Filter Results:
(717)
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(717)
- News (33)
- Research (636)
- Events (2)
- Multimedia (3)
- Faculty Publications (357)
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(717)
- News (33)
- Research (636)
- Events (2)
- Multimedia (3)
- Faculty Publications (357)
- 28 Oct 2009
- Lessons from the Classroom
HBS Begins Teaching Consumer Finance
Last spring HBS became the first top-ranked U.S. business school to offer a course in consumer finance. Jointly taught by HBS professor Peter Tufano and Harvard Law School professor Howell Jackson (HBS MBA '80), the elective course... View Details
- 05 May 2008
- Research & Ideas
Connecting with Consumers Using Deep Metaphors
authors of Marketing Metaphoria: What Deep Metaphors Reveal about the Minds of Consumers (HBS Press, 2008). Transformation is just one metaphor that finds expression in products that satisfy deeply held View Details
- 2018
- Article
Overcoming Barriers to Time-Saving: Reminders of Future Busyness Encourage Consumers to Buy Time
By: A. V. Whillans, Elizabeth W. Dunn and Michael I. Norton
Spending money on time-saving purchases improves happiness. Yet, people often fail to spend their money in this way. Because most people believe that the future will be less busy than the present, they may underweight the value of these purchases. We examine the impact... View Details
Keywords: Consumer Choice; Sharing Economy; Opportunity Cost; Time-as Money; Well-being; Time Management; Happiness; Perception; Behavior
Whillans, A. V., Elizabeth W. Dunn, and Michael I. Norton. "Overcoming Barriers to Time-Saving: Reminders of Future Busyness Encourage Consumers to Buy Time." Social Influence 13, no. 2 (2018): 117–124.
- April 1999 (Revised September 1999)
- Case
Compaq Computer: Consumer Notebook Group
By: David E. Bell and Ann Leamon
Presents the background for a video of a focus group on Compaq Computer's new consumer notebook. Engineers, manufacturers, and retailers had collaborated on the product design, which has been approved by the executive committee. A launch is scheduled for nine months... View Details
Keywords: Human Resources; Product Launch; Product Design; Outcome or Result; Social and Collaborative Networks; Corporate Strategy; Computer Industry
Bell, David E., and Ann Leamon. "Compaq Computer: Consumer Notebook Group." Harvard Business School Case 599-053, April 1999. (Revised September 1999.)
- August 2008 (Revised July 2011)
- Case
Consumer Payment Systems — United States
By: Benjamin Edelman and Andrei Hagiu
In 2008, the U.S. consumer payments landscape was characterized by the ongoing prevalence of credit and debit card networks, the decline of checks, the rise of stored value cards, and the growth of new payment methods such as PayPal, Bill Me Later, and decoupled debit.... View Details
Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Financial Management; Personal Finance; Digital Platforms; Motivation and Incentives; Competitive Strategy; Internet and the Web; United States
Edelman, Benjamin, and Andrei Hagiu. "Consumer Payment Systems — United States." Harvard Business School Case 909-006, August 2008. (Revised July 2011.) (request a courtesy copy.)
- 13 Sep 2010
- Research & Ideas
The Consumer Appeal of Underdog Branding
Biography," details her joint research about the trend and its implications for brand management. Keinan, an assistant professor in the Marketing Unit at Harvard Business School whose research on consumer behavior has been published... View Details
Keywords: by Martha Lagace
- 2025
- Article
Ideation with Generative AI—In Consumer Research and Beyond
By: Julian De Freitas, G. Nave and Stefano Puntoni
The use of large language models (LLMs) in consumer research is rapidly evolving, with applications including synthetic data generation, data analysis, and more. However, their role in creative ideation—a cornerstone of consumer research—remains underexplored. Drawing... View Details
De Freitas, Julian, G. Nave, and Stefano Puntoni. "Ideation with Generative AI—In Consumer Research and Beyond." Journal of Consumer Research (2025).
