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- All HBS Web
(149)
- News (52)
- Research (83)
- Events (1)
- Multimedia (9)
- Faculty Publications (45)
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- April 14, 2017
- Article
Companies Like United Need to Cultivate Good Judgment, and Free Their Employees to Use It
By: John A. Deighton
United Airlines has pledged to improve its training programs and empower its employees to put customers first in the wake of a video showing a passenger being dragged from a plane. Of all the U.S. air carriers, United should have known the power of social media and... View Details
Keywords: Crisis Management; Customer Focus and Relationships; Employees; Training; Air Transportation Industry
Deighton, John A. "Companies Like United Need to Cultivate Good Judgment, and Free Their Employees to Use It." Harvard Business Review (website) (April 14, 2017).
- 28 Jan 2014
- First Look
First Look: January 28
increased dramatically (seven- to nine-fold) in the last two decades. To counteract this trend, I propose novel approaches to lower its cost or use attention more efficiently by adopting multitasker-tailored ads, Lean Advertising, and View Details
Keywords: Sean Silverthorne
- 04 May 2010
- First Look
First Look: May 4
international media event ensues. How do viral videos spread and what can firms do about them? This case dissects an incident in which a disgruntled customer used YouTube and Twitter to spread a music video detailing United's mishandling... View Details
Keywords: Martha Lagace
- March 2025
- Case
Metaphysic AI: Rethinking the Value of Human Expertise
By: Zoë B. Cullen, Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai
In early 2025, Thomas Graham, CEO of Metaphysic, a leading AI generative video company confronted fundamental questions about who should control digital identity in a world where AI could perfectly recreate human likeness. Founded in 2021, Metaphysic first rose to fame... View Details
Keywords: Business Model; Ethics; AI and Machine Learning; Intellectual Property; Rights; Negotiation; Value; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Technology Industry
Cullen, Zoë B., Shikhar Ghosh, and Shweta Bagai. "Metaphysic AI: Rethinking the Value of Human Expertise." Harvard Business School Case 825-146, March 2025.
- October 2016
- Case
Triangulate: Stay, Pivot or Exit?
By: Thomas Eisenmann, Shikhar Ghosh and Christopher Payton
Sunil Nagaraj, Triangulate's founder had spent a few years trying to launch a dating application that matched users based on their behavior on social media. Based on input from advisors, the company changed its focus from a B2B site to a B2C dating site with a unique... View Details
Keywords: Early Stage; Pivot; Two Sided Markets; Business Model; Business Exit or Shutdown; Product Launch; Venture Capital; Failure; Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Information Technology; Social and Collaborative Networks; United States; North America
Eisenmann, Thomas, Shikhar Ghosh, and Christopher Payton. "Triangulate: Stay, Pivot or Exit?" Harvard Business School Case 817-059, October 2016.
- Teaching Interest
Digital Marketing Strategy
By: John A. Deighton
When the tools of marketing change, strategies change too. The focus of this course is on firms trying to navigate the transition from offline to online market-making and strategy development. Our concern is primarily with corporations that have products and... View Details
- 29 Jan 2014
- Working Paper Summaries
The Rising Cost of Consumer Attention: Why You Should Care, and What You Can Do about It
Keywords: by Thales S. Teixeira
- 29 Nov 2010
- HBS Case
United Breaks Guitars
object lesson in what that means for big, recognizable companies and their brands. "United Breaks Guitars" documents the incredible viral power of social media, analyzing the reach and impact of a clever customer complaint music... View Details
Keywords: by Julia Hanna
- 15 May 2024
- Research & Ideas
A Major Roadblock for Autonomous Cars: Motorists Believe They Drive Better
for marketers is to make such interventions short, memorable, and motivational—as when Metro Trains in Melbourne, Victoria, successfully launched a viral ad campaign on railway safety called “Dumb ways to die.” 4. Get concrete. People... View Details
- 16 Nov 2016
- Research & Ideas
Turning One Thousand Customers into One Million
sporting events—where Uber’s initial viral growth was double that observed in other cities. These accelerants became the basis of Uber’s market expansion playbook, and were some of the factors it looked at to drive its launch as it... View Details
- 2009
- Working Paper
Do Friends Influence Purchases in a Social Network?
