Publications

07 Jun 2023
HBS Case

3 Ways to Gain a Competitive Advantage Now: Lessons from Amazon, Chipotle, and Facebook

the price, Karp notes. In some cases, a company might keep its prices lower than the amount customers might be willing to part with to earn brand loyalty or hedge against market fluctuations. Similarly, a company may pay employees or... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

02 Feb 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Mobile Money: The Effect of Service Quality and Competition on Demand

Keywords: by Karthik Balasubramanian & David F. Drake; Banking

2018
Article

Overcoming Barriers to Time-Saving: Reminders of Future Busyness Encourage Consumers to Buy Time

By: A. V. Whillans, Elizabeth W. Dunn and Michael I. Norton

Spending money on time-saving purchases improves happiness. Yet, people often fail to spend their money in this way. Because most people believe that the future will be less busy than the present, they may underweight the value of these purchases. We examine the impact... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Choice; Sharing Economy; Opportunity Cost; Time-as Money; Well-being; Time Management; Happiness; Perception; Behavior

March 2002 (Revised November 2003)
Case

Satellite Radio

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Alastair Brown

In early 2002, XM and Sirius were fighting for control of the emerging U.S. market for satellite radio. Each company targeted consumers in automobiles, providing 100 channels of CD-quality audio for a monthly subscription fee of $10-$13. Wall Street analysts predicted... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Price; Risk and Uncertainty; Problems and Challenges; Network Effects; Partners and Partnerships; Information Technology; Business Model; Investment Return; Auto Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; United States

May 1994 (Revised August 1994)
Case

Motorola-Elma

By: Shoshana Zuboff and Janis Lee Gogan

Motorola's old automative electronics plant in Arcade, outside Buffalo, New York, faced the prospect of closure in the mid-1980s, but leading customers persuaded Motorola to give the plant a second chance. The new plant manager, Dennis Fiehn, recognized that existing... View Details

Keywords: Factories, Labs, and Plants; Business Exit or Shutdown; Customers; Leading Change; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Organizational Structure; Competitive Strategy; Expansion; Telecommunications Industry; New York (state, US)

14 May 2018
Research & Ideas

Amazon vs. Whole Foods: When Cultures Collide

rapid growth from its Austin, Texas, home across the country. Managers operated stores like autonomous fiefdoms, able to tailor offerings based on customer preferences for fresh, local produce.... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Food & Beverage

10 Sep 2014
Research & Ideas

Become a Value Creator

argues that managers who adopt a value-creating mindset hold the key to becoming truly successful leaders. "Business is a team sport. It's soccer, not golf. Nobody plays by themselves and wins in business," Hall said during a... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

Web

Marketing Curriculum - Faculty & Research

pricing—to satisfy customer needs profitably. Use this knowledge in a brand management simulation. The course culminates in an examination of the evolution of marketing, particularly focusing on... View Details

11 Feb 2019
Research & Ideas

The Business of Saving the Planet

"The fact that the benefits of addressing the problem of climate change almost certainly outweigh the costs ... does not make concerted global action to address the problem easy." —Climate Change in 2018: Implications for Business If there is one positive... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Energy; Green Technology

23 May 2017
First Look

First Look at New Ideas and Research: May 23, 2017

substantial variation exists across organizations with regard to management, suggesting frictions in the broader diffusion of management knowledge. We argue that peer networks may allow for the diffusion of productive View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

23 Dec 2002
Research & Ideas

Partnering and the Balanced Scorecard

diverse units, employees, and constituencies. In this chapter, we describe how effective leaders customize their organization's measurement and management system to partner with their employees for strategy... View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan & David P. Norton

27 Mar 2007
First Look

First Look: March 27, 2007

Working PapersFrom Manufacturing to Design: An Essay on the Work of Kim B. Clark Authors:Sylvain Lenfle and Carliss Y. Baldwin Abstract Kim Clark occupies a unique place in management scholarship. As a member of the Technology and... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

October 2012 (Revised August 2013)
Case

Global Unichip Corporation (A)

By: Willy Shih and Chen-Fu Chien

Global Unichip Corporation (GUC) is a design services company that acts as a front-end to TSMC, the world's largest semiconductor foundry. In so doing, it masked the complexity of the latest process technologies, and reduced the entry barriers for small firms to... View Details

January 2017 (Revised May 2019)
Case

Kjell and Company: Motivating Salespeople with Incentive Compensation (A)

By: Doug J. Chung

Kjell & Company was a Swedish retail electronics chain. The company’s products consisted of home electronics and accessories. The company was noted for its excellent customer service and a fair “one-for-all” HR policy. Historically, the salespeople had been compensated... View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management; Compensation and Benefits; Change; Decision Making; Electronics Industry; Sweden

May 2023
Teaching Note

Away: Scaling a DTC Travel Brand

By: Joseph B. Fuller and Jill Avery

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 520-051. Away, a direct-to-consumer, digital native e-commerce seller of travel luggage, is debating how to invest its latest round of venture funding. How quickly could and should Away scale and what were the most promising growth... View Details

Keywords: Distribution; Growth and Development Strategy; E-commerce; Segmentation; Venture Capital; Consumer Products Industry

06 Aug 2014
What Do You Think?

What Is Warren Bennis’s Legacy?

Summing Up Was Warren Bennis's Optimism Regarding the Future of Leadership Warranted? In a recent obituary for Warren Bennis in the New York Times, former executive and HBS Professor Bill George was quoted as writing that "I look at Peter Drucker as the father of... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Education

August 2002
Case

Siebel Systems: Anatomy of a Sale, Part 3

By: John A. Deighton and Das Narayandas

How does a $2 million software sale happen? This case traces efforts by Siebel Systems to sell lead management software to discount broker Quick & Reilly. The buying process is mapped out over four years. Covers in detail the last six months--from Siebel's initial... View Details

Keywords: Sales; Decision Choices and Conditions; Competitive Strategy; Customer Relationship Management; Product Marketing; Information Technology Industry

Web

Asia Pacific - Global

Center, presented case and research updates within Asia Pacific. Tracy Pang, Director of China Market, provided an overview of HBS Executive Education. Sia Zhou, Program Manager of the HBS Asia-Pacific Research Center, shared updates on... View Details

January 2008 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Cognizant Technology Solutions

By: Robert G. Eccles, David Lane and Prabakar 'PK' Kothandaraman

In the highly competitive information technology outsourcing industry, Cognizant Technology Solutions has developed a strategy to differentiate itself by emphasizing building very close client relationships through its "Two-in-a-box" (TIB) model. This model is based on... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Knowledge Sharing; Resource Allocation; Competitive Advantage; Information Technology; Information Technology Industry