Publications

March 2025 (Revised April 2025)
Case

Perplexity: Redefining Search

By: Suraj Srinivasan, Michelle Hu, Sriraghav Srinivasan and Radhika Kak

By early 2025, Perplexity had rapidly evolved from a modest startup into a popular "answer engine" valued at $9 billion. The company had boldly positioned itself as the disruptor to Google aiming to redefine search for the AI age. Through novel AI... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Venture Capital; Innovation Leadership; Technological Innovation; Internet and the Web; Business Startups; Competitive Strategy; Business Model; Technology Industry; United States

February 1989
Background Note

Corporate Positioning: How to Assess--and Build--A Company's Reputation

Provides a framework for assessing and enhancing an organization's reputation. Points out two dimensions of a corporate image--visibility and credibility. Discusses several critical issues that must be addressed in building an image. Finally, provides an assessment of... View Details

Keywords: Status and Position; Corporate Strategy; Reputation; Organizations; Brands and Branding

27 May 2014
First Look

First Look: May 27

The article concludes by suggesting that the stratdegies of business enterprises need to be more fully integrated into wider narratives of the history of globalization. August 2013 JMR, Journal of Marketing Research Positioning View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

30 Sep 2021
Blog Post

Driving Social Impact Through Consumer Behavior: Nonprofit to Finance to Retail with Nicole Krantz (MBA 2022)

From a young age, Nicole Krantz (MBA 2022) knew she wanted to make a positive change in the world. The question she has carried with her as she builds her career is how to best combine her interests and skills to do that in her unique... View Details

Keywords: Retail

22 Nov 2011
First Look

First Look: November 22

social capital theory and techniques developed in social network analysis to measure a director's connectedness and investigate whether this connectedness is associated with their compensation level and their firm's overall performance. We find connectedness is View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

August 2023
Case

Kariyer.net: Recruiting AI

By: Shunyuan Zhang, Fares Khrais and Namrata Arora

In 2017, Fatih Uysal (AMP 2021) became CEO of Kariyer.net. By then, the business was already the industry leading online job board in Turkey. However, faced with stalling growth, a turbulent macroenvironment, and growing competition from international players, Uysal... View Details

November 2018
Case

The Bundesliga in the U.S.

By: Stephen A. Greyser, Sascha L. Schmidt and Florian Holzmayer

The Bundesliga, Germany’s premier football (soccer) league, is assessing its global broadcast and marketing strategy, with special focus on the very lucrative but highly competitive U.S. market. Its CEO Christian Seifert believed that a strong international position... View Details

Keywords: Media; Sports; Global Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Sports Industry; United States

December 1997 (Revised April 1998)
Case

www.springs.com

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Melissa Dailey

Business Week's June 1997 "Rising Star" profile of Springs Industries' president and COO, Crandall Bowles, reported that she was poised to become one of the top two or three women executives in the country. In November 1997, the company announced Bowles' appointment to... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Operations; Product Marketing; Management; Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; South Carolina

October 2022 (Revised December 2022)
Case

Aphro Beverages

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Amram Migdal

This case focuses on distribution, sales, and product decisions as Aphro Beverages reaches an inflection point in its growth trajectory. In 2020, Aphro Beverages, based in Accra, Ghana, successfully launched its brand and brought two new alcoholic spirits products to... View Details

March 2016
Case

IC Group A/S

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

IC Group owned several of Scandinavia's leading premium fashion brands. How should it respond to the decline of its primary wholesale distribution channels (independent fashion boutiques and department stores)? Should it open more physical stores or focus on... View Details

September 2021 (Revised December 2021)
Case

STARZPLAY: Shooting for the Stars

By: Elie Ofek, Marco Bertini and Alpana Thapar

In mid-2021, Maaz Sheikh, cofounder and CEO of STARZPLAY, a Dubai-based subscription video on demand (SVOD) provider that catered to the Middle East and North Africa region, was wrestling with how to find the right balance between continued subscriber growth and... View Details

19 Sep 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, September 19

positioning of the brand to move upmarket or down market? Which value proposition offered the most future promise: functional differentiation, lifestyle differentiation, or celebrity endorsement? Should the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

06 Dec 2011
First Look

First Look: Dec. 6

But the article also shows how individuals behave in concert because of the self-fueling trajectory in which response provokes response, in either positive or negative directions, in what are more popularly termed winning streaks and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

09 Jan 2020
Blog Post

Set Your Recruiting Vision for 2020

help you achieve this goal, HBS encourages you to put a positive spin on “Hindsight is 2020” as you look ahead with 2020 vision. Hindsight is 2020 Reflecting back on this past year is a great way to move forward. What challenges did your... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

03 Mar 2008
Research & Ideas

Marketing Your Way Through a Recession

Must-have features of yesterday are today's can-live-withouts. Trusted brands are especially valued and they can still launch new products successfully, but interest in new brands and new categories fades.... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

August 2020 (Revised February 2021)
Case

Luckin Coffee (A): Caffeine-fueled Growth?

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Karen Elterman

This case describes the founding of Chinese coffee chain Luckin Coffee in 2017 and its path to surpassing Starbucks as the largest coffee chain in China (by number of stores) in 2019. Unlike Starbucks stores, which were designed to be welcoming “third places” for... View Details

18 Dec 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, December 18, 2018

519-011 Hubble Contact Lenses: Data Driven Direct-to-Consumer Marketing As its Series A extension round approaches, the founders of Hubble, a subscription-based, social-media fueled, direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand of contact lenses, are... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

September 2020 (Revised May 2024)
Case

Hot Wheels: Launching The Mixed Play Experience

By: Elie Ofek, Andres Terech and Nicole Tempest Keller

Chris Down, Global Brand General Manager for Hot Wheels, and his team from the Advanced Play Group within Mattel, Inc., had developed an entirely new “mixed play” product experience that blended familiar Hot Wheels play in the physical world with breakthrough play in... View Details

Keywords: Toys; Go-to-market Strategy; Product Development; Technological Innovation; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Decision Making; Marketing; Strategy; Los Angeles

August 2011
Supplement

John Fahey, President and CEO of National Geographic Society, In-Class Comments, 2/11/11

By: David Garvin

In January 2010, John Fahey, president, CEO, and chairman of the board of trustees' executive committee of the Washington, D.C.-based National Geographic Society (NGS), must decide how best to organize the 121-year old mission-driven organization for a world of... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Leadership Style; Business or Company Management; Brands and Branding; Sales; Environmental Sustainability; Business Strategy; Web Sites; Publishing Industry; Washington (state, US)