Publications

02 Mar 2016
What Do You Think?

Is Apple’s Real Privacy Challenge Technology Innovation Itself?

world. The law enforcement agency counters that its interest is strictly in this case. Clearly many interests have a seat at the table in this dispute: Apple, its customers, and a portion View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Technology

2020
Case

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation: Accelerating a Circular Economy for Plastic Packaging

By: Andrew J. Hoffman

Plastic has become essential to global day-to-day activities, yet it is also causing extreme environmental degradation. Many leaders in the plastics industry are starting to question its sustainability. This case presents insights into the future of the plastic... View Details

Keywords: Plastic Waste; Environmental Sustainability; Cooperation; Supply Chain Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Consumer Products Industry

June 2009
Article

How Concepts Affect Consumption

By: Dan Ariely and Michael I. Norton

Duke behavioral economist Ariely and Harvard Business School professor Norton explore how our consumption of concepts influences physical consumption, both positively and negatively. View Details

Keywords: Spending; Marketing Communications; Consumer Behavior; Power and Influence

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Read Now

01 Dec 2014
News

Forecasting ’15

the scenes for a while. Almost everyone I know in the food packaging and grocery industry is a health nut. People are becoming more aware of their health and have a growing desire to find a way to eat and feel better. That will change... View Details

Keywords: Food Services and Drinking Places; Hospitality; Ambulatory Health Care Services; Health, Social Assistance

14 May 2013
Blog Post

Exploring new opportunities at HBS

Clubs are just starting to get underway, and I’m excited to get involved in lots of them and start attending events. I’m also hoping to study a wide range of companies, industries, and business problems in... View Details

Keywords: Technology

October 2008 (Revised August 2010)
Case

The Christmas Eve Closing

By: Peter Tufano

In 2002, two homeowners in Massachusetts are deciding whether to refinance their home less than two years after taking out an initial mortgage and a subsequent home equity line of credit. View Details

Keywords: Mortgages; Personal Finance; Consumer Behavior; Banking Industry; Massachusetts

05 Dec 2016
News

The Dragon’s Tale

the new Chinese economy. (photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty) Do the Chinese business leaders you talk with offer opinions about what should be done to reverse the current downturn? There’s a lot of interest in... View Details

Keywords: Deborah Blagg

July 2012
Article

Discrete Choice Cannot Generate Demand That Is Additively Separable in Own Price

By: Sonia Jaffe and Scott Duke Kominers

We show that in a unit demand discrete choice framework with at least three goods, demand cannot be additively separable in own price. This result sharpens the analogous result of Jaffe and Weyl (2010) in the case of linear demand and has implications for testing of... View Details

Keywords: Discrete Choice; Unit Demand; Separable Demand; Linear Demand; Demand and Consumers; Market Design; Mathematical Methods; Economics

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October 2022 (Revised November 2023)
Case

Framebridge (A): Reimagining Custom Framing

By: Rembrand Koning and Alicia Dadlani

In December 2018, Susan Tynan, founder and CEO of Framebridge, a four-year-old venture-backed startup that sold online custom framing, formulated plans for the future. Her vision was to revolutionize the $4 billion industry by making custom framing easy, transparent,... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Business Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Operations; Consumer Products Industry; United States; District of Columbia; Kentucky

March 1997 (Revised July 1999)
Case

S1 Corporation

S1 is a fast growing subsidiary of the Samsung Group in South Korea that sells business security products. S1 has implemented a number of marketing initiatives that the company president would like to have evaluated. View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Price; Salesforce Management; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; South Korea

December 2012 (Revised July 2015)
Supplement

Nalli Silk Sarees (B)

By: V.G. Narayanan, Namrata Arora and Vidhya Muthuram

Presents the company's perspective using an interview format. Ramnath K. Nalli, vice chairman of Nalli Silk Sarees Private Limited, and his daughter, Lavanya Nalli (HBS MBA 2011), the fifth generation entrepreneur to be involved in the family business, discuss customer... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Consumer Behavior; Entrepreneurship; Apparel and Accessories Industry

September 2013
Case

Management Levels at Staples (A): Company and Organization (Abridged)

By: David A. Garvin

Abridged version of one of six cases that describe the roles and responsibilities of managers at each of the hierarchical levels of management within the U.S. Stores business unit of Staples, the world's largest office supply company. Together, the cases form a... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Managerial Roles; Organizational Design; Management Practices and Processes; Job Design and Levels; Business Processes; Consumer Products Industry; United States

20 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

How Small Businesses Can Survive the Coronavirus Outbreak

worse than the financial crisis,” says Mills, who led the United States Small Business Administration from 2009 to 2013. “Many small businesses will not survive more than a month.” Small businesses have been scaling down and temporarily closing as View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Service; Food & Beverage

July 2005 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Carnival Cruise Lines

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Robert Kwortnik and Gabriele Piccoli

Highlights the potential value of customer data and the choices and challenges the firm faces when attempting to capture this value. Carnival collects a significant amount of individual-level behavioral and demographic customer data. Senior management must now decide... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Demographics; Customer Relationship Management; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Performance Improvement; Business Strategy; Travel Industry; Tourism Industry

26 Jun 2000
Research & Ideas

What’s an Internet Business Model? Ask a Health Care Professional

of Information Technology at Harvard Medical School), noted that most health care marketing in the past was centered around physicians. The basis of competition in the near future, he predicted, would shift... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Health

18 Jul 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, July 18, 2017

corporate leaders speaking out on social and environmental policy issues not directly related to their core business. In the first study of this phenomenon, we investigate how CEO activism can influence public opinion about these issues... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 1991 (Revised June 2001)
Case

Jaguar plc--1989

By: Timothy A. Luehrman and Robert W. Lightfoot

Describes Jaguar's product market problems in 1989, and its attractiveness to GM and Ford as an acquisition target. Students are asked to evaluate the suitability of GM and Ford as business partners for Jaguar, and to determine how much each should be willing to pay to... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Markets; Consumer Behavior; Product; Partners and Partnerships; Valuation; Auto Industry

March 1997
Background Note

Copper and Zinc Markets 1996

By: Peter Tufano

Provides background information on copper and zinc markets as of mid-1996. Discusses supply and demand conditions, forecasts of the spot prices of the metals, and contracts for future delivery (forwards, futures, and options). View Details

Keywords: Demand and Consumers; Metals and Minerals; Supply and Industry; Mining Industry