Publications

SSRN

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10 Oct 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Managing Churn to Maximize Profits

Keywords: by Aurélie Lemmens & Sunil Gupta; Retail

1997
Simulation

Managing Customers For Profits - Interactive CD-ROM Simulation

By: N. Narayandas and Steve Peterson

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Profit

06 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

The Right Way to Manage Customer Churn for Maximum Profit

most likely to leave, and target the ones at the top of the list with new offers, sales, or promotions. The problem with that, however, is that not all customers are created equal. As Gupta and Lemmens showed in an early version of their... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Retail; Service; Financial Services

03 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

Transforming Manufacturing Waste into Profit

It's been said that "one man's trash is another man's treasure." HBS Assistant Professor Deishin Lee, however, has taken that old adage a step further in her recent working paper Turning Waste into By-Product by showing how it's possible for companies to turn... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Manufacturing

September–October 2020
Article

Managing Churn to Maximize Profits

By: Aurelie Lemmens and Sunil Gupta

Customer defection threatens many industries, prompting companies to deploy targeted, proactive customer retention programs and offers. A conventional approach has been to target customers either based on their predicted churn probability or their responsiveness to a... View Details

Keywords: Churn Management; Defection Prediction; Loss Function; Stochastic Gradient Boosting; Customer Relationship Management; Consumer Behavior; Profit

SSRN

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October 1990
Case

Manufacturers Hanover Corp.: Customer Profitability Report

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Banking company noting declining profitability from its traditional lending activities has started to measure the total profitability of its lending relationships. A loan pricing model estimates the profit and return-on-equity from commercial loans. Additional work was... View Details

Keywords: Investment Return; Revenue; Commercial Banking; Banks and Banking; Customer Value and Value Chain; Banking Industry

December 2004 (Revised August 2007)
Background Note

LTCM's Profit Motive

By: Henry B. Reiling and Kevin Wall

This case summarizes the finding and reasoning inherent in the economic substance and penalty imposition holdings of the district court decision in Long Term Capital Holdings v. United States. The court upheld the IRS's contention that a transaction between Long Term... View Details

Keywords: Taxation; Laws and Statutes; United States

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1998
Working Paper

For New Business, Manage Learning Not Earning

By: Joseph L. Bower and Toma Noda

Research Summary

How to Manage Customers for Increased Profits and Customer Satisfaction

By: Frances X. Frei

For many service firms, the customer plays an important role in contributing to the cost and/or quality of the service. This is very different than many manufacturing contexts, for example, where the firm has virtually complete control over product cost and quality. ... View Details

October 2001 (Revised October 2017)
Case

Pilgrim Bank (A): Customer Profitability

By: Frances X. Frei and Dennis Campbell

Provides a context in which students can explore managerial decision making that is critically informed by data analysis. The setting is a retail bank and the decision making relates to the bank's policy toward online banking. The management team is evaluating whether... View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Customers; Profit; Banking Industry

March 2013
Article

For Mobile Devices, Think Apps, Not Ads

By: Sunil Gupta

Many companies envision mobile ads becoming an integral part of their communications strategies. But there's a growing consensus that ads don't work on mobile devices; consumers just don't like them. Instead of creating tiny banner ads, smart marketers will turn to... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Advertising; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Innovation and Invention

1998
Case

Precision Pricing for Profit in the New World Order

By: Benson P. Shapiro

Keywords: Price; Profit; Customers

February 1999
Article

The Persistence of Shocks to Profitability

By: Anita M. McGahan and Michael E. Porter

In this study, we use data for 1981 through 1994 on a large sample of U.S. companies to examine the persistence of incremental industry, corporate-parent, and business-specific effects on profitability. Our results indicate that the incremental effects of industry on... View Details

Keywords: Profit; System Shocks; Strategy

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July 2010 (Revised December 2011)
Background Note

Marketing Analysis Toolkit: Pricing and Profitability Analysis

By: Thomas J. Steenburgh and Jill Avery

Pricing is one of the most difficult decisions marketers make and the one with the most direct and immediate impact on the firm's financial position. This toolkit will introduce the fundamental terminology and calculations associated with pricing and profitability... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Price; Profit; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Marketing Strategy; Demand and Consumers; Measurement and Metrics; Strategic Planning; Mathematical Methods; Retail Industry

07 Apr 2008
Research & Ideas

The Debate over Taxing Foreign Profits

returned to the United States, not when those profits are earned. This resembles the treatment of capital gains for individuals where capital gains taxes are only due when... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

14 Sep 2007
Research & Ideas

How to Profit from Scarcity

Harvard Business School professor John Quelch writes a blog on marketing issues, called Marketing Know: How, for Harvard Business Online. It is reprinted on HBS Working Knowledge.Marketers are trained to match supply to demand. Everything... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Consumer Products; Advertising

October 1990 (Revised June 1992)
Case

Direct Product Profitability at Hannaford Brothers Co.

By: Walter J. Salmon

Concerns the pioneering use of a method of accounting in retailing which takes into account not only sales and the cost of goods sold but, at the item level, all of the variable costs associated with each item that is sold. Focuses on the strengths and weaknesses of... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Cost; Price; Sales; Opportunities; Retail Industry

September 2001
Teaching Note

International Profit Associates TN

By: Ashish Nanda, Thomas J. DeLong and Ying Liu

Teaching Note for (9-801-397). View Details

Keywords: Consulting Industry