Publications

02 May 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Profits and Economic Development

Keywords: by Dan Schwab & Eric Werker

January 1980 (Revised August 1985)
Case

Cumberland Metal Industries: Engineered Products Division--1980

By: Benson P. Shapiro

Cumberland Metal Industries has developed a new product to help contractors drive piles faster. They are trying to decide how to price it. Provides substantial information on the industry, competition, etc. Students must decide what factors are relevant in making an... View Details

Keywords: Price; Information; Marketing Channels; Distribution Channels; Product Development; Consumer Products Industry

Educators

1999
Book

Marketing Kakushin no Jidai 2: Seihin Kaihatsu Kakushin (The Age of Marketing Innovation 2: Product Development Innovation)

By: Mitsuaki Shimaguchi, Hirotaka Takeuchi, Hotaka Katahira and Junzou Ishii

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Product; Research and Development

Research Summary

Overview

By: Robert J. Dolan

Professor Dolan's research interests including product policy and pricing. These areas have been the subject to two books, Managing the New Product Development Process and Power Pricing:How Managing Price Impacts the Bottom Line. In addition, he works on the societal... View Details

18 Mar 2011
News

Social Networks Will Change Product Innovation

23 Apr 2012
News

How to Brand a Next-Generation Product

November 1990
Case

Techsonic Industries, Inc.: Humminbird - New Products

By: Melvyn A. Menezes

After several new product failures, the company began using customer input to help develop new products. In 1989, the fishing electronics industry is experiencing a downturn, and the company's sales and profits are slipping. The company, which has one product line... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Marketing Reference Programs; Product Development; Electronics Industry

November 1992 (Revised June 1994)
Case

Packaged Products Company: Handy-Pak Introduction

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Laura Goode

The product manager and the market research director for a new line of snacking nuts are reviewing options concerning the upcoming roll-out of the product. These options include changes in pricing, promotional plans, and salesforce incentives intended to build support... View Details

Keywords: Price; Marketing; Marketing Channels; Product Launch; Distribution; Planning; Research and Development; Sales; Salesforce Management; Alignment; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry

24 Jul 2017
Blog Post

Transitioning to Product Management at HBS

and the Career and Professional Development office. But if I had to name one thing that really helped in my career transition to product management, both in the internship and the full-time job search... View Details

2021
Book

The Future of Executive Development

By: Mihnea C Moldoveanu and Das Narayandas

Executive development programs have entered a period of rapid transformation, driven by digital disruption and a widening gap between the skills that participants and their organizations demand and those provided by their executive programs. This work delves into the... View Details

Keywords: Executive Education; Leadership Development; Management Skills; Education Industry

winter 1999
Article

The Design and Production of New Retirement Savings Products

By: Dwight B. Crane and Z. Bodie

Keywords: Design; Retirement; Saving; Product

2016
Book

Innovation Equity: Assessing and Managing the Monetary Value of New Products and Services

By: Elie Ofek, Eitan Muller and Barak Libai

This book bridges the gap between what academics know, and what innovation stakeholders—from managers, to investors, to analysts, to consumers—need to know about how new products and services are expected to perform in the marketplace. The book develops a compelling... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Technology Diffusion; New Products; Customer Lifetime Value; Monetization Strategy; Social Influence; Innovation Adoption; Forecasting Demand; Commercialization; Marketing Strategy; Practice; Customer Value and Value Chain; Research; Innovation and Management; Technology Adoption; Forecasting and Prediction; Product Development

30 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Why Evolutionary Software Development Works

development was evolutionary in nature. Companies first would release a low-functionality version of a product to selected customers at a very early stage of development. Thereafter work would proceed in an... View Details

Keywords: by Alan MacCormack; Technology

2025
Working Paper

Productivity Beliefs and Efficiency in Science

By: Fabio Bertolotti, Kyle R. Myers and Wei Yang Tham

We develop a method to estimate producers’ productivity beliefs in settings where output quantities and input prices are unobservable, and we use it to evaluate allocative efficiency in the market for science. Our model of researchers’ labor supply shows that their... View Details

Keywords: Performance Productivity; Perception; Research

Read Now

January 2004
Background Note

Why Developers Don't Understand Why Consumers Don't Buy

By: John T. Gourville

Looks at the psychological biases developers bring to the new product development process. Identifies three reasons why developers may do a poor job of identifying the demand for an innovative, new concept or product: (1) the self-selection bias, (2) differing initial... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Innovation and Invention; Knowledge Management; Product Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Product Development; Perspective; Prejudice and Bias

Educators

27 Feb 2019
Research & Ideas

The Hidden Cost of a Product Recall

many types of innovation for the firms that experience them.” There’s also a second, less studied wave of damage, as competitors ramp up product development efforts to snap up displaced customers and... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products

August 2018
Teaching Note

Magpie: Developing and Using Buyer Personas

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Teaching Note for HBS No. 818-013. Magpie is a startup with a platform that allows publishers to natively tag the products discussed in their content and thus allows consumers to purchase those products without needing to leave that publisher’s web page. A key aspect... View Details

Keywords: Buying Process; Marketing; Sales; Distribution Channels; Segmentation; Entrepreneurship; Social Media; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

May 2000 (Revised September 2000)
Exercise

Tyrell Web Developers Inc. (A)

By: Alan D. MacCormack and Andrew P. McAfee

An integrated exercise culminating in a team project to design and develop a Web site for a fictitious company. Allows instructors to establish a technical baseline for students prior to starting the team project. Students are asked to develop a personal web site which... View Details

Keywords: Web Sites; Software; Product Development; Design; Internet