Marketing Culture - Publications - Faculty & Research

February 2019 (Revised September 2019)
Case

Theranos: The Unicorn That Wasn't

In 2003, 19-year-old Elizabeth Holmes founded a startup dedicated to making blood testing easier and more affordable. By 2015, her company, Theranos, was worth $9 billion. It boasted a star-studded board and contracts with national pharmacy and supermarket chains... View Details

Keywords: Theranos; Blood; Lab Testing; Fraud; Holmes; Balwani; Shultz; Carreyrou; Securities And Exchange Commission; Food And Drug Administration; FDA; SEC; Health Testing and Trials; Corporate Accountability; Organizational Culture; Misleading and Fraudulent Advertising; Crime and Corruption; Entrepreneurship; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

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19 Apr 2010
Research & Ideas

The History of Beauty

the momentum for homogenization was strong, it was striking that markets stayed differentiated by inherited cultural and social preferences. And globalization today is working in a far more complex fashion.... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Beauty & Cosmetics

12 Apr 2016
First Look

April 12, 2016

link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=50897 forthcoming Journal of Marketing Research Repairing the Damage: The Effect of Gender and Price Knowledge on Auto-Repair Price Quotes By: Busse, Meghan, Ayelet Israeli, and Florian... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

11 Mar 2014
First Look

First Look: March 11

our sample). August 2013 Marketing Letters To Groupon or Not to Groupon: The Profitability of Deep Discounts By: Edelman, Benjamin, Sonia Jaffe, and Scott Duke Kominers Abstract—We examine the profitability and implications of online... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

07 Dec 2021
Op-Ed

Want to Build Better Leaders? Focus on Mindset, Skills, Knowledge

Middle management used to be the place where careers stalled, but the COVID-19 pandemic has turned that notion on its head. In fact, mid-level leaders possess more agency now than at any other time in recent history. The tight job market... View Details

Keywords: by Hise Gibson and Shawnette Rochelle

28 Apr 2009
First Look

First Look: April 28, 2009

against large upfront investment, uncertain market demand, and the complication that the product might face legal challenges. Purchase this case: http://hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=208072 Gucci Group in 2009... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

01 Sep 2023
News

Solving for Z

And purpose was considered part of your personal life, not part of your professional life.” The preferences and predilections of Gen Z might not matter quite so much if the labor market weren’t so tight and if Gen Zers weren’t so... View Details

Keywords: Alexander Gelfand; Illustrations by Doug Chayka; Administration of Human Resource Programs; Government

24 Jun 2014
First Look

First Look: June 24

Pfizer, as well as nonprofits and international government agencies, the authors show how successful leaders of innovation don't create a vision and try to make innovation happen themselves. Rather, they create and sustain a culture where... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

Profiles - MBA

Wearable Tech, Philosophy of Technology; more broadly: the Intersection Of Technology, Creativity, Cognition, and Culture Formative experience at the intersection of technology and business: Who owns the truth? My sophomore summer, I... View Details

12 Dec 2006
First Look

First Look: December 12, 2006

important factor in a lift out's success. Operational integration is the focus of the third stage. Ideally, teams will start out working with the same or similar clients, vendors, and industry standards. The fourth stage entails full View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

13 Nov 2013
Research & Ideas

Should Men’s Products Fear a Woman’s Touch?

really goes away. Since the dawn of advertising, retailers have made a point of marketing separate lines of branded products for men and women in many categories, even in cases where their functions are essentially the same. It's a... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Consumer Products; Food & Beverage; Auto

Web

Human Behavior & Decision-Making - Faculty & Research

large-scale online surveys, are that (i) self-reported nonpecuniary concerns are large, both for stock market investors and non-investors; (ii) concerns about the treatment of workers and CEO pay rank highest, higher than concerns about... View Details

14 Jun 2016
First Look

June 14, 2016

roles are uncertain, goals are shifting, expertise and organizational cultures are varied, and participants have clashing or even antagonistic perspectives. I have studied more than a dozen cross-industry innovation projects, among them... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

Advisory Board - Entrepreneurship

Engineering. Michael Cline (MBA 1985), Accretive Technology Partners J. Michael Cline is the founding Partner of Accretive Technology Partners, LLC, a private equity firm focused on building market leaders in the business process... View Details

Web

Mid-US - Global

leadership principles that could contribute to her continued success as she enters the cognac market and considers what other leaders can learn from her journey. The podcast is available here . July 2024 FELLOWSHIP The Road to... View Details

09 Jan 2012
Research & Ideas

Location, Location, Location: The Strategy of Place

consequences of what they are doing." Such snap decisions can result in geo-mistakes that sap energy out of an organization and cause it to lose focus on what it was doing well in the first place. Geographic expansion should provide access to a fresh View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

08 Jun 2010
First Look

First Look: June 8

deconstruction of the strange and wonderful culture in which we live and consume..., a take on differentiation unlike any other found in business today. DIFFERENT shows how to succeed in a world where conformity reigns... but exceptions... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

2024
Working Paper

The Fading Light of Democratic Capitalism: How Pervasive Cronyism and Restricted Suffrage Are Destroying Democratic Capitalism as a National Ideal…and What to Do about It

By: Malcolm S. Salter

What are we to do about declining public trust and confidence in democratic capitalism, which many citizens consider a cornerstone of our national ideology and identity? While the answer is not entirely clear, I argue in this essay that any effort aimed at restoring... View Details

Keywords: Government Administration; Economic Systems; Trust; United States

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March 2024
Case

Lyft 2023: Roads to Growth and Differentiation

By: Ranjay Gulati and Jeffrey Huizinga

Set in San Francisco in winter 2023, this case explores the strategic challenges and initiatives at Lyft under the leadership of its new CEO, David Risher. Confronted with declining market share and financial pressures, Risher spent his first six months at the helm... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Turnarounds; Ridesharing; Transition; Strategy; Culture; Change Management; Transportation Industry; Technology Industry

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February 2019 (Revised November 2024)
Case

Theranos: Who Has Blood on Their Hands? (A)

By: Nien-hê Hsieh, Christina R. Wing, Emilie Fournier and Anna Resman

This case covers the rise and fall of Theranos, the company founded by Elizabeth Holmes in 2004 to revolutionize the blood testing industry by creating a device that could provide from a small finger prick the same results and accuracy as intravenous blood draws. As... View Details

Keywords: Health Testing and Trials; Corporate Accountability; Organizational Culture; Misleading and Fraudulent Advertising; Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Entrepreneurship; Lawsuits and Litigation

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