Publications

Profile

Kaki Ettinger

that make a positive impact on the world. Technology is particularly exciting to me, due to its inherent scalability and theoretically infinite potential. The sense of satisfaction I feel when something I have helped to build goes live to... View Details

Keywords: Entertainment / Media; Technology; Entrepreneurship

14 Jan 2019
Blog Post

"It'll All Work Out": Two Alumni Discuss Balancing Marriage and Markets

"As we look at the series of decisions we had to make as a couple, we recognize professional satisfaction is important to both of us–so we start there." In fact, one key decision had been made years earlier: the two would return to New... View Details

21 May 2007
Research & Ideas

Fixing the Marketing-CEO Disconnect

problem is that these managers don't know what metrics to measure or how to interpret the results. They may collect all manner of plausible marketing-performance metrics, from customer satisfaction to retention, but if these can't be... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

Teaching Interest

Overview

By: Rob Markey

Managing Service Operations - MBA Elective Curriculum

World-class service organizations deeply understand the needs and behaviors of their customers, and design, manage, and improve their operating models accordingly. This course... View Details

Keywords: Customer Lifetime Value; Customer Centric Initiative; Customer Engagement; Service Management; Service Profit Chain; Service Design; Service Models; Service Excellence; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Customer Value and Value Chain; Service Delivery; Service Operations

May 2016 (Revised January 2018)
Case

Improving Repurchase Rates at zulily

By: Thales Teixeira and Sarah McAra

In February 2015, zulily cofounder and CEO Darrell Cavens faced a major challenge in his business, a Seattle-based daily deals site that catered to moms. The more he spent to acquire new customers, the less he retained them in the form of repeat purchases. This was an... View Details

Keywords: Zulily; Repurchase; E-commerce; Online Shopping; Fashion; Customer Relationship Management; Internet and the Web; Digital Marketing; Customer Satisfaction; Fashion Industry; Retail Industry; Seattle

August 2013
Article

Customer-Driven Misconduct: How Competition Corrupts Business Practices

By: Victor Manuel Bennett, Lamar Pierce, Jason A. Snyder and Michael W. Toffel

Competition among firms yields many benefits but can also encourage firms to engage in corrupt or unethical activities. We argue that competition can lead organizations to provide services that customers demand but that violate government regulations, especially when... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Crime and Corruption; Management Practices and Processes; Ethics; Consumer Behavior; Customer Satisfaction; Auto Industry; Service Industry

May 2006 (Revised November 2006)
Case

Willa Seldon at Tides Center (A)

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Stecker

Willa Seldon, an African-American woman with 16 years of for-profit experience, was hired as executive director of Tides Center, a nonprofit in San Francisco, CA. Tides Center was a fiscal sponsor dedicated to supporting individuals and groups working toward social... View Details

Keywords: For-Profit Firms; Nonprofit Organizations; Transition; Change Management; Leadership Style; Performance; Customer Satisfaction; San Francisco

10 Apr 2023
News

Health Care Systems Need to Better Understand Patients as Consumers

02 Nov 2020
What Do You Think?

Is Antitrust Just a Quaint Notion in the Digital Age?

etc.” Several responses questioned whether there was damage to the consumer, often at issue in antitrust. As Shoshanna Zuboff pointed out, in “free” high-tech services, the consumer benefits and resulting satisfaction are highly visible;... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Retail; Technology; Telecommunications; Communications; Consumer Products; Service

Profile

David Gellis

mission'," David says. "I found that the things I liked about journalism and a hunger for the larger issues were all in health care. I could have the satisfaction of making a difference in individual lives while looking at... View Details

17 Mar 2017
News

Clare B. Hawthorne (MBA 2012)

thread in my experiences was satisfaction in fixing things that were broken and creating efficiencies and processes.” While at HBS, she talked with alumni, professors, and classmates, and ultimately concluded that human resources aligned... View Details

April 2008
Exercise

Exercise: Customer-Operator Letter Writing

By: Frances X. Frei

The exercise involves having students write letters to an organization of their choice describing their operating experience at a detailed level. The companies' responses are paired with the students' letters and the entire collection is made available to the class.... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Customer Satisfaction; Customer Value and Value Chain; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Performance Improvement

01 Jun 2020
What Do You Think?

Will Challenged Amazon Tweak Its Retail Model Post-Pandemic?

ablokhin SUMMING UP Is the Amazon Organization Losing Its Ability to Learn? There was little sympathy for Amazon’s loss of online retail market share at the outset of the current global pandemic among respondents to this month’s column. As “Shock” put it, “It’s somehow... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Retail

2025
Working Paper

Algorithmic Assortment Curation: An Empirical Study of Buybox in Online Marketplaces

By: Santiago Gallino, Nil Karacaoglu and Antonio Moreno

Most online sales worldwide take place in marketplaces that connect sellers and buyers. The presence of numerous third-party sellers leads to a proliferation of listings for each product, making it difficult for customers to choose between the available options. Online... View Details

Keywords: Algorithms; E-commerce; Sales; Digital Marketing; Internet and the Web; Customer Satisfaction

SSRN

May 1993
Case

Patient Transfusion Services Lab of Central Blood Bank

By: James L. Heskett

The vice president of the Lab and Clinical Services at Central Blood Bank is faced with the challenge of convincing a hospital to use economical shared patient transfusion testing services. View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Quality; Service Operations; Mathematical Methods; Customer Satisfaction; Health Industry

02 Feb 2015
Research & Ideas

Disruptors Sell What Customers Want and Let Competitors Sell What They Don’t

Over the past two decades, entire industries have been disrupted by Internet competitors who "unbundled" their content and delivered it to consumers in new ways. Newspapers lost out to Google and Craigslist, record companies to iTunes and Spotify, and travel agencies... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

January 1995
Case

Understanding User Needs

By: Marco Iansiti and Ellen Stein

Presents an introduction to methods for understanding user needs in product development. Describes a number of techniques including the use of focus groups, interviews, questionnaires, the Kano method, Lead User analysis, the Product Value matrix, OFD, etc. Provides a... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Customer Value and Value Chain; Product Development; Mathematical Methods

April 2008 (Revised March 2015)
Case

TheLadders (A)

By: Peter A. Coles, Benjamin Edelman, Brian J. Hall and Nicole Bennett

Despite strong appeal among job seekers and outside recruiters, TheLadders' corporate job listings seem to lag. Could raising prices help solve the problem? TheLadders considers this strategic paradox. View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Price; Recruitment; Job Search; Marketing Strategy; Employment Industry