Publications

April 2001
Teaching Note

MindSpring TN

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Steven Silverman and William A. Sahlman

Teaching Note for (9-899-178). For book only - not listed on case. View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Growth and Development Strategy; Mergers and Acquisitions; Organizational Culture; Competitive Strategy; Web Services Industry

27 Feb 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Seeking to Belong: How the Words of Internal and External Beneficiaries Influence Performance

Keywords: by Paul Green, Francesca Gino, and Bradley R. Staats

September 24, 2024
Article

4 Steps That Can Optimize Your Sales Process

By: Frank V. Cespedes, Scott Peterson and Daniel Weinfurter

Sales is a performance art where outcomes matter, so most advice here focuses on closing the sale. But a close is the result of actions and choices that occur earlier in the process: how much time and effort to spend on customer discovery (understanding what and to... View Details

Keywords: Sales; Customer Satisfaction; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Advantage

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Article

How Much Is a Reduction of Your Customers' Wait Worth? An Empirical Study of the Fast-Food Drive-Thru Industry Based on Structural Estimation Methods

In many service industries, companies compete with each other on the basis of the waiting time their customers experience, along with other strategic instruments such as the price they charge for their service. The objective of this paper is to conduct an empirical... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Price; Service Delivery; Mathematical Methods; Competition; Food and Beverage Industry; Service Industry

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21 Jul 2003
Research & Ideas

Don’t Get Buried in Customer Data—Use It

customers." He cites the example of a major hotel chain that asks guests to complete a multiple-question satisfaction survey via their room's TV set during their stay. When one guest answered "extremely dissatisfied" to all... View Details

Keywords: by Jean Ayers

01 Sep 2003
What Do You Think?

To Whom Should Boards be Accountable?

corporate managers and directors must first be accountable to and for the satisfaction of customers, the loyalty and opportunities for growth of employees [and others] ..." How does this play out in the consideration of bids for a... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

Fall 2020
Article

Competing on Customer Outcomes

By: Marco Bertini and Oded Koenigsberg

Customers ultimately want to pay for meaningful outcomes, not the products and services that presumably deliver them. Today, companies can be increasingly accountable for those outcomes with three kinds of technologically-enhanced revenue models. Adopt one to better... View Details

Keywords: Market Positioning; Revenue Strategy; Customer Satisfaction; Marketing Strategy; Business Model; Value Creation

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2016
Working Paper

The Impact of Supplier Inventory Service Level on Retailer Demand

By: Nathan Craig, Nicole DeHoratius and Ananth Raman

To set inventory service levels, suppliers must understand how changes in inventory service level affect demand. We build on prior research, which uses analytical models and laboratory experiments to study the impact of a supplier's service level on demand from... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Forecasting and Prediction; Learning; Consumer Behavior; Service Delivery; Performance Expectations; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Service Industry

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20 Aug 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Can Shared Service Delivery Increase Customer Engagement? A Study of Shared Medical Appointments

Keywords: by Ryan W. Buell, Kamalini Ramdas, and Nazlı Sönmez; Health

23 Mar 2017
Cold Call Podcast

Cost-cutting Leads to Turbulence in the Airline Industry

Keywords: Re: Susanna Gallani; Air Transportation; Travel

Article

Family Rituals Improve the Holidays

By: Ovul Sezer, Michael I. Norton, Francesca Gino and Kathleen Vohs

Rituals are central to family life. Three studies (N = 1098) tested the relationship between family rituals and holiday enjoyment and demonstrated that family rituals improve the holidays because they amplify family closeness and involvement in the experience. In Study... View Details

Keywords: Happiness; Behavior; Satisfaction; Family and Family Relationships

June 2009
Teaching Note

Online Restaurant Promotions

By: Benjamin Edelman

Teaching Note for [909034]. View Details

Keywords: Service Operations; Customer Satisfaction; Entertainment; Networks; Price; Corporate Strategy; Technology; Service Industry

06 Jun 2012
What Do You Think?

Is Something Wrong with the Way We Work?

change, team members succeeded in freeing up one night per week from their devices and their work. By the time the process had been implemented in more than 900 BCG teams globally Perlow could present evidence that it had enhanced such things as excitement about their... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Consulting

July 2016
Case

Cataumet Boats, Inc.

By: W. Earl Sasser and Mark Davis

Jaime Giancola, an MBA student, has recently completed an operations management course in which aggregate production planning (APP) was one of the topics. She believes that her family's business, Cataumet Boats, which her grandparents started and which her mother and... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Family Business; Production; Cost Management; Transportation; Customer Satisfaction

December 2013 (Revised March 2016)
Case

Managing Online Reviews on TripAdvisor

By: Thales Teixeira and Leora Kornfeld

In 2013, TripAdvisor was the most visited online travel site in the world. It hosted a massive repository of information on hotels and travel services, and provided millions of reviews written by consumers. Consumers were becoming increasingly motivated to read and... View Details

Keywords: Online Word-of-mouth; Online Reviews; Hotels; Internet and the Web; Marketing Communications; Marketing Reference Programs; Digital Marketing; Customer Satisfaction; Accommodations Industry; Travel Industry

07 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Market Investors Pay More for Resilient Companies

The steep market drop in the early days of the COVID-19 crisis is being used as a laboratory to study the importance of companies investing in stakeholder relations with their employees, suppliers, and customers, and how those investments could be strategic resources... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Financial Services

17 Dec 2001
Research & Ideas

Becoming the Next Real Estate Mogul

the firm's people was the most fulfilling of all. You need to know how to work with people, and that skill is largely experiential and driven by personality.—Kevin McCall Peter Palandjian (HBS MBA '93), chairman and CEO of Intercontinental Developers, Inc., recalled... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Construction; Real Estate

May 1997 (Revised October 2007)
Case

Teradyne: The Aurora Project

By: Joseph L. Bower

Three cases deal with the introduction of a new product to Teradyne's line of semiconductor test equipment. Teradyne: Managing Strategic Change provides historic and administrative background for the other two cases. This case deals with the problems facing the head of... View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Business Startups; Customer Satisfaction; Product Launch; Product Development; Corporate Strategy; Semiconductor Industry