Publications

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21 Feb 2007
Op-Ed

What a U.N. Partnership with Big Business Could Accomplish

The Case For Corporate Support There are many reasons why far-sighted executives should be interested in supporting the concept of a World Development Corporation. The idea that corporate legitimacy stems from the satisfaction of shareholders and competition to serve... View Details

Keywords: by George C. Lodge & Craig Wilson

10 Nov 2003
Research & Ideas

The Hard Numbers on Social Investments

to social problems through market solutions, the rate of return on these deals should be at least as high as traditional early stage investments. The big winners were in the technology and health care sectors, and in another group of... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls

14 May 2013
First Look

First Look: May 14

relationship in practice. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=38678 Exclusive Preferential Placement as Search Diversion: Evidence from Flight Search By: Edelman, Benjamin, and Zhenyu Lai Abstract—We analyze the incentives for a two-sided... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Article

A 680,000-Person Megastudy of Nudges to Encourage Vaccination in Pharmacies

By: Katherine L. Milkman, Linnea Gandhi, Mitesh S. Patel, Heather N. Graci, Dena M. Gromet, Hung Ho, Joseph S. Kay, Timothy W. Lee, Jake Rothschild, Jonathan E. Bogard, Ilana Brody, Christopher F. Chabris, Edward Chang, Gretchen B. Chapman, Jennifer E. Dannals, Noah J. Goldstein, Amir Goren, Hal Hershfield, Alex Hirsch, Jillian Hmurovic, Samantha Horn, Dean Karlan, Ariella S. Kristal, Cait Lamberton, Michael N. Meyer, Allison H. Oakes, Maurice E. Schweitzer, Maheen Shermohammed, Jaochim H. Talloen, Caleb Warren, Ashley V. Whillans, Kuldeep N. Yadav, Julian J. Zlatev, Ron Berman, Chalanda N. Evans, Rahul Ladhania, Jens Ludwig, Nina Mazar, Sendhil Mullainathan, Christopher K. Snider, Jann Spiess, Eli Tsukayama, Lyle Ungar, Christophe Van den Bulte, Kevin G. Volpp and Angela L. Duckworth

Encouraging vaccination is a pressing policy problem. To assess whether text-based reminders can encourage pharmacy vaccination and what kinds of messages work best, we conducted a megastudy. We randomly assigned 689,693 Walmart pharmacy patients to receive one of 22... View Details

Keywords: Vaccination; Vaccines; Nudges; Communication Strategy; Communication Technology; Consumer Behavior; Health Care and Treatment

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September 2002
Case

Align Technology, Inc.: Matching Manufacturing Capacity to Sales Demand

By: H. Kent Bowen and Jonathan P Groberg

Align Technology is a four-year-old medical products company that has invented a new product requiring new manufacturing processes. Demand for the new product has grown more slowly than initial forecasts predicted, and the cost structure is preventing the company from... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Problems and Challenges; Product; Forecasting and Prediction; Marketing Strategy; Sales; Demand and Consumers; Production; Health Industry

July 2013 (Revised March 2015)
Case

Carl Zeiss and Free-Form Production: Can We See Clearly Yet?

By: Willy Shih

The prescription eyeglass lens industry was complicated and highly fragmented, and even though many of the tools and techniques employed have been relatively unchanged over the last century, there was still a surprising pace of innovation. An aging population around... View Details

Keywords: History; Demand and Consumers; Disruptive Innovation; Vertical Integration; Theory; Technology Adoption; Health Industry

October 2020 (Revised November 2023)
Case

COVID-19 Testing at Everlywell

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Olivia Hull

In March 2020, as COVID-19 spreads rapidly across the U.S., Everlywell founder Julia Cheek considers how to respond as a small start-up specializing in at-home lab testing. After making dramatic budget cuts, she decides to pivot the organization to address the... View Details

25 Oct 2016
First Look

October 25, 2016

understanding of how consumers adopt innovations with how firms effectively acquire, serve, and retain customers. The result is a lens through which to view the commercial potential of innovations and a powerful vehicle for placing a... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

08 Sep 2015
First Look

September 8, 2015

injuries they had sustained during their time in the NFL and the resulting health problems they attributed to these injuries. In part, the lawsuit alleged that the NFL had not been forthcoming with players about the View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

15 Jan 2018
Research & Ideas

A Better Business Model for Fighting Cancer

words, create a better end-to-end consumer experience, with the result being a larger, deeper pool of data to draw on and drive progress in new therapies. Data and analytics “It takes an abundance of data to answer the questions that... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Health; Health

20 Nov 2012
First Look

First Look: November 20

rational for a platform to limit the number of applications available on it. Our model is based on the observation that even if users prefer application variety, applications often also exhibit direct network effects. When there are direct network effects, users prefer... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

16 May 2016
HBS Case

Food Safety Economics: The Cost of a Sick Customer

heightened consumer awareness and expectations make this appear not to be the case.” Global food safety standards are lacking Unsafe food, such as fruits and vegetables contaminated with feces, clearly creates a huge public View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Food & Beverage

20 Jan 2017
Research & Ideas

Here’s How Businessman Trump Is Likely to Approach the Presidency

vantage point, not in sight here. I don’t see it. And I’m most troubled by that. Push and pull marketing to build public support John A. Quelch, Charles Edward Wilson Professor of Business Administration and professor in health policy and... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese

November 1998
Case

Wegmans Food Markets: Diabetes Counseling

By: Ray A. Goldberg, David E. Bell and Ann Leamon

Danny Wegman, president of Wegmans Food Markets, is trying to decide how to evaluate the success of a nutrition-counseling program for diabetics, and whether and how to expand the program beyond the two stores currently involved. Wegmans, with 57 stores and $2.3... View Details

Keywords: Performance Evaluation; Expansion; Programs; Human Needs; Financial Management; Health Care and Treatment; Nutrition; Consumer Behavior; Pharmaceutical Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

October 1991 (Revised August 2000)
Case

Becton Dickinson & Company: VACUTAINER Systems Division (Condensed)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Frank V. Cespedes

Becton Dickinson, a phenomenally successful company with an 80% market share in the blood collection needles and syringes market faces a change in the customer buying environment (cost containment pressures at hospitals). This forces a reevaluation of the company's... View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Customer Satisfaction; Demand and Consumers; Market Participation; Distribution Channels; Success; Corporate Strategy; Value Creation; Health Industry