consumer behavior - Publications - Faculty & Research

July 2024 (Revised July 2024)
Case

Dynamic Pricing at Wendy’s: Where’s the Beef?

By: Elie Ofek, Alicia Dadlani and Martha Hostetter

In early 2024, Wendy’s new CEO announced on an earnings call that the company would install digital menus in its US locations so it could begin testing dynamic pricing—changing prices up or down in response to shifts in supply and demand – as well as allow engaging in... View Details

Keywords: Dynamic Pricing; Marketing Strategy; Price; Technology Adoption; Consumer Behavior; AI and Machine Learning; Customer Focus and Relationships; Policy; Food and Beverage Industry

Citation

Educators

November 2015 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Uber: Changing the Way the World Moves

By: Youngme Moon

In 2015, Uber is building what may be the largest point-to-point transportation network of its kind; it is literally changing the way the world moves. But unlike traditional transportation logistics companies like FedEx, Uber has an incredibly lightweight... View Details

Keywords: Service; Innovation; Pricing; Customer Loyalty; Uber; Taxi; Sharing Economy; On-demand Economy; Marketing; Operations; Strategy; Disruption; Customer Satisfaction; Transportation; Consumer Behavior

Citation

Educators

Purchase

August 2013
Article

The Timing of Pay

By: Christopher Parsons and E. Van Wesep

There exists large and persistent variation in not only how, but when employees are paid, a fact unexplained by existing theory. This paper develops a simple model of optimal pay timing for firms. When workers have self-control problems, they under-save... View Details

Keywords: Payday Lending; Hyperbolic Discounting; Self-control Problems; Pay Frequency; Payday Loan Legislation; Paycheck Frequency; Time Inconsistency; Wages; Behavior; Employee Relationship Management

Citation

Find at Harvard

24 Oct 2023
Research & Ideas

When Tech Platforms Identify Black-Owned Businesses, White Customers Buy

Generations of Black business owners have had to fight discrimination to prosper in America, but a new study suggests that these entrepreneurs are now gaining more support in parts of the country when they make their presence known. The study, coauthored by Harvard... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald; Food & Beverage

28 Nov 2018
HBS Case

On Target: Rethinking the Retail Website

knew from previous experience leading data science at Gap Inc. that consumers get frustrated with slow mobile apps. To him, the most important engineering requirement was providing users with a response to their search in milliseconds... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Retail

19 Feb 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, February 19, 2019

forthcoming Journal of Political Economy CEO Behavior and Firm Performance By: Bandiera, Oriana, Stephen Hansen, Andrea Prat, and Raffaella Sadun Abstract— We measure the behavior of 1,114 CEOs in six... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

27 Sep 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Salience in Quality Disclosure: Evidence from the U.S. News College Rankings

Keywords: by Michael Luca & Jonathan Smith; Education; Information; Publishing

23 Jan 2007
First Look

First Look: January 23, 2007

perform multiple tasks within a store, and the way in which they are evaluated and rewarded for these tasks affects their behavior. Using empirical data from multiple stores of a consumer electronics retailer, Tweeter Home Entertainment... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

12 Feb 2018
Research & Ideas

Customers at the Back of the Line Are Anxious—Can You Keep Them from Leaving?

poor suckers tomorrow.” Related Reading: People Have an Irrational Need to Complete 'Sets' of Things Hiding Products From Customers May Ultimately Boost Sales Behavioral Economists Can Make You a Healthier View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Retail; Service

07 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

Innovation Corrupted: How Managers Can Avoid Another Enron

"reserve requirement" to back up supply commitments. Enron had a major advantage over competitors as a middleman between producers and consumers because it operated one of the nation's largest natural gas pipeline networks.... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Energy; Utilities

16 Apr 2007
Research & Ideas

Delivering the Digital Goods: iTunes vs. Peer-to-Peer

enables downloads to be faster. While this "direct effect" seems obvious, our analysis also takes into account the following "indirect effect": The behavior of peers may vary when infrastructure improves. As... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Music

09 Nov 2016
Op-Ed

6 Lessons from Donald Trump's Winning Marketing Manual

Donald Trump's victory may be a surprise—but not to astute marketers. Here are six important lessons from Trump's brand marketing playbook: Give consumers a job. The best marketing campaigns always call on View Details

Keywords: by John A. Quelch

September 2017 (Revised September 2023)
Case

Chase Sapphire: Creating a Millennial Cult Brand

By: Shelle Santana, Jill Avery and Christine Snively

The launch of the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card was enthusiastically received by millennial consumers, a cohort that had previously eluded JPMorgan Chase and its competitors. With the one-year anniversary of the launch approaching, managers are focused on... View Details

Citation

Educators

Purchase

25 Sep 2007
First Look

First Look: September 25, 2007

Obscurity: An Individual-Level Examination of 'Long Tail' Consumption Author:Anita Elberse Abstract The idea that online channels facilitate the distribution of a vast assortment of products is undisputed, but what consequence the increased supply will have on View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

2023
Working Paper

Operational Impact of Communication Channels: Evidence from Last-Mile Delivery Services

By: Natalie Epstein, Santiago Gallino and Antonio Moreno

Communication channels are often used to improve customer satisfaction and behavior. This paper studies how they can be used to enhance operational performance.
We partner with a last-mile delivery company and, through natural and field experiments, explore... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Consumer Behavior; Logistics; Communication

Citation

SSRN

Fall 2024
Article

The Problem of Good Conduct Among Financial Advisers

By: Mark Egan, Gregor Matvos and Amit Seru

Households in the United States often rely on financial advisers for investment and savings decisions, yet there is a widespread perception that many advisers are dishonest. This distrust is not unwarranted: approximately one in fifteen advisers has a history of... View Details

Keywords: Personal Finance; Behavioral Finance; Trust; Financial Services Industry

Citation

Read Now

05 Dec 2023
Cold Call Podcast

Tommy Hilfiger’s Adaptive Clothing Line: Making Fashion Inclusive

Keywords: Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products

19 Dec 2022
Research & Ideas

What Motivates People to Give Generously—and Why We Sometimes Don't

surprisingly difficult. Much later, in the second year of her PhD program, she discovered the field of behavioral economics and folded her non-academic interests into her research. For his part, Zlatev arrived at his PhD in business... View Details

Keywords: by Jen McFarland Flint, HBS Alumni Bulletin

01 Oct 2012
Research & Ideas

Better by the Bundle?

Sales can soar when companies bundle products together into one cheaper package—Happy Meal, anyone? Yet a buyer's affinity for such deals comes with a big caveat, according to new research: These groupings are often successful only if the View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

January 2021 (Revised March 2021)
Case

THE YES: Reimagining the Future of E-Commerce with Artificial Intelligence (AI)

By: Jill Avery, Ayelet Israeli and Emma von Maur

THE YES, a multi-brand shopping app launched in May 2020 offered a new type of buying experience for women’s fashion, driven by a sophisticated algorithm that used data science and machine learning to create and deliver a personalized store for every shopper, based on... View Details