Publications

11 Jul 2019
Sharpening Your Skills

Deconstructing 'Customer Experience'

dream come true. But then Amazon's data-driven efficiency met the customer-driven culture at Whole Foods—and the shelves began to empty. How an Order Views Your Company Managers should imagine the customer... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail; Service

February 2001 (Revised September 2005)
Case

Howard Schultz and Starbucks Coffee Company

By: Nancy F. Koehn

Investigates the entrepreneur's strategic initiatives to develop a mass market for specialty coffee in the 1980s and 1990s. These initiatives included the development of premium products, rapid expansion of company-owned stores--each with attractive retail environments... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Groups and Teams; Brands and Branding; Growth Management; Employee Relationship Management; Consumer Behavior; Organizational Design; Leadership Style; Customer Relationship Management; Competitive Advantage; Vertical Integration; Food and Beverage Industry

May 2016
Case

Revitalizing State Bank of India

By: Srikant M. Datar, N. M. Bhatta, Rishikesha T. Krishnan and Rachna Tahilyani

State Bank of India is India’s oldest and largest bank with the government of India as its majority shareholder. Arundhati Bhattacharya, a 35-year veteran of the bank, is appointed as its chairman in October 2013. Her appointment coincides with Moody’s downgrading the... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Transformation; Communication Strategy; Leadership Style; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change And Adaptation; Performance Evaluation; Culture; Corporate Social Responsibility And Impact; Human Resources; Employees; Compensation And Benefits; Recruiting; Capital Markets; Performance Expectations; Financial Services Industry; Asia; India

Article

Beyond the Target Customer: Social Effects in CRM Campaigns

By: Eva Ascarza, Peter Ebbes, Oded Netzer and Matthew Danielson

Customer relationship management (CRM) campaigns have traditionally focused on maximizing the profitability of the targeted customers. The authors demonstrate that in business settings characterized by network externalities, a CRM campaign that is aimed at changing the... View Details

Keywords: Social Effects; Field Experiment; Mobile; Customer Relationship Management; Network Effects; Consumer Behavior

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21 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

Solving the Marketing Resources Allocation Puzzle

managers are being held to higher standards when it comes to justifying customer investments. We foresee the need for marketing professionals to develop even greater analytical skill as the field continues... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

10 May 2011
Working Paper Summaries

The Impact of Forward-Looking Metrics on Employee Decision Making

Keywords: by Pablo Casas-Arce, F. Asís Martínez-Jerez & V.G. Narayanan; Banking

April 2006
Background Note

Designing Sustainable Service Models

By: Frances X. Frei

Taught as the second module in a Harvard Business School course on Managing Service Operations. Addresses the challenge of designing service models that effectively incorporate a customer operating role, as well as how to align operations to deliver value to both the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Customers; Design; Managerial Roles; Consumer Behavior; Service Operations; Power and Influence; Value

March 2016 (Revised May 2018)
Case

Reinventing Best Buy

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

On March 1, 2017, Best Buy Company, Inc., North America’s largest retailer of consumer electronics and appliances, announced a third year of comparable-store sales increases and a 20.8% increase in domestic comparable online sales. These results were in marked contrast... View Details

Keywords: Best Buy; Hubert Joly; Renew Blue; Showrooming; Webrooming; E-commerce; E-Commerce Strategy; Online Retail; Multichannel Retailing; Omnichannel; Marketplaces; Turnaround; Consumer Electronics; Consumer Electronics Accessories; Appliances; Stores-within-stores; Store Experience; Store Size; Store Pickup; Store Management; Delivery; Delivery Models; Amazon; Amazon.com; Pricing Strategy; Business Subsidiaries; Business Units; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Entertainment; Film Entertainment; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Music Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Theater Entertainment; Price; Profit; Revenue; Geographic Scope; Multinational Firms and Management; Business History; Cost; Selection and Staffing; Reports; Technological Innovation; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Human Capital; Leading Change; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Product Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Demand and Consumers; Media; Distribution; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Distribution Channels; Infrastructure; Product; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Public Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Programs; Groups and Teams; Sales; Salesforce Management; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Information Technology; Information Infrastructure; Information Technology; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Internet and the Web; Applications and Software; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Resource Allocation; Computer Industry; Electronics Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Information Technology Industry; Retail Industry; Service Industry; Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Video Game Industry; United States; Minnesota; Minneapolis; Saint Paul; St. Paul

October 2010
Supplement

Belco Global Foods: Spreadsheet Supplement (CW)

