Publications

July 2024
Article

AI, ROI, and Sales Productivity

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Artificial intelligence (AI) is now a loose term for many different things and at the peak of its hype curve. So managers hitch-their-pitch to the term in arguing for resources. But like any technology, its business value depends upon actionable use cases embraced by... View Details

Keywords: ROI; AI and Machine Learning; Sales; Investment Return

Read Now

March 2019
Article

Open Source Software and Firm Productivity

By: Frank Nagle

As open source software (OSS) is increasingly used as a key input by firms, understanding its impact on productivity becomes critical. This study measures the firm-level productivity impact of nonpecuniary (free) OSS and finds a positive and significant value-added... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Open Source Distribution; Performance Productivity; Information Technology; Strategy

November 1997 (Revised December 2000)
Case

Corn Products International, Inc.

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Tom Clay

A firm that started in corn processing and moved up the value-added food chain decides to spin-off the original commodity part of the business. How does the new spin-off survive and how does it develop a strategy? Firms in the food system are separating out their... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Growth and Development Strategy; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Product Development; Service Delivery; Vertical Integration; Food and Beverage Industry

November 2003 (Revised September 2008)
Case

Circle Gastroenterology Products (A)

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and James Weber

A new, minimally invasive medical device has achieved only one-third of its budget. Was the problem one of marketing strategy, sales, reimbursement, and/or clinical trials? View Details

Keywords: Health Testing and Trials; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Sales; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

2021
Working Paper

Accounting for Product Impact in the Oil and Gas Industry

By: Katie Panella, George Serafeim and Katie Trinh

We apply the product impact measurement framework of the Impact-Weighted Accounts Initiative (IWAI) in two competitor companies within the oil and gas industry. We design a monetization methodology that allows us to calculate monetary product impact estimates of... View Details

SSRN

Read Now

Research Summary

Designing Productive Zones of Privacy

By: Ethan S. Bernstein

A common theme that integrates my research and course development is how increasingly transparent workplaces can improve productivity and performance by putting up certain boundaries to observation. While the research above empirically and theoretically explores the... View Details

Keywords: Transparency; Privacy; Field Experiments; Design; Organizational Design; Performance

July 1987
Case

Altoona Corp.: Computer Products Division

By: Roger E. Bohn and Robert H. Hayes

A relatively small manufacturer of computer memory disks has achieved a major market position through the use of its statistical quality control (SQC) program. It is now expanding the production of a new line of disks and is encountering problems getting the process... View Details

Keywords: Factories, Labs, and Plants; Volatility; Performance Consistency; Performance Improvement; Performance Productivity; Quality; Mathematical Methods; Hardware; Manufacturing Industry

April 2010 (Revised November 2011)
Supplement

Soren Chemical: Why is the New Swimming Pool Product Sinking? Spreadsheet Supplement (Brief Case)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Sunru Yong

Keywords: Marketing Mix; New Product Marketing; Pricing; Branding; Price; Marketing Strategy; Marketing Channels; Product Launch; Brands and Branding; Communication Strategy

13 Nov 2013
Research & Ideas

Should Men’s Products Fear a Woman’s Touch?

really goes away. Since the dawn of advertising, retailers have made a point of marketing separate lines of branded products for men and women in many categories, even in cases where their functions are essentially the same. It's a... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products

November 2003 (Revised December 2007)
Supplement

Circle Gastroenterology Products (B)

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and James Weber

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Marketing Strategy; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

November 1996 (Revised October 1998)
Case

Reynolds Metals Company: Consumer Products Division

Reynolds Consumer Products Division must decide whether to discontinue its program of case allowances in favor of discretionary trade dollars targeted for market development. View Details

Keywords: Marketing Channels; Consumer Products Industry

June 2020
Supplement

New Product Sales Solution

By: E. Ofek

June 2020
Supplement

New Product Sales Data

By: E. Ofek

September 2019 (Revised August 2020)
Case

Obsidian: Product or Platform?

By: Karim Lakhani, Peter Barrett, Julia Kelley and Kerry Herman

March 2002
Teaching Note

Dakota Office Products TN

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Teaching Note for (9-102-021). View Details

Keywords: Distribution Industry

August 1999 (Revised January 2002)
Case

Brita Products Company, The

By: John A. Deighton

Clorox's Brita skillfully exploits a tide of water safety concerns, growing a home water (filtration) business from inception to a 15% U.S. household penetration in ten years. The dilemma in the case arises as the period of increasing returns seems to be drawing to a... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Acquisition; Retention; Safety; Natural Environment; Emerging Markets; Investment Return; Equity; Demand and Consumers; United States

June 1987
Supplement

Product Management, Video Index

By: John A. Quelch

fall 2000
Article

More Trade, Safer Products

By: Gunnar Trumbull

Keywords: Trade; Product