Publications

SSRN

Read Now

12 Jun 2006
Research & Ideas

The Promise of Channel Stewardship

end users would agree: Their distribution channels are outdated and unwieldy, serving neither customers nor channel partners as well as they should. In a few cases, distribution channels are streamlined and satisfying for all... View Details

Keywords: by V. Kasturi Rangan & Marie Bell; Consumer Products

06 Mar 2017
Research & Ideas

Why Comparing Apples to Apples Online Leads To More Fruitful Sales

shopper needs to buy it. If the retailer veers off topic and displays something unrelated to the target item, the shiny new objects could distract the consumer enough to abandon the initial product. “The retailer is implying that yes,... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Retail; Advertising

Article

Unconventional Insights for Managing Stakeholder Trust

By: Michael Pirson and Deepak Malhotra

Initiatives to build and maintain trust with various stakeholders, including customers, employees, suppliers and investors, are at the top of the executive agenda at many organizations. But most companies don't really understand how to manage stakeholder trust... View Details

Keywords: Values and Beliefs; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Organizational Culture; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Perspective; Trust; Cooperation

Find at Harvard

Read Now

April 2025 (Revised April 2025)
Case

JPMorganChase: Leadership in the Age of GenAI

By: Iavor I. Bojinov, Karim R. Lakhani and David Lane

This case study examines JPMorgan Chase's (JPMC) journey in adopting and implementing Generative AI (GenAI) following the release of ChatGPT. It outlines JPMC's initial cautious approach focused on data security, followed by strategic investments in internal platforms... View Details

11 Sep 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Chief Sustainability Officers: Who Are They and What Do They Do?

Keywords: by Kathleen Miller & George Serafeim

15 Apr 2013
Research & Ideas

Solving the Search vs. Display Advertising Quandary

The dirty little secret of advertising agencies is that much of their work is pure guesswork. Companies spread out their advertising budgets across channels—a little bit of TV, some print media, a few billboards—and wait for customers to... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Advertising

February 2024
Case

Chime Solutions

By: Shai Bernstein, William R. Kerr, Christopher Stanton, Raymond Kluender and Mel Martin

Just two years after launching its 10k by 2020 initiative to hire 10,000 employees by 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced Chief Executive Officer Mark Wilson to send nearly all of his staff at Chime Solutions (Chime) to work from home. Chime was a customer contact firm... View Details

Keywords: Working Capital; Service Operations; Recruitment; Performance; Change Management; Retention; Financial Institutions; Employee Relationship Management; Talent and Talent Management; Growth Management; Mission and Purpose; Communications Industry; Service Industry; United States

12 Jul 2019
News

Can Apprenticeships Keep Up With The Kardashians?

May 2024 (Revised May 2024)
Case

Market by Met Council: Revolutionizing Food Pantries in the Digital Age

By: Elisabeth Paulson and Michael W. Toffel

In fall 2023, the Food Program of Met Council—America’s largest Jewish charity dedicated to fighting poverty—completed the rollout of the newest version of its digital pantry platform to twelve food pantries in the Met Council food pantry network. The digital... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Digital Transformation; Nonprofit Organizations; Service Operations; Human Needs

Article

Investors as Stewards of the Commons?

By: George Serafeim

Over the past few years, there has been a significant increase in the number of initiatives seeking to mobilize investor voice towards positive social impact. In this paper, I provide a framework outlining the role of investors as stewards of the commons. While... View Details

Keywords: Collaboration; Industry Self-regulation; Sustainability; ESG; Capital Markets; Investor Behavior; Investment Activism; Social Issues; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Cooperation

SSRN

Find at Harvard

Kash Rangan is the Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing at the Harvard Business School. Formerly the chairman of the Marketing Department (1998-2002), he is now the co-chairman of the school's Social Enterprise Initiative. He has taught in a wide variety of MBA... View Details

Keywords: advertising; agribusiness; apparel; automobiles; computer; consumer products; e-commerce industry; high technology; industrial goods; marketing industry; pharmaceuticals

10 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

Retailing Revolution: Category Killers on the Brink

categories) becomes unproductive due to customers migrating to e-tailers. As entire sections of these stores die from online competition, category killers are being pressed to come up with solutions to keep their overall model afloat. The... View Details

Keywords: by Rajiv Lal & Jose B. Alvarez; Retail

03 Sep 2014
What Do You Think?

Who Should Choose Your Boss?

back from a near death experience after what should be an initial fanfare around the return of Demoulas to the chief executive's office. But few organizations are structured to accommodate this practice. Perhaps most important, it assumes... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Food & Beverage

02 Dec 2022
Blog Post

Why Does Your Company Exist?

When was the last time you thought about your company's mission statement? Maybe it appears on a slide deck that employees see in their onboarding process, or spotlighted in the annual report. Or perhaps your company's website features some aspirational statements or... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

February 2008
Case

Cincom Systems, Inc.

By: Tom Nicholas and David Chen

Tom Nies, charismatic CEO of Cincom Systems, is considering a public offering of his software enterprise, but the 1987 stock market crash checks his plans. Nies reflects that capital for expansion will keep Cincom at the frontier of technological development in a... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Capital; Initial Public Offering; Organizational Culture; Going Public; Corporate Strategy; Information Technology Industry

Web

Publications - Faculty & Research

Satellites and Phones to Evaluate and Promote Agricultural Technology Adoption: Evidence from Smallholder Farms in India By: Shawn Cole , Tomoko Harigaya, Grady Killeen and Aparna Krishna This paper evaluates a low-cost, customized soil... View Details

March 7, 2024
Article

Integrating Digital Tools into Every Stage of Your Sales Strategy

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Georg Krentzel

In their growth and customer-acquisition activities, most companies now face twin challenges: understanding and responding to omni-channel buying behavior and doing that without inadvertently decreasing sales productivity. Thirty years ago, Peter Drucker noted that... View Details

Keywords: Sales Management; Digital Tools; Sales; Marketing Channels; Technology Adoption; Brands and Branding

Read Now

March 2024 (Revised June 2025)
Teaching Note

CoPilot(s): Generative AI at Microsoft and GitHub

By: Frank Nagle and Maria P. Roche

This teaching note is the companion to case N9-624-010 CoPilot(s): Generative AI at Microsoft and GitHub, which takes place in late 2021. The case briefly describes the history of both GitHub and Microsoft with a particular focus on open source software (OSS)—software... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; AI and Machine Learning; Applications and Software; Technological Innovation; Product Launch; Open Source Distribution; Product Development; Commercialization; Competition; Resource Allocation; Technology Industry