Publications

24 Feb 2014
Research & Ideas

Busting Six Myths About Customer Loyalty Programs

(Disney, restaurants, theme parks, etc.). The former finance most of the targeted coupons while the latter contribute the lion's share of the financing of turbo-charged vouchers. Since manufacturers already invest significantly in View Details

Keywords: by Marcel Corstjens & Rajiv Lal; Retail; Retail

Research Summary

Pay-What-You-Want

In pay-what-you-want settings, typical marketplace dynamics are inverted: buyers, not sellers, determine the price. According to classic economic theory, the rational response of consumers in such situations is to pay nothing, but that is not what happens in actual... View Details

02 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

‘Retail Revolution’ Excerpt: The Scale of the Ecommerce Threat

apart. “If this cycle continues, whole retail chains can quickly become full of zombie stores” Taken all together, lower price points, decreased traffic, and smaller baskets means lower sales and margins for brick-and-mortar stores. Given... View Details

Keywords: Re: Rajiv Lal; Retail

Article

Can Wages Buy Honesty?: The Relationship Between Relative Wages and Employee Theft

By: C. X. Chen and Tatiana Sandino

In this study we examine whether, for a sample of retail chains, high levels of employee compensation can deter employee theft, an increasingly common type of fraudulent behavior. Specifically, we examine the extent to which relative wages (i.e., employee wages... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Behavior; Compensation and Benefits; Societal Protocols

SSRN

Find at Harvard

June 2015 (Revised May 2017)
Case

LOYAL3: Own What You Love™

By: Luis M. Viceira and Allison M. Ciechanover

This case features San Francisco–based financial technology startup, LOYAL3. Founded in 2008, the company seeks to disrupt the capital markets and democratize access to those markets for retail investors. By the fall of 2014, LOYAL3 had three products. In the first,... View Details

Keywords: Capital Markets; Stocks; Strategic Planning

16 Feb 2016
First Look

February 16, 2016

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=50588 forthcoming Marketing Science Minimum Advertised Pricing: Patterns of Violation in Competitive Retail Markets By: Israeli, Ayelet, Eric Anderson, and Anne Coughlan... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

22 Jul 2015
Research & Ideas

Name Your Price. Really.

of experiments—including a field experiment where she posed with students as snack bar employees—Santana found that by subtly manipulating the environment, sellers can dramatically change what some buyers are willing to pay. Retailers are... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Consumer Products

22 Nov 2011
First Look

First Look: November 22

Authors:Ejaz Ghani, William R. Kerr, and Stephen O'Connell Abstract We analyze the spatial determinants of female entrepreneurship in India in the manufacturing and services sectors. We focus on the presence of incumbent female-owned businesses and their role in View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

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

Article

Are Self-service Customers Satisfied or Stuck?

By: Ryan W. Buell, Dennis Campbell and Frances X. Frei

This paper investigates the impact of self-service technology (SST) usage on customer satisfaction and retention. Specifically, we disentangle the distinct effects of satisfaction and switching costs as drivers of retention among self-service customers. Our empirical... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Information Technology; Customer Satisfaction; Competition; Cost; Banks and Banking; Behavior; Market Transactions; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques

Find at Harvard

March 2011 (Revised June 2011)
Case

QuikTrip

QuikTrip, a large convenience store chain with over 500 stores, was known for its outstanding labor practices and fast, reliable, and friendly customer service. In November 2010, the CEO Chet Cadieux, had to decide how many new locations to open when QuikTrip entered a... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Employees; Growth and Development Strategy; Logistics; Service Delivery; Performance Effectiveness; Expansion; Retail Industry; United States

05 Jun 2007
First Look

First Look: June 5, 2007

http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=107070 Beijing Hualian Harvard Business School Case 906-403 China's fifth largest domestic retailer faced intensifying competition from Wal-Mart and Carrefour with the opening... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

October 2013 (Revised January 2016)
Case

J.C. Penney's 'Fair and Square' Strategy (Abridged)

By: Elie Ofek and Jill Avery

As he gets ready to release 2nd quarter 2012 results, Ron Johnson, the new CEO of department store J.C. Penney, is reconsidering the dramatic changes he initiated for the business model and brand image of his company. A new pricing scheme he put in place in February,... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Change Management; Marketing Strategy; Price; Consumer Behavior; Decision Making; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Retail Industry; United States

20 Jan 2015
First Look

First Look: January 20

and follow through on a goal and not related to impulsivity, suggesting that some children are poorer at holding the norm in mind and following through on enacting it. We discuss the implications of these results for education and programs that View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2025
Article

Improving Customer Compatibility with Tradeoff Transparency

By: Ryan W. Buell and MoonSoo Choi

Through a large-scale field experiment with 393,036 customers considering opening a credit card account with a nationwide retail bank, we investigate how providing transparency into an offering’s tradeoffs affects subsequent rates of customer acquisition and long-run... View Details

Keywords: Transparency; Customer Selection; Customer Compatibility; Retention; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Marketing Strategy; Marketing Communications; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Banking Industry; Australia

Find at Harvard

November 2012
Teaching Note

Groupon (TN)

By: Sunil Gupta, Ray Weaver and Yien Hao Lock

On November 4, 2011, Groupon, a marketing services company that promoted local businesses by selling deeply discounted vouchers for their products and services, completed its initial public offering that valued the company at $17 billion. Within a year Groupon's share... View Details

Keywords: Social Networking; Media; Technology; Strategy; Business Growth and Maturation; Marketing Strategy; Marketing; Internet and the Web; Social Media; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; North America; United States

2025
Working Paper

The Hidden Costs of Flexible Labor Models: How Working Multiple Jobs Affects Employees

By: Paige Tsai and Ryan W. Buell

As operations increasingly rely upon flexible labor models—such as gig, part-time, and remote work—it has become commonplace for individuals to work multiple jobs. Across three studies, relying on a combination of transaction-level data from 90,548 customers of a... View Details

Keywords: Behavioral Operations; Employee Behavior; Job Design; Sustainable Operations; Job Design and Levels; Personal Finance; Well-being; Happiness; Satisfaction; Wages

SSRN

Read Now

November 1993 (Revised March 1995)
Case

Marsh Supermarkets, Inc. (A): The Marsh Super Study

In response to recent trends in grocery retailing, Marsh Supermarkets has completed an intensive 65-week study of the activity at 5 superstores in the midwest United States. The study tracked the sales, profits, space, and promotion dynamics of the entire store: dry... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Analysis; Consumer Behavior; Retail Industry