Publications

20 Aug 2001
Research & Ideas

Making an Ally of Uncle Sam

useful metaphor because outcomes (market share, profits) in business are the result of interactions among the strategies of a set of players. The games businesses play involve a mix of cooperation to create value and competition and divide up (or claim) the value that... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Watkins, Mickey Edwards & Usha Thakrar

15 Jul 2002
Research & Ideas

Going Green Makes Good Business Sense

Reinhardt called this a cautionary tale about the risks of differentiating your product in the marketplace. For differentiation to make business sense, he said, you need a willingness to pay on the part of the customers and a... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

22 Apr 2024
Research & Ideas

When Does Impact Investing Make the Biggest Impact?

impact investing companies with data from Revelio Labs, for an 83 percent match rate, to study what effect the investments had on target companies. Additional value to traditional investing? The key finding: Impact investment funds mostly View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

21 Nov 2005
Research & Ideas

Making Credibility Your Strongest Asset

It's also how Tony Lucci got box seats for the World Series when thousands of others were shut out. And it explains how Bob Kraft positioned himself to buy a professional football team. Although Rovell, Lucci, and Kraft operated in very... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Wheeler

October 2016 (Revised April 2018)
Case

DataXu: Selling Ad Tech

By: Frank V. Cespedes, John Deighton, Lisa Cox and Olivia Hull

DataXu served marketers by buying digital advertising for brands using its demand-side platform. It sought a way to build a more predictable revenue stream in the very transactional media marketplace, and hoped that two new marketing analytics products would give it a... View Details

Keywords: Sales Management; Pricing; Programmatic Ad Buying; ＂Marketing Analytics＂; Advertising Technology; Sales; Digital Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Advertising Campaigns; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Media; Technology Industry; Advertising Industry; Boston; Massachusetts

04 Jun 2007
Research & Ideas

Is Health Care Making You Better—or Dead?

of the term of the next President. We'll have the mechanism that will bring transparency and have this tax support that will make it possible for people to buy health insurance with pre-tax money. Q: And why... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Health

28 Oct 2019
Research & Ideas

Brick-and-Mortar Stores Are Making a Comeback

customer acquisition, distribution, and retention channel is contributing in a different way. I think it’s interesting to look at where Amazon is taking us, which is into a frictionless buying process: How do I View Details

Keywords: by Jen McFarland Flint; Retail

March 2021
Teaching Note

Performance Improvement Consulting and Hi-R-Me: Making Sales Calls

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 819-043. This case study focuses on concepts, tools, and behaviors relevant to making sales calls along a typical progression with a prospect: from an initial phone call thru more in-depth discovery to a go/no-go meeting. The teaching... View Details

Keywords: Sales Calls; Sales; Competency and Skills

July 2023
Case

Crocs: Using Community-Centric Marketing to Make Ugly Iconic

By: Ayelet Israeli and Anne V. Wilson

In 2022, the Crocs Classic Clog was the best-selling item of clothing on Amazon, the brand was one of the fastest growing brands in the U.S., and global net revenue had increased to approximately $3.6 billion. By most accounts, Crocs had become the “it” shoe. Crocs... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Product Development; Growth and Development; Customer Value and Value Chain; Digital Marketing; Digital Strategy; Segmentation; Advertising; Consumer Products Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United States

28 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

Making the Decision to Franchise (or not)

From neighborhood to neighborhood—even from block to block—customers have different tastes in the products they buy and the retail experience they find most enjoyable. As a business owner operating stores across multiple markets, is it... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

October 2018
Case

BreezoMeter: Making Air Pollution Data Actionable

By: Frank V. Cespedes, Allison M. Ciechanover and Margot Eiran

The case focuses on an Israeli startup that provides actionable air pollution data and forecasts. The company has over 50 enterprise customers and its tool reached a million people daily in 67 countries. The co-founders wrestle with which markets and customers to focus... View Details

Keywords: Startups; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Pollutants; Analytics and Data Science; Sales; Marketing; Decision Choices and Conditions; Technology Industry; Israel; United States

16 Dec 2013
HBS Case

D’O: Making a Michelin-Starred Restaurant Affordable

the philosophy of "POP cuisine," which aims for accessibility to a broad audience, in terms of both taste and cost. He maintains that he keeps food costs down and flavors bright simply by buying ingredients only when they are in... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel & Joanie Tobin; Food & Beverage

August 2018
Case

Performance Improvement Consulting and Hi-R-Me: Making Sales Calls

By: Frank V. Cespedes and David Mattson

This case study focuses on a professional services firm (“Performance Improvement Consulting”) and its sales calls on Hi-R-Me, a potential client. The case is supplemented by videos showing the initial contact call, a follow-up discovery call, and a face-to-face... View Details

Keywords: Sales Calls; Sales; Competency and Skills

October 2013
Article

How Much to Make and How Much to Buy? An Analysis of Optimal Plural Sourcing Strategies

By: Phanish Puranam, Ranjay Gulati and Sourav Bhattacharya

While many theories of the firm seek to explain when firms make rather than buy, in practice, firms often make and buy the same input—they engage in plural sourcing. We argue that explaining the mix of external procurement and internal sourcing for the same input... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain; Forecasting and Prediction; Framework; Prejudice and Bias; Mathematical Methods

26 Aug 2019
Research & Ideas

Lipstick Tips: How Influencers Are Making Over Beauty Marketing

listen to influencers, not company ads To study just how much influence influencers have on consumers, Vettese surveyed 520 women, specifically targeting beauty enthusiasts on Facebook who use such keywords as “beauty,” “skincare,” and “makeup.” These women View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Consumer Products; Beauty & Cosmetics

05 Oct 2020
Book

Want to Be Happier? Make More Free Time

about her research. The topic of her presentation: the mistake we often make in chasing a higher paycheck at the expense of quality time with loved ones. Video: Working too much? Break some bad habits View Video “I started talking to this... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

January 2024
Teaching Note

Crocs: Using Community-Centric Marketing to Make Ugly Iconic

By: Ayelet Israeli and Anne V. Wilson

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 524-006. View Details

Article

The Aravind Eye Care System: Making Sight Affordable

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and R. D. Thulasiraj

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment

Article

Megastudies Improve the Impact of Applied Behavioural Science

By: Katherine L. Milkman, Dena Gromet, Hung Ho, Joseph S. Kay, Timothy W. Lee, Pepi Pandiloski, Yeji Park, Aneesh Rai, Max Bazerman, John Beshears, Lauri Bonacorsi, Colin Camerer, Edward Chang, Gretchen Chapman, Robert Cialdini, Hengchen Dai, Lauren Eskreis-Winkler, Ayelet Fishbach, James J. Gross, Samantha Horn, Alexa Hubbard, Steven J. Jones, Dean Karlan, Tim Kautz, Erika Kirgios, Joowon Klusowski, Ariella Kristal, Rahul Ladhania, Jens Ludwig, George Loewenstein, Barbara Mellers, Sendhil Mullainathan, Silvia Saccardo, Jann Spiess, Gaurav Suri, Joachim H. Talloen, Jamie Taxer, Yaacov Trope, Lyle Ungar, Kevin G. Volpp, Ashley V. Whillans, Jonathan Zinman and Angela L. Duckworth

Policy-makers are increasingly turning to behavioural science for insights about how to improve citizens’ decisions and outcomes. Typically, different scientists test different intervention ideas in different samples using different outcomes over different time... View Details

Keywords: Policy Making; Behavioral Science; Behavior; Change; Decision Making; Policy