Publications

October 2024
Article

Canary Categories

By: Eric Anderson, Chaoqun Chen, Ayelet Israeli and Duncan Simester

Past customer spending in a category is generally a positive signal of future customer spending. We show that there exist “canary categories” for which the reverse is true. Purchases in these categories are a signal that customers are less likely to return to that... View Details

Keywords: Churn; Churn Management; Churn/retention; Assortment Planning; Retail; Retailing; Retailing Industry; Preference Heterogeneity; Assortment Optimization; Customers; Retention; Consumer Behavior; Forecasting and Prediction; Retail Industry

Find at Harvard

01 Oct 1997
News

High Fives

many stocks in a lot of countries and weighting the countries more or less equally. It's simply too difficult to predict which market's going to be down 67 percent and which... View Details

Web

2024 Reunion Presentations - Alumni

structure, and are more vulnerable to swings in commodity markets and government policies. Set in December 2023, the case finds TPG considering the future for Monolith, a Rise Climate portfolio company with... View Details

July 1997
Teaching Note

First Year Marketing Module Summary: Evolution of Marketing TN

By: John A. Deighton

Describes the organization of a four- or five-case module that concludes the Marketing Management course in the First Year curriculum at Harvard Business School and offers a look to the future. Covers introductory remarks to students at the start of the module, some... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Learning; Information; Marketing

August 2018 (Revised September 2018)
Supplement

LendingClub (B): Decision Trees & Random Forests

By: Srikant M. Datar and Caitlin N. Bowler

This case builds directly on the LendingClub (A) case. In this case students follow Emily Figel as she builds two tree-based models using historical LendingClub data to predict, with some probability, whether borrower will repay or default on his loan.
... View Details

Keywords: Data Science; Data Analytics; Decision Trees; Investment; Financing and Loans; Analytics and Data Science; Analysis; Forecasting and Prediction

April 1998
Case

X-IT Products, LLC

By: Marco Iansiti, Myra M. Hart and Barbara Feinberg

Two entrepreneurs, Andrew Ive and Aldo DiBerlardino, are poised to launch their first product. The decisions they make will have a crucial impact on the future of their company. View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Entrepreneurship; Product Launch; Outcome or Result

March 1996
Case

African Communications Group

Describes the opportunities that confront the African Communications Group, an entrepreneurial organization that plans to introduce a wireless pay-phone system in Tanzania. Provides a foundation for the analysis of value creation and of value capture. The possibility... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Competition; Entrepreneurship; Forecasting and Prediction; Wireless Technology; Telecommunications Industry; Tanzania

2023
Working Paper

Insufficiently Justified Disparate Impact: A New Criterion for Subgroup Fairness

By: Neil Menghani, Edward McFowland III and Daniel B. Neill

In this paper, we develop a new criterion, "insufficiently justified disparate impact" (IJDI), for assessing whether recommendations (binarized predictions) made by an algorithmic decision support tool are fair. Our novel, utility-based IJDI criterion evaluates false... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Forecasting and Prediction; Prejudice and Bias

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October 1990 (Revised May 1994)
Case

Confederated Pulp & Paper

By: David E. Bell

A rewritten version of an old case that updates the dates and prices and simplifies the economics. The issue is still one of determining a suitable inventory of wood for the mill to last through the winter. View Details

Keywords: History; Supply Chain Management; Spending; Forecasting and Prediction; Economic Growth; Information Management; Pulp and Paper Industry

May 1998 (Revised May 2001)
Case

Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores

By: Ananth Raman and Colin S Welch

Describes the merchandising decision process (organization, structure, and incentives) at Nine West retail stores, a large footwear retailer in the United States. Also describes changes currently occurring at Nine West and thus provides a context in which students can... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Structure; Situation or Environment; Motivation and Incentives; Decision Making; Change; Budgets and Budgeting; Forecasting and Prediction; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United States

Web

Harvard Business School

league-wide risk management program to insure all property and casualty risks across the league through a new captive insurance company, improved the budgeting and financial reporting of MLB's central... View Details

December 1998 (Revised February 1999)
Case

i2 Technologies, Inc.

By: Ananth Raman and Jasjit Singh

Describes the emergence and growth of i2 Technologies and the supply chain planning software industry. In December 1998, i2's market capitalization was in excess of $2 billion; the supply chain planning software industry had annual sales of approximately $1 billion and... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Applications and Software; Supply Chain Management; Production; Forecasting and Prediction; Information Technology Industry

June 1990 (Revised January 1993)
Case

Dynatronics, Inc. (Abridged)

By: Thomas R. Piper

Provides an opportunity to evaluate an investment in a new product line in strategic, competitive, organizational, and economic terms. The economic analysis involves an estimation of the relevant cash flows and discounting them at an appropriate hurdle rate. View Details

Keywords: Product; Forecasting and Prediction; Investment; Capital Budgeting

9 AM – 9 AM EDT, 09 Oct 2018

HBX Business Analytics

Develop a data mindset and the analytical skills to interpret and communicate data. This course will demystify data analysis and equip you with concrete skills to apply in your work or further studies. Program Dates: October 9, 2018 - December 6, 2018 View Details

11 Mar 2020
News

Making It Rain

life-threatening experiences when they were blindsided by weather during their military service. Those shared experiences led them to found ClimaCell in 2015 to provide more accurate and reliable forecasts... View Details

Keywords: Lisa Scanlon Mogolov

9 AM – 10 AM EDT, 16 Oct 2019
HBS Online

HBS Online Business Analytics

Develop a data mindset and the analytical skills to interpret and communicate data. This course will demystify data analysis and equip you with concrete skills to apply in your work or further studies. Program Dates: October 16, 2019 - December 11, 2019 View Details

9 AM – 10 AM EDT, 07 Aug 2019
HBS Online

HBS Online Business Analytics

Develop a data mindset and the analytical skills to interpret and communicate data. This course will demystify data analysis and equip you with concrete skills to apply in your work or further studies. Program Dates: August 7, 2019 - October 2, 2019 View Details

9 AM – 10 AM EST, 09 Jan 2019
HBS Online

HBS Online Business Analytics

Develop a data mindset and the analytical skills to interpret and communicate data. This course will demystify data analysis and equip you with concrete skills to apply in your work or further studies. Program Dates: January 9, 2019 - March 6, 2019 View Details

Forthcoming
Article

Reflexivity in Credit Markets

By: Robin Greenwood, Samuel G. Hanson and Lawrence J. Jin

Reflexivity is the idea that investors' biased beliefs affect market outcomes and that market outcomes in turn affect investors’ future biases. We develop a dynamic behavioral model of the credit cycle featuring this two-way feedback loop. Investors form beliefs about... View Details

Keywords: Reflexivity; Attitudes; Financial Markets; Forecasting and Prediction; Investment; Credit