By: C. Fritz Foley and Matthew Johnson

This case introduces students to the fundamental issues that managers face when deciding what international trade finance terms to use when transacting with other firms. In late 2009, Pam Arnold, the Head of Global Credit at Belco Global Foods must decide which trade... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Decisions; Trade; Financial Strategy; Governance Compliance; Managerial Roles; Market Transactions

August 2018 (Revised October 2019)
Case

C3.ai—Driven to Succeed

By: Robert Simons and George Gonzalez

CEO Tom Siebel navigates his artificial intelligence (ai) startup through a series of pivots, market expansions, and even an elephant attack to become a leading platform ad service provider. The case describes his unusual management approach emphasizing employee... View Details

December 2011 (Revised October 2014)
Background Note

Business Model Analysis for Entrepreneurs

By: Thomas Eisenmann

This note defines a business model and its major elements: a customer value proposition, a technology and operations management plan, a go-to-market plan, and a profit formula. For each element, the note lists questions that an entrepreneur must address when evaluating... View Details

Keywords: Business Model

10 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

Technology and COVID Upended Tipping Norms. Will Consumers Keep Paying?

brought along by the pandemic have ushered in changes to the informal customs around who gets tips and how much, according to Jill Avery, senior lecturer of business administration and the Christensen Distinguished View Details

Keywords: by Anna Lamb, Harvard Gazette

February 2022
Case

Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Tedards

In 2006, the Cleveland Clinic and Mubadala Investment Company partnered with a bold ambition to deliver world class healthcare in the United Arab Emirates. In 2015, after nearly a decade of planning and construction, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi opened its doors. By... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Behavior; Culture; Alignment; Organizational Effectiveness; Purpose; Impact; Leadership Development; Diversity; Collaboration; Co-creation; Learning Organizations; Empowerment; Teams; Team Dynamics; Teamwork; Team Effectiveness; Trust; Talent; Talent Development And Retention; Psychological Safety; Organizational Evolution; Coaching; Board; Analytics; Innovation; Data; Data Visualization; Digital Technology; Digital; Customer Experience; Experimentation; Change Management; Data-driven Decision-making; Debates; Ecosystem; Partnership; Telemedicine; Sustainability; Global Organizations; Local; Hospital; Healthcare; United Arab Emirates; Health Care and Treatment; Partners and Partnerships; Globalization; Quality; Organizational Culture; Mission and Purpose; Innovation and Management; Information Technology; Joint Ventures; Leadership; Performance Effectiveness; Abu Dhabi; United Arab Emirates

2011
Working Paper

The Impact of Forward-Looking Metrics on Employee Decision Making

By: Pablo Casas-Arce, F. Asis Martinez-Jerez and V.G. Narayanan

This paper analyzes the effects of providing forward-looking metrics on employee decision making. We use data from a southern European bank that, in April 2002, started providing its branch managers with customer lifetime value (CLV) information about mortgage... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Decision Choices and Conditions; Mortgages; Employees; Information; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Service Delivery; Banking Industry; Europe

August 2014
Case

Netflix: Designing the Netflix Prize (A)

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Wesley M. Cohen, Kynon Ingram, Tushar Kothalkar, Maxim Kuzemchenko, Santosh Malik, Cynthia Meyn, Greta Friar and Stephanie Healy Pokrywa

In 2006, Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, was looking for a way to solve Netflix's customer churn problem. Netflix used Cinematch, its proprietary movie recommendation software, to promote individually determined best-fit movies to customers. Hastings determined that a... View Details

Keywords: Crowdsourcing; Prizes; Digitization; Algorithms; Recommendation Software; Disruption; Transformation; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Knowledge Sharing; Applications and Software; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Technology Industry; United States

23 Nov 2015
News

Your Company Is Full of Good Experiments (You Just Have to Recognize Them)

2023
Working Paper

The Impact of Unionization on Consumer Perceptions of Service Quality: Evidence from Starbucks

By: Isamar Troncoso, Minkyung Kim, Ishita Chakraborty and SooHyun Kim

The US has seen a rise in union movements, but their effects on service industry marketing outcomes like customer satisfaction and perceptions of service quality remain understudied. In this paper, we empirically study the impact on customer satisfaction and... View Details

Keywords: Labor Unions; Customer Satisfaction; Perception; Public Opinion; Employees; Food and Beverage Industry

SSRN

March 2016 (Revised October 2017)
Case

Salesforce.com vs. Siebel (Abridged)

By: David B. Yoffie

Explores the phenomenon of software becoming a service. Salesforce.com has catapulted into the lead for offering a customer relationship management (CRM) solution as a Web-based service. Siebel, the leader in CRM packaged software sales, has to devise a strategy to... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Competitive Strategy; Software