Publications

April 2010 (Revised May 2010)
Supplement

George Martin at The Boston Consulting Group (C)

By: Leslie A. Perlow and Kerry Herman

George Martin, managing partner at The Boston Consulting Group, is worried as some of his best performers have recently pulled him aside to discuss the challenges they face managing the demands of their work lives with their desire for more predictable time with their... View Details

Keywords: Work-Life Balance; Problems and Challenges; Employees

December 2017 (Revised March 2018)
Case

Kellogg Company/eighteen94 capital

By: David Bell, Damien McLoughlin and Natalie Kindred

With 33,000 employees and revenues of $13 billion in 2016, Kellogg Company was the world’s largest producer of branded packaged cereal and a leader in branded convenience foods. Founded in 1906 and based in Michigan, the company had a proud history of product and... View Details

August 2015 (Revised September 2015)
Case

Shareholder Activists and Corporate Strategy

By: David Collis and Ashley Hartman

By 2015, there had been an upsurge in activist shareholders arguing for radical changes in companies' corporate strategies. Personalities like Carl Icahn, Bill Ackman, and Daniel Loeb were feared and loathed in some quarters, celebrated in others. With nearly $120... View Details

Keywords: Scope; Activist Investors; Spin-offs; Synergy; Diversification; Consolidation; Hedge Fund; Corporate Strategy

April 2011
Supplement

Porcini's Pronto: 'Great Italian cuisine without the wait!', Spreadsheet Supplement (Brief Case)

By: James L. Heskett and Richard Luecke

Keywords: Franchising; Syndication; Quantitative Analysis; Performance Measurement; Human Resource Management; Incentives; Motivation; Motivation and Incentives; Analysis; Consumer Behavior; Franchise Ownership; Human Resources; Performance Evaluation

21 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

Solving the Marketing Resources Allocation Puzzle

second step, the manager reflects on the demand analysis that was performed and asks which of the potential actions that might be taken would be best for the firm. This too can be accomplished in three basic... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

June 1990 (Revised January 1994)
Case

Desktop Printer Industry in 1990

The desktop printer industry in 1990 is characterized by significant uncertainty about new technologies and about the types of features customers may demand in the next decade. The case looks at the positions of Hewlett-Packard, Canon, Kodak, Xerox, and IBM enabling... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Change Management; Competition; Hardware; Computer Industry

Research Summary

Overview

Dr. Crawford conducts research on innovation in the energy industry, with a special focus on emerging business models. She is developing several cases for the EC course, "21st Century Energy," that specifically examine innovations at the interface of IT and Energy — ... View Details

April 2011
Teaching Note

Porcini's Pronto: "Great Italian cuisine without the wait!" (Brief Case)

By: James L. Heskett and Richard Luecke

Teaching Note to 4277. View Details

Keywords: Franchising; Syndication; Quantitative Analysis; Performance Measurement; Human Resource Management; Incentives; Motivation; Management; Motivation and Incentives; Consumer Behavior; Mathematical Methods; Franchise Ownership; Human Resources; Performance Evaluation

July 2021
Article

The Effect of Price on Firm Reputation

By: Michael Luca and Oren Reshef

While a business's reputation can affect its pricing, prices can also affect its reputation. To explore the effect of prices on reputation, we investigate daily data on menu prices and online ratings from a large rating and ordering platform. We find that a price... View Details

Keywords: Pricing; Reputation Systems; IT Policy And Management; Economics Of Digital Platforms; Business Ventures; Reputation; Price; Consumer Behavior; Analysis

April 2010
Supplement

George Martin at The Boston Consulting Group (B)

By: Leslie A. Perlow and Kerry Herman

George Martin, managing partner at The Boston Consulting Group, is worried as some of his best performers have recently pulled him aside to discuss the challenges they face managing the demands of their work lives with their desire for more predictable time with their... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Work-Life Balance; Problems and Challenges; Consulting Industry

09 Mar 2023
HBS Seminar

Gerard Cachon, Wharton

23 Apr 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Does Public Ownership of Equity Improve Earnings Quality?

Keywords: by Dan Givoly, Carla Hayn & Sharon P. Katz

August 2009
Case

The TSMC Way: Meeting Customer Needs at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

By: Willy C. Shih, Chen-Fu Chien, Chintay Shih and Jack Chang

When L.C. Tu receives an emergency order, he is confronted with a range of production scheduling choices, each of which has unique costs and trade-offs. The case was designed to help students understand job-shop style production and the impact of disruptions and... View Details

Keywords: Disruption; Customer Relationship Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Cost; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Production; Semiconductor Industry; Taiwan

April 2014 (Revised June 2015)
Case

Making stickK Stick: The Business of Behavioral Economics

By: Leslie John, Michael Norton and Michael Norris

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

stickK.com, a website that uses behavioral economics to help users achieve their goals, must choose between a direct-to-consumer or business-to-business model. The case... View Details

Keywords: Behavioral Economics; Behavior Change; B2B Vs. B2C; Human Resource Management; Marketing Of Innovations; Health ＆ Wellness; Weight Loss; Charitable Giving; Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Entrepreneurship; Internet and the Web; Health; Business Model; Sales; Human Resources; Health Industry; United States

December 2018 (Revised October 2020)
Case

Shiseido: Reinvesting in Brand

By: Jill Avery and Nobuo Sato

Shiseido was in the midst of a six year corporate turnaround, trying to reverse the effects of decades of under-investment in R&D and marketing which had led to a cycle of declining customer support and brand value. Would the CEO’s VISION 2020 plan, centered on four... View Details

30 Nov 2021
News

Glue for the High-Skill Gig Economy

2023
Working Paper

Competition and Speculation in Cryptocurrencies

By: Alex A. Wu and Justin Katz

We examine how mutual fund managers' performance incentives generated speculative demand during the 2020-2022 cryptocurrency boom and bust. Managers with strong relative performance incentives began investing in crypto after their competitors began investing in it,... View Details

Keywords: Cryptocurrency; Mutual Funds; Competition; Investment; Decision Making

Read Now

January 2019
Supplement

Understanding the Brand Equity of Nestlé Crunch Bar (B): Data Analysis

By: Jill Avery and Gerald Zaltman

In early 2018, Nestlé announced the sale of its U.S. candy-making division and a select collection of 20 of its confectionery brands, including the Nestlé Crunch Bar, to Ferrero SpA for $2.8 billion. Luckily, an old consumer research study on the Nestlé Crunch Bar... View Details