Publications

1985
Chapter

The Use of Market Research in Industrial Organizations

By: Rohit Deshpandé and G. Zaltman

Register to Read

January 2017 (Revised February 2022)
Background Note

Assessing and Enhancing Market Attractiveness

By: Eric Van den Steen

This note gives students a systematic and comprehensive framework for analyzing and influencing market attractiveness. It pays explicit attention to value creation, complements, and the dynamics of market attractiveness. It also includes careful sub-frameworks for... View Details

Keywords: Market Attractiveness; Markets; Industry Structures; Strategy

March 2001 (Revised March 2002)
Background Note

Service Recovery

Discusses the value of service recovery to service organizations working to enhance customer loyalty. Also provides practical advice to managers and examines strategies proven helpful to service organizations in their recovery objectives. View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Operations; Service Industry

January 2009 (Revised February 2009)
Case

F-Secure Corporation: Software as a Service (SaaS) in the Security Solutions Market

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Robert D. Austin, Kalle Lyytinen, Esko Penttinen and Timo Saarinen

Describes the development of a business model based on "software as a service" (SaaS) for security solution distributed through Internet Service Providers (ISPs). F-Secure disruptively entered a mature business with dominant players by executing an innovative new... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Disruptive Innovation; Service Delivery; Internet; Information Technology Industry

August 2006
Case

Cellular Service

Background on cellular service technology and "friends and family" plans as foundation for discussing network effects. View Details

Keywords: Network Effects

April 2014 (Revised March 2015)
Case

GE and the Industrial Internet

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Marco Iansiti and Kerry Herman

CEO Jeff Immelt considers whether GE is moving fast enough on its new Industrial Internet initiative. The undertaking includes building out an Industrial Internet, connecting machines and devices, collecting their data and operations, and providing services to clients... View Details

October 2012
Article

Target the Right Market

By: Jill Avery and Thomas Steenburgh

SparkPlace is a two-year-old business with a hot new product: software that manages and measures the effectiveness of permission-based marketing campaigns for social media. The company is in the process of deciding on which of two customer segments to focus its... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Market Segmentation; Customer Defection; Customer Lifetime Value; Customer Relationship Management; CRM; Market Segmentation And Target Market Selection; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain; Technology Industry; United States

Read Now

March 2023
Article

Not from Concentrate: Collusion in Collaborative Industries

By: Jordan M. Barry, John William Hatfield, Scott Duke Kominers and Richard Lowery

The chief principle of antitrust law and theory is that reducing market concentration—having more, smaller firms instead of fewer, bigger ones—reduces anticompetitive behavior. We demonstrate that this principle is fundamentally incomplete.

In many... View Details

SSRN

February 2012 (Revised July 2012)
Case

China Risk Finance: Riding the Wave of China's Financial Services Industry

By: Regina M. Abrami, Matthew Shaffer and Weiqi Zhang

With China shifting toward a consumer-led growth model, non-bank lending has a critical role to play, but how easy is it to do business in this sector? What are the promises and pitfalls of the industry, and how well is Zane Wang, the case protagonist, navigating them? View Details

Keywords: Financing and Loans; Business Startups; Financial Services Industry; China

03 Feb 2003
Research & Ideas

Web Services

service technologies from a provider, customer, and investor perspective. Customers are concerned with integration and driving down costs, said Steven Lewis, Microsoft's general manager of .net market... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Service

April 1987 (Revised August 1987)
Case

Sears, Roebuck and Co. and the Retail Financial Services Industry (B)

October 2016
Supplement

Moshe Kahlon: Telecommunications Reform and Competition in Israel's Cellular Market (B)

By: Joshua Margolis, Amram Migdal and Kerry Herman

The case complements “Moshe Kahlon: Telecommunications Reform and Competition in Israel’s Cellular Market (A),” HBS case number 417-017, which addresses reforms to regulations in Israel’s telecommunications industry initiated and implemented under the leadership of... View Details

August 2012
Background Note

Marketing Communications

By: Thales S. Teixeira and Thales S. Teixeira

This note identifies the main issues involved in the effective management of the marketing communications process. It first defines the purpose of communication. Then it classifies the tools available to communicate with consumers. In the sequel, it elaborates on how... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Communication; Advertising; Promotion; Social Media; Digital Media; Viral Advertising; Marketing; Communications Industry; North and Central America

February 1987 (Revised July 1987)
Case

Sears, Roebuck and Co. and the Retail Financial Services Industry (A)

February 2021 (Revised May 2021)
Case

SafeGraph: Selling Data as a Service

By: Ramana Nanda, Abhishek Nagaraj and Allison Ciechanover

Set in January 2021, the CEO of SafeGraph, a four-year-old startup that sold Data as a Service, looked to the future. His aim was to become the most trusted source for data about a physical place. The company provided points of interest (POI) and foot traffic data on... View Details

Keywords: Data As A Service; Monetization; Pricing; Business Startups; Analytics and Data Science; Consumer Behavior; Analysis; Business Model; Health Pandemics; Information Industry; United States

2004
Chapter

Cost Economies in the Global Advertising and Marketing Services Business

By: Alvin J. Silk and Ernst R. Berndt

Keywords: Cost Management; Advertising; Marketing; Globalized Markets and Industries; Advertising Industry; Advertising Industry

March 2006 (Revised November 2006)
Case

The Market and the Mountain Kingdom: Change in Lesotho's Textile Industry

By: Rawi E. Abdelal, Regina M. Abrami, Noel Maurer and Aldo Musacchio

In Maseru, the capital of the Kingdom of Lesotho, the stirrings of industrialization and modernization were promising, and more than 50,000 workers, mostly women, were employed in the textile sector; the figure reflected more than a threefold increase in just a few... View Details

Keywords: History; Labor Unions; Trade; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Financial Crisis; Globalized Markets and Industries; Business and Government Relations; Decision Choices and Conditions; Foreign Direct Investment; Developing Countries and Economies; Fashion Industry; Fashion Industry; Lesotho

March 2018 (Revised August 2018)
Case

Matching Markets for Googlers

By: Bo Cowgill and Rembrand Koning

This case describes how Google designed and launched an internal matching market to assign individual workers with projects and managers. The case evaluates how marketplace design considerations—and several alternative staffing models—could affect the company’s goals... View Details

Keywords: People Analytics; Google; Labor Market; Staffing; Market Design; Marketplace Matching; Selection and Staffing; Goals and Objectives; Technology Industry; United States

October 2008 (Revised February 2012)
Case

Amazon Web Services

By: Robert S. Huckman, Gary P. Pisano and Liz Kind

Considers the development of Amazon Web Services (AWS), a division of Amazon.com, Inc., specializing in the provision of web-based storage and computing services to web developers. The case focuses on the issues facing Andy Jassy, the head of AWS, in 2008 as AWS faces... View Details

Keywords: Price; Market Entry and Exit; Service Operations; Competition; Diversification; Retail Industry; Retail Industry