airlines - Publications - Faculty & Research

07 Jan 2019
Research & Ideas

The Better Way to Forecast the Future

connecting passengers. The system allows airport and airline officials to address likely bottlenecks before the security or immigration queues back up, and identify passengers at risk of missing connecting flights. Using real-time data... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Air Transportation; Transportation

20 Nov 2019
Research & Ideas

It's No Joke: AI Beats Humans at Making You Laugh

output of an airline algorithm more if it pauses briefly to search for flights, giving people the sense that the computer is “thinking.” “The delay helps people make sense of the process. The longer it takes, the better they think the... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

18 Sep 2017
Research & Ideas

'Likes' Lead to Nothing—and Other Hard-Learned Lessons of Social Media Marketing

(@trillballins) pic.twitter.com/ckPcOmt0nO — CNN (@CNN) April 21, 2016 Failing to understand how quickly things can go wrong One viral video on Facebook can do serious damage to a company’s reputation, as United Airlines undoubtedly... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Advertising; Technology

11 Apr 2022
Research & Ideas

A World of Difference: What Keeps Companies from Becoming More Inclusive

inclusively." One of the stories that I included in my book Rebel Talent was about the airline pilot Captain “Sully” Sullenberger, who lost power in both jet engines over the Hudson River shortly after taking off from New York City. He... View Details

Keywords: by Jen McFarland Flint

22 May 2017
Lessons from the Classroom

A Luxury Industry Veteran Teaches the Importance of Aesthetics to Budding Business Leaders

marketing thing for your target audience, but nobody’s going to drive their kids around in a car with suicide doors.” Team Pan Am sought to revive the brand of the beloved but defunct airline with Worldport, a line of hotels named after a... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Beauty & Cosmetics; Apparel & Accessories; Auto; Tourism

25 Aug 2003
Research & Ideas

Why IT Does Matter

the information age. The jobs of the CTO and CIO are and will be of unparalleled importance in the decades ahead. Max Hopper of American Airlines and Paul Strassmann of Kraft and NASA are not the last of a dying breed of dinosaurs, but... View Details

Keywords: by F. Warren McFarlan & Richard L. Nolan

10 Feb 2003
Research & Ideas

Commodity Busters: Be a Price Maker, Not a Price Taker

with beating Microsoft. His battle was futile. He left the company as Novell began a long downward slide. The fighter pilot mentality of several U.S. airlines led to a price war in which billions of dollars were lost. Even in small... View Details

Keywords: by Benson P. Shapiro

30 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Are You Supporting Your B Players?

get a job at Southwest Airlines than it is to be accepted to the Harvard Business School," he quipped. And C&S Wholesalers, based in Brattleboro, VT, grew from a $40 million company in 1980 to a $14 billion business today.... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

21 Oct 2002
Research & Ideas

The Parable of the Bungled Baggage And the Unhappy Customer

in favor of your best customers? Can you use that information? You're not bothered by that? She was trained to handle this service. She was pumped because she had degrees of freedom. She could have rented a limo, written a ticket for another View Details

Keywords: by W. Earl Sasser

10 Jul 2000
Research & Ideas

Privatization and the New European Economy

From France to Italy, Germany to Denmark, chances are good that if you pick a country in Europe, you can match it with its state-owned airline. But as Europe unites, barriers come down, and competition heats up, cross-border mergers have become fair game for View Details

Keywords: by James E. Aisner; Air Transportation; Transportation

14 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Rewriting the Rules of Service Competition

India, and Southwest Airlines in the U.S. have done it. Amazon, while achieving much of this, hasn’t yet realized it fully. What must leaders know and do to deliver breakthrough service? Several things stand out. Among the things we’ve... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett, W. Earl Sasser & Leonard A. Schlesinger; Retail

20 Sep 2016
First Look

September 20, 2016

https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/916033-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 517-017 Singapore Airlines: Premium Goes Multi-Brand Singapore Airlines had long been considered the gold standard for its innovative customer service.... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

12 Dec 2017
First Look

New Research and Ideas, December 12, 2017

case:https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/718007-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 418-036 Merging American Airlines and US Airways (B) Exhibit to Merging American Airlines and US Airways (A) case. In... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

23 Jan 2008
First Look

First Look: January 23, 2008

immediate response. Provides detail concerning the history of the airline from its founding in 1999 through the February 2007 crisis, which forced the airline to cancel more than 1,000 flights over the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

28 Apr 2011
Op-Ed

While Waiting for Japan’s Recovery, Let’s Enhance Supplier Competitiveness at Home

coming off welfare to avert a potentially large national problem (and a political problem for President Clinton). Intermediary organizations such as local and national nonprofits provided training and helped identify job-ready candidates. Participating companies such... View Details

Keywords: by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

31 Jan 2005
Research & Ideas

Rethinking Marketing’s Conventional Wisdom

attributes. You see that with the success of the airline JetBlue, for example: It has no meals and no round-trip airfares, but it does have leather seats and personal entertainment centers that delight and surprise its passengers.... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons; Service

06 Sep 2005
What Do You Think?

What are the Lessons of New Orleans?

crash at a major U.S. airline that has never suffered an accident-related passenger fatality. Executives were assigned to "battle stations." A command post was established. Along with the CEO, teams were designated to be flown... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

15 Aug 2024
Op-Ed

Post-CrowdStrike, Six Questions to Test Your Company's Operational Resilience

When cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike distributed a faulty software update in July, it impacted a staggering 8.5 million devices. The crisis rippled through commercial airline operations, package delivery logistics, ecommerce, and health... View Details

Keywords: by Hise Gibson and Anita Lynch

23 Dec 2008
First Look

First Look: December 23, 2008

http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/ b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=909025 Malaysia Airlines (A) Harvard Business School Case 209-024 In the first six weeks on the job, the new CEO of Malaysia View Details