When Research Enters the Classroom: The Mattel Case to Understand Business Strategies

What lies behind Barbie's success? Not just an entrepreneurial insight, an innovative product, or an extraordinary marketing strategy, but also a complex history of patents, legal disputes, and

industrial competition. A history that becomes a learning opportunity for Bocconi students, thanks to the integration of research and teaching.

This is the case with Inside the Dollhouse: Litigation, Corporate Power, and Competition in the American Mid-Twentieth Century Toy Industry, a paper written by Valeria Giacomin and Marina Nicoli and published in Business History Review, a scholarly journal published by Cambridge University Press. The two researchers use the paper in the Entrepreneurship, History and Society module of the Economy and Society course, giving students the opportunity to engage directly with the findings of original research and apply theoretical concepts to a real-world case in business history.

Barbie: Beyond the Myth of Innovation

The study traces Mattel's rise during the 1950s and 1960s, showing how the success of the doll launched in 1959 was driven not only by product innovation and the ability to build a recognizable brand. The strategic use of intellectual property rights and legal action to challenge competitors and consolidate the company's market power also played a significant role.

Drawing on archival documents, court records, and other historical sources, Nicoli and Giacomin examine, among other things, the relationship between Barbie and the German Bild Lilli doll, which had preceded it on the market. Their research challenges some established narratives about the product's originality and demonstrates how the success of an innovation also depends on companies' ability to protect it, commercialize it, and shape competitive dynamics.

A Case Study to Understand Business Strategies

The educational value of the case lies precisely in the opportunity to go beyond the story of a successful company. Through the paper, students can explore key questions about how markets work: What is the relationship between innovation and imitation? How can intellectual property become a competitive tool? To what extent do legal strategies and corporate power shape the structure of an industry?

"The Mattel case confronts students with a concrete business ethics issue: the unauthorized use of patents related to Bild Lilli in the development of the first Barbie prototypes, followed by Mattel's reliance on intellectual property protection and legal action to restrict competitors and strengthen its competitive advantage," explains Marina Nicoli. "To explore this issue, we ask students to simulate a courtroom debate. Through this exercise, they learn to assess when the protection of rights safeguards a company and when it becomes a means of hindering competition."

Using the paper also allows students to see how historical research is conducted, through the analysis of sources and the reconstruction of economic and entrepreneurial dynamics that are often more complex than established narratives suggest.

"This work encourages students to look at a product and the narrative surrounding it from a different perspective, to question the assumptions behind that narrative, and to see firsthand how historical research is carried out," adds Valeria Giacomin. "It also provides an opportunity to explore major transformations in the business world: from the development of global value chains and the creation of major brands to the growing sophistication of services such as advertising and legal consulting in the decades following World War II."

The case presented by Nicoli and Giacomin thus demonstrates how academic research can become an integral part of university teaching, bringing new evidence and interpretations into the classroom. It also shows how even a familiar object like Barbie can offer an original perspective on the history of entrepreneurship, competitive strategies, and the relationship between business and society.