Publications

January 2021
Supplement

Bespoken Spirits: Disrupting Distilling

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

On October 7, 2020, Bespoken Spirits publicly announced it had received $2.6 million of seed funding for its “sustainable maturation process,” a process that could produce award-winning whiskeys in just days rather than years using a novel technology and data science. ... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Business Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Disruption; Entrepreneurship; Environmental Sustainability; Cash Flow; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Brands and Branding; Business Model; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States; California

12 Dec 2019
Research & Ideas

How to Turn Down the Boil on Group Conflict

results were consistent for both Democrats and Republicans, or even if they just presented an anonymous “Party A” and “Party B.” “They are totally insensitive to the scope or impact of the issue,” Cikara says. “They just think the other... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

March 1997 (Revised November 2013)
Case

Purity Steel Corporation, 2012

By: Robert L. Simons and Antonio Davila

Managers introduce a new performance evaluation system based on sales growth and return-on-investment (ROI). A branch manager wonders whether his new warehouse should be leased to mitigate the impact on ROI. Formulas and performance calculations are provided. A... View Details

Keywords: Investment Return; Judgments; Motivation and Incentives; Performance Efficiency; Compensation and Benefits; Salesforce Management; Performance Consistency; Performance Productivity; Steel Industry

10 Jul 2023
In Practice

The Harvard Business School Faculty Summer Reader 2023

research goals. To further deepen my understanding of habit formation, I'm excited to revisit Atomic Habits by James Clear. This impactful book explores the power of small habits and their profound influence on personal and professional... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

April 2014
Case

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc.: Taking on Seasonal Starvation in Latin America

By: Christopher Marquis and Zoe Yang

A company with a strong commitment toward corporate social responsibility since its founding days, Green Mountain faced an ethical decision point in 2007 as new information from the field uncovered a chronic dire problem facing coffee communities—seasonal starvation.... View Details

Keywords: Fair Trade; Coffee; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Latin America; Central America; Mexico; Guatemala; Nicaragua

02 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

10 Trends to Watch in 2024

The lightning-fast ascent of generative AI isn’t the only sea change on the horizon for businesses in the new year. The global economy is in flux as war, climate change, trade issues, and infrastructure problems demand attention. Many companies continue to struggle to... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

18 Dec 2012
First Look

First Look: December 18

of Research in Marketing 29 (2012) Abstract We examine the underlying process behind the IKEA effect, which is defined as consumers' willingness to pay more for self-created products than for identical View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

01 Feb 2019
HBS Seminar

Xavier Jaravel, London School of Economics

Research Summary

Overview

By: Feng Zhu

Professor Zhu’s research focuses on the design of platform business models and its impact on platform performance. Platforms have become central to our economy. A platform is a product or service that enables two or more customer groups to interact. For example,... View Details

25 Sep 2006
Research & Ideas

How Software Platforms Revolutionize Business

platforms, but new industries are also springing up around them; witness the multibillion-dollar ringtone business. To record the impact of software platforms on the economy and look to their future impact, David S. Evans, Andrei Hagiu,... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Video Game; Web Services

Program

The Business of Entertainment, Media, and Sports

Summary Nowhere has the impact of digital technology been felt more keenly than in the entertainment world, where it has dramatically changed how products are developed and managed—and how talent connects... View Details

Keywords: Media & Entertainment; Media & Entertainment

January 2017 (Revised December 2017)
Case

Carmichael Roberts: To Create a Private Equity Firm?

By: Steven Rogers and Kenneth J. Cooper

Carmichael Roberts, a rare African-American venture capitalist, considered leaving his general partnership in a private equity firm near Boston and setting up his own in 2015. He weighed whether the timing was right, with the economy still not fully recovered from the... View Details

06 Dec 2022
HBS Seminar

Elizabeth Lyons, UC San Diego

Working Paper

AI in Disguise—How AI-generated Ads' Visual Cues Shape Consumer Perception and Performance

By: Yannick Exner, Jochen Hartmann, Oded Netzer and Shunyuan Zhang

Generative AI’s recent advancements in creating content have offered vast potential to transform the advertising industry. This research investigates the impact of generative AI-enabled visual ad creation on real-world advertising effectiveness. For this purpose, we... View Details

Keywords: Digital Marketing; AI and Machine Learning; Advertising; Consumer Behavior; Advertising Industry