by surprise.  Within six days the album had sold a million digital copies.  By the time the year was out it had sold 2.3 million units worldwide.

Beyoncé’s approach creates teachable moments

The questions raised by the release—a big gamble for Beyoncé’s management company, Parkwood Entertainment, and her label, Columbia Records—will make for a compelling case study.

The big one, of course, is did the high-stakes gamble pay off? The case study examines the many obstacles Beyoncé encountered in plotting the secret roll-out and the decisions her management team had to make. Drawing on insights from top executives at Parkwood, Columbia, Facebook, and Apple, the case study puts Elberse’s students in the driver’s seat.

Elberse told the Harvard Gazette that Beyoncé’s hands-on approach to her own business interests allows her to present a number of teachable moments.

“She’s clearly among the most powerful people in the music industry at the moment,” Elberse says. “So to understand the operation behind such a powerful figure is always very interesting,”

Elberse, who did not respond to a request for comment, has written dozens of case studies on media and entertainment companies for HBS, as well as the wildly successful Netflix drama House of Cards starring Kevin Spacey, and sports and music personalities including Lady Gaga, LeBron James, and Maria Sharapova.

Her strategic marketing course is one of the most sought-after among MBA students at Harvard Business School, where she has won numerous teaching awards. She is one of the youngest female professors to be promoted to full professor with tenure in Harvard Business School’s history.