Publications

September 2003
Case

Upromise 2002

By: William A. Sahlman

Describes a set of decisions confronting the senior management of a company that has established a loyalty rewards program allocating cash to tax-advantaged college savings accounts for participants. The company has recruited a new CEO and needs to raise additional... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Management Teams; Capital; Internet and the Web; Decisions

November 2000
Case

UPromise

By: Michael J. Roberts and William A. Sahlman

Describes the development of UPromise, a company that has developed a loyalty program through which corporate partners can contribute to funds that finance the education of consumers' children. Presents the accomplishments prior to the company's second round of... View Details

Keywords: Higher Education; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Financial Markets; Programs

October 2011 (Revised August 2017)
Case

PunchTab, Inc.

By: Ramana Nanda, William R. Kerr and Lauren Barley

PunchTab was a Silicon Valley startup, founded in 2011, that was developing an Internet-based turnkey customer loyalty program for website owners, mobile applications developers, and brands. Founder/CEO Ranjith Kumaran must make strategic decisions about how to fund... View Details

Keywords: Financial Strategy; Investment; Investment Funds; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; San Francisco

September 2002 (Revised October 2002)
Case

Orient-Express Hotels

By: Frances X. Frei and Corey B. Hajim

Describes how a hotel and leisure company provides high-end service through its distinctive hotels and trains. Provides an opportunity to learn about the company's unusual quality practices and puts into doubt the unquestioned use of well-known practices, such as... View Details

Keywords: Service Operations; Quality; Management; Opportunities; Practice; Programs; Motivation and Incentives; Brands and Branding; Service Industry; Accommodations Industry

August 2014 (Revised December 2015)
Case

Showrooming at Best Buy

By: Thales Teixeira and Elizabeth Anne Watkins

Best Buy is a consumer electronics retailer with nearly 2,000 stores worldwide. In 2012, the rising popularity of price-matching apps for mobile phones made price differences between retailers transparent, online and offline. Shoppers' desire to test electronics... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Price; Consumer Behavior; Applications and Software; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Retail Industry; Electronics Industry

09 Feb 2012
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Online Marketing

Questions To Be Answered: What's the strategy for managing consumer reviews on my site? Do people watch online video ads?. How can I get more out of my customer loyalty campaign? Are online coupon programs... View Details

Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty; Technology

24 May 2011
First Look

First Look: May 24

and further development of the original cluster framework. The fourth part then explores the policy implications to be drawn from Porter's work on clusters. Porter develops recommendations on how to leverage clusters as a tool in economic development. While many... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

05 Jul 2006
Working Paper Summaries

The Presentation of Self in the Information Age

Keywords: by John A. Deighton; Advertising

September 2014 (Revised March 2015)
Case

Managing Multi-Media Audiences at WHDH (Boston)

By: Thales Teixeira and V. Kasturi Rangan

WHDH's Channel 7 News rose to the #1 position in Boston-area news broadcasting through its embrace of an innovative format and for affiliating with NBC. Since the early 2000s, however, other news programs had copied their format, and young audiences had begun to use... View Details

Keywords: Online News; Television Advertising; Attention Economics; Cross-media Efforts; Competition; Internet and the Web; Consumer Behavior; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Marketing Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Digital Marketing; Television Entertainment; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Boston

July 1993
Case

Air Miles Canada

By: Thomas O. Jones, Leonard A. Schlesinger and Roger H. Hallowell

Air Miles Canada both increases customer loyalty by rewarding shopping frequency at specified merchants, and enables its sponsors to develop a new, more complex understanding of their customers' (and potential customers') shopping habits, thus making future customer... View Details

Keywords: Programs; Customer Relationship Management; Information Management; Air Transportation Industry; Canada

January 2021 (Revised March 2021)
Case

THE YES: Reimagining the Future of E-Commerce with Artificial Intelligence (AI)

