Publications

06 Oct 2014
Research & Ideas

Why Businesses Need a Language Strategy

language skills meet the demands of their work and that employees aren't over- or underestimated based on their language skills. Interestingly, language skills can seem abstract or amorphous. In reality, for... View Details

Keywords: Re: Tsedal Neeley

03 Feb 2015
First Look

First Look: February 3

Publications February 2015 Journal of Finance The Effect of Providing Peer Information on Retirement Savings Decisions By: Beshears, John, James J. Choi, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian, and Katherine L. Milkman Abstract—Using a... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 1998 (Revised November 1999)
Case

Chantal Cookware Corp.

By: H. Kent Bowen, Paul W. Marshall and Stephanie Dodson

Chantal Cookware is a small, private company with a 15-year record of success in the design, assembly, and sale of high-end cookware. It experiences serious setbacks when consumers' tastes shift from colorful enamel-on-steel products to commercial-style cookware.... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Strategic Planning; Market Entry and Exit; Product Positioning; Trends; Manufacturing Industry

March 2006
Background Note

Customer-Introduced Variability in Service Operations

By: Frances X. Frei

Presents a typology of customer-introduced variability and offers guidance on how to manage each type. Central to the ideas developed is how to mitigate the effects of the apparent trade-off between reducing variability and diminishing the service experience or... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Six Sigma; Consumer Behavior; Service Operations; Performance Efficiency

10 Oct 2007
First Look

First Look: First Look: October 10

Leonard and V. Kasturi Rangan Periodical:Directors & Boards 3, no. 4 (winter 2006) Abstract Companies today face increasing demands for corporate social responsibility (CSR). Correspondingly, they have... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

08 Mar 2004
Research & Ideas

Secret to Success: Go for “Just Enough”

maximization as your standard, most people's sense of success demands high scores in many differing categories. Sometimes these goals contradict each other: Wealth and best friends who love you for yourself,... View Details

Keywords: by Laura Nash & Howard Stevenson

11 Sep 2019
Research & Ideas

Germany May Have the Answer for Reducing Drug Prices

cover 90 percent of patients, jointly negotiate drug prices with manufacturers. In America's more fragmented and secretive system, pharmacy benefit managers act as mediators during many price negotiations. German View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Health

26 Jan 2016
First Look

January 26, 2016

Allianz Turkey executives focus their initial efforts on the claims process of the automobile insurance business—a lowly rated segment of the insurance industry by their policyholders. They begin by creating a map of the customer experience View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

19 Nov 2013
First Look

First Look: November 19

a large stake in Dell, Inc., accused Dell of trying to steal the company, and urged shareholders to rebel and demand a "leveraged recapitalization" instead. This case... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

05 Nov 2001
Research & Ideas

Venture Capital Goes Boom—or Bust?

financier, a public stock offering, or some other source. But potential investors often greet entrepreneurs' business plans with skepticism, or worse, turn them down entirely. Alternatively, some investors demand a large equity stake in... View Details

Keywords: by Paul A. Gompers & Josh Lerner

April 2005 (Revised March 2006)
Case

Change at Whirlpool Corporation (A)

By: Jan W. Rivkin, Dorothy A. Leonard and Gary Hamel

In 1998, the CEO of Whirlpool Corp. decides to change the company's strategy significantly to escape an increasingly unattractive "stalemate" in the appliance industry. The change he proposes involves a fundamental shift in the company's focus--from manufacturing to... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Competitive Advantage; Strategic Planning; Production; Brands and Branding; Management Teams; Consumer Products Industry; United States

March 2014
Teaching Note

Oral Rehydration Therapy

By: Nava Ashraf and Natalie Kindred

This Teaching Note accompanies the case "Oral Rehydration Therapy" (911-035). The case highlights the puzzlingly high rate of diarrhea-related child mortality in developing countries despite the existence of a simple, effective treatment: oral rehydration therapy... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Innovation Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Developing Countries and Economies; Technological Innovation; Distribution Channels; Emerging Markets; Consumer Behavior; Performance Consistency; Performance Evaluation; Health Industry; Africa; Asia

15 Nov 2011
First Look

First Look: November 15

Berkley Professor Dara O'Rourke, is at a critical junction. The venture capital-funded company has yet to find the business model to monetize a very promising product that provides consumers and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

22 Jul 2002
Research & Ideas

How Business Strategy Tamed the “Invisible Hand”

presumably based on its distinctive competence, rather than consciously serving the customer. Levitt thus argued that when companies fail, "it usually means that the product fails to adapt to the constantly changing patterns of View Details

Keywords: by Pankaj Ghemawat

2010
Working Paper

Advertising Disclosures: Measuring Labeling Alternatives in Internet Search Engines

By: Benjamin Edelman and Duncan S. Gilchrist

In an online experiment, we measure users' interactions with search engines, both in standard configurations and in modified versions with clearer labels identifying search engine advertisements. In particular, for a random subset of users, we change "Sponsored links"... View Details

Keywords: Online Advertising; Interactive Communication; Corporate Disclosure; Labels; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Internet; Search Technology

Read Now

07 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

The Steve Jobs Legacy

how to create culture. His work at Apple transcended business to marketing iconic products that consumers imbued with human attributes. iPod, iPhone, and iPad are more than technology. They are objects of... View Details

Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty; Computer; Technology

19 Dec 2005
Research & Ideas

Public Education Goes to School

challenges. In business, strategy is usually a response to conditions that exist "out there"—forces like competition and demand drive innovation and performance... View Details

Keywords: by Mallory Stark; Education

November 2016 (Revised December 2016)
Case

Anthology: Pivoting the Business Model

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Christopher Payton

In July 2014, after 18 months and eight unsuccessful product launches, the CEO of Yabbly has agreed to sell his company to a larger, well-funded startup, providing a return of capital for his investors and a home for his team. Two weeks prior to the scheduled closing,... View Details

Keywords: Mergers ＆ Acquisitions; Business Model; Business Plan; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Innovation Strategy; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Internet and the Web; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Exit or Shutdown; Fairness; Valuation; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; North America; United States; Seattle