Publications

SSRN

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27 Feb 2019
Research & Ideas

The Hidden Cost of a Product Recall

competitors to take advantage of the market opportunity,” she says. Danielle Kost is senior editor at Harvard Business School Working Knowledge. Image: Jarretera Related Reading: Mattel: Getting a Toy Recall Right Don’t Just... View Details

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

05 May 2008
Research & Ideas

Connecting with Consumers Using Deep Metaphors

invoked imagery of Noah's Ark, one of the most famous containers of all time that withstood a major catastrophe. Q: How do you see the future of marketing? Is marketing becoming more or less responsive to... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Consumer Products

28 Jun 2022
Book

The Moral Enterprise: How Two Companies Profit with Purpose

How can government and business work together in this fractious political moment, when finding solutions to pressing problems like inequality and climate change are more urgent than ever? Rebecca Henderson, Harvard University’s John and Natty McArthur University... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

August 2022
Article

Availability of New Medicines in the U.S. and Germany From 2004 to 2018

By: Katharina Blankart, Huseyin Naci and Amitabh Chandra

Importance: Germany's unique approach to coverage determination and pricing has ensured that effective medicines remain on the market, often at prices reduced through negotiation. However, less is known about trade-offs of this approach with regard to initial... View Details

Keywords: Market Entry and Exit; Price; Market Timing; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States; Germany

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2021
Working Paper

Stock Investors' Returns Are Exaggerated

By: Jesse M. Fried, Paul Ma and Charles C.Y. Wang

The stock market generates less wealth than it appears. We show that total shareholder return (TSR), the standard measure of stock investor performance, substantially exaggerates returns earned by these investors in aggregate, and thus by most investors. The main... View Details

Keywords: All-shareholder Returns; Capital Flows; Dividend Reinvestment; Equity Premium; Total Shareholder Returns; Stocks; Investment Return; Market Timing

SSRN

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13 Nov 2017
Research & Ideas

Want to Be Happier? Spend Some Money on Avoiding Household Chores

healthier campers if we eased up on the cooking, scrubbing, and grocery shopping and instead threw a little money at these problems. “We feel like we don’t have enough time to do everything we want to do, and that makes us feel like we’re... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

March 2017 (Revised February 2020)
Case

Corey Thomas and the IPO

By: Steven Rogers and Derrick Collins

Corey Thomas, the African American CEO of the company Rapid7, must decide if it is the right time to take the 15-year-old company public, as it stood poised to capitalize on what appeared to be the next frontier for digital technology markets—cybersecurity. In spite of... View Details

Keywords: Business Finance; Capital Markets; Private Equity; Internet and the Web; Initial Public Offering; Decision Making; Financial Services Industry; Technology Industry; Web Services Industry; United States

July 2012
Case

Revenue Solutions, LLC

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Ari Wasserman and Nick Esayian were both dissatisfied with their future prospects in their current careers. Wasserman, who managed an infomercial business for a direct response consumer marketing company, wanted more flexibility and ownership. Esayian was the CEO of... View Details

Keywords: Work-Life Balance; Partners and Partnerships; Small Business; Israel; United States

January 2023 (Revised December 2023)
Case

OhmConnect: Energizing the Future

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Jennifer Fonstad and Nicole Tempest Keller

Founded in 2013, OhmConnect was a free consumer web app that alerted customers about peak hours of electricity demand, and paid them to lower their energy use at home during these periods. The company sold the aggregated reductions generated by thousands of households... View Details

Keywords: App Development; Renewable Energy; Electricity Usage; Regulations; VC; Technology; Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC); Scalability; Applications and Software; Growth and Development Strategy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business Model; Venture Capital; Energy Industry; United States; California; Texas; Europe

June 1994 (Revised September 1994)
Background Note

Commercializing Technology: Imaginative Understanding of User Needs

By: Dorothy A. Leonard

The transformation of technology into commercially successful products is a process fraught with risk and uncertainty, and increasing pressure on time to market is exacerbating the difficulties. This note first describes a study conducted by Hewlett-Packard to improve... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Communication Strategy; Customers; Design; Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Product Development; Research; Risk and Uncertainty; Commercialization; Technology Adoption

14 Jul 2014
Research & Ideas

Pay Attention To Your ‘Extreme Consumers’

everyone. Click to watch. This past year, when it came time for students in the FIELD course to perform market research in advance of their trip overseas, Avery and Norton urged them to look for their own... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

08 Jun 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Location Choices Under Strategic Interactions

Keywords: by Juan Alcacer

October 2022 (Revised February 2024)
Case

Masdar City: Aiming for Sustainable and Profitable Real Estate

By: Boris Vallee and Fares Khrais

Masdar City broke ground in 2008 and was conceived by the Abu Dhabi government to be an international beacon of innovation in sustainable energy and real estate. It was also to be a profitable investment for the government. At first glance, the two goals pulled in... View Details

December 2001
Case

Cybersettle

By: Michael A. Wheeler and Gillian Morris

Cybersettle's management faced a dilemma: How could they turn their company, which provided confidential online settlement services for insurance claims, into a profitable enterprise? Having started during the heady days of Internet "dot-com fever," the company now had... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Bids and Bidding; Negotiation Process; Conflict and Resolution; Business Strategy; Commercialization; Internet; Insurance Industry

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January 2004 (Revised August 2005)
Case

Kikkoman Corporation: Consumer Focused Innovation

By: Rohit Deshpande and Hal Hogan

In May 2003, the president and CEO of Kikkoman Corp. sat in his Tokyo office weighing various options for strengthening the company's long-term growth. Kikkoman was the world's largest producer of soy sauce, largely due to its pioneering role since the 1950s as the... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Innovation Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Product Positioning; Adaptation; Competitive Strategy; Japan

25 Apr 2011
Research & Ideas

What CEOs Do, and How They Can Do it Better

what the boss is doing all day. For all of the minute-to-minute monitoring of employee performance from the time of Henry Ford onward, it's amazing how little any of us really know about how CEOs of major companies spend their time.... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

January 1989 (Revised December 1991)
Case

British Airways: ""Go for It, America!"" Promotion (A)

By: Stephen A. Greyser

Senior marketing executives of a major international airline are deciding on a strategy to address a crisis situation precipitated by a series of terrorist acts. The company is experiencing the worst downturn ever in its U.S.-U.K. travel business due to media reports... View Details

Keywords: Advertising Campaigns; Crime and Corruption; Crisis Management; Management Teams; Time Management; Marketing Strategy; Perception; Value Creation; Travel Industry; United Kingdom; United States

October 2019
Case

Kaspi.kz IPO

By: Victoria Ivashina and Esel Çekin

This case follows Kaspi.kz, a private equity (Baring Vostok) co-owned retail bank in Central Asia that evolved into a fintech, payments and e-commerce company. It provides insights into private equity financing, portfolio company management, and initial public offering... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Private Equity; Initial Public Offering; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Central Asia