Diamond Dealers Club enforced handshake deals via trade exile
The Diamond Dealers Club made handshake deals binding by punishing defaulters with public expulsion from the global trade network, not lawsuits.
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3,236 PUBLISHED CASES · REGULARLY UPDATEDDidi funded Uber's US rival Lyft to end the China subsidy war
Didi Chuxing, locked in a subsidy war with Uber in China, invested $100 million in Uber's US rival Lyft to attack its secure home market.
Read the caseDigital Green swapped the messenger, not the message, and got seven times the adoption
Digital Green swapped the messenger, not the message, and got seven times the adoption.
Read the caseDisney made waits feel shorter by overstating them and theming queues
Disney posted inflated wait times and themed queues so guests felt the real wait was shorter than expected.
Read the caseDisney Imagineering padded wait times to make queues feel shorter
Disney Imagineering posted inflated wait times so guests felt they won back time, turning queues into positive surprises.
Read the caseDobbs Hats sold green hats in the Depression by reviving a 1919 fashion memory
Dobbs Hats, facing a price-driven Depression market, revived a dormant 1919 green-hat fashion memory to sell 7,200 hats in a controlled launch.
Read the caseJustice Department broke cartels by paying first insider to confess
The Justice Department stopped trying to catch cartels from outside and started paying whoever inside confessed first.
Read the caseDonorsChoose let donors fund a teacher's itemized list
DonorsChoose let donors fund a teacher's itemized list, bought and shipped it, and sent photo proof.
Read the caseDouai's weavers made cloth authenticity verifiable by measurement
Douai's cloth guild made its cloth verifiable by fixing exact dimensions (muison) that only its own looms could produce, so buyers could measure authenticity.
Read the caseDove's sketch artist showed women their self-image gap
Dove hired an FBI sketch artist to draw women from their own vs. a stranger's description, making the gap visible.
Read the caseRAF Fighter Command beat radar noise with a central filter room
Dowding routed all radar reports through a central filter room, merging duplicates into one track per raid.
Read the caseDP World rechecked the frozen-food standard and found three free degrees
DP World funded an independent panel to re-check the century-old -18°C frozen-food standard, found -15°C safe, and shared the finding industry-wide.
Read the caseDropbox paid referrals in storage, not cash
Dropbox paid referrals in storage, not cash, doubling growth overnight.
Read the caseDuflo, Kremer and Robinson sold fertilizer vouchers at harvest, not planting
Duflo, Kremer and Robinson sold Kenyan farmers full-price fertilizer vouchers right after harvest, when cash was highest, and adoption jumped.
Read the caseJames Dyson built a bagless vacuum after incumbents rejected his fix
Dyson built a bagless vacuum and sold it himself after incumbents refused a fix that would end their bag sales.
Read the caseEcuador adopted the US dollar to escape its currency collapse
Ecuador, facing a currency collapse, abolished the sucre and adopted the US dollar to import credibility.
Read the caseEconomists caught aid theft from haven-bank deposit spikes
Three economists proved aid theft by correlating World Bank disbursements with secrecy-haven deposits, no audits or informants needed.
Read the caseEnergiesprong funded net-zero retrofits by redirecting tenants' utility bills
Energiesprong funded net-zero retrofits by redirecting tenants' existing utility payments to the housing association, avoiding new capital.
Read the caseTwo economists caught a World Bank corruption ring from digit patterns in reports
Two economists caught a World Bank corruption ring by testing digit patterns in the project's own reports, without visiting Kenya or auditing a receipt.
Read the caseEthiopian employer found reimbursing application costs attracted better candidates
A field experiment in Addis Ababa found reimbursing applicants' costs attracted a larger, more talented pool.
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