Publications

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July 2012
Article

iPhones for Friends, Refrigerators for Family: How Products Prime Social Networks

By: Lalin Anik and Michael I. Norton

We show that priming consumers with products associated with specific social networks increases the salience of those networks, influencing both word-of-mouth intentions and consumption. Consumers were exposed to friend- or family-related products (e.g., game consoles... View Details

Keywords: Family and Family Relationships; Product; Customers; Familiarity; Social and Collaborative Networks

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September 2018
Case

Sealed Air Corporation: Deciding the Fate of VTID (Abridged)

By: Elie Ofek

In mid-2010 the Sealed Air Corporation has to decide on next steps for its novel video tracking technology (called VTID) after unsuccessful attempts to market it in three different industry settings. The company must determine whether its most recent target market, the... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Choices and Conditions; Technological Innovation; Marketing Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Commercialization; Service Industry

13 Nov 2012
First Look

First Look: November 13

annual revenues. The narrative pays particular attention to the early, turbulent years of the yogurt company and the excitement and uncertainty of entrepreneurial life. The case also details the supple, innovative marketing the company... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 2016 (Revised December 2016)
Case

The Container Store

By: Tatiana Sandino, Zeynep Ton and Aldo Sesia

The Container Store (TCS) is a Texas-based retailer of organization and storage solutions. The company prides itself in taking care of its employees first, and its cofounder and CEO Kip Tindell practices Conscious Capitalism. Since its beginnings in 1978, TCS grew to a... View Details

Keywords: Culture; Conscious Capitalism; Merchandising; Customer Focus and Relationships; Growth and Development Strategy; Operations; Service Delivery; Going Public; Performance Evaluation; Performance Productivity; Retail Industry; United States

06 Sep 2005
Research & Ideas

When Product Variety Backfires

offer within a brand. Do you need seventy-five flavors of Snapple or will twenty-five do? Do you need twenty-five SKUs of toothpaste or can you get by on ten? The question is which alternatives to eliminate and what the View Details

Keywords: by Poping Lin; Consumer Products

11 Aug 2003
Research & Ideas

Cheap, Fast, and In Control: How Tech Aids Innovation

different levels: technical (can it work?), production (can it be produced?), need (does it address customer needs?), and market (is it big enough to justify the investment?). So managers need View Details

Keywords: by Wendy Guild

04 Oct 2004
What Do You Think?

Does Speed Trump Intellectual Property?

minimized. Clearly, speed can be used to enhance product development and innovation, providing faster responses to customer needs. But it can... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

28 Aug 2006
Research & Ideas

Online Match-Making with Virtual Dates

missing." What's missing is that subtle, essential information that emerges when you actually meet someone. Enter Virtual Dates, the solution they propose to improve online dating services. Making The Connection Here's how it works:... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Publishing

March 9, 2023
Article

Linking Growth and the Frontline

By: Frank V. Cespedes, Jay Galeota and Michael Wong

Most strategies are about growing the business. But about one quarter of companies do not grow at all and, even before the pandemic, only one in eight achieved more than 10% revenue growth annually, according to data from S&P Global regulatory filings. One reason is a... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; Competency and Skills

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08 Oct 2014
Research & Ideas

Who Is the Chief Sustainability Officer?

study a CSO's responsibilities and to look at how the role shifts depending on the company's level of commitment, Serafeim and Miller surveyed 66 CSOs and people with similar duties but different titles in... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Manufacturing

Susana Balbo

Keywords: Wine

15 Dec 2015
First Look

December 15, 2015

(Frank) Li, and Dylan B. Minor Abstract—We link the corporate governance literature in financial economics to the agency cost perspective of corporate social responsibility (CSR) View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

26 Jan 2004
Research & Ideas

What Developing-World Companies Teach Us About Innovation

countries generally lack a solid technology base of trained scientists and world-class research universities. 2. Companies in developing countries must manage to eke out a profit while serving customers with... View Details

Keywords: by Donald N. Sull, Alejandro Ruelas-Gossi & Martin Escobari

July 2009 (Revised January 2014)
Case

Sustainability at Millipore

By: Michael W. Toffel and Katharine Lee

This case describes Millipore Corporation's approach to becoming a more environmentally sustainable company. As he prepared for his quarterly meeting with the CEO, the Director of Sustainability needed to develop positions on several issues. Tactically, he needed to... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Corporate Disclosure; Operations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Organizational Structure; Natural Environment; Environmental Sustainability; Pollutants

May 1993
Case

Patient Transfusion Services Lab of Central Blood Bank

By: James L. Heskett

The vice president of the Lab and Clinical Services at Central Blood Bank is faced with the challenge of convincing a hospital to use economical shared patient transfusion testing services. View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Quality; Service Operations; Mathematical Methods; Customer Satisfaction; Health Industry