- 16 Apr 2018
- Research & Ideas
Can Consumers Be Saved From Their Misguided Decisions?
iStock Consumers make regretable decisions every day, even though easily available information should convince them to do otherwise: Twenty-six percent of consumers choose Advil or other branded headache... View Details
- 06 Jul 2015
- News
Brain on Sports Podcast: Psychology of rooting for a losing team
- 06 Dec 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
'Repayment-by-Purchase' Helps Consumers to Reduce Credit Card Debt
- 06 Dec 2022
- Research & Ideas
Latest Isn’t Always Greatest: Why Product Updates Capture Consumers
Because consumers gravitate to merchandise labeled as “updated,” even if the items are not necessarily improved, according to the results. "Once something says ‘revised’ on it, it makes you suspend critical judgment." “After showing... View Details
- 2012
- Article
Behavioral Economics and the Psychology of Fruit and Vegetable Consumption
By: Joe Price and Jason Riis
Behavioral economics is an emerging paradigm that challenges the assumptions and predictions of classical economics. This new paradigm emphasizes that consumers do not always make optimal use of available information nor do they always make choices and tradeoffs in a... View Details
Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Food; Social Marketing; Decision Choices and Conditions; Consumer Behavior; Nutrition
Price, Joe, and Jason Riis. "Behavioral Economics and the Psychology of Fruit and Vegetable Consumption." Journal of Food Studies 1, no. 1 (2012): 1–13.
- January 2004
- Background Note
Why Developers Don't Understand Why Consumers Don't Buy
Looks at the psychological biases developers bring to the new product development process. Identifies three reasons why developers may do a poor job of identifying the demand for an innovative, new concept or product: (1) the self-selection bias, (2) differing initial... View Details
- 01 Sep 2009
- News
Consumer Finance Makes HBS Debut
TUFANO: His new consumer finance elective is part of a broader effort to legitimize the field as an important area for research and teaching. Last spring HBS became the first top-ranked U.S. business school to offer a course in View Details
- 30 Sep 2002
- Research & Ideas
Use the Psychology of Pricing To Keep Customers Returning
Buyers are more apt to use a product right after they purchase it, a fact you need to ponder as you consider how to keep customers coming back for more. In this e-mail interview with HBS Working Knowledge's Manda Mahoney, Harvard Business School professor John... View Details
Keywords: by Manda Mahoney
- March 2019
- Article
Consuming Together (versus Separately) Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
By: Ximena Garcia-Rada, Lalin Anik and Dan Ariely
Across three studies, we investigate how consumers in romantic relationships make decisions when choosing an item to share with their partner. We show that consumers will forgo their preferred alternative for an option that is more aligned with the preferences of their... View Details
Keywords: Shared Consumption; Close Relationships; Conflicting Preferences; Spending; Decision Making; Relationships; Motivation and Incentives
Garcia-Rada, Ximena, Lalin Anik, and Dan Ariely. "Consuming Together (versus Separately) Makes the Heart Grow Fonder." Marketing Letters 30, no. 1 (March 2019): 27–43.
- 06 Sep 2016
- News
Why psychological safety matters and what to do about it
- 2014
- Book
Consumer Lending in France and America: Credit and Welfare
By: Gunnar Trumbull
Why did America embrace consumer credit over the course of the twentieth century, when most other countries did not? How did American policy makers by the late twentieth century come to believe that more credit would make even poor families better off? This book traces... View Details
Trumbull, Gunnar. Consumer Lending in France and America: Credit and Welfare. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
- 2007
- Working Paper
Digital Interactivity: Unanticipated Consequences for Markets, Marketing, and Consumers
By: John A. Deighton and Leora Kornfeld
The digital interactive transformation in marketing is not unfolding, as many thought it would, on the model of direct marketing. That model anticipated that digital media using rich profiling data would intrude marketing messaging more deeply and more precisely into... View Details
Keywords: Communication Intention and Meaning; Interactive Communication; Marketing Communications; Consumer Behavior; Social and Collaborative Networks; Internet and the Web
Deighton, John A., and Leora Kornfeld. "Digital Interactivity: Unanticipated Consequences for Markets, Marketing, and Consumers." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 08-017, September 2007.
- December 1994 (Revised March 1996)
- Case
Ciba Consumer Pharmaceuticals' Acutrim: Challenges and Opportunities in Today's Diet Industry
By: Nancy F. Koehn and Rebecca Voorheis
Since its introduction in 1983, Acutrim has been a major player in the U.S. appetite suppressant market and in the broader diet industry. This case focuses on the strategic, regulatory, marketing, and financial challenges this product and the rapidly changing diet... View Details
Keywords: Product Marketing; Market Design; Industry Structures; Public Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Opportunities; Food and Beverage Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States
Koehn, Nancy F., and Rebecca Voorheis. "Ciba Consumer Pharmaceuticals' Acutrim: Challenges and Opportunities in Today's Diet Industry." Harvard Business School Case 795-043, December 1994. (Revised March 1996.)