Publications

14 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

Keeping Credit Flowing to Consumers in Need

strengthen consumer protections. The risk they run is that too stringent regulation could make it harder for borrowers in need to get money. In today's challenging economic climate and with high unemployment, "many Americans borrow... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services; Construction; Real Estate

10 Jan 2011
Research & Ideas

Is Groupon Good for Retailers?

may file for an initial public offering by the end of 2011, according to the New York Times. "Groupon has attracted remarkable interest," says Harvard Business School professor Benjamin G. Edelman. "With the economy lagging, View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Advertising; Technology

January 2017 (Revised October 2021)
Case

Delivering the Goods at Shippo

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Jeffrey F. Rayport and Olivia Hull

Laura Behrens Wu, CEO of software start-up Shippo, prepares her pitch for a Series A funding round following a successful seed round. Customer adoption of Shippo’s e-commerce dashboard application, which allows small and medium retailers to compare delivery rates... View Details

January 1990 (Revised February 1993)
Case

Selling Durable Goods

Examines the pricing policy for a firm that is a monopoly supplier of a durable good. Lowering price over time in an attempt to increase market penetration seems desirable. But doing so may also cause some buyers to postpone their purchases. Describes these... View Details

Keywords: Price; Consumer Behavior; Monopoly

26 Mar 2012
Research & Ideas

What Neuroscience Tells Us About Consumer Desire

electrical current, they pressed the lever over and over again, hundreds of times per hour, foregoing food or sleep, until many of them dropped dead from exhaustion. Further research found pleasure centers exist in human brains, too. “People are fairly View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Consumer Products

November 2017 (Revised November 2021)
Case

Irene Rosenfeld at Mondelēz International: Crafting a Corporate Strategy

By: Raffaella Sadun, David J. Collis, Amram Migdal and Kerry Herman

The case focuses on Irene Rosenfeld’s tenure as CEO of the global snack food company Mondelēz International. Beginning in 2006, she had led the company through many acquisitions, including France’s LU Biscuit and British confectionery company Cadbury, before, in 2012,... View Details

04 Jun 2024
Research & Ideas

Navigating Consumer Data Privacy in an AI World

be forgotten.” So, if someone asks a company to delete their records because they don't want to be part of any data analysis or algorithms, the company needs to act fast and get it done. Sticking to the usual way of doing things isn't a View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Technology; Information Technology

09 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

Warring Algorithms Could Be Driving Up Consumer Prices

being in second place, it’s a pretty good place to be.” Consumers end up paying more To study how pricing algorithms affect competition, MacKay and Brown collected detailed pricing data from five large,... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Retail

15 Jul 2002
Research & Ideas

Going Green Makes Good Business Sense

food they consumed to the jobs they took. Environmental quality does behave like a luxury good.— Forest L. Reinhardt All that has changed, partly due to alarming disasters such as the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 and the 1984 Union... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

06 Dec 2022
Research & Ideas

Latest Isn’t Always Greatest: Why Product Updates Capture Consumers

because consumers are using an imperfect shortcut to make a decision, which makes them more susceptible to inferring that altered products are better, even in situations when this is not true. “It operates in this zone where there is some... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Consumer Products; Consumer Products

November 2007
Article

Measuring Consumer and Competitive Impact with Elasticity Decompositions

Marketing investments are designed to change consumer behavior in ways that help goods compete in the marketplace. Previous research has focused on using elasticity decompositions to measure how these investments affect either consumer decision making or competing... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Investment Return; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Measurement and Metrics; Mathematical Methods; Competitive Advantage

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12 Nov 2015
Research & Ideas

Can Consumers be Trusted with Their Own Health Care?

Consumers today have more control than ever over the way they choose goods and services—from browsing freely at grocery stores to managing their own financial assets. Perhaps View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Health

05 Aug 2002
Research & Ideas

Are Consumers the Cure for Broken Health Insurance?

to be like this. About twenty years ago, managed care was widely viewed as the silver bullet that would curb cost increases while ensuring patients good and convenient treatment. But managed care has been a bust. The original HMO... View Details

Keywords: by Regina E. Herzlinger

July–August 2018
Article

From Niche to Mainstream (HBR Case Study)

By: Elie Ofek

A large Japanese snack maker faces challenges in marketing products in the US. Several options for jumpstarting sales are presented. View Details

Keywords: New Product Marketing; Retail Trade; Private Label; International Expansion; Cultural Branding; Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG); Product Marketing; Expansion; Global Range; Brands and Branding; Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; Retail Industry

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March 2017 (Revised July 2019)
Case

Interline Brands: Don't Stop Believing

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Ricardo Andrade

Interline Brands, a leading distributor of residential housing maintenance and repair parts and equipment in the U.S., had just held its November 2014 board meeting. The meeting had been productive but not without some soul searching for both the company’s management... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity Exit; Consumer Goods; IPO; Private Equity; Initial Public Offering; Decision Choices and Conditions