Publications

March 2011 (Revised December 2012)
Case

Demand Media

By: John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

Google search had helped Demand Media grow to be a $1.9 billion online publisher. Then, social media and smartphone apps began to change the way people navigated the Internet. How should Demand Media respond? The business ran on a radically new model in which a stable... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Information Publishing; Consumer Behavior; Customization and Personalization; Internet and the Web; Publishing Industry

14 Feb 2018
HBS Seminar

Ruomeng Cui, Emory University

January 2014 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Nivea (A)

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Johann Fuller, Volker Bilgram and Greta Friar

The case describes the efforts of Beiersdorf, a worldwide leader in the cosmetics and skin care industries, to generate and commercialize new R&D through open innovation using external crowds and "netnographic" analysis. Beiersdorf, best known for its consumer brand... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Innovation Management; Crowdsourcing; Big Data; Innovation Strategy; Innovation and Management; Knowledge Management; Knowledge Sharing; Research and Development; Social and Collaborative Networks; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Analytics and Data Science; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry

27 Mar 2024
News

Behind the Research: Isamar Troncoso

23 Nov 2010
First Look

First Look: November 23

http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/11-048.pdf Regulating for Legitimacy: Consumer Credit Access in France and America Author: Gunnar Trumbull Abstract Theories of legitimate regulation have emphasized the role... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2020
Working Paper

How ESG Issues Become Financially Material to Corporations and Their Investors

By: George Serafeim

Management and disclosure of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues have received substantial interest over the last decade. In this paper, we outline a framework of how ESG issues become financially material, affecting corporate profitability and valuation.... View Details

SSRN

Read Now

18 Nov 2019
Video

Adi Godrej

Adi Godrej, Chair of the India-based consumer products Godrej Group, describes the difficulties... View Details

04 May 2023
Blog Post

Sustainability: Career Advice from HBS Career Coach Hillary Mann

about, whether it’s by eating a primarily plant-based diet or using clean products in my home. I am interested in the psychology of what will drive consumer decisions to make... View Details

10 Jan 2020
Blog Post

Know Your Audience - Recruiting HBS Students for Retail

makes them important partners for retail companies seeking to attract and retain talent. What Students Want HBS student interest in retail has remained steady over the past five years with approximately 3% View Details

Keywords: Consumer Products / Retail

Research Summary

Overview

His research interests lie in phenomena pertaining to the status and identity of organizations and individuals in markets. View Details

Bibliography - Option Pricing in Theory & Practice: The Nobel Prize Research of Robert C. Merton - Exhibits - Historical Collections

Theorem." Journal of Financial Economics 5, no. 3 (November 1977): 241-249. Merton, Robert C. "On the Pricing of Corporate Debt: The Risk Structure of View Details

17 Oct 2016
News

The Right (And Wrong) Way To Harness Your Company's Underdog Status

14 Sep 2016
Research & Ideas

Web Surfers Have a Schedule and Stick to It

NOTICE For web-based businesses looking to attract users, the implications have some interesting strategy considerations, although this is not a large focus of the study. “To reach people, you can’t do what... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail; Web Services

04 Feb 2020
Video

Savannah Maziya

Savannah Maziya, the founder of South Africa-based Bunengi Holdings, describes the high-risk, high-reward nature of investing in Africa in the areas of agriculture, infrastructure, and consumer goods. View Details

Ethan C. Rouen

Ethan Rouen is an associate professor of business administration in the Accounting and Management Unit at Harvard Business School, where he teaches the elective course Reimagining Capitalism. From 2020 to 2022, he served as the faculty co-chair of the View Details

December 2017 (Revised November 2018)
Case

Tesla Motors (B): Merging with SolarCity

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Sarah L. Abbott

In 2016, electric car manufacturer Tesla announced that it was making an offer to acquire solar panel manufacturer SolarCity in an all-stock offer worth $2.6 billion in Tesla stock. Tesla’s co-founder and CEO, Elon Musk, believed that the merger would generate... View Details

Keywords: M＆A; M＆A Valuation; Investing; Equities; Equity; Valuation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Auto Industry; Energy Industry; United States

April 2003 (Revised November 2005)
Case

Trend Micro (B)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Kim Bettcher

The Trend Micro team's discussion of consumer strategy at its quarterly meeting in Germany provides an opportunity to assess the effectiveness of the team's decision process. View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Management Teams; Business Strategy; Diversity; Information Technology Industry; Germany

27 Jun 2024
Research & Ideas

Gen AI Marketing: How Some 'Gibberish' Code Can Give Products an Edge

It’s the new way of comparison shopping in the age of large language models (LLM): Tapping into AI-driven search engines for research and advice on which products to buy. But can View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Technology

January 2010
Background Note

In the Spotlight: The Market for Iron Ore

By: Aldo Musacchio, Tarun Khanna and Jenna Bernhardson

This note discusses the structure and functioning of the market for iron ore. This market has traditionally functioned using a benchmark pricing mechanism, in which large steel mills in Japan (now in China) negotiate the benchmark price with the largest of the big... View Details

Keywords: Industry Structures; Mining; Price; Valuation; Business Strategy; Demand and Consumers; Business and Government Relations; Mining Industry; China