Publications

February 2017 (Revised September 2017)
Case

Bringing Digital to Wimbledon

By: John T. Gourville and David Arnold

It was mid-December 2016 as Alexandra (Alex) Willis read with satisfaction that The All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club (AELTC) had won yet another award for its use of social media to reach its fan base. As the organizer and host of “The Championships, Wimbledon,”... View Details

Keywords: Wimbledon; London; Digital; Marketing; Marketing Communications; Online Technology

11 Mar 2019
Research & Ideas

Branding Sells Cereal, Handbags, and Vacations. Can It Sell a Country?

overcome decades of TV footage of soldiers and tanks that linger in the mind. To Harvard Business School marketing professor Elie Ofek, it’s more proof that influencing long-held perceptions about a region requires more strategic... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Tourism

22 Nov 2010
Research & Ideas

Seven Strategy Questions: A Simple Approach for Better Execution

point, I'll contrast Merck's $20 billion decision to pull Vioxx from the market with Pfizer's decision to continue marketing Celebrex. 3. What Critical Performance Variables Are You Tracking? Once you're... View Details

Keywords: by Robert Simons

May 2022
Case

Thinking Outside the Wine Box (A): Mekanism and the Franz for Life Campaign

By: Tomomichi Amano, Elie Ofek, Mengjie Cheng and Amy Klopfenstein

This case provides an overview of “Franz for Life,” an advertising campaign that independent advertising agency Mekanism created and executed to revitalize the brand image of Franzia, a low-cost boxed wine. For several years, Franzia’s popularity declined among... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Digital Marketing; Social Marketing; Marketing Communications; Product Positioning; Food and Beverage Industry; Advertising Industry; United States

October 1991 (Revised June 1996)
Case

Lotus MarketPlace: Households

By: Lynn S. Paine

Managers at Lotus and Equifax must decide what to do about their new jointly developed database and software product Lotus MarketPlace which has been criticized as a threat to individual privacy. The Product, which would allow small businesses to buy targeting mail... View Details

Keywords: Information; Business or Company Management; Rights; Ethics; Marketing Communications; Applications and Software; Product Marketing; Information Technology Industry

Find at Harvard

08 Nov 2016
First Look

November 8, 2016

approaches on the subject in terms of longitudinal and geographical scope. We suggest that the straightforward association of the general environmental settings of market immaturities and institutional voids with the existence of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

07 Aug 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, August 8, 2018

agents for social change in the emerging markets grappling with institutional voids. How should they work with the government in this endeavor? How do they ensure an alignment of these efforts to the group and foundation's long-term focus... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

12 Oct 2021
Research & Ideas

What Actually Draws Sports Fans to Games? It's Not Star Athletes.

the University of Melbourne. Put another way: the more evenly matched teams are on the field, the less certain the final game score, and the bigger fan interest. Professional sports leagues around the world, major revenue generators for team View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Sports

08 Sep 2022
Book

Gen Xers and Millennials, It’s Time To Lead. Are You Ready?

from decades of teaching students from the Gen X, Millennial, and Gen Z eras. George and coauthor Zach Clayton, CEO of the digital marketing firm Three Ships, urge young leaders to usher in a new way of doing business—one based on... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

January 2010 (Revised August 2011)
Case

United Breaks Guitars

By: John A. Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

When social media propagate a complaint about poor customer service, an 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... View Details

Keywords: Communication Technology; Customer Satisfaction; Marketing Communications; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Network Effects; Service Delivery; Social and Collaborative Networks; Internet; Air Transportation Industry

August 2011 (Revised November 2011)
Case

The U.S. Military Academy at West Point

By: Anat Keinan

The case examines an iconic institution's decision on whether or not to undertake a branding initiative. Founded in 1802, West Point has played a key role in America's history. It is one of the nation's oldest institutions of higher learning and is well known for... View Details

Keywords: Surveys; Resource Allocation; Brands and Branding; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Competitive Strategy; Education Industry; United States

01 Oct 2001
Research & Ideas

How To Make Restructuring Work for Your Company

8 The Devil Is In The Details The decisions that managers have to make as part of implementing a restructuring plan are often critical to whether the restructuring succeeds or fails. In the language of economics, implementation is the process of managing View Details

Keywords: by Stuart C. Gilson

26 Dec 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Reinforcing Regulatory Regimes: How States, Civil Society, and Codes of Conduct Promote Adherence to Global Labor Standards

Keywords: by Michael W. Toffel, Jodi L. Short & Melissa Ouellet

20 Feb 2007
First Look

First Look: February 20, 2007

Co.: Breaking New Grounds Harvard Business School Case 807-004 Examines the strategies of a Boston-based start-up to market Rwandan coffee. Describes the history of the coffee industry, the era of cartelization and the International... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

September 2015
Article

Speaking of the Short-Term: Disclosure Horizon and Managerial Myopia

By: Francois Brochet, Maria Loumioti and George Serafeim

We study conference calls as a voluntary disclosure channel and create a proxy for the time horizon that senior executives emphasize in their communications. We find that our measure of disclosure time horizon is associated with capital market pressures and executives'... View Details

Keywords: Short-termism; Management Styles; Disclosure; Conference Calls; Investing; Earnings Management; Motivation and Incentives; Management Style; Forms of Communication