Publications

November 2006
Article

Find Your Sweet Spot

By: Rob Markey, Gerard Du Toit and James Allen

Charged with extending their unit’s product lines and boosting top-line growth over the next three years, product managers at one global consumer goods company wanted to identify the most attractive customer segments to target and how best to reach them. So they turned... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Customers; Segmentation

31 Aug 2020
Blog Post

Five Important Steps before Taking the Entrepreneurial Leap

research and development process, manufacturing and clinical research strategy as well as offline retail. Hilary has a finance, consumer products and retail background, notably... View Details

December 1999 (Revised January 2000)
Case

Agrochemicals at Ciba-Geigy AG (B)

By: Michael L. Tushman, Wendy Smith and Daniel Radov

Focuses on Pierre Urech's efforts to change the division structure at Ciba-Geigy to facilitate the marketing of the new product. Details the relationships Urech cultivates and the strategy he pursues as "product champion." Also describes the restructuring of the... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Innovation Strategy; Innovation and Management; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Research and Development; Marketing Strategy; Goods and Commodities; Product Development; Pharmaceutical Industry; Switzerland

Kris Ferreira is the Edgerley Family Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Technology and Operations Management (TOM) Unit. She teaches the Supply Chain Management course in the MBA elective curriculum and analytics in numerous Executive Education... View Details

Keywords: retailing

Research Summary

Science-Based Business and the Business of Science

By: H. Kent Bowen

Science and technology can provide strategic advantage to companies' through differentiated products and processes. The focus of our research is on unusually productive and creative labs that are the sources of breakthroughs that create platforms for sustained... View Details

March 2020
Case

ZEISS Group: Organize by Customer Culture?

By: Willy C. Shih

How should ZEISS, the German manufacturer of precision optical and optoelectronic systems manage two historic businesses that operated fairly autonomously? The Industrial Quality Solutions (IQS) business sold measurement equipment to manufacturing companies in sectors... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Structure; Organizational Culture; Manufacturing Industry; Europe; Germany

26 Aug 2019
Research & Ideas

Lipstick Tips: How Influencers Are Making Over Beauty Marketing

typical celebrity cover girl, her social media posts compel thousands of customers to purchase the products she recommends. Alessia Vettese New research shows that “influencers” like Hughes are changing the... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Consumer Products; Consumer Products

Stefan H. Thomke

Stefan Thomke (sthomke@hbs.edu), an authority on the management of innovation, is the William Barclay Harding Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He has worked with firms on product, process, and... View Details

Aticus Peterson

Aticus Peterson (apeterson@hbs.edu) is a PhD candidate in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School. His research focuses on how entrepreneurs and investors can... View Details

22 Nov 2023
Research & Ideas

Humans vs. Machines: Untangling the Tasks AI Can (and Can't) Handle

Knowing when to use artificial intelligence and when to rely on the human mind is a shifting fine line, one delineated by new research that shows considerable benefit and speed from generative AI—if it’s applied to the right tasks. What... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Information Technology; Technology

26 Jul 2024
Research & Ideas

Why Great Ideas Get Stuck in Universities

Entrepreneurs must overcome many barriers to get discoveries to market, but academic researchers face an additional one they might not realize: themselves. Academics tend to develop a myopic focus on the unique expertise they spend their... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Biotechnology; Health

05 May 2022
Research & Ideas

Why Companies Raise Their Prices: Because They Can

Döpper and Joel Stiebale in Rising Markups and the Role of Consumer Preferences. The research sheds light on how markups on key household items had already taken off in the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic. “I was surprised to... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

Research Summary

Utilizing Display, Feature and Price Promotions: Getting the Biggest Bang for the Buck

Firms are continuously looking for more efficient ways to influence consumers to purchase their brand. Professor Lemon is conducting research to understand what motivates consumers' purchases of products and services. Her research suggests new strategies for category... View Details

Sep 2007 - 2007
Conference Presentation

Antecedents of Boundary Spanning in Cross-functional NPD Teams

By: James R. Dillon, Shikhar Sarin and Amy C. Edmondson

Boundary spanning has been shown in prior research to enhance innovativeness and performance of product development teams. In this study, we examine team conditions that foster boundary spanning behavior. We analyze survey data from 207 members of 54 cross-functional... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Innovation and Invention; Groups and Teams; Behavior; Performance Improvement; Boundaries; Leadership Style; Product; Complexity; Integration; Power and Influence

29 Jul 2019
Research & Ideas

How Companies Benefit When Employees Work Remotely

Github, among others, were 4.4 percent more productive than those following a more traditional “work-from-home” policy that gives schedule flexibility but requires workers to live near the office. “While prior academic View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

09 May 2024
Research & Ideas

Called Back to the Office? How You Benefit from Ideas You Didn't Know You Were Missing

and prospective thinking of others. I suspect that our findings can generalize to any kind of institution.” You Might Also Like: Publish or Perish: What the Research Says About Productivity in Academia... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

April 1999 (Revised May 2000)
Case

Compaq Computer: Intel Inside?

By: David E. Bell and Ann Leamon

Presents the results of quantitative and qualitative market research on the possible acceptance of a non-Intel processor in Compaq Computer's consumer notebook line. If the low-priced, non-Intel notebook is a success, the company will maintain or increase its 45% share... View Details

Keywords: Distribution; Production; Success; Performance Evaluation; Mathematical Methods; Competition; Computer Industry