Customer Acquisition - Publications - Faculty & Research

07 Jul 2019
HBS Case

Walmart's Workforce of the Future

approach to the customer experience, with an emphasis on employee training and improved ecommerce and automation technology, both on the floor and in back office roles. One foundational move to beef up its technology was Walmart’s $3.3... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

Web

2023 Reunion Presentations - Alumni

technology—from AI to advanced batteries—to create value for their customers. Yet, this technology is still primarily built in developed economies for customers in these economies, and even within countries like the US, there remain stark... View Details

February 2017
Supplement

JCDecaux, 2016: Global Leader ... Again

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

In 2016, JCDecaux was number one in the world in outdoor advertising. This was a far cry from the situation in 2003; at that time, JCDecaux had been unseated by Clear Channel from the number-one spot that it had held for decades, and it was fighting for second place... View Details

Keywords: JCDecaux; Clear Channel Outdoor; OUTFRONT Media; Lamar Advertising Company; Jean-François Decaux; Jean-Charles Decaux; Outdoor Advertising; Street Furniture; Airports; Billboards; Bicycles; Digital Devices; Digital Marketing; Bidding; Advertising; Advertising Campaigns; Acquisition; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Business Organization; Family Business; For-Profit Firms; Joint Ventures; Design; Price; Profit; Revenue; Geographic Location; Geographic Scope; Global Range; Globalization; Global Strategy; Globalized Firms and Management; Multinational Firms and Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Government Legislation; Business History; Human Resources; Laws and Statutes; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Channels; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Demand and Consumers; Supply and Industry; Operations; Distribution; Infrastructure; Logistics; Product; Product Design; Production; Organizational Structure; Property; Public Ownership; Renting or Rental; Problems and Challenges; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Family and Family Relationships; Sales; Situation or Environment; Luxury; Strategy; Business Strategy; Commercialization; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Competitive Strategy; Consolidation; Corporate Strategy; Customization and Personalization; Expansion; Segmentation; Mobile Technology; Wireless Technology; Air Transportation; Bicycle Transportation; Rail Transportation; Transportation Networks; Advertising Industry; France; Paris

Citation

Purchase

April 2023
Article

Inattentive Inference

By: Thomas Graeber

This paper studies how people infer a state of the world from information structures that include additional, payoff-irrelevant states. For example, learning from a customer review about a product’s quality requires accounting for the reviewer’s otherwise irrelevant... View Details

Keywords: Cognition and Thinking; Information Types; Behavior; Knowledge Acquisition

17 Oct 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, October 17, 2017

is associated with higher employee departure rates in stores where the manager is likely to be more informed than headquarters (stores that serve repeat customers or customers with atypical demographic... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

21 Apr 2015
First Look

First Look: April 21

Campaign and the Upside of CEO Activism By: Chatterji, Aaron, and Michael Toffel Abstract—When Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz asked his baristas to engage customers in a discussion about race in America, it was a clear case of the growing... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel & Sean Silverthorne

Web

For Alumni - Entrepreneurship

stories about fellow alumni. Read more Insights Get insights and news from trusted sources for any company stage on topics ranging from customer acquisition & development to legal issues and startup failure.... View Details

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Health Care - Faculty & Research

Medical USA, is five years into her tenure leading the medical equipment supply company since taking over for her father, the company’s founder. She considers approaches to grow the company while maintaining the company purpose—to provide value to View Details

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Leadership - Faculty & Research

Family Relationships ; Family Ownership ; Acquisition ; Governance ; Resignation and Termination ; Leadership Style ; Management Succession ; Size ; Negotiation Offer ; Private Ownership ; Business and Shareholder Relations ; Trust ;... View Details

February 2025
Case

Blue Owl Financing of Ping Identity

By: Victoria Ivashina and Srimayi Mylavarapu

In the fall of 2022, Blue Owl Capital's investment committee evaluated a potential investment in the technology sector. The proposed transaction centered on Ping Identity Corporation (“Ping”), a fast-growing identity access management (IAM) software company that was... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Borrowing and Debt; Cash Flow; Investment; Privatization; Financial Services Industry; Technology Industry

Citation

Educators

Purchase

03 Oct 2005
Research & Ideas

The Truck Driver Who Reinvented Shipping

additional trucks and hired a team of drivers, a move that enabled him to get off the road and look for new customers. For the next two years, his business thrived, but when poor economic conditions forced many of his newly won customers... View Details

Keywords: by Anthony J. Mayo & Nitin Nohria; Manufacturing; Transportation; Aerospace

February 2008 (Revised December 2011)
Case

Weber Shandwick: The Client Relationship Leader Program

By: Robert G. Eccles and Kerry Herman

In 2002 Weber Shandwick, a leading global public relations agency, instituted a Client Relationship Leader (CRL) Program for its top 32 global accounts. The purpose of the program is to ensure that all of the firm's resources across geographies, practice areas, and... View Details

Keywords: Blogs; Competency and Skills; Customer Relationship Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Social and Collaborative Networks; Competitive Advantage; Public Relations Industry

Citation

Educators

Purchase

A native of North Dakota, Dr. Goldberg received his A.B. from Harvard University in 1948, his MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in 1950 and his Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Minnesota in 1952.

... View Details

Keywords: agribusiness; agriculture; fast food; food; food processing; forest products; grocery; high technology; information; restaurant; retailing; soft drink; textiles; tobacco; transportation; wholesale; wine

30 Jan 2020
Research & Ideas

The Upside of Highlighting a Product's Downsides

Administration. “Those who choose the offering will engage with it more.” Equally important, the researchers found that in this context, identifying negatives prominently had an “insignificant effect” on customer View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

16 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Strategy and the Internet

structure of their industries, hastened competitive convergence, and reduced the likelihood that they or anyone else will gain a competitive advantage. A destructive, zero-sum form of competition has been set in motion that confuses the View Details

Keywords: by Michael E. Porter

26 Apr 2016
First Look

April 26

its stores and its supply chain, lower levels of greenhouse gas emissions, safer products for customers and manufacturers, and better treatment of its workers. The company promoted the idea that its size gave it significant influence in... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Dec 2023
News

Case Study: Staking a Claim

rented, leased, or borrowed cars). Because other agencies aren’t chasing these young people, Surround enjoys a low cost of customer acquisition for a customer that has “the... View Details

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

April 2023
Case

Twitter: The Freedom to Speak Freely and Be Heard

By: Randolph B. Cohen, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Mel Martin

In April 2022, serial entrepreneur Elon Musk announced that he would be interested in purchasing the social media site Twitter for $44 billion. With more than 100 million twitter followers, Musk had historically leveraged the site to engage with the customers of his... View Details

Keywords: Values and Beliefs; Acquisition; Social Media; Power and Influence; Technology Industry; Communications Industry; Public Relations Industry; United States

Citation

Educators

01 Jun 2023
News

Pet Project

data will confirm. The relative investment in driving new customer acquisition via retail is much lower than ecommerce, where driving site traffic is costly, and even SEO and referrals require investment. So... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Retail Trade; Sporting Goods, Hobby, Musical Instrument, and Book Stores; Retail Trade

February 2018 (Revised August 2018)
Case

Blue Haven Initiative: The PEGAfrica Investment

By: Vikram S. Gandhi, Caitlin Reimers Brumme and Amram Migdal

This case examines Blue Haven Initiative (BHI), an impact investing fund and family office, and one of its investments, PEGAfrica (PEG). BHI founder Liesel Pritzker Simmons’ motivations for using her family wealth to start a family office focused on impact investing,... View Details