Publications

October 2015 (Revised September 2016)
Case

Whirlpool Corp.: Structuring the Deal to Acquire Hefei Rongshida Sanyo Electric Company

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Nancy Hua Dai

Ian Lee, Whirlpool's VP for North Asia, had been negotiating a possible acquisition with Jackie Jin, the chairman of a leading Chinese appliance manufacturer named Hefei Rongshida Sanyo Electric Company (Hefei Sanyo), for almost six months when suddenly Hefei Sanyo's... View Details

Keywords: Mergers ＆ Acquisitions; Regulation; Cross-border Investment; Brand Names; State-owned Enterprise (SOE); Appliances; White Goods; Consumer Durables; Negotiation; Valuation; Mergers and Acquisitions; State Ownership; Foreign Direct Investment; Brands and Branding; Consumer Products Industry; China

02 Mar 2009
News

Gender-Bending Brands an Easy Way to Increase Product Reach

28 Jun 2004
Research & Ideas

How to Avoid a Price Increase

quantity than raise prices, conclude Harvard Business School marketing professor John Gourville and University of Texas professor Jonathan Koehler. They recently published their findings in a working paper, "Downsizing Price Increases: A... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls

Fast Answer

HBS Alumni Research Tips: Finding Market Data & Insights

How can alumni search for market data, trends, and insights? Statista is a user-friendly aggregator of statistical data from more than 20,000 sources worldwide. Follow instructions to register for a free... View Details

January 2018 (Revised October 2019)
Case

Christie's and Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi: The Value of a Brand

By: Jill Avery

A 16th century Renaissance masterpiece, missing for 137 years, believed by many to have been destroyed and then rediscovered less than a decade ago, becomes the most expensive painting ever sold, all the while surrounded by controversy. Did the buyer of Leonardo da... View Details

August 2018
Teaching Note

IguanaFix

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Thomas Eisenmann

Teaching Note for HBS No. 817-056. IguanaFix, based in Argentina, is a platform business that connects consumers with home improvement contractors. The founders are evaluating growth options and an investment offer. The case focuses on scaling issues for a venture... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Marketing; Home Improvement Services; Marketing Management; Scaling; Entrepreneurship; Marketing; Sales; Digital Platforms; Growth and Development Strategy

2022
White Paper

Building from the Bottom Up: What Business Can Do to Strengthen the Bottom Line by Investing in Front-line Workers

By: Joseph B. Fuller and Manjari Raman

A significant number of American workers—44%—are employed in low wage jobs at the front line of industries. Despite undertaking some of the most tedious, dirtiest, and most dangerous jobs, low-wage workers are—and have long been—the most likely to be overlooked by... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Labor Market; Low-wage Workers; Worker Welfare; Churn/retention; Morale; Jobs and Positions; Employees; Wages; Retention; Well-being; Human Resources

January 2016 (Revised July 2018)
Case

Cyberdyne: A Leap to the Future

By: Doug J. Chung and Mayuka Yamazaki

Cyberdyne Inc. was a Japanese technology venture that wanted to commercialize a hybrid assistive limb (HAL). HAL was a robotic exoskeleton system for people who had difficulty walking due to nervous system disabilities resulting from stroke, spinal cord injury (SCI),... View Details

Keywords: Go-to-market Strategy; Pricing; Sales Channel; Technological Innovation; Marketing; Sales; Distribution; Strategy; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

September 2011 (Revised August 2013)
Case

China or the World? A Financial Reporting Strategy for Hong Kong's Capital Markets

By: Karthik Ramanna, Gwen Yu and G.A. Donovan

Set in 2010, the case discusses the strategic directions Hong Kong could pursue, particularly vis-a-vis China, as it seeks to preserve its preeminence in the region. In 2010, the Hong Kong Exchange announced that it would allow listed Chinese companies to report using... View Details

Keywords: Governance Compliance; Global Range; Local Range; Competitive Strategy; Global Strategy; Globalized Economies and Regions; Financial Reporting; International Accounting; Hong Kong

June 2013
Case

Jamba Juice (A)

