Publications

August 2023
Case

Reimagining Hindustan Unilever (A)

By: Sunil Gupta and Rachna Tahilyani

In the fall of 2019, the CEO and MD of Hindustan Unilever (HUL), India’s largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) firm, is wondering what to do about their experiments to digitize distribution. Despite three years of intense efforts, their apps to empower retailers... View Details

Keywords: Experimentation; Digital Transformation; Digital Strategy; Leading Change; Distribution; Decisions; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Consumer Behavior; E-commerce; Competition; Performance; Business Strategy; Marketing; Transformation; Consumer Products Industry; Asia; India

June 2006 (Revised June 2007)
Background Note

The Challenge Facing the U.S. Healthcare Delivery System

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Discusses the challenges currently facing the U.S. health care delivery system. These challenges frame the problems managers of delivery organizations are currently facing. They include a burgeoning gap between demand and supply. Demand for health care services is... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; United States

January 2002 (Revised September 2022)
Case

Aqualisa Quartz: Simply a Better Shower

By: Youngme E. Moon and Kerry Herman

Harry Rawlinson is managing director of Aqualisa, a major U.K. manufacturer of showers. He has just launched the most significant shower innovation in recent history: the Quartz shower. The shower provides significant improvements in terms of quality, cost, and ease of... View Details

Keywords: Problems and Challenges; Product Launch; Consumer Behavior; Product Positioning; Technological Innovation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Sales; Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United Kingdom

March 2023
Teaching Note

Ransomware Attack at Colonial Pipeline Company

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan Ni

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 123-069. On the morning of May 7, 2021, Colonial Pipeline Company became aware that the company had been the victim of a malicious ransomware attack that had stolen and locked up company data. The extortionists demanded 75 bitcoins (worth... View Details

2022
Working Paper

On the Estimation of Demand-Based Asset Pricing Models

By: Philippe van der Beck

A growing literature uses portfolio holdings data to quantify the impact of investor demand on equilibrium prices via counterfactual experiments. The key parameter in relating demand and equilibrium prices is investors’ elasticity of demand with respect to the price.... View Details

Keywords: Price; Investment Portfolio; Institutional Investing; Financial Instruments

SSRN

February 2024
Case

Shore Capital Partners: The Next Ten Years

By: Boris Groysberg and Kerry Herman

Private equity firm Shore Capital Partners is at an inflection point, after 12 years of phenomenal growth and success. Now, as the partners consider options, should Shore remain micro-cap focused, or move into more mid-cap investments? Should Shore hold investments... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategy; Financial Services Industry

2024
Working Paper

Adjusting Prices in the Long-tail: The Role of Competitive Monitoring

By: Ayelet Israeli and Eric Anderson

Most e-commerce retailers offer a long-tail of very low demand products. Individually, these items may have low sales but collectively they are critical to the overall e-commerce business model. Because of their minimal sales, pricing is a constant challenge. The... View Details

Keywords: Algorithmic Pricing; Ecommerce; Price Monitoring; Price; Competition; Retail Industry

July 2022
Supplement

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

By: Ayelet Israeli

Web

Seen and Unseen | Baker Library | Bloomberg Center | Harvard Business School

intended to intrigue audiences and lend legitimacy to the dubious product. Here, the dance is presented to potential consumers as the “Ghost Dance” and associated, given the... View Details

June 2023
Supplement

Clash of Two Giants Simulation Exercise

By: Feng Zhu and Marco Iansiti

Many markets are organized around platforms that connect consumers with complementary applications and services. These platforms are two-sided because both sides - consumers and those providing applications or services - need access to the same platform to interact. A... View Details

Keywords: Customer Acquisition; Platform Strategy; Technology Platform; Digital Platforms; Competitive Strategy; Network Effects

Article

Brand (In)fidelity: When Flirting with the Competition Strengthens Brand Relationships

By: Irene Consiglio, Daniella Kupor, Francesca Gino and Michael I. Norton

We document the existence and consequences of brand flirting: a short-lived experience in which a consumer engages with and/or indulges in the alluring qualities of a brand without committing to it. We propose that brand flirting is exciting and that when consumers... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Brands and Branding; Emotions

Web

Understanding Africa: Business, Entrepreneurship, Political Economy and the Complexities of a Continent - Course Catalog

for investment; a middle class of consumers continues to rapidly expand; and information-technology empires unfold at a rapid pace. On the other hand, Africa represents some of the most dire dimensions of... View Details

Web

Make clear where we stand and where we aim to go. - Advancing Racial Equity

will require a demanding journey, involving both vigorous immediate action and sustained efforts to change our very culture. The basic roadmap toward our intended destination is as follows: We will establish... View Details

August 2012 (Revised August 2013)
Background Note

Competency-Destroying Technology Transitions: Why the Transition to Digital Is Particularly Challenging

By: Willy Shih

Some technology transitions are exceedingly difficult for incumbent firms to execute. The bankruptcy filing by the Eastman Kodak Company highlighted the difficulty companies faced when their core business transitioned from an analog to a digital world. Kodak's business... View Details

02 Mar 2007
What Do You Think?

What Is the Government’s Role in US Health Care?

consumers (Hakan Hillerstrom). In addition to these issues, Elizabeth Benbrooks reminds us that (healthcare) "comes freighted with a host of fundamental moral, ethical, and emotional issues that simply don't... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Health

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

Forthcoming
Chapter

Media & Entertainment in Argentina: Doing Business in a Fragmented Society

By: Luciana Silvestri and Roberto Vassolo

We explore the issues of vertical and horizontal fragmentation in Argentina by examining how consumers relate to media and entertainment content and technologies. We focus on belly-of-the-market consumers (the most affluent at the bottom of the pyramid) and observe the... View Details

Keywords: Demographics; Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Argentina

Find at Harvard

March 1999 (Revised January 2000)
Background Note

A Note on Microeconomics for Strategists

By: Kenneth S. Corts and Jan W. Rivkin

Summarizes the core ideas about the microeconomics of markets that are most relevant to business strategy. Sections I and II develop two basic building blocks of any market, demand and supply. Section II discusses how demand and supply interact to determine the... View Details

Keywords: Microeconomics; Cost; Cost of Capital; Market Entry and Exit; Business Strategy; Competition; Corporate Strategy