Margins - Publications - Faculty & Research

14 Mar 2023
In Practice

What Does the Failure of Silicon Valley Bank Say About the State of Finance?

bank earnings or cash flows are relatively insensitive to changes in interest rates. Additionally, the stability of net interest margin (interest received minus interest paid) is pointed to as evidence that banks have little interest rate... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Financial Services; Banking

17 Jun 2017
Research & Ideas

Amazon, Whole Foods Deal a Big Win for Consumers

Source: 400tmax Editor's Note. Online retailing behemoth Amazon announced June 16 that it would acquire upscale grocery chain Whole Foods Market in a deal valued at more than $13 billion. Though the company has dabbled with the idea of a brick-and-mortar footprint in... View Details

Keywords: by Jose Alvarez and Len Schlesinger; Retail

27 Jan 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Discretion Within the Constraints of Opportunity: Gender Homophily and Structure in a Formal Organization

Keywords: by Adam M. Kleinbaum, Toby E. Stuart & Michael L. Tushman

Research Summary

Overview

By: Reshmaan N. Hussam

Engaged with field work in South Asia and East Africa, Professor Hussam places a focus on exploring questions with strong theoretical motivation in the economics literature as well as relevant downstream policy implications. Her research spans four broad interests.... View Details

27 Jul 2020
Book

Reflection: The Pause That Brings Peace and Productivity

current one. Some doodled their thoughts, some tried to look at a problem from the perspective of someone they admired or someone who might be badly affected by it, and some tried to see if they had feelings or perspectives on the margins... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

16 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Restaurant Revolution: How the Industry Is Fighting to Stay Alive

from others seeking work. Many other restaurant employees, particularly front-of-house tipped workers, earned more while working than receiving unemployment compensation and want to return quickly, but are concerned their income will drop because of less-than-capacity... View Details

Keywords: by Michael S. Kaufman, Lena G. Goldberg, and Jill Avery; Food & Beverage

03 Jan 2023
Book

Confront Workplace Inequity in 2023: Dig Deep, Build Bridges, Take Collective Action

workplace interaction. Digging requires those belonging to power-dominant groups to open up and learn more about the perspectives of marginalized groups. On a personal level, that may mean considering how one’s upbringing and environment... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

13 Feb 2012
Research & Ideas

The Case Against Racial Colorblindness

policies, an issue Norton addresses in a recent working paper, Racial Colorblindness: Emergence, Practice, and Implications, cowritten with Evan P. Apfelbaum of MIT and Samuel R. Sommers of Tufts University. "Though once emblematic of the fight for equal opportunity... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

10 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

The Little Understood Problem Confronting Diverse Workplaces

if someone has trouble ‘fitting in.’ Moreover, the people whose job it is to acculturate members of marginalized groups into these dominant group expectations are also finding it challenging. Building productive relationships across... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

06 May 2021
HBS Case

How Four Women Made Miami More Equitable for Startups

her hometown of New Orleans before moving to Miami. Gibson shifted her focus to cultivating higher-wage jobs in marginalized communities and drew on her background in environmental sciences to form EcoTech Visions, a company providing... View Details

Keywords: by Carolyn DiPaolo

27 Feb 2019
Research & Ideas

The Hidden Cost of a Product Recall

patients. “The extremely high profit margins in medical devices offers a setting in which the risks are often overwhelmed by the potential rewards to innovate, especially when competitors face their own product failures,” according to the... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Manufacturing; Consumer Products; Auto; Medical Devices & Supplies

22 Feb 2018
Book

The New History of American Capitalism

taking the subject as given, they explore it as politically constituted. If “the market” is neither a discrete phenomenon nor marginal to human experience, then basic structures of governance become important. Rather than assuming that... View Details

Keywords: Manufacturing

January 2024
Case

Sprouts Farmers Market

By: Rajiv Lal, Forest L. Reinhardt and Natalie Kindred

Sprouts Farmers Markets (Sprouts) is a Phoenix, Arizona-based chain of 400-plus natural foods stores in 23 U.S. states and $6.4 billion in sales as of 2022. In its product assortment, brand image, and store environment, Sprouts emphasizes freshness, health, innovation,... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; Brands and Branding; Strategic Planning; Sales; Business Strategy; Expansion; Product Positioning; Marketing Strategy; Competition; Retail Industry; United States; Arizona

Citation

Educators

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30 Jul 2012
Research & Ideas

How Technology Adoption Affects Global Economies

The dynamics of technology adoption are very persistent," Comin says. Extensive Vs. Intensive Margins While those findings were significant, Comin was puzzled by one apparent paradox related to the fact that technology adoption lags have... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

14 Dec 2007
Op-Ed

When Your Product Becomes a Commodity

commoditization is a customer relationship management system that permits computation of the profit margin associated with each customer, based on price-paid less cost-to-serve. Companies need to invest in these information systems early... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

19 Apr 2004
Research & Ideas

Birth of the American Salesman

customers to buy their company's product rather than a competitor's, championing an Electrolux vacuum cleaner rather than a Hoover, for instance. Salesmen could be effective in this regard, pointing out marginal differences between one... View Details

Keywords: by Laura Linard

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

Citation

Find at Harvard

09 Nov 2021
Research & Ideas

The Simple Secret of Effective Mentoring Programs

need mentoring, they are likely to see, at best, only marginal productivity gains, while broad-based mentoring programs, with no opt-out provision, are likely to generate more impressive results, says Stanton. The companies that stand to... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

31 May 2011
Research & Ideas

Japan Disaster Shakes Up Supply-Chain Strategies

Taiwan, stored in Hong Kong, aggregated in parts, and sent in kits to China for assembly." All the suppliers in this chain are typically operating on very thin margins and tight schedules—any disruption can have severe consequences... View Details

Keywords: by Dennis Fisher; Auto; Technology; Computer; Electronics

09 Mar 2003
Research & Ideas

Six Keys to Building New Markets by Unleashing Disruptive Innovation

minimills entered the rebar market, the integrated mills were happy to exit it. Their gross margins in the rebar business were a mere 7 percent, and rebar accounted for only 4 percent of the industry's tonnage. So the integrated mills... View Details

Keywords: by Clayton M. Christensen, Michael E. Raynor & Scott D. Anthony

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