Publications

07 Aug 2006
Research & Ideas

Whatever Happened to Caveat Emptor?

basic material needs to concerns about the safety and quality of these products. When products did fail—as happened dramatically in the late 1950s with the antinausea drug Thalidomide—such cases became the focus of aggressive View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

April 1990 (Revised October 1992)
Case

Black & Decker Corp.: Spacemaker Plus Coffeemaker (A)

A fire is reported in a Black & Decker Spacemaker Plus Coffeemaker. This newly introduced product is a "Key Introduction" for Black & Decker's Household Product Group (HPG). HPG's president has to decide whether the product should be recalled and, if so, how the recall... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Risk Management; Ethics; Product Marketing; Consumer Products Industry

2021
Working Paper

Accounting for Product Impact in the Consumer-Packaged Foods Industry

By: Amanda Rischbieth, George Serafeim and Katie Trinh

We apply the product impact measurement framework of the Impact-Weighted Accounts Initiative (IWAI) in two competitor companies within the consumer-packaged goods industry. We design a methodology that allows us to calculate monetary impact estimates on customer... View Details

SSRN

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28 Jul 2009
First Look

First Look: July 28

Working PapersNone this week PublicationsAdverse Selection in Online 'Trust' Certifications Author:Benjamin Edelman Publication:Proceedings of ICEC'09 (forthcoming). ACM International Conference Proceeding Series Abstract Widely used online "trust"... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

21 Jun 2011
First Look

First Look: June 21

by Beijing is unlikely to suffice. Product Positioning in a Two-Dimensional Vertical Differentiation Model: The Role of Quality Costs Authors: Dominique Lauga and Elie Ofek Publication: Marketing Science (forthcoming) Abstract We study a duopoly model where View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

10 Feb 2009
First Look

First Look: February 10, 2009

of large implicit guarantees) and to ensure the safety of the broader financial system, these institutions must face significant prudential regulation, they should be required to pay premiums for the federal insurance they already enjoy,... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

May 24, 2016
Article

Build a Culture of Health

By: John A. Quelch

Every company, large and small, has an impact on health. It does so in four ways: first, through the healthfulness and safety of the products and services it sells; second, through its attention to employee health and well-being in its work practices and benefits;... View Details

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2007
Article

Pharmacovigilance and the Missing Denominator: The Changing Context of Pharmaceutical Risk Mitigation

By: Arthur A. Daemmrich

In the wake of Vioxx, Avandia, and other recent prominent cases of drugs found to cause side effects after marketing, the safety of pharmaceuticals has come to the forefront of American public policy. Press attention, congressional investigations, and legislative... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Policy; Risk Management; Government Legislation; Risk and Uncertainty; Goals and Objectives; Customers; Pharmaceutical Industry; Health Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

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January 1995 (Revised November 1996)
Case

Avalon Information Services, Inc.

By: Lynn S. Paine and Wilda White

The Privacy Review Committee of Avalon Information Services must decide how to deal with concerns voiced by its retail supermarket customers about the privacy of consumer data collected through Avalon's point-of-sale data collection program. One customer is proposing... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Safety; Demand and Consumers; Rights; Analytics and Data Science; Information Technology; Ethics; Information Industry

25 May 2020
Research & Ideas

Has Occupational Licensing Outlived Its Usefulness?

Informing consumers and restricting bad apples: that’s the dual role that occupational licensing is supposed to play. If a plumber, painting contractor, or HVAC repairer has a license it should matter to View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Service

November 2017
Case

The 'Wonder Drug' That Killed Babies

By: Joshua Lev Krieger, Tom Nicholas and Matthew Preble

In the early 1960s, a popular drug taken by patients worldwide for a range of maladies was found to cause severe birth defects and other health problems in babies born to mothers who had taken it during a certain stage of fetal development. As many as 10,000 children... View Details

Keywords: Regulation; Business and Government Relations; Business and Community Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Product Marketing; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business History; Health; Government Legislation; Corporate Accountability; Ethics; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Pharmaceutical Industry; Public Administration Industry; United States; United Kingdom; Australia; Germany; Europe

August 1999 (Revised January 2002)
Case

Brita Products Company, The

By: John A. Deighton

Clorox's Brita skillfully exploits a tide of water safety concerns, growing a home water (filtration) business from inception to a 15% U.S. household penetration in ten years. The dilemma in the case arises as the period of increasing returns seems to be drawing to a... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Acquisition; Retention; Safety; Natural Environment; Emerging Markets; Investment Return; Equity; Demand and Consumers; United States

01 Aug 2018
What Do You Think?

Are Free Trade and Free Markets Quaint Ideas From the Past?

consumers and workers, and the political realities of modern governments. That appears to be a central message conveyed by responses to this month’s column. Ian Brinkley raised the issue of shifting needs of trading partners as a problem... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

27 Jun 2024
Research & Ideas

Gen AI Marketing: How Some 'Gibberish' Code Can Give Products an Edge

It’s the new way of comparison shopping in the age of large language models (LLM): Tapping into AI-driven search engines for research and advice on which products to buy. But can consumers trust the recommendations to be impartial? New... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Technology

January 1991
Supplement

Suzuki Samurai, Supplement

By: John A. Quelch

A condensed version of Suzuki Samurai: The Rollover Crisis. Suzuki management must plan a response to a Consumers Union demand for a recall of the Samurai on grounds of its unacceptable propensity to roll over. View Details

Keywords: Safety; Crisis Management; Auto Industry

June 2008
Case

Mattel's Long Hot Summer

In the summer of 2007, Mattel performed three major recalls of toys, mostly due to lead paint and other manufacturing issues in China. This case examines specifically how those recalls were perceived by consumers, and responded to by Mattel, as well as what effect they... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Quality; Production; Price; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; China

04 Mar 2009
Op-Ed

Credit is Not the Bogey

their income for housing, and rejecting "credit-impaired" borrowers with less-than-stellar records. Credit card companies have raised fees and increased penalties. Consumers have emerged as both victims and perpetrators. They... View Details

Keywords: by Nicolas P. Retsinas & Eric S. Belsky; Construction; Real Estate; Financial Services

March 2021 (Revised January 2023)
Background Note

The Pandemic's Impact on the U.S. Food System

By: José B. Alvarez and Natalie Kindred

This note is intended not as a comprehensive account but as a starting point for discussion about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the U.S. food system. Written in late 2020, the note describes, in part through the voices of industry leaders, how the pandemic... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Agribusiness; Risk and Uncertainty; Risk Management; Leadership; Change Management; Safety; Health; Health Pandemics; Disruption; Adaptation; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Consumer Behavior; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Transportation Industry; United States