Publications

July 1993 (Revised September 1994)
Case

Goodyear: The Aquatred Launch

By: John A. Quelch

After many years of R&D, Goodyear has developed the Aquatred, an innovative new tire. However, the tire industry has matured and evolved, raising questions concerning the Aquatred's ability to gain support from Goodyear's independent tire dealers. Students must use... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Consumer Behavior; Distribution Channels; Brands and Branding; Innovation and Invention; Auto Industry; Rubber Industry; United States

August 2022
Article

The Bulletproof Glass Effect: Unintended Consequences of Privacy Notices

By: Aaron R. Brough, David A. Norton, Shannon L. Sciarappa and Leslie K. John

Drawing from a content analysis of publicly traded companies’ privacy notices, a survey of managers, a field study, and five online experiments, this research investigates how consumers respond to privacy notices. A privacy notice, by placing legally enforceable limits... View Details

Keywords: Choice; Purchase Intent; Privacy; Privacy Notices; Warnings; Assurances; Information Disclosure; Trust; Consumer Behavior; Spending; Decisions; Information; Communication

Summer 2014
Article

When Does a Platform Create Value by Limiting Choice?

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Hanna Halaburda

We present a theory for why it might be rational for a platform to limit the number of applications available on it. Our model is based on the observation that even if users prefer application variety, applications often also exhibit direct network effects. When there... View Details

Keywords: Platform Governance; Direct Network Effects; Indirect Network Effects; Complements; Tragedy Of The Commons; Equilibrium Selection; Coordination; Foresight; Strategy; Value Creation; Digital Platforms; Balance and Stability; Decision Choices and Conditions; Consumer Behavior; Applications and Software; Network Effects

SSRN

Find at Harvard

02 Jan 2012
Research & Ideas

Most Popular Articles of 2011

significantly more mistakes on a subsequent task than subjects who were allowed to watch the video right away. The findings suggest that employers should not tell employees not to surf the web in situations... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

March 2024 (Revised February 2025)
Case

Doing Business in São Paulo, Brazil

By: Laura Alfaro, Hise O. Gibson, Leonard A. Schlesinger and Pedro Levindo

The case gives readers an overview of key factors of doing business in Brazil, including Brazil’s economic transformation since its colonial years until 2023, when leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was sworn in for his third term, after the most polarized... View Details

Keywords: Business Cycles; Developing Countries and Economies; Economic Growth; Economic Sectors; Economy; Macroeconomics; Business History; International Relations; Political Elections; Taxation; Consumer Behavior; Brazil; Latin America; Sao Paulo

17 Jan 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: January 17

We close by reviewing what we know about the impact of file sharing on record sales today. In our view, new music formats are an important if understudied channel through which changes in technology influence the View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2016
Case

Evive Health and Workplace Influenza Vaccinations

By: John Beshears

Evive Health is a company that manages communication campaigns on behalf of health insurance plans and large employers. Using big data techniques and insights from behavioral economics, Evive deploys targeted and effective messages that improve individuals' health... View Details

Keywords: Vaccination; Influenza; Flu Shot; Preventive Care; Health Care; Behavioral Economics; Choice Architecture; Nudge; Experimental Design; Randomized Controlled Trial; RCT; Causal Inference; Consumer Behavior; Health Care and Treatment; Health Testing and Trials; Communication Strategy; Health Industry

19 Dec 2006
First Look

First Look: December 19, 2006

arise when cross-price elasticities are estimated for a set of brands expected to be substitutes. These anomalies are the occurrence of: (a) negatively signed cross-elasticities; and (b) sign asymmetries in pairs of cross price elasticities. Drawing upon the Slutsky... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 2017 (Revised November 2021)
Case

Irene Rosenfeld at Mondelēz International: Crafting a Corporate Strategy

By: Raffaella Sadun, David J. Collis, Amram Migdal and Kerry Herman

The case focuses on Irene Rosenfeld’s tenure as CEO of the global snack food company Mondelēz International. Beginning in 2006, she had led the company through many acquisitions, including France’s LU Biscuit and British confectionery company Cadbury, before, in 2012,... View Details

22 Aug 2005
Research & Ideas

Balancing the Future Against Today’s Needs

navigate conflicts both external and internal. Today, more than ever, markets exert continual pressure on organizations to cut costs and return capital to the bottom line, but building value demands that... View Details

Keywords: by Paul Michelman

16 Oct 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, October 16, 2018

via arms-length transactions and contracts. Furthermore, strong or weak complementarity are not innate properties of tasks and assets but can be the result of choices regarding task networks, incentives, and job design. Supermodular complementarity exists when more of... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

06 Aug 2020
Blog Post

WHY WE STARTED THE HBS BLACK INVESTMENT CLUB

institutional racism to become so entrenched in American life. Although the past few months have been difficult on myself and other members of the Black community, I am cautiously optimistic that the BLM movement can create lasting and... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

20 Apr 2021
Blog Post

Leadership In Challenging Times: Thierry Ibri (MBA 1997)

political climate. In this post, Thierry Ibri (MBA 1997) discusses his work as Chief Operations and Program Officer at Second Harvest Heartland and reflects on how his team adapted to the challenges of 2020 and delivered more than 105... View Details

23 Jan 2008
First Look

First Look: January 23, 2008

correlated with less individualism. We provide three short models that help interpret this correlation. One implication of this finding is that societies that depend heavily on oil, and perhaps natural... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

October 2006 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Production I.G: Challenging the Status Quo

By: Andrei Hagiu, Tarun Khanna, Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Masako Egawa and Chisato Toyama

In July 2006, Mitsuhisa Ishikawa wondered how he could further enhance the success and visibility of his animation production company headquartered in Tokyo, Production I.G. For the year ended May 2006, Production I.G. had sales of 5,439 million yen ($47.3 million),... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Competitive Advantage; Markets; Animation Entertainment; Going Public; Growth and Development Strategy; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Tokyo

05 Jul 2006
Working Paper Summaries

Information Dispersion and Auction Prices

Keywords: by Pai-Ling Yin; Technology; Web Services

May 2023
Article

Self-Preferencing at Amazon: Evidence from Search Rankings

By: Chiara Farronato, Andrey Fradkin and Alexander MacKay

We study whether Amazon engages in self-preferencing on its marketplace by favoring its own brands (e.g., Amazon Basics) in search. To address this question, we collect new micro-level consumer search data using a custom browser extension installed by a panel of study... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; E-commerce; Product Positioning; Brands and Branding

06 May 2014
First Look

First Look: May 6

in which matching is made contingent on the percentage of others who give (e.g., "if X% of others give, we will match all donations"). A field experiment shows that a 75% contingent match (where matches "kick in" only... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 2020 (Revised December 2022)
Case

Soofa: Displaying the Right Path?

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Amy Klopfenstein and Amram Migdal

In November 2019, Sandra Richter, co-founder and CEO of Soofa, a network of advertising-supported digital bulletin boards, must decide between two different fundraising and expansion plans for her company. One plan entails raising $15 million in a Series A round and... View Details