Publications

2019
Presentation

The Person You Mean To Be

December 1992 (Revised June 1993)
Case

ACTC Customer Service Department

Focuses on the young general manager of a new cable TV system and on its customer service department. Jeanne LaFrance, the general manager, has an uneasy feeling about the way in which the department is being managed. She sees symptoms of what she suspects are serious... View Details

Keywords: Management; Problems and Challenges; Planning; Customer Focus and Relationships; Performance Evaluation; Telecommunications Industry

14 Jul 2003
Research & Ideas

Keeping Your Balance With Customers

From product push to customer pull, technology has vastly reshaped the business transaction—and in turn, the customer's place in the value chain. Today, managing the customer relationship has become the... View Details

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

23 May 2012
News

Start-Up Customer Service 101

2023
Working Paper

Personalized Game Design for Improved User Retention and Monetization in Freemium Games

By: Eva Ascarza, Oded Netzer and Julian Runge

One of the most crucial aspects and significant levers that gaming companies possess in designing digital games is setting the level of difficulty, which essentially regulates the user’s ability to progress within the game. This aspect is particularly significant in... View Details

Keywords: Freemium; Retention/churn; Field Experiment; Field Experiments; Gaming; Gaming Industry; Mobile App; Mobile App Industry; Monetization; Monetization Strategy; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Customers; Retention; Product Design; Strategy

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Apr 19 2017
Testimonial

Leadership Growth is Personal

2015
Working Paper

Customers and Investors: A Framework for Understanding Financial Institutions

By: Robert C. Merton and Robert T. Thakor

Financial institutions have both investors and customers. Investors, such as those who invest in stocks and bonds or private/public-sector guarantors of institutions, expect an appropriate risk-adjusted return in exchange for the financing and risk-bearing that they... View Details

Keywords: Financial Institutions

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15 Aug 2024
Blog Post

Learning from Mistakes and Leveraging Personal Experiences: Tiffany Kent (MBA 2001)

strengths and added a new level of purpose to my commitment to offering a more personalized advisory service. Every pivot, layoff, and career choice has underscored for me the... View Details

2008
Book

Finding Your True North: A Personal Guide

By: Bill George, Andrew McLean and Nick Craig

Based on Bill George's bestselling book True North, this personal guide offers leaders a comprehensive method for identifying their unique “True North.” The book offers methods for personal reflection and includes targeted exercises that help leaders hone in on the... View Details

Keywords: Values and Beliefs; Leadership; Personal Development and Career; Motivation and Incentives; Personal Characteristics

Research Summary

Customer Management in Business-to-Business Markets

By: Das Narayandas

Das Narayandas is engaged in ongoing research on vendor firms' management of long-term customer relationships. The initial phase of his research involved identifying vendors that stood to benefit from long-term relationships with select sets of customers and... View Details

January 2013
Case

Zappos.com 2009: Clothing, Customer Service, and Company Culture (MM)

By: Frances X. Frei and Robin J. Ely

On July 17, 2009, Zappos.com, a privately-held online retailer of shoes, clothing, and other soft-line retail categories, learned that Amazon.com, a $19 billion multinational online retailer, had won its Board of Directors' approval to offer to merge the two companies.... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Internet and the Web; Mergers and Acquisitions; Organizational Culture; Growth and Development Strategy; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry

04 Jan 2021
Working Paper Summaries

The Twofold Effect of Customer Retention in Freemium Settings

Keywords: by Eva Ascarza, Oded Netzer, and Julian Runge; Video Game; Entertainment & Recreation

1994
Chapter

Customer Transaction Databases: Present Status and Prospects

By: J. A. Deighton, Don Peppers and Martha Rogers

Keywords: Customers; Market Transactions; Information Management; Data and Data Sets

June 2007
Article

Companies and the Customers Who Hate Them

By: Gail McGovern and Youngme Moon

Keywords: Customers; Business Ventures

21 Oct 2002
Research & Ideas

The Parable of the Bungled Baggage And the Unhappy Customer

said, "Would Professor Sasser meet the special service agent?"... I was feeling a little uncomfortable because I was going to talk about customer service and customer... View Details

Keywords: by W. Earl Sasser

2006
Chapter

The Corporation's Evolving Personality

By: Lynn Paine

Keywords: Business Ventures; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation

20 Sep 2007
Research & Ideas

How to be a Customer

Harvard Business School professor John Quelch writes a blog on marketing issues, called Marketing Know: How, for Harvard Business Online. It is reprinted on HBS Working Knowledge.99 percent of marketing focuses on how to sell to customers. Very little attention is paid... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

September 1996 (Revised March 1999)
Background Note

Sustaining Superior Profits: Customer and Supplier Relationships

Explains relationships between asset specificity, holdup, and vertical integration. In particular, it emphasizes solutions to the holdup problem through vertical integration and contracting. View Details

Keywords: Competition; Vertical Integration