Publications

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19 Mar 2014
Research & Ideas

A Brand Manager’s Guide to Losing Control

commercial messages. Social media did not have that contract, so that when customers were interrupted by brands in social media, it felt abrupt, inappropriate, and out of place." The power shift from marketers to View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Advertising

December 2024 (Revised July 2025)
Case

Arcor Group: Navigating Agribusiness Challenges in Argentina

By: Alberto Cavallo, Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago and Mariana Cal

In 2016, Arcor Group, Argentina's leading food company, faced a pivotal decision regarding its newly formed Agribusiness division. CEO Luis Alejandro Pagani and Modesto Magadán, General Manager of the Agribusiness division, evaluated whether to increase investments in... View Details

Keywords: Factories, Labs, and Plants; Market Entry and Exit; Production; Business Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Argentina

07 Nov 2005
What Do You Think?

Is Less Becoming More?

Summing Up Less is increasingly more, at least in the minds of customers, according to nearly every respondent to this month's column. However, some cite product complexity as the cause of rising real and psychological View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Consumer Products

Web

Preface - Coin and Conscience – Baker Library | Bloomberg Center, Historical Collections

growing number of foreign merchants and financiers who came there to transact business. Money had to be loaned at interest to meet the credit demands of international trade. To secure these loans, various... View Details

March 2019
Article

Is There a Future for the Gas Network in a Low Carbon Energy System?

By: Conor Hickey, Paul Deane, Celine McInerney and Brian O' Gallachoir

This paper evaluates the potential low carbon opportunities for and challenges to the utilisation and financial performance of Ireland's gas distribution network within a series of low carbon scenarios. There has been a limited amount of academic literature published... View Details

Keywords: Decarbonization; Investment; Risk and Uncertainty; Environmental Sustainability; Demand and Consumers; Energy Industry; Utilities Industry; Republic of Ireland

12 Mar 2019
HBS Seminar

Giorgos Zervas, Boston University

05 May 2022
HBS Seminar

Caleb Kwon, Harvard Business School

06 Sep 2005
Research & Ideas

When Product Variety Backfires

lead to choice deferral; consumers simply give up and delay choice. Other times, we find, it can drive consumers toward another brand that offers a simpler assortment. In a... View Details

Keywords: by Poping Lin; Consumer Products

Stuti Agarwal

Stuti is a PhD student in Consumer Behavior at Harvard Business School. She completed her Bachelors in Economics and Psychology from Boston University in 2019 and went on to complete her MPS in Applied Economics and Management from Cornell University in 2020. She... View Details

17 Apr 2020
News

Has COVID-19 Broken the Global Value Chain?

March 1989
Teaching Note

Philips In-Car Entertainment (A), (B), & (C), and Industry Note: In-Car Entertainment, Teaching Note

By: F. Warren McFarlan and H. Jeff Smith

Keywords: Media; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry

Forthcoming
Article

From Bupkis to Sechel in Health Care

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Richard Boxer

Fifty years ago, famed economist Milton Friedman declared that “The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits.” This free market manifesto was adopted by the healthcare industry as well. But transactional has evolved into transformational with the... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Accountability; Customer Focus and Relationships; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Health Industry

26 May 2009
Research & Ideas

Improving Market Research in a Recession

product categories, or stores. Some are even changing long-held attitudes toward consumption. To many folks, filling the home with more stuff or keeping up with the Joneses is no longer appealing. As a result, the degree of uncertainty in business View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

2016
Working Paper

Market Design for Altruistic Supply: Evidence from the Lab

By: Robert Slonim and Carmen Wang

Volunteer supply is widespread. Yet without a price, inefficiencies occur due to suppliers’ inability to coordinate with each other and with demand. In these contexts, we propose a market clearinghouse mechanism that improves efficiency if supply is altruistically... View Details

Keywords: Laboratory Experiments; Volunteering; Public Goods Provision; Market Design; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Economics

SSRN

January 2021 (Revised March 2021)
Exercise

E-Commerce Analytics for CPG Firms (C): Free Delivery Terms

By: Ayelet Israeli and Fedor (Ted) Lisitsyn

The E-Commerce Analytics group at the traditional CPG firm was in charge of compiling various online sales reports, as well as making data-driven recommendations for sales and marketing tactics. In a series of exercises, students address different data challenges for... View Details

October 2017 (Revised April 2019)
Case

Data Breach at Equifax

By: Suraj Srinivasan, Quinn Pitcher and Jonah S. Goldberg

The case discusses the events leading up to the massive data breach at Equifax, one of the three U.S. credit reporting companies, the organizational and governance issues that contributed to the breach, and the consequences of the breach. The case supplement provides... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Information Management; Cybersecurity; Technology Industry; United States

September 2011 (Revised August 2013)
Case

The Pepsi Refresh Project: A Thirst for Change

By: Michael I. Norton and Jill Avery

In 2010, for the first time in 23 years, PepsiCo did not invest in Superbowl advertising for its iconic brand. Instead, the company diverted this $20 million to the social media-fueled Pepsi Refresh Project: PepsiCo's innovative cause-marketing program in which... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Marketing Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; Advertising Campaigns; Investment Return; Brands and Branding; Marketing Communications; Social Marketing; Cost vs Benefits; Food and Beverage Industry

2005
Article

Early Decisions: A Regulatory Framework

By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian

We describe a regulatory framework that helps consumers who have difficulty sticking to their own long-run plans. Early Decision regulations help long-run preferences prevail by allowing consumers to partially commit to their long-run goals, making it harder for a... View Details

Keywords: Hyperbolic Discounting; Self-control; Commitment; Consumer Behavior; Taxation; Attitudes

August 2022 (Revised October 2023)
Case

Bajaj Finance: Building an Omnipresent Financial Services Firm

By: Das Narayandas and Rachna Tahilyani

Bajaj Finance, India’s largest consumer finance firm with $20.9 billion of assets across 50.5 million customers, is on a journey to transform itself from a traditional firm that sells loans and other financial products through brick-and-mortar outlets to an omnipresent... View Details

Keywords: Financial Institutions; Transformation; Financial Instruments; Customer Satisfaction; Internet and the Web; Customer Focus and Relationships; India