Publications

09 Feb 2018
Research & Ideas

Big Hits: The Best of the 2018 Super Bowl Ads

The Super Bowl isn’t just a mainstage for football’s two best teams. With over 100 million viewers tuned in, and 30-second spots going for more than $5 million, the big game also represents one of the highest stakes advertising events of the year. Harvard Business... View Details

Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty; Telecommunications

03 Oct 2022
Research & Ideas

Why a Failed Startup Might Be Good for Your Career After All

charismatic but controversial cofounder of WeWork, who quit as CEO in 2019 after a bungled initial public offering amid questions about his business practices. “The market values the experience they have and rewards them in terms of high... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

June 2001
Case

AtomFilms

By: Bharat N. Anand and Taslim Pirmohamed

Examines the evolution of AtomFilms--one of the few companies that survived the spate of failures in digital entertainment in 2000--from the time of its founding in 1998 to its merger with Shockwave in December 2000. Within a short period of time, AtomFilms had built... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Resource Allocation; Brands and Branding; Organizational Structure; Problems and Challenges; Alliances; Strategy; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

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Web

Live from Klarman Hall - Alumni

made failure downright fashionable. Yet despite happy talk, most people would rather do anything but fail. Failure, it seems, is fine in theory, and fine for other people, but difficult to accept for ourselves. Professor Amy Edmondson... View Details

August 2019 (Revised March 2023)
Case

Rand Fishkin at Moz (A)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

In 2016, senior management at Moz, a venture capital–backed startup providing software tools for digital marketing professionals, must decide how to address a looming cash flow crisis precipitated by failed efforts to broaden its product line. Seattle-based Moz had... View Details

Keywords: Startups; Scaling; Entrepreneurship; Failure; Business Startups; Diversification; Growth Management; Technology Industry

2010
Working Paper

Quality Provision, Expected Firm Altruism and Brand Extensions

By: Julio J. Rotemberg

This paper studies quality choice in a model where consumers expect firms to act altruistically. It is shown that, under plausible assumptions regarding this altruism and the reaction of consumers to firms that demonstrate insufficient altruism, existing firms (or... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Consumer Behavior; Product Development; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Quality; Mathematical Methods

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08 Jul 2014
First Look

First Look: July 8

Your Customer Relationships By: Avery, Jill, Susan Fournier, and John Wittenbraker Abstract—Consumers have always had relationships with brands, but sophisticated tools for analyzing customer data are finally allowing marketing... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

December 1999 (Revised October 2001)
Case

Introducing New Coke

On April 23, 1985, the Coca-Cola Co. announced a decision that would rock the world. The old Coke formula would be taken off the market and replaced with a smoother, sweeter taste. The reaction of the American people was immediate and violent, causing three months of... View Details

Keywords: Failure; Product Development; Brands and Branding; Manufacturing Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

20 Sep 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Sovereigns, Upstream Capital Flows and Global Imbalances

Keywords: by Laura Alfaro, Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan & Vadym Volosovych

October 2013
Article

Corporate Venturing

By: Josh Lerner

For decades, large companies have been wary of corporate venturing. But as R&D organizations face pressure to rein in costs and produce results, companies are investing in promising start-ups to gain knowledge and agility. The logic of corporate venturing is... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Knowledge Acquisition; Corporate Strategy; Research and Development; Business Startups; Innovation and Invention

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07 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

Why Companies Fail—and How Their Founders Can Bounce Back

Most companies fail. It's an unsettling fact for bright-eyed entrepreneurs, but old news to start-up veterans. But here's the good news: Experienced entrepreneurs know that running a company that eventually fails can actually help a career, but only if the executives... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

January 2017 (Revised January 2019)
Case

The Rise and Fall of Lehman Brothers

By: Stuart C. Gilson, Kristin Mugford and Sarah L. Abbott

With nearly $700 billion in assets, Lehman was the largest U.S. bankruptcy in history. In 2007, Lehman achieved record earnings of over $4 billion on revenues of $60 billion. By September 2008 the fourth largest investment bank in the world was bankrupt. How had a... View Details

2015
Working Paper

Implied Materiality and Material Disclosures of Credit Ratings

By: Robert G. Eccles and Tim Youmans

This first of three papers in our series on materiality in credit ratings will examine the materiality of credit ratings from an "implied materiality" and governance disclosure perspective. In the second paper, we will explore the materiality of environmental, social,... View Details

Keywords: Governance; Markets; Credit

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Program

Competing in the Age of Digital Platforms

business Understand the unique dynamics of platform businesses and markets Identify the critical factors for success and failure of a platform business Recognize the social and ethical responsibilities of... View Details

10 May 2011
First Look

First Look: May 10

without controversy, to be a tool for empowering women. Here, using a randomized controlled trial, we examine whether access to and marketing of an individually held commitment savings product lead to an increase in female decision-making... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2019
Working Paper

Status Pivoting: Coping with Status Threats through Motivated Trade-off Beliefs and Consumption across Domains

By: Dafna Goor, Anat Keinan and Nailya Ordabayeva

Prior research established that status threat leads consumers to display status-related products such as luxury brands. While compensatory consumption in the domain of the status threat (e.g., products associated with financial and professional success) is the most... View Details

Keywords: Status and Position; Luxury; Consumer Behavior

January 2009
Supplement

The Tip of the Iceberg: JP Morgan Chase and Bear Stearns (B2)

By: Clayton S. Rose, Daniel Baird Bergstresser and David Lane

Bear Stearns & Co burned through nearly all of its $18 billion in cash reserves during the week of March 10, 2008, and an unprecedented provision of liquidity support from the Federal Reserve on Friday March 13 was insufficient to reverse the decline in Bear's... View Details

Keywords: Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Capital; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Financial Liquidity; Banks and Banking; Governance; Crisis Management; Goals and Objectives; System; Valuation; New York (state, US)