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- Faculty Publications (535)
- August 1995 (Revised January 1997)
- Exercise
Consumer Behavior Exercise (E)
By: John A. Deighton and Susan M. Fournier
Students are instructed to interview a recent purchaser of a high-involvement product or service in depth about his/her ownership and usage experiences. The exercise provides students with first-hand understanding of important concepts in consumption domain (e.g.,... View Details
Keywords: Consumer Behavior
- August 1995 (Revised January 1997)
- Exercise
Consumer Behavior Exercise (F)
By: John A. Deighton and Susan M. Fournier
Students are instructed to interview a recent purchaser of a high-involvement/ego-expressive product or service in depth about his/her ownership and usage experiences. The exercise provides students with first-hand understanding of important concepts in consumption... View Details
Keywords: Consumer Behavior
- August 1995
- Case
Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.: IT Organization and Architecture Challenges
By: Richard L. Nolan
Presents the outcome of Air Products ICON decentralization projects. New issues are explored, including the challenges of having a decentralized MIS staff, global network, client/server architecture, new data center issues, outsourcing, a new highly strategic customer... View Details
- June 1995 (Revised September 2019)
- Teaching Note
Richardson Sheffield
By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Ashish Nanda
This note was prepared to aid instructors in the use of "Richardson Sheffield," HBS No. 392-089. The case traces Bryan Upton’s 20-plus years as managing director of a Sheffield-based cutlery company and describes the strategic and organizational actions he took to... View Details
Keywords: Development; General Management; Human Resources; Management; Leadership; Strategy; United Kingdom
- February 1995 (Revised June 1999)
- Case
Chemical Bank: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Norman Klein
The retail bank division of Chemical Bank faces declining margins and increased competition in its credit and deposit gathering and processing business. It wishes to implement a new strategy to become a preferred financial service provider to target customer groups.... View Details
- Article
A Brand's Eye View of Response Segmentation in Consumer Choice Behavior
By: Randolph E. Bucklin, Sunil Gupta and Sangman Han
- November 1994 (Revised May 1998)
- Background Note
Strategic Sales Management: A Boardroom Issue
By: Benson P. Shapiro, Stephen X. Doyle and Adrian J. Slywotsky
Explains why sales management has become an increasingly important and complex topic for top managers. Demonstrates the financial impact of a superior salesforce and then describes a way to gain superiority. The focus is on a salesforce that is responsive to customer... View Details
- June 1994 (Revised September 1994)
- Background Note
Commercializing Technology: Imaginative Understanding of User Needs
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
- June 1994 (Revised September 1994)
- Background Note
Beating the Commodity Magnet
By: V. Kasturi Rangan and George T. Bowman
All markets follow a cycle of growth and maturity, then commoditization and decline. This note argues that while commoditization of an industry may seem inevitable, the better managed firms find a way to make money in the commodity cycle. These firms know how and when... View Details
- May 1994
- Background Note
Segmenting Customers in Mature Industrial Markets: An Application
In mature industrial markets, segmenting customers by size, industry, or product benefits alone rarely is sufficient. Customer behavior regarding trade-offs between price and service also becomes an important criterion. This note offers a framework to enable such... View Details
- October 1992
- Article
Segmenting Industrial Customers by Buyer Behavior
By: V. K. Rangan, R. T. Moriarty Jr. and G. Swartz
- September 1992 (Revised July 1994)
- Case
MEM Company, Inc.: English Leather
By: Frank V. Cespedes and Laura Goode
In 1992, the president of MEM (a producer of personal care products, including men's fragrances) considered a redeployment of field sales efforts and changes in sales compensation policies. Any changes, moreover, must consider the context of strategic decisions... View Details
- May 1992 (Revised September 2019)
- Case
Richardson Sheffield
By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Ashish Nanda
The case traces Bryan Upton’s 20-plus years as managing director of a Sheffield-based cutlery company and describes the strategic and organizational actions he took to raise sales and earnings at more than 25% annually, even as the local industry was in steep... View Details
- February 1991
- Case
Burlington Northern: The ARES Decision (A)
By: Julie H. Hertenstein and Robert S. Kaplan
Burlington Northern's decision whether to invest in ARES, an automated train control system, is a ($350 million) strategic investment in information technology. Although set in a service industry (railroad) the issues around this decision arise in many organizations... View Details
- January 1991 (Revised March 2010)
- Case
Westchester Distributing, Inc. (A)
By: Robert L. Simons and Robert Boxwell
Focuses on the three-way interaction among internal controls, employee behavior, and incentives. Salesmen are illegally providing kickbacks to customers of this beer-distribution firm. In turn, salesmen are reimbursing themselves by filing fraudulent expense reports.... View Details
- January 1991 (Revised March 2010)
- Supplement
Westchester Distributing, Inc. (B)
By: Robert L. Simons and Robert Boxwell
Describes the actions taken by the owner/president to resolve the dilemma. View Details
- August 1988
- Background Note
Close Encounters of the Four Kinds: Managing Customers in a Rapidly Changing Environment
Describes four kinds of selling: 1) transaction, 2) systems, 3) major account management, and 4) strategic account relationships. Explains the advantages, disadvantages, and risks of each. The second half is devoted to a discussion of strategic account relationships... View Details
- January 1985 (Revised June 1993)
- Case
Turner Construction Co.
In June, 1984, a vice president at Turner Construction Co. must decide whether to approve a construction project being considered by one of Turner's territorial offices and how to manage that territory general manager's apparent reluctance to pursue another account... View Details
- June 1983 (Revised April 1991)
- Case
Dominion Engineering Works
Dominion Engineering Works faces important strategic decisions about whether to continue its focused strategy of selling newsprint machines to the Canadian paper industry or whether recent changes in industry conditions and the emergence of three global competitors... View Details
- March–April 1979
- Article
How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy
By: M. E. Porter
Many factors determine the nature of competition, including not only rivals, but also the economics of particular industries, new entrants, the bargaining power of customers and suppliers, and the threat of substitute services or products. A strategic plan of action... View Details