Publications

September–October 2017
Article

The Surprising Power of Online Experiments: Getting the Most Out of A/B and Other Controlled Tests

By: Ron Kohavi and Stefan Thomke

In the fast-moving digital world, even experts have a hard time assessing new ideas. Case in point: At Bing, a small headline change an employee proposed was deemed a low priority and shelved for months until one engineer decided to do a quick online controlled... View Details

Keywords: Experiments; A/B Testing; Research; Consumer Behavior

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05 Jul 2006
Working Paper Summaries

A Survey-Based Procedure for Measuring Uncertainty or Heterogeneous Preferences in Markets

Keywords: by Pai-Ling Yin; Technology; Web Services

Fast Answer

Market trends, opportunities in advanced technology fields

Where to begin when looking for market trends, opportunities, leading players in certain technology fields? You may begin with the following: BCC Research - Reports on major economic, scientific, and technological developments... View Details

15 May 2007
Working Paper Summaries

I’ll Have the Ice Cream Soon and the Vegetables Later: Decreasing Impatience over Time in Online Grocery Orders

Keywords: by Todd Rogers, Katherine L. Milkman & Max H. Bazerman; Food & Beverage

02 Aug 2018
News

Can Marketing Help Halt the Heroin Epidemic?

advertising and marketing filled with stark depictions of the harsh realities of drug use. On this episode of Skydeck, Langford speaks with associate editor Julia Hanna about how they’ll craft these messages, how effective they can be—and... View Details

03 Nov 2022
Blog Post

Introducing the Creating Emerging Markets Sustainability Series

Markets project? As the largest online database of academic interviews with renowned and longstanding business leaders from emerging markets in Africa, Asia, Latin America and... View Details

24 Apr 2019
Research & Ideas

The 'Amazon Effect' Is Changing Online Price Competition—and the Fed Needs to Pay Attention

agencies. In 2010, these retailers would keep prices constant for about nine months on average. Today, that timeframe has narrowed to just three months, he says. That acceleration was especially true for categories like electronics and furniture with larger View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Retail

Article

From TV to Web: Content Strategies for Ads That Drive Online Sales

By: Thales S. Teixeira

Consumers have become avid media multitaskers, moving seamlessly between their TVs and digital devices. Shorter TV commercials have reduced both the quantity and quality of consumer attention during prime-time viewing hours. In this new media environment, can TV... View Details

Keywords: TV Advertising; Multitasking; Infotainment; Television; Prime Time; Advertising; Online Advertising; Advertising Industry

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January 2014 (Revised February 2015)
Case

YouTube for Brands

By: Thales Teixeira and Leora Kornfeld

This case examines the changes employed by YouTube to make the massively popular site more attractive to brands. Building from its base of amateur, user-generated content, YouTube had turned to experimenting with professionally-made content and organizing its videos... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Internet and the Web; Decision Choices and Conditions; Digital Marketing; Brands and Branding; Advertising Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

2023
Working Paper

Design-Based Confidence Sequences: A General Approach to Risk Mitigation in Online Experimentation

By: Dae Woong Ham, Michael Lindon, Martin Tingley and Iavor Bojinov

Randomized experiments have become the standard method for companies to evaluate the performance of new products or services. In addition to augmenting managers’ decision-making, experimentation mitigates risk by limiting the proportion of customers exposed to... View Details

Keywords: Performance Evaluation; Research and Development; Analytics and Data Science; Consumer Behavior

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Aug 2006 - 2006
Conference Presentation

Entertainment Products in Online and Offline Channels: An Examination of the 'Long Tail'

By: Anita Elberse

Keywords: Entertainment; Marketing Channels

Jun 2006
Conference Presentation

Entertainment Products in Online and Offline Channels: An Examination of the 'Long Tail'

By: Anita Elberse

Keywords: Entertainment; Marketing Channels

Blog

HBS Online and Executive Education Leadership: Q+A with Patrick Mullane and Luis Viceira

to, in some cases anyway, components of integrated blended offerings. It made sense to think of it all as a unified whole rather than two separate lines of business. Luis Viceira (LV) (Senior Associate Dean, HBS online and Executive... View Details

18 Sep 2017
Research & Ideas

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

Advertising Symbiosis: The Key to Viral Videos The Revolution in Advertising: From Don Draper to Big Data Why Comparing Apples to Apples Online Leads To More Fruitful Sales What do you think? What big flops and bold wins have businesses... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Advertising; Technology

September 2014 (Revised June 2016)
Case

edX: Strategies for Higher Education

By: David Collis, Matthew Shaffer and Ashley Hartman

In May 2012, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) founded edX, a new non-profit joint venture that would provide a platform for massive open online courses (MOOCs). edX did not produce original courses or instructional content—it made... View Details

Keywords: MOOCS; edX; Online Platforms; Online Education; Harvard University; MIT; Execution; Monetization; Brand Management; Higher Education; Information Technology; Strategy; Disruptive Innovation; Digital Platforms; Education Industry

December 2016
Case

thredUP: Think Secondhand First

By: Thomas Eisenmann, Allison Ciechanover and Jeff Huizinga

In the fall of 2016, the management team at thredUP, the largest U.S. online retailer of second hand clothing, is deciding whether to expand into international markets. Over the past 12 months the 7-year-old startup, which had raised over $130 million in venture... View Details

Keywords: Scaling Start-ups; International Expansion; Online Consignment; Apparel; Internet and the Web; Expansion; Entrepreneurship; Global Strategy; Business Startups; E-commerce; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail Industry; San Francisco