Publications

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17 Dec 2008
Lessons from the Classroom

‘Ted Levitt Changed My Life’

The details differ slightly, but the story, in its telling, is always the same. Ninety or so MBA students sit nervously awaiting the start of... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Education; Retail

September 2010 (Revised February 2011)
Case

Red Lobster

By: David E. Bell and Jason Riis

Red Lobster, a 40-year-old chain of seafood restaurants, has just completed some market research revealing an opportunity to shift its target customer segment. The chain is in the final stages of a 10-year plan of rejuvenation under CEO Kim Lopdrup. When he took over... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Customer Satisfaction; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Research; Segmentation; Food and Beverage Industry

July 2017
Case

Magpie: Developing and Using Buyer Personas

By: Frank V. Cespedes

The founders of a start-up platform for publishers have developed preliminary personas of target customers and are evaluating the implications for initial target buyers, messaging, and marketing programs. The case is useful for discussing the process of developing... View Details

Keywords: Buying Process; Marketing; Sales; Distribution Channels; Segmentation; Entrepreneurship; Social Media; Consumer Products Industry; Fashion Industry; United States

2015
Conference Presentation

Managing Failure in Pioneering Industries: Virgin Galactic, Legitimacy, and the 2014 Test Flight Crash

By: Luciana Silvestri and Anil Doshi

Keywords: Failure Tolerance; Innovation; Nascent Industries; Legitimacy; Cognition; Organizational Learning; Organizations; Entrepreneurship; Emerging Markets; Performance; Learning; Failure; Cognition and Thinking; Innovation and Invention; Aerospace Industry

05 Sep 2023
News

Q&A With New Managing Director of MBA Admissions and Financial Aid Rupal Gadhia

21 Jul 2021
Research & Ideas

What Does an ESG Score Really Say About a Company?

Receiving more information can clarify the complex, but not when it comes to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) scores. A recent study shows that the more information a company discloses about its ESG practices, the more rating agencies disagree on how well... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

2010
Other Unpublished Work

God, Government and Outsiders: The Influence of Religious Beliefs on Depositor Behavior in an Emerging Market.

By: Ayesha K. Khan and Tarun Khanna

This paper provides evidence that religious beliefs can have a significant impact on individual financial choices. Using proprietary panel data on the distribution of bank deposits across all commercial banks in Pakistan over a 33-month period, I find that Islamic... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Commercial Banking; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Consumer Behavior; Emerging Markets; Religion; Banking Industry; Pakistan

2019
Working Paper

The Impact of Increasing Search Frictions on Online Shopping Behavior: Evidence from a Field Experiment

By: Donald Ngwe, Kris J. Ferreira and Thales Teixeira

Many online stores are designed such that shoppers can easily access any available discounted products. We propose that deliberately increasing search frictions by placing small obstacles to locating discounted items can improve online retailers’ margins and even... View Details

Keywords: E-commerce; Online Retailing; Friction; Effor; Search Costs; Price Discrimination; Consumer Behavior; Price; Search Technology

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Shikhar Ghosh is a Professor of Management Practice in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit. He currently teaches in the elective curriculum and is the course head for 3 Technologies that will Change the World. Shikhar received the Apgar Award for innovation in... View Details

25 Jan 2017
HBS Case

How Should Advertisers Respond to Consumer Demand for Whiter Skin?

company’s obligation lie? The struggle over the advertising of India’s fairness creams is the centerpiece of a March 2016 case “Fair & Lovely vs. Dark Is Beautiful,” which... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Beauty & Cosmetics

Article

Integration of Online and Offline Channels in Retail: The Impact of Sharing Reliable Inventory Availability Information

By: Santiago Gallino and Antonio Moreno

Using a proprietary data set, we analyze the impact of the implementation of a “buy-online, pick-up-in-store” (BOPS) project. The implementation of this project is associated with a reduction in online sales and an increase in store sales and traffic. These results can... View Details

Keywords: Retail Operations; Inventory Availability; Empirical Operations Management; Business Analytics; Online Retail; Ecommerce; Operations; Management; Distribution Channels; Consumer Behavior; E-commerce; Retail Industry

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Web

Bringing the Next Pandemic Vaccine to Your Doorstep with MIMIX - Blog: Health Supplement

BARDA, DARPA, and NASA all contributing. The company has supplemented this with venture capital financing. Vaxess is working closely with all of these funders to achieve the scale necessary to reimagine both... View Details

November 2023
Case

Apple Inc. in 2023

By: David B. Yoffie and Sarah von Bargen

Under CEO Tim Cook, Apple became the first trillion dollar market cap company, the first two trillion dollar company, and the first three trillion dollar company. Since the COVID pandemic, Apple gained over 20% of the world smartphone market and 50% of the U.S. market,... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Product Positioning; Emerging Markets; Competitive Strategy; Technological Innovation; Revenue; Technology Industry

November 2004
Article

The Persistence of Customer Profitability: Empirical Evidence and Implications from a Financial Services Firm

By: Dennis Campbell and Frances X. Frei

Keywords: Customers; Markets; Information; Finance; Business Ventures; Profit; Financial Services Industry

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Web

Africa Rising: Understanding Business, Entrepreneurship, and the Complexities of a Continent - Course Catalog

expertise in the field, "Africa Rising" will offer big picture understandings of the continent, and the ways in which its past informs the... View Details

July 2003 (Revised October 2018)
Case

Starbucks: Delivering Customer Service

By: Youngme Moon and John Quelch

Starbucks, the dominant specialty-coffee brand in North America, must respond to recent market research indicating that the company is not meeting customer expectations in terms of service. To increase customer satisfaction, the company is debating a plan that would... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Profit; Recruitment; Marketing Strategy; Service Operations; Performance Improvement; Planning; Food and Beverage Industry

13 Jun 2017
Blog Post

7 Reasons Why the New MS/MBA: Engineering Sciences Program at Harvard is Next Level

[https://media.giphy.com/media/l3StIl34yEZLa/giphy.gif] You’re right, it’s not the Bay! But there are game-changers here who are literally changing the world: Entrepreneurs VCs Academics Receptive... View Details

June 2011
Case

Reed Supermarkets: A New Wave of Competitors

By: John A. Quelch and Carole Carlson

Reed Supermarkets is a high-end supermarket chain with operations in several Midwestern states. Meredith Collins, vice president of marketing, visits stores located in Columbus, Ohio, an important region with the largest market and the greatest impact on revenue... View Details

Keywords: Product Positioning; Marketing Strategy; Business Growth and Maturation; Competitive Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Brands and Branding; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Ohio