By: Raghuram Iyengar, Sangman Han and Sunil Gupta
Social networks, such as Facebook and Myspace have witnessed a rapid growth in their membership. Some of these businesses have tried an advertising-based model with very limited success. However, these businesses have not fully explored the power of their members to... View Details
Keywords: Marketing; Network Effects; Sales; Power and Influence; Social and Collaborative Networks; Web Sites; South Korea
Iyengar, Raghuram, Sangman Han, and Sunil Gupta. "Do Friends Influence Purchases in a Social Network?" Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 09-123, April 2009.
- 07 Feb 2022
- Research & Ideas
Digital Transformation: A New Roadmap for Success
algorithms can lead to unintended bias that harms certain employees and customers, and the company’s reputation (a bias story can go viral on social media within minutes). 5. Design for inclusive and agile problem-solving As they become... View Details
- 25 Jul 2023
- Research & Ideas
Could a Business Model Help Big Pharma Save Lives and Profit?
leveraged the formula in Egypt and in more than 100 other countries. In fact, Gilead generated substantial revenues through this hybrid approach for viral hepatitis and HIV. In doing so, this method helped patients regardless of whether... View Details
- 30 Nov 2015
- Research & Ideas
Donors Are Turned Off by Overhead Costs. Here’s What Charities Can Do
toward clean water projects. Still, Keenan acknowledges that many in the nonprofit sector worry that enabling overhead-free donations will perpetuate the idea that overhead is a bad thing. For example, activist Dan Pallotta argues in favor of overhead in his View Details
Keywords: by Carmen Nobel
- 20 Aug 2014
- Research & Ideas
Why the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is a Social Media Blockbuster
they can become incidental props in these viral stunts. The challenge that brands encounter, however, is that their involvement could come off as merely jumping on the bandwagon because spreadable stunts tend to carry no meaning beyond... View Details
Keywords: by John Deighton
- 15 Nov 2022
- Op-Ed
Why TikTok Is Beating YouTube for Eyeball Time (It’s Not Just the Dance Videos)
the internet. We wrote a series of Harvard Business School case studies between 2009 and 2011 exploring viral videos—United Breaks Guitars, the JK Wedding Dance, and how Ford used influencers to launch the Fiesta car. What struck us right... View Details
Keywords: by John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld
- 11 Mar 2019
- Research & Ideas
Branding Sells Cereal, Handbags, and Vacations. Can It Sell a Country?
culture, setting off a K-Drama (Korean television drama) and K-Pop (Korean pop music) craze, with music exports, for example, expanding ninefold to $277 million in 2013. Think virally and socially. When New York City sought to bring back... View Details
- 18 Sep 2017
- Research & Ideas
'Likes' Lead to Nothing—and Other Hard-Learned Lessons of Social Media Marketing
(@trillballins) pic.twitter.com/ckPcOmt0nO — CNN (@CNN) April 21, 2016 Failing to understand how quickly things can go wrong One viral video on Facebook can do serious damage to a company’s reputation, as United Airlines undoubtedly... View Details
- 25 Jan 2017
- HBS Case
How Should Advertisers Respond to Consumer Demand for Whiter Skin?
Stay beautiful”—went viral on social media in 2013. (See illustration below) Campaign ad featuring Indian actress Nandita Das protesting skin-lightening creams. Source: Women of Worth, courtesy Rohit Deshpandé Fair skin part of India’s... View Details
- 24 Feb 2022
- Op-Ed
Want to Prevent the Next Hospital Bed Crisis? Enlist the SEC
During the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, many US hospitals could not provide enough beds to meet demand. Solving the problem of inadequate capacity is of utmost importance in the “new normal,” which requires recognizing the ongoing need for hospital-based... View Details