Publications

February 2009 (Revised September 2010)
Case

JWT China: Advertising for the New Chinese Consumer

By: Elisabeth Koll

This case analyzes the business strategy and expansion of JWT China from the late 1990s to 2008. As part of the world's fourth largest marketing communications network, JWT China grew into one of the largest integrated communications companies in China operating from... View Details

Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Business and Government Relations; Business Strategy; Expansion; Advertising Industry; China

August 1988
Article

Credibility, Real Interest Rates, and the Optimal Speed of Trade Liberalization

By: K. A. Froot

Keywords: International Trade; Trade Policy; Trade; Policy; Interest Rates

Article

The Stock Selection and Performance of Buy-Side Analysts

By: Boris Groysberg, Paul M. Healy, Georgios Serafeim, Devin Shanthikumar and Gui Yang

We examine the selection and performance of stocks recommended by analysts at a large investment firm relative to those of sell-side analysts during the period mid-1997 and 2004. The buy-side firm's analysts issued less optimistic recommendations for stocks with larger... View Details

Keywords: Buy-side Analysts; Sell-side Analysts; Stock Recommendations; Recommendation Optimism; Recommendation Performance; Investment Recommendations; Conflicts Of Interest; Financial Markets; Financial Institutions; Stocks; Financial Services Industry; United States

September 2023
Article

Consuming Contests: The Effect of Outcome Uncertainty on Spectator Attendance in the Australian Football League

By: Patrick Ferguson and Karim R. Lakhani

Contests that non-contestants consume for entertainment are a fixture of economic, cultural and political life. We exploit injury-induced changes to teams' line-ups in a professional sports setting to examine whether individuals prefer to consume contests that have... View Details

Keywords: Sports; Entertainment; Consumer Behavior

09 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

Warring Algorithms Could Be Driving Up Consumer Prices

schedules, and other factors in an era when computers were helpful but not critical to pricing strategy. The result: A price change was more an annual or semiannual event. But these days, when companies can analyze consumer data and use... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Retail

December 2006 (Revised August 2009)
Case

Disney Consumer Products: Marketing Nutrition to Children

By: David E. Bell and Laura Winig

In an effort to capture market share in the children's foods category, Disney Consumer Products (DCP) debuted a broad line of "better for you" foods, ranging from fresh fruits and vegetables to frozen meals, through a partnership with Kroger supermarkets. In answer to... View Details

Keywords: Age; Nutrition; Brands and Branding; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Partners and Partnerships; Social Issues; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry

January 2004 (Revised August 2005)
Case

Kikkoman Corporation: Consumer Focused Innovation

By: Rohit Deshpande and Hal Hogan

In May 2003, the president and CEO of Kikkoman Corp. sat in his Tokyo office weighing various options for strengthening the company's long-term growth. Kikkoman was the world's largest producer of soy sauce, largely due to its pioneering role since the 1950s as the... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Innovation Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Product Positioning; Adaptation; Competitive Strategy; Japan

14 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

Keeping Credit Flowing to Consumers in Need

real estate at Harvard Business School, and director emeritus of Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies. In addition, the American economy depends on consumers having access to credit. "The... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services; Construction; Real Estate

November 1999 (Revised December 1999)
Case

Safe Food Act, The: A Consumer Group's Perspective

By: Ray A. Goldberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Hal Hogan

The Center for Science in the Public Interest is taking a position on creating a new safety leadership vehicle in the U.S. government. How should it plead its cause? What are the position merits and faults? View Details

Keywords: Food; System; Consumer Behavior; Government and Politics; Safety; Leadership; United States

January 2014 (Revised June 2014)
Case

23andMe: Genetic Testing for Consumers (A)

By: John A. Quelch and Margaret L. Rodriguez

On November 22, 2013, the direct-to-consumer genetic testing provider, 23andMe, received a letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ordering the company to halt the sale and promotion of its genetic testing kit. The FDA stated that the product was... View Details

Keywords: Public Health; Genome Testing; Health Care; Ancestry; 23andMe; Marketing; Product Launch; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Health Testing and Trials; Genetics; Strategy; Health Industry; United States

2007
Working Paper

Dynamics of Platform Competition: Exploring the Role of Installed Base, Platform Quality and Consumer Expectations

By: Feng Zhu and Marco Iansiti

This paper seeks to answer three questions. First, which drives the success of a platform, installed base, platform quality or consumer expectations? Second, when does a monopoly emerge in a platform-based market? Finally, when is a platform-based market socially... View Details

Keywords: Price; Network Effects; Digital Platforms; Monopoly; Quality; Competitive Advantage; Digital Platforms

06 Mar 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Consumer Protection in an Online World: An Analysis of Occupational Licensing

Keywords: by Chiara Farronato, Andrey Fradkin, Bradley Larsen, and Erik Brynjolfsson; Service

2023
Working Paper

Sovereign Default and the Decline in Interest Rates

By: Max Miller, James Paron and Jessica Wachter

Sovereign debt yields have declined dramatically over the last half-century. Standard explanations, including aging populations and increases in asset demand from abroad, encounter difficulties when confronted with the full range of evidence. We propose an explanation... View Details

Keywords: Inflation and Deflation; Interest Rates; Debt Securities

2008
Working Paper

Consumer Demand for Prize-Linked Savings: A Preliminary Analysis

By: P. Tufano, Nick Maynard and Jan-Emmanuel De Neve

This paper reports on a small-scale survey of the potential American demand for prize-linked savings accounts, an account that awards prizes as part of the saving product's return. In October 2006, Centra Credit Union launched a prize-linked savings pilot. As part of... View Details

Keywords: Saving; Income; Consumer Behavior; Personal Finance; Investment Return; Banks and Banking; Clarksville

2014
Book

Consumer Lending in France and America: Credit and Welfare

By: Gunnar Trumbull

Why did America embrace consumer credit over the course of the twentieth century, when most other countries did not? How did American policy makers by the late twentieth century come to believe that more credit would make even poor families better off? This book traces... View Details

Keywords: Attitudes; Credit; France; United States

29 Jan 2014
Working Paper Summaries

The Rising Cost of Consumer Attention: Why You Should Care, and What You Can Do about It

Keywords: by Thales S. Teixeira

2024
Working Paper

Bank Runs and Interest Rates: A Revolving Lines Perspective

By: Falk Bräuning and Victoria Ivashina

Revolving credit is at the core of the banking business. Corporate revolving credit lines are demandable claims; thus, similar to a traditional bank run on deposits, sudden widespread drawdowns on credit lines can be destabilizing to the banking sector. However, we... View Details

Keywords: Financial Liquidity; Credit; Financial Crisis; Interest Rates; Banks and Banking

SSRN

2023
Working Paper

The Impact of Unionization on Consumer Perceptions of Service Quality: Evidence from Starbucks

By: Isamar Troncoso, Minkyung Kim, Ishita Chakraborty and SooHyun Kim

The US has seen a rise in union movements, but their effects on service industry marketing outcomes like customer satisfaction and perceptions of service quality remain understudied. In this paper, we empirically study the impact on customer satisfaction and... View Details

Keywords: Labor Unions; Customer Satisfaction; Perception; Public Opinion; Employees; Food and Beverage Industry