By: Jill Avery, Ayelet Israeli and Emma von Maur

THE YES, a multi-brand shopping app launched in May 2020 offered a new type of buying experience for women’s fashion, driven by a sophisticated algorithm that used data science and machine learning to create and deliver a personalized store for every shopper, based on... View Details

Keywords: Data; Data Analytics; Artificial Intelligence; AI; AI Algorithms; AI Creativity; Fashion; Retail; Retail Analytics; E-Commerce Strategy; Platform; Platforms; Big Data; Preference Elicitation; Preference Prediction; Predictive Analytics; App Development; ＂Marketing Analytics＂; Advertising; Mobile App; Mobile Marketing; Apparel; Online Advertising; Referral Rewards; Referrals; Female Ceo; Female Entrepreneur; Female Protagonist; Analytics and Data Science; Analysis; Creativity; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Consumer Behavior; Demand and Consumers; Forecasting and Prediction; Marketing Channels; Digital Marketing; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; AI and Machine Learning; E-commerce; Digital Platforms; Fashion Industry; Retail Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

Article

Why Am I Seeing This Ad? The Effect of Ad Transparency on Ad Effectiveness

By: Tami Kim, Kate Barasz and Leslie K. John

Given the increasingly specific ways marketers can target ads, many consumers and regulators are demanding ad transparency: disclosure of how consumers’ personal information was used to generate ads. We investigate how and why ad transparency impacts ad effectiveness.... View Details

Keywords: Digital Marketing; Customization and Personalization; Information; Trust; Performance Effectiveness

Read Now

09 Apr 2018
Sharpening Your Skills

The Dark Side of Performance Bonuses

field research studies what motivates hairdressers in Zambia to provide HIV/AIDS education in their salons. Is Group Loyalty a Force for Good or Evil? Many organizations try to foster employee loyalty, but at a risk. Researchers discover... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

June 2005 (Revised October 2005)
Case

Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A)

By: Thomas J. DeLong, Christoper Chang and Scott Schweitzer

Roy Williams, head coach of the Kansas University Men's Basketball Team, was facing a major decision. The recent resignation of the coach at the University of North Carolina (UNC) had lead to speculation that Williams, a UNC alumnus, would be named as its new coach.... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Resignation and Termination; Job Offer; Leading Change; Management Succession; Performance Improvement; Personal Development and Career; Sports; Kansas; North Carolina

May 2021 (Revised February 2024)
Teaching Note

THE YES: Reimagining the Future of E-Commerce with Artificial Intelligence (AI)

By: Ayelet Israeli and Jill Avery

THE YES, a multi-brand shopping app launched in May 2020 offered a new type of buying experience for women’s fashion, driven by a sophisticated algorithm that used data science and machine learning to create and deliver a personalized store for every shopper, based on... View Details

Keywords: Data; Data Analytics; Artificial Intelligence; AI; AI Algorithms; AI Creativity; Fashion; Retail; Retail Analytics; E-Commerce Strategy; Platform; Platforms; Big Data; Preference Elicitation; Predictive Analytics; App Development; ＂Marketing Analytics＂; Advertising; Mobile App; Mobile Marketing; Apparel; Online Advertising; Referral Rewards; Referrals; Female Ceo; Female Entrepreneur; Female Protagonist; Analytics and Data Science; Analysis; Creativity; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Consumer Behavior; Demand and Consumers; Forecasting and Prediction; Marketing Channels; Digital Marketing; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; AI and Machine Learning; E-commerce; Digital Platforms; Fashion Industry; Retail Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

February 2013 (Revised March 2013)
Case

Agero: Enhancing Capabilities for Customers

By: Robert Simons and Natalie Kindred

This case illustrates the importance of choosing a primary customer as the basis for organization design. Cross Country Group managers adjusted resource allocation, organization design and performance measures over time to transform Cross Country Group from an... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Management; Entrepreneurial Gap; Entrepreneurship; Auto Industry; Insurance; Performance Management; Performance Measurement; Performance Measures; Performance Pressure; Decisions; Family Business; Resource Allocation; Organizational Design; Customer Focus and Relationships; Performance Evaluation; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Industry