Publications

Educators

24 Feb 2020
News

Companies must include environmental and social performance measures

April 2022
Article

National Customer Orientation: A Framework, Propositions and Agenda for Future Research

By: Ofer Mintz, Imran S. Currim and Rohit Deshpandé

Purpose: This paper aims to propose a new country-level construct, national customer orientation, to provide a benchmark for global headquartered managers’ decisions and scholars investigating cross-national research.
Design/methodology/approach: A conceptual... View Details

Keywords: International Marketing; Macro-marketing; Marketing; Financial Crisis; Customer Focus and Relationships; Economic Growth; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation

September 2024
Exercise

Assessing the Value of Unifying and De-Duplicating Customer Data

By: Elie Ofek and Hema Yoganarasimhan

This exercise provides an opportunity for students to gain hands on experience with assessing the value of unifying various customer databases that a firm may have (e.g., across the different brands it markets) and of properly identifying customers to avoid duplication... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Measurement and Metrics

2016
Chapter

Navigating Natural Monopolies: Market Strategy and Nonmarket Challenges in Radio and Television Audience Measurement Markets

By: Hillary Greene and Dennis Yao

This paper explores how firms within the audience measurement industry, specifically its radio and television markets, have navigated myriad market and nonmarket challenges. The market strategies and the nonmarket forces that constrain those strategies are largely... View Details

Keywords: Measurement and Metrics; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Monopoly; Television Entertainment; Public Opinion; Geographic Scope; Media and Broadcasting Industry; United States

01 Apr 2024
In Practice

Navigating the Mood of Customers Weary of Price Hikes

price hikes than others. What does this mean in practice? Even if inflation is slowing down, depending on where you live and what you buy, you may not experience this slowing down to the same degree as the official measures suggest. Let’s... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Retail; Consumer Products

19 Oct 2010
Working Paper Summaries

The Impact of Supply Learning on Customer Demand: Model and Estimation Methodology

Keywords: by Nathan Craig, Nicole DeHoratius & Ananth Raman; Apparel & Accessories; Fashion

21 Jul 2003
Research & Ideas

Don’t Get Buried in Customer Data—Use It

With the advent of customer relationship management (CRM) in the late 1990s, companies came to believe that by using technology to tailor their offerings to individual consumers' needs, customer loyalty—and... View Details

Keywords: by Jean Ayers

November–December 2006
Article

Customer Metrics and Their Impact on Financial Performance

By: Sunil Gupta and Valarie Zeithaml

Keywords: Customers; Measurement and Metrics; Finance; Performance

24 Oct 2023
Research & Ideas

When Tech Platforms Identify Black-Owned Businesses, White Customers Buy

Democratic-leaning areas. And new customers of Black-owned businesses were more likely to be white, based on an analysis of reviewers’ profile photos, relative to prior customers. Luca and his coauthors also worked with Wayfair to analyze... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald; Food & Beverage

Research Summary

Overview

By: Rob Markey

Most companies' leaders declare their commitment to delivering value to customers. Many have adopted language such as "customer-centric" or "customer-obsessed." Companies that consistently earn top marks for customer loyalty in their industry deliver total shareholder... View Details

Keywords: Customer Base Analysis; Customer Lifetime Value; Customer Experience; Customer Loyalty; Service Profit Chain; Management Accounting; Project Evaluation And Resource Allocation; Customer Value and Value Chain; Customer Satisfaction; Valuation; Customer Focus and Relationships

30 Jan 2019
What Do You Think?

Who Will Measure up to These Two Remarkable Leaders?

column challenged readers to come up with nominations of current leaders that we might be recognizing for their similarly remarkable accomplishments 10 or 20 years from now. This prompted Sandeep to ask, “Where are those legends, the fanatically View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Air Transportation; Financial Services

27 Aug 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Measuring and Understanding Hierarchy as an Architectural Element in Industry Sectors

Keywords: by Jianxi Luo, Daniel E. Whitney, Carliss Y. Baldwin & Christopher L. Magee; Auto

October 2012
Article

Target the Right Market

By: Jill Avery and Thomas Steenburgh

SparkPlace is a two-year-old business with a hot new product: software that manages and measures the effectiveness of permission-based marketing campaigns for social media. The company is in the process of deciding on which of two customer segments to focus its... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Market Segmentation; Customer Defection; Customer Lifetime Value; Customer Relationship Management; CRM; Market Segmentation And Target Market Selection; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain; Technology Industry; United States

Other Article

Sustainable Strategies and Net-Zero Goals

By: Mark L. Frigo, Robert S. Kaplan and Karthik Ramanna

In a recent Harvard Business Review article, Kaplan and Ramanna describe a rigorous approach, the E-liability method, for companies’ ESG reporting, especially as it pertains to GHG emissions measurements. They argue that the current standards for measuring... View Details

Keywords: Measurement; Sustainability; Net-zero Emissions; Environmental Sustainability; Integrated Corporate Reporting; Measurement and Metrics; Strategy

Web

Data for Impact: Impact Measurement from Startup to Fortune 500 C-Suite - Course Catalog

HBS Course Catalog Data for Impact: Impact Measurement from Startup to Fortune 500 C-Suite Course Number 1641 Associate Professor Benjamin N. Roth Assistant Professor Natalia Rigol Spring; Q3Q4; 3.0 credits Paper Educational Objectives... View Details

April 2011
Case

Porcini's Pronto: "Great Italian cuisine without the wait!"

By: James L. Heskett and Richard Luecke

Porcini's Inc. operates a chain of 23 full-service restaurants located near shopping malls and downtown areas in the northeastern United States. Known for providing excellent service, Porcini's serves high-quality Italian cuisine made from fresh ingredients. Looking... View Details

Educators

2021
Working Paper

Accounting for Product Impact in the Consumer-Packaged Foods Industry

By: Amanda Rischbieth, George Serafeim and Katie Trinh

We apply the product impact measurement framework of the Impact-Weighted Accounts Initiative (IWAI) in two competitor companies within the consumer-packaged goods industry. We design a methodology that allows us to calculate monetary impact estimates on customer... View Details

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