Product Differentiation - Publications - Faculty & Research

09 Aug 2010
Research & Ideas

How to Speed Up Energy Innovation

animals, as well as fertilizers and new techniques. There's a huge amount of human capital and knowledge invested in farming. Q: What sets energy apart from these other industries? A: The first and most obvious is that it's difficult to View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Energy; Utilities

21 Apr 2015
First Look

First Look: April 21

productivity and employment. There are few significant differences between industries with limited and high private equity activity. It is hard to find support for claims that economic activity in industries with private equity backing is... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel & Sean Silverthorne

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Business Fundamentals Course - CORe | HBS Online

pricing strategies Identify sources of competitive advantage through differentiation Evaluate the financial health of a business using financial statements Prepare and evaluate financial forecasts Who Will Benefit Professionals MBA... View Details

10 Feb 2021
Research & Ideas

Has #MeToo Changed How Hollywood Hires?

production teams hired more female writers after #MeToo than teams that included at least one female producer. This is despite the fact that before #MeToo, female producers were already twice as likely to work with female writers as male... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Media & Broadcasting

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Health Care - Faculty & Research

while purchasing, aggregating, and reselling their outputs. Led by CEO Mathias Eisert, Polish Agro had also ventured into biofertilizers, aligning with new EU sustainability regulations and aiming to differentiate itself in a highly... View Details

16 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Restaurant Revolution: How the Industry Is Fighting to Stay Alive

advice to restaurant owners, staff, investors, and patrons that we offer below. How did it deteriorate so quickly? Restaurants are universally labor intensive—by any productivity metric they rank among the least View Details

Keywords: by Michael S. Kaufman, Lena G. Goldberg, and Jill Avery; Food & Beverage

22 May 2007
First Look

First Look: May 22, 2007

evaluate their theory by looking at the design evolution of two software product platforms through the modeling lens of design structure matrices (DSMs) and design rule theory. Our analysis shows that DSM models and options theory can... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

01 Mar 2024
News

Case Study: Testing the Waters

Illustration by Christina Spano Endurance training was nothing new to Lauren Picasso (MBA 2014), who’d raced through her younger years as a cross-country runner and swimmer. In 2017, when she was director of marketing at Jet.com and looking for a physical challenge,... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Food and Beverage Stores; Retail Trade

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Online Business Strategy Course | HBS Online

Complements from Substitutes Featured Exercises Create a customer journey map to discover complementary products and services 5 hrs Module 3 Competing with Network Effects Explore the three types of network effects, their impact on WTP,... View Details

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Curriculum - Business & Environment

Sourcing at Nike This case explores the evolution of Nike's global product sourcing strategy, in particular ongoing efforts to improve working conditions at its suppliers' factories. Sian Flowers: Fresher by Sea? The setting for this case... View Details

19 Apr 2004
Research & Ideas

Birth of the American Salesman

worked to convince homeowners of the value of the new machine over the traditional delivery of ice. After the demand for refrigerators was established, manufacturers concentrated on advertising, on differentiating their View Details

Keywords: by Laura Linard

25 Jul 2006
First Look

First Look: July 25, 2006

developed countries. Large emerging economies with little inward FDI include India and Turkey, despite the relaxation over the last two decades of the restrictions imposed on foreign firms between 1950 and 1980. This working paper explores why Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

20 Aug 2013
First Look

First Look: August 20

compensation plan. Substantively, the paper sheds insights on how different elements of the compensation plan enhance productivity. We find evidence that: (1) bonuses enhance productivity across all segments; (2) overachievement... View Details

Keywords: Anna Secino

09 Apr 2007
Research & Ideas

Industry Self-Regulation: What’s Working (and What’s Not)?

suppliers' production processes—whether it be their pollution emissions, the human rights of their workers, or the pay and safety conditions under which their workers operate. Wal-Mart's recent initiatives that have been so widely... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

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Social Enterprise - Faculty & Research

significant discretion. Corporate philanthropy is our setting to study how a differentiated structural element—the corporate foundation—constrains the influence of individual senior managers and directors on corporate strategy. Our... View Details

18 Jun 2013
First Look

First Look: June 18

wage comparisons affect firm policies on executive pay? This paper explores that question using a 1992 SEC proxy disclosure rule that mandated increased disclosure of executive pay. We argue that this rule differentially increased wage... View Details

Keywords: Anna Secino

01 Dec 2023
News

Case Study: Staking a Claim

Illustration by Nhung Lê Kate Terry (MBA 2005) knows that no one attends their fifth-grade career fair and comes home hoping to pursue a career in insurance—but that’s exactly where she wound up. “I really fell in love with it,” she says. As cofounder and CEO of... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Insurance Carriers and Related Activities; Finance

28 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

Making the Decision to Franchise (or not)

headquarters maximize an organization's overall revenues by efficiently (and effectively) monitoring the desires of consumers representing a wide range of ethnicities and income levels, large families and singletons? Much has been written about View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

09 Jan 2006
Research & Ideas

When Benchmarks Don’t Work

Benchmarking certainly has its virtues. Comparing production time or the cost of a standard process to that of peer companies can yield important insights about your own efficiencies—and ultimately, competitiveness. But benchmarking also... View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan; Service

25 Sep 2007
First Look

First Look: September 25, 2007

are significantly different to the inter-industry vertical FDI visible at the two-digit level. These subsidiaries are not readily explained by the comparative advantage considerations in traditional models, where firms locate their low skill View Details