By: J. Bruce Harreld and Christian Karega

James White, the new CEO of Jamba Juice, has successfully averted bankruptcy and must now decide the future path for Jamba Juice, the leader in the smoothie and fresh bar industry. This two-part case presents the various strategic options White is considering. It then... View Details

Keywords: Beverage Industry; Strategy Execution; Turnarounds; Consumer Marketing; Franchising; Food Retail Franchising; Strategy; Leadership; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

November 2016 (Revised March 2018)
Background Note

Note on the Impact of Millennials on the Food System

By: José B. Alvarez, James Weber and Natalie Kindred

In 2016, the millennial generation (those age 19 to 35 in 2016), the largest generation by population in the U.S., was entering its prime home buying, family forming, earning and spending years. This generation was showing different beliefs and behaviors than previous... View Details

Keywords: Millennials; Consumer Packaged Goods; Food; Age; Consumer Behavior; Agribusiness; Demographics; Values and Beliefs; Consumer Products Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

Web

A Marketing Revolution - The Art of American Advertising

The Art of “Posting” Brand Name Management A Marketing Revolution “Between the end of the Civil War and the turn of the century, conditions in the American economy and in society merged to satisfy the... View Details

2017
Working Paper

Reinventing the American Wine Industry: Marketing Strategies and the Construction of Wine Culture

By: Ai Hisano

This working paper examines the remarkable growth of wine consumption in the United States since the 1960s. The country is now the largest wine consumer in the world, exceeding the wine-producing European countries such as France and Italy, which had long dominated... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Industry Growth; Transformation; Perception; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

SSRN

Article

Soul and Machine (Learning)

By: Davide Proserpio, John R. Hauser, Xiao Liu, Tomomichi Amano, Burnap Alex, Tong Guo, Dokyun (DK) Lee, Randall Lewis, Kanishka Misra, Eric Schwarz, Artem Timoshenko, Lilei Xu and Hema Yoganarasimhan

Machine learning is bringing us self-driving cars, medical diagnoses, and language translation, but how can machine learning help marketers improve marketing decisions? Machine learning models predict extremely well, are scalable to “big data,” and are a natural fit to... View Details

Keywords: Machine Learning; Marketing Applications; Knowledge; Technological Innovation; Core Relationships; Marketing; Applications and Software

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October 2011 (Revised March 2012)
Case

Cottle-Taylor: Expanding the Oral Care Group in India

By: John A. Quelch and Alisa Zalosh

Brinda Patel, director of oral care products for the India division of a consumer home-care product company, develops a data-driven marketing plan for toothbrushes. She believes her plan can support a 20% increase in unit sales based on rising demand for modern... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting; Budgeting; International Marketing; Product Planning ＆ Policy; Sales Promotions; Marketing Plans; Products; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Emerging Markets; Forecasting and Prediction; Advertising; Product Launch; Budgets and Budgeting; Product Development; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; India

March 2006 (Revised November 2006)
Case

The Market and the Mountain Kingdom: Change in Lesotho's Textile Industry

By: Rawi E. Abdelal, Regina M. Abrami, Noel Maurer and Aldo Musacchio

In Maseru, the capital of the Kingdom of Lesotho, the stirrings of industrialization and modernization were promising, and more than 50,000 workers, mostly women, were employed in the textile sector; the figure reflected more than a threefold increase in just a few... View Details

Keywords: History; Labor Unions; Trade; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Financial Crisis; Globalized Markets and Industries; Business and Government Relations; Decision Choices and Conditions; Foreign Direct Investment; Developing Countries and Economies; Fashion Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Lesotho

January 2017
Article

Should You Sleep on It? The Effects of Overnight Sleep on Subjective Preference-based Choice

By: Uma R. Karmarkar, Baba Shiv and Rebecca M.C. Spencer

Conventional wisdom and studies of unconscious processing suggest that sleeping on a choice may improve decision-making. Though sleep has been shown to benefit several cognitive tasks, including problem solving, its impact on everyday choices remains unclear. Here we... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Choice; Sleep; Choice Sets; Confidence; Consumer Psychology; Consumer Preferences; Decision Choices and Conditions; Consumer Behavior

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