Publications

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24 Jun 2019
Blog Post

Chloe Ho, MBA 2019: Data-Driven and In Demand

immediate one of financial services. This highlighted the need for me to gain data fluency and competency—to invest in building out my data and analytics skillset for the sake of my career.” When Ho decided... View Details

Keywords: Technology

09 Jan 2024
In Practice

Harnessing AI: What Businesses Need to Know in ChatGPT’s Second Year

growing impact on job roles, salary structures, and how companies are organized and managed. This transformation will bring new opportunities but also challenges in adapting to a rapidly changing work environment. Data and algorithms as... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Information Technology

04 Jan 2018
News

How to Monetize Happiness

July–August 2014
Article

Unlock the Mysteries of Your Customer Relationships

By: Jill Avery, Susan Fournier and John Wittenbraker

Consumers have always had relationships with brands, but sophisticated tools for analyzing customer data are finally allowing marketing organizations to personalize and manage those relationships. With this new power comes a new challenge: people now expect companies... View Details

Keywords: Brand Management; CRM; Brands and Branding; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Relationship Management; Consumer Products Industry; Retail Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

January 2023 (Revised December 2023)
Case

OhmConnect: Energizing the Future

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Jennifer Fonstad and Nicole Tempest Keller

Founded in 2013, OhmConnect was a free consumer web app that alerted customers about peak hours of electricity demand, and paid them to lower their energy use at home during these periods. The company sold the aggregated reductions generated by thousands of households... View Details

Keywords: App Development; Renewable Energy; Electricity Usage; Regulations; VC; Technology; Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC); Scalability; Applications and Software; Growth and Development Strategy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business Model; Venture Capital; Energy Industry; United States; California; Texas; Europe

Working Paper

Diversification as an Adaptive Learning Process: An Empirical Study of General-Purpose and Market-Specific Technological Know-How in New Market Entry

By: Dominika Kinga Randle and Gary P. Pisano

An enduring trait of modern corporations is their propensity to diversify into multiple lines of business. Penrosian theories conceptualize diversification as a strategy to exploit a firm’s fungible, yet “untradeable,” resources and point to redeployment of... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Technology Adoption; Diversification; Market Entry and Exit; Transformation

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29 May 2012
First Look

First Look: May 29

of strong ties to resistors accruing to the change agent are weaker and may yet turn into liabilities that reduce the likelihood of change adoption. Analyses of longitudinal data from 68 multi-method case studies of organizational change... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2022
Case

Ethena: A Go-to-Market Dilemma

By: Rembrand Koning and Stacy Straaberg

In November 2021, Roxanne Petraeus and Anne Solmssen, founders of Brooklyn-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup Ethena, were looking to expand their compliance training business. The founders hired Arnie Gullov-Singh, an outside revenue consultant, to advise on... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Judgments; Growth and Development Strategy; Business or Company Management; Business Strategy; Expansion; Segmentation; Technology Industry; United States; New York (state, US)

December 2018
Case

Bata versus Relaxo—Analyzing Performance

By: Suraj Srinivasan, Iris Leung and Quinn Pitcher

Set in 2016, “Bata India versus Relaxo—Analyzing Performance” compares the strategies and financial performance of two Indian footwear companies. Bata India had long been the market leader in footwear in India, but its leading market position was being challenged by... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Strategy; Operations; Performance Evaluation; Financial Statements; Analysis; Apparel and Accessories Industry

08 May 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, May 8, 2018

manner that increases reimbursement or avoids financial penalties. Identifying upcoding in claims data is challenging due to unobservable confounders (e.g., patient risk). We leverage state-level variations in adverse event reporting... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2019
Case

Starling Trust Sciences: Measuring Trust in Organizations

By: Aiyesha Dey, Jonas Heese and James Weber

Stephen Scott needed to decide whether to keep his behavioral analytics startup in the people analytics sector or shift his company into the RegTech sector. Starling had develop technology that enabled its customers to anticipate and shape the behavior of their... View Details

Keywords: Behavioral Analytics; Financial Institutions; Banks and Banking; Entrepreneurship; Strategy; Banking Industry; Consulting Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States; United Kingdom

August 1991 (Revised March 1993)
Case

Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl

By: Forest L. Reinhardt

Champion's forest products division owns timberlands, sawmills, and plywood mills in the Pacific Northwest. The listing of the northern spotted owl as an endangered species, and restrictions on exports of logs from state-owned lands, have disrupted the stumpage, log... View Details

Keywords: Science-Based Business; Natural Environment; Product Marketing; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Government and Politics; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Strategy; Trade; Decisions; Management Teams; Forest Products Industry; North and Central America

27 Nov 2023
Research & Ideas

Voting Democrat or Republican? The Critical Childhood Influence That's Tough to Shake

political beliefs. The strategy was to measure the “extent to which a voter whose family moves to a new neighborhood during their childhood adopts a political behavior similar to their permanent-resident peers in that neighborhood,” the... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

February 2008 (Revised September 2008)
Case

Indesit Company: Does Global Matter?

By: Joseph L. Bower

In 2007, the leadership of the Indesit Company is focused on long-term corporate strategy. After 3 decades, the company has emerged as the number 2 home appliance producer in Europe. Should they invest further to be number 1, or should they focus on the global market,... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Global Strategy; Growth and Development; Business or Company Management; Brands and Branding; Markets; Problems and Challenges; Corporate Strategy; Consumer Products Industry

January 2025
Case

Redwood & Strong: The Value of a Consulting Engagement

By: David G. Fubini and Patrick Sanguineti

The board of Redwood & Strong LLP (R&S), the American branch of a large global law firm, is meeting to review the findings of a recent strategic initiative designed to identify potential merger candidates. The request for the engagement originated from Daniel Crawford,... View Details

Keywords: Client Service; Professional Service Firm; Professional Services; Consulting; Mergers and Acquisitions; Governing and Advisory Boards; Reports; Strategic Planning; Value; Consulting Industry; Legal Services Industry; United States

In 2000, Eaton Corporation was broadly diversified industrial conglomerate. But its strategy was evolving and its focus was narrowing around “power management” and more recently on “intelligent power,” the use of digitally enabled products and services designed... View Details

2017
Working Paper

Task Selection and Workload: A Focus on Completing Easy Tasks Hurts Long-Term Performance

By: Diwas S. KC, Bradley R. Staats, Maryam Kouchaki and Francesca Gino

How individuals manage, organize, and complete their tasks is central to operations management. Recent research in operations focuses on how under conditions of increasing workload, individuals can increase their service time, up to a point, to complete work more... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Decision Making; Performance Effectiveness; Performance Productivity