Publications

13 Mar 2017
Research & Ideas

Hiding Products From Customers May Ultimately Boost Sales

on rapid rotations. New research considers the wisdom of frequent assortment rotation in cases in which a retailer has many new varieties of a product to sell—nine different... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail; Fashion

Web

New Markets

In today's business environment, every organization faces pressure to deliver sustained growth and profitability. Yet technological advances shorten product life cycles, business models change, and unanticipated competition surfaces from... View Details

Article

Best Practices for Differentiated Products Demand Estimation with PyBLP

Differentiated products demand systems are a workhorse for understanding the price effects of mergers, the value of new goods, and the contribution of products to seller networks. Berry, Levinsohn, and Pakes (1995) provide a flexible random coefficients logit model... View Details

April 2006 (Revised June 2008)
Case

New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc.

By: H. Kent Bowen, Robert S. Huckman and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Considers whether New Balance, one of the world's five largest manufacturers of athletic footwear, should respond to Adidas' planned acquisition of Reebok--a transaction that would join the second- and third-largest companies in the industry. Highlights the unique... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Production; Supply Chain Management; Performance Improvement; Competition; Consolidation; Apparel and Accessories Industry

14 Apr 2020
News

Three Keys To Engaged, Productive Telework Teams

Program

Launching New Ventures

managerial skills needed to make sound investment decisions, manage rapid change, and ensure the success of your new enterprise throughout its lifecycle. Details Conceive, launch, and grow a successful new... View Details

18 Jan 2019
News

The Stealth Productivity Drain on American Workers

10 Jan 2017
Blog Post

From Product Development to Business School

to clean it again through my novel filter. I had filed the patent. Lined up suppliers. Met the ridiculous margin requirements of a Fortune 500 company. The category was declining. Our last two product launches fared poorly. The buyer... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Products / Retail; Consumer Products / Retail; Consumer Products / Retail

21 Oct 2019
Blog Post

Know Your Audience: Recruiting HBS Students for Consumer Products

do the work to find those companies and help them grow.” A Dynamic Industry Needs Dynamic Recruiting Consumer Products is a dynamic and ever changing industry that attracts students who relate to, and are excited about, specific products.... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Products / Retail

May 2009
Case

Ceres Gardening Company: Funding Growth in Organic Products

By: John H. McArthur and Sunru Yong

Ceres is a leading player in the growing organic gardening industry, selling seeds, small plants, and related items. Their distribution depends heavily on retail sales through independent nurseries and garden centers. Because these small dealers are unable to finance... View Details

Keywords: Accounting Procedures; Marketing; Business Growth; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Marketing Strategy; Expansion; Business Growth and Maturation; Marketing Channels; Credit; Financial Statements; Sales; Retail Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

28 Jan 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Does Product Market Competition Lead Firms To Decentralize?

Keywords: by Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun & John Van Reenen

29 Oct 2014
Research & Ideas

Inventing Products is Less Valuable Than Inventing Ideas

"Often companies don't fully exploit the latest ideas that their product has created," says Ahuja, who wrote the paper with Curba Lampert of Florida International University and Elena Novelli of City University London.... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Technology

01 May 2012
News

The #1 Productivity Tool You Aren't Using

Article

The Effects of Product Line Breadth: Evidence from the Automotive Industry

By: Antonio Moreno and Christian Terwiesch

Using a detailed data set from the U.S. automotive industry, we enrich the existing literature on product line breadth with new results that highlight previously unexplored operational aspects of its benefits and costs. We find that expanding product line breadth has a... View Details

Keywords: Variety; Pricing; Automotive Industry; Marketing/operations Interface; Platforms; Empirical Operations Management; Product Marketing; Production; Management; Auto Industry

Find at Harvard

November – December 1993
Response

'Is It Too Late for Pacer to Change Course?' A Response to 'When New Products and Customer Loyalty Collide'

By: D. A. Leonard-Barton

Keywords: Change; Product

Find at Harvard

September 2000 (Revised September 2005)
Case

New Beetle, The

By: Rajiv Lal and Nilanjana R. Pal

Volkswagen of America introduced the New Beetle at the Detroit auto show in January 1998 to rave reviews from the automobile press and industry gurus. Elisabeth Vanzura, marketing director of Volkswagen American had the challenging task of converting this enthusiasm to... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Leadership; Marketing; Marketing Communications; Product Positioning; Market Entry and Exit; Sales; Auto Industry; United States