Publications

19 Aug 2016
News

Lending a Hand to Small Businesses in Emerging Markets

In emerging markets, where traditional credit scores are rare, how can lenders decide who is creditworthy? Just ask, says DJ DiDonna (MBA 2010), cofounder and chief strategy officer of the for-profit Entrepreneurial Finance Lab. The... View Details

27 Oct 2002
Research & Ideas

Want a Happy Customer? Coordinate Sales and Marketing

together at every level—from the core central concepts of the strategy to the minute details of execution. New World, New Roles When companies generally made their money in a large number of mid-sized... View Details

Keywords: by Benson Shapiro

17 Oct 2019
Research & Ideas

‘Chick Beer’ for Women? Why Gender Marketing Repels More Than Sells

green,” she says. “But as soon as you put the label on the calculator, women tend to avoid it. Marketers may think that just because I’m a woman, I’m going View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Consumer Products

February 2000 (Revised April 2003)
Case

InSite Marketing Technology (A)

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Genevieve J.S. Feraud and Sheila L Marcelo

Introduces students to products and services that improve customers' online shopping experience. Also discusses the challenges of marketing new product concepts and finding funding for start-up ventures. View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Financing and Loans; Technological Innovation; Business or Company Management; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Service Delivery; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Service Industry; Web Services Industry

January 2011 (Revised April 2012)
Case

BBVA Compass: Marketing Resource Allocation

By: Sunil Gupta and Joseph Davies-Gavin

BBVA Compass, the 15th largest commercial bank in the U.S., is a part of the BBVA Group of Spain, the second largest bank in Spain with $755 billion in assets. In December 2010, Frank Sottosanti, Chief Marketing Officer of BBVA Compass, was reviewing the marketing... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Resource Allocation; Marketing Channels; Marketing Strategy; Performance Evaluation; Banking Industry; United States

09 Jan 2012
Research & Ideas

Location, Location, Location: The Strategy of Place

Going Global Expanding operations to another country brings a whole new set of complications, says Alcácer. For one, businesses that expand internationally need to adjust their... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

08 Dec 2020
News

Uber’s Strategy for Global Success

25 Oct 2010
HBS Case

Tesco’s Stumble into the US Market

makes ideal Harvard Business School case material for teaching everything from multinational strategy to on-the-ground logistics. Marketing professor John A. Quelch recently... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

August 2020 (Revised October 2024)
Case

Digital Marketing at HBS Online

By: Sunil Gupta and Rajiv Lal

In July 2020, the management team of Harvard Business School Online (HBS Online) had to decide how to allocate its marketing budget for fiscal year 2021 between various digital channels and its portfolio of courses. Since its launch in 2014, HBS Online had grown to... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Advertising; Digital Marketing; Marketing Channels; Brands and Branding; Business Education; Education Industry; United States; Boston

2008
Working Paper

Structural Closure and Exposure: Market Reactions to Announcements of Acquisitions and Divestitures

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski and Nitin Nohria

This paper develops an exchange-network perspective on corporate diversification and proposes two measures of corporate scope: structural closure and structural exposure. Structural closure focuses on exchanges of goods and services inside the firm... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Market Transactions; Diversification; Boundaries; Valuation

August 2003 (Revised July 2004)
Case

Marketing at The Vanguard Group

By: John A. Quelch and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Senior executives at Vanguard are evaluating their marketing strategy. In particular, they are looking at their approach to market segmentation, the organization of the marketing function, and the weight placed on marketing metrics in the corporate dashboard in light... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Segmentation

2021
Working Paper

Going by the Book: Valuation Ratios and Stock Returns

By: Ki-Soon Choi, Eric So and Charles C.Y. Wang

We study the use of firms’ book-to-market ratios (B/M) in value investing and its implications for comovements in firms’ stock returns and trading volumes. We show B/M has become increasingly detached from common alternative valuation ratios over time while also... View Details

Keywords: Valuation Ratios; Book-to-market Ratios; Investment Return; Investment; Decision Making

SSRN

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January 2003 (Revised November 2005)
Case

Endeavor-Determining A Growth Strategy

By: William A. Sahlman and Michael J. Roberts

Describes the progress of a nonprofit organization, Endeavor, focused on nurturing entrepreneurship in emerging markets. At the time of the case, it has successfully expanded to five Latin American countries and is contemplating the next phase in its growth.... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Nonprofit Organizations; Development Economics; Entrepreneurship; Emerging Markets; Policy; Growth and Development Strategy

September 2022 (Revised February 2023)
Case

EnergyNow: Powering a New Market

By: Alexander MacKay and James Barnett

In August 2022, EnergyNow co-founder and CEO Stuart MacWilliam (MBA 2015) considers the company strategy for building solar panels to provide power in South Africa’s recently deregulated energy market. View Details

21 Sep 2023
Blog Post

Hands-on Learning About Global Markets

its primarily word-of-mouth marketing strategies and develop more scalable channels to reach new customers. By increasing Ellie Care’s client base, it would also help the... View Details

21 Oct 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Market Interest in Nonfinancial Information

Keywords: by Robert G. Eccles, Michael P. Krzus & George Serafeim

March 2012 (Revised February 2013)
Background Note

The Hybrid Vehicle Market

By: Michael W. Toffel and Nazli Z. Uludere Aragon

This note describes the hybrid electic vehicle market, the results of different automaker strategies, and the environmental regulatory issues that can promote or inhibit market growth in the United States. Introduces students to the technologies and regulatory aspects... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Environmental Sustainability; Product Development; Information Technology; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Auto Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Japan; United States

Research Summary

Financial Markets and Corporate Governance

By: Dwight B. Crane

Corporate scandals beginning in the late 1990s focused renewed attention on corporate governance, but significant cracks in the governance system also contributed to recent problems. Deregulation and growth of financial markets, as well as changes in the competitive... View Details

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