Publications

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November 2021
Article

Ratings, Reviews, and the Marketing of New Products

By: Itay P. Fainmesser, Dominique Olié Lauga and Elie Ofek

We study how user-generated content (UGC) about new products impacts a firm's advertising and pricing decisions and the effect on profits and market dynamics. We construct a two-period model where consumers value quality and are heterogeneous in their taste for the new... View Details

Keywords: Online Reviews; Product Ratings; Social Networks; Word Of Mouth; Pricing; User-generated Content; Advertising; Product Marketing; Price; Consumer Behavior; Product Positioning; Social Media

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September 2004 (Revised March 2007)
Case

G.I. JOE: Marketing an Icon

In the winter of 2003, Billy Lagor, the Hasbro toy company's brand manager for G.I. JOE, faced a set of decisions that would ultimately determine the 2004 marketing plan for the G.I. JOE brand. Under consideration were three different ways to market the military action... View Details

Keywords: Product Positioning; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Consumer Products Industry; United States

13 Oct 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Market Competition, Government Efficiency, and Profitability Around the World

Keywords: by Paul M. Healy, George Serafeim, Suraj Srinivasan & Gwen Yu

2009
Working Paper

Farsighted Stability for Roommate Markets

By: Bettina-Elisabeth Klaus, Flip Klijn and Markus Walzl

Using a bi-choice graph technique (Klaus and Klijn, 2009), we show that a matching for a roommate market indirectly dominates another matching if and only if no blocking pair of the former is matched in the latter (Proposition 1). Using this characterization of... View Details

Keywords: Two-Sided Platforms; Marketplace Matching; Mathematical Methods; Balance and Stability

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May 2010
Case

Alpen Bank: Launching the Credit Card in Romania

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Sunru Yong

In 2006, the country manager for Alpen Bank in Romania, Gregory Carle, considers whether to recommend the launch of a credit card business. The firm rejected the idea several years earlier because of poor economic conditions in Romania. However, Romania is experiencing... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Credit; International Business; International Marketing; Product Introduction; Service Management; Credit Cards; Globalized Firms and Management; Product Positioning; Marketing Strategy; Service Delivery; Personal Finance; Product Launch; Banking Industry; European Union; Romania

Web

Creating Emerging Markets

Emerging Markets has conducted lengthy and impactful interviews with business leaders across the emerging world on topics including innovation , leadership , family business , business and education , and... View Details

2008
Working Paper

Structural Closure and Exposure: Formation of Structural Inequality in Managerial Labor Markets

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski

Positional advantages arise when actors obtain rewards attached to positions they occupy, but these rewards are not merited by their performance. Existing theory suggests that in competitive markets there should be no positional advantages. This paper proposes a model... View Details

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Jobs and Positions; Managerial Roles; Performance Improvement; Alignment; Competitive Advantage; Equality and Inequality

17 Aug 2022
News

To Serve and Protect the Markets

Every day, in her role as the director of the Atlanta Regional Office of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Nekia Hackworth Jones (MBA... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley

May 2022 (Revised July 2022)
Case

The Voice War Continues: Hey Google vs. Alexa vs. Siri in 2022

By: David B. Yoffie and Daniel Fisher

In 2022, after five years of pursuing a new "AI-first" strategy, Google had captured a sizeable share of the American and global markets for voice assistants. Google Assistant was used by hundreds of millions of users around the world, but Amazon retained the largest... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Artificial Intelligence; Deep Learning; Voice Assistants; Smart Home; Market Share; Globalized Markets and Industries; Competitive Strategy; Digital Platforms; AI and Machine Learning; Technology Industry; United States

20 Jul 2009
Research & Ideas

Markets or Communities? The Best Ways to Manage Outside Innovation

using market incentives (Apple's program to draw independent developers to its iPhone/iTouch platform.) We asked Lakhani to discuss in more detail View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

26 Jul 2006
Research & Ideas

The Strategic Way to Go to Market

Is there any distribution system more poorly conceived than the one used by most U.S. car manufacturers and dealers? In the prevailing system,... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

TeachingInterests

MBA Elective Curriculum Business-to-Business Marketing

Business markets differ from consumer markets in important ways. Typically, the buying process is more complex, the buying units and purchase criteria differ, and marketing decisions are more closely interrelated with firm-wide strategic choices. In addition,... View Details

08 Aug 2011
News

HBS Faculty on Downgrading US Debt

February 2010 (Revised March 2016)
Background Note

Marketing Analysis Toolkit: Break-even Analysis

By: Thomas J. Steenburgh and Jill Avery

Marketing managers are often called upon to make recommendations for or against programs that cost money to implement. Before expenditures are made, managers want to be sure that they will be getting a return on their investment. One way of assessing this is by... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Investment Return; Spending; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Marketing Strategy; Strategic Planning; Mathematical Methods

Article

Stakeholder Marketing 2.0

As more companies pursue "open innovation" and adopt social networking and Web 2.0 tools, there is an emerging opportunity for them to connect with a diverse body of stakeholders and incorporate their interests and ideas. However, this also introduces many new... View Details

Keywords: Social and Collaborative Networks; Business and Stakeholder Relations