Publications

Research Summary

Overview

By: Rohit Deshpande

Customer Centricity Rohit Deshpandé's research program focuses on Customer-Centricity. A stream of projects examines the interaction between corporate and national culture as they influence the development and implementation of global marketing strategies in high... View Details

May 2017 (Revised March 2018)
Case

Predicting Consumer Tastes with Big Data at Gap

By: Ayelet Israeli and Jill Avery

CEO Art Peck was eliminating his creative directors for The Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic brands and promoting a collective creative ecosystem fueled by the input of big data. Rather than relying on artistic vision, Peck wanted the company to use the mining of big... View Details

January 2008 (Revised March 2008)
Case

Glass Egg Digital Media

Glass Egg is an outsource games development firm in Vietnam. They are able to offer brand-name publishers-Microsoft EA, Atari-significant cost savings in the development of art assets for their video games. However, the firm's management find themselves at a point at... View Details

Keywords: Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Demand and Consumers; Product Development; Organizational Structure; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

December 2013
Case

Clique Pens: The Writing Implements Division of U.S. Home

By: Frank V. Cespedes and James Kindley

The Clique Pens Writing Implements division of U.S. Home is a manufacturer of a full line of pens, pencils, markers, and art supplies. Despite solid sales, division president Elise Ferguson has seen gross margins drop from 42% in 2010 to just over 36% in 2012 as a... View Details

Keywords: Production; Marketing Strategy; Distribution Channels; Compensation and Benefits; Sales; Manufacturing Industry; Consumer Products Industry

January 2007 (Revised October 2011)
Case

Roppongi Hills: City Within a City

By: Anita Elberse, Andrei Hagiu and Masako Egawa

Minoru Mori is the CEO of Mori Building, which has built Roppongi Hills, an ambitious large-scale, mixed-use development in Tokyo, Japan that includes high-end retail, restaurants, hotel, office, library, and art museum. A destination site for tourists and local... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Development Economics; Brands and Branding; Urban Development; Competition; Real Estate Industry; Tokyo

04 Jun 2018
Research & Ideas

Think of it as Professors in Cars Having Coffee

designed to make sure the executive office doesn’t have too much power.” Ep 15: Brainstorming the Affordable Housing Dilemma Desai: “There is a very real, genuine market failure. I think the answer is the government provides housing... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Education; Entertainment & Recreation

November 2015
Case

Wynton Marsalis & Jazz at Lincoln Center

By: Rohit Deshpandé

Under the leadership of artistic director Wynton Marsalis, Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC) hosts performances and education events year-round for audiences in New York and across the United States. Despite the popularity of JALC's events, however, the U.S. audience for... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Management; Music Entertainment; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Growth and Development Strategy; Music Industry

July 2009 (Revised March 2010)
Case

Sotheby's & Christie's Inc.

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Catherine Jane Wise

The fine art auction business has remained a duopoly over its 250 year history. The industry is dominated by Sotheby's and Christie's Inc. Curiously, neither competitor has been able to overtake the other by a notable margin despite the clear network effects of this... View Details

Keywords: Arts; Business Model; Restructuring; Economics; Auctions; Market Entry and Exit; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Operations; Competition

13 Jan 2003
Research & Ideas

The Subconscious Mind of the Consumer (And How To Reach It)

Harvard Business School professor Gerald Zaltman's latest book, How Customers Think: Essential Insights into the Mind of the Market, delves into the subconscious mind of the consumer—the place where most purchasing decisions are made. The question: How can View Details

Keywords: by Manda Mahoney

November 2017
Teaching Note

Predicting Consumer Tastes with Big Data at Gap

By: Ayelet Israeli and Jill Avery

CEO Art Peck was eliminating his creative directors for The Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic brands and promoting a collective creative ecosystem fueled by the input of big data. Rather than relying on artistic vision, Peck wanted the company to use the mining of big... View Details

February 2023 (Revised March 2023)
Case

Hey, Insta & YouTube, Are You Watching TikTok?

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee

In early 2023, the entertainment app TikTok reached close to 1 billion users globally, placing it 4th behind the leading social networks of Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Featuring a sophisticated recommendation engine, TikTok mastered the art of keeping users... View Details

Keywords: Social Media; Applications and Software; Business Model; Competition; Organizational Change and Adaptation

08 Nov 2018
Cold Call Podcast

Could Big Data Replace the Creative Director at the Gap?

Keywords: Re: Ayelet Israeli; Fashion; Retail

11 Aug 2011
Lessons from the Classroom

Perfecting the Project Pitch

marketing song and dance. "People with engineering backgrounds tend to struggle in this process," says Harvard Business School Associate Professor Thomas Steenburgh, who teaches the Business View Details

Keywords: by Dennis Fisher

June 2018
Case

Candor at Clever

By: Ethan Bernstein and Om Lala

Clever, a high-growth EdTech company based in San Francisco, had grown quickly in market share and headcount. As with many high-growth companies, however, early employees (many of whom had never managed people before) had been given the opportunity to manage teams, and... View Details

07 Apr 2020
Research & Ideas

What Customers Need to Hear from You During the COVID Crisis

As the COVID-19 virus pandemic began to sweep across the world, Doug McMillon and his team at Walmart watched in horror. Suddenly, they realized, tomorrow would be nothing like “business as usual” and everything in the company’s marketing... View Details

Keywords: by Jill Avery and Richard Edelman

15 Aug 2011
Research & Ideas

A New Model for Business: The Museum

along with companies like Apple, Facebook, and Progressive Insurance, is a leading example of firms that are thinking about customers in a new way—much like how a museum curator orchestrates the experience of patrons. Weaver, an assistant professor in the View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

10 Jun 2014
First Look

First Look: June 10

Publications August 2013 pub Cannibalization and Option Value Effects of Secondary Markets: Evidence from the U.S. Concert Industry By: Bennett, Victor Manuel, Robert Seamans, and Feng Zhu Abstract—We examine how reducing search frictions in secondary View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 1999 (Revised August 1999)
Case

R&B Falcon

R&B Falcon is the world's leading offshore drilling contractor. Amid surging exploration budgets and increasing deepwater drilling activity, the company makes huge investments in several new state-of-the art $300 million ultra-deep-water drilling rigs. As day rates and... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Change Management; Industry Growth; Mining; Product Marketing; Mining Industry

Find at Harvard

March 2014
Case

Milk Baths and Charm Necklaces: Had Randy Weiner (Finally) Gone Too Far?

By: Mukti Khaire and Hannah Catzen

The case on Randy Weiner explores the tensions between artistic and financial imperatives in a for-profit immersive theater venture. In order to revive the dormant Manhattan nightclub "The Diamond Horseshoe," theater-impresario Randy Weiner created "The Queen of the... View Details

Keywords: Entertainment; Entrepreneurship; Theater Entertainment; New York (city, NY)