Publications

03 May 2011
First Look

First Look: May 3

small cancer diagnostics start-up is deciding whether to acquire a laboratory to make and sell its bladder cancer test or build its own manufacturing and sales team. Purchase this case:http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/811015-PDF-ENG Barceló Hotels and Resorts (A)... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 1998 (Revised May 1999)
Case

Biopure Corp.

It is early 1998 and Biopure Corp., a small biopharmaceutical firm with no sales revenues in its ten-year history, has just received government approval to release Oxyglobin, a revolutionary new "blood substitute" designed to replace the need for donated animal blood... View Details

Keywords: Segmentation; Marketing Strategy; Engineering; Budgets and Budgeting; Sales; Transformation; Markets; Debates; Product Launch; Pharmaceutical Industry

03 Feb 2015
First Look

First Look: February 3

drive this reaction. February 2015 Perspectives on Psychological Science When Does Familiarity Promote Versus Undermine Interpersonal Attraction? A Proposed Integrative Model from Erstwhile Adversaries By: Finkel, Eli J., Michael I. Norton, Harry View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2005 (Revised February 2007)
Case

Angels and Devils: Best Buy's New Customer Approach (A)

By: Anita Elberse, John T. Gourville and Das Narayandas

In November 2004, The Wall Street Journal reported that consumer electronics retailer Best Buy's new customer approach was to shun the "devils" among its customers. The "customer centricity" initiative, which was led by Best Buy's CEO Brad Anderson, was based on an... View Details

Keywords: History; Customer Relationship Management; Opportunities; Marketing Strategy; Leadership Style; Problems and Challenges; Growth and Development Strategy; Retail Industry; Electronics Industry

06 Nov 2012
First Look

First Look: November 6

understood and managed. The key to success? Incentives. Fortunately, new research has shed light on the role incentives can play in promoting new ideas, but these findings have been absent from innovation literature-until now. By using... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

02 May 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: May 2, 2017

Louis T. Abstract—No abstract available. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=52575 The Cross Section of Bank Value By: Egan, Mark, Stefan Lewellen, and Adi Sunderam Abstract—We study the determinants of value... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

01 Jun 2022
News

The Exchange: Same Great Price, Now with Fewer Chips

John Gourville and Alex MacKay (Image by John Ritter) Rising inflation and pandemic-related supply-chain challenges are driving up prices at the... View Details

Keywords: Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Retail Trade

Web

Named Fellowship Funds - Alumni

Procter & Gamble. This fund will promote the expanding environment of collaboration and innovation between HBS and the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences by supporting... View Details

July 2001 (Revised August 2005)
Case

Medicines Company, The

It is early 2001 and the Medicines Co. just received FDA approval to market Angiomax, a blood thinner to be used during angioplasties and heart procedures. It is intended to be a better alternative to Heparin, an 80-year-old drug that costs less then $10 per dose. The... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Change Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Cost Management; Price; Product Marketing; Product Launch; Product Development; Risk and Uncertainty; Health Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

April 2002 (Revised July 2002)
Case

Imagicast

By: John T. Gourville and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

Imagicast has brought to market an interactive, multimedia retail kiosk designed to increase product sales. In spite of promising projections by industry analysts and detailed demand forecasts by Imagicast management, the company has yet to sell a single kiosk. Time... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Crisis Management; Product Launch; Demand and Consumers; Sales; Technology; Retail Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

November 2009 (Revised March 2011)
Case

New York Life and Immediate Annuities

By: Julio J. Rotemberg and John T. Gourville

By positioning Immediate Annuities as "guaranteed lifetime income," New York Life has built itself a $1.4 billion per year business by 2009. However, to make Immediate Annuities a mainstream financial product for retirees, New York Life must understand why many... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Personal Finance; Product Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Retirement; Salesforce Management; Insurance Industry

May 2005 (Revised April 2006)
Background Note

Note on Innovation Diffusion: Rogers' Five Factors

Reviews Everett Rogers' Five Factors of product adoption. These factors help explain why some products diffuse rapidly and some slowly or not at all. View Details

Keywords: Technology Adoption; Innovation and Invention

Web

Leadership Fellows | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

Richard and Helen Bibbero Fund, David J. Dunn Fund, Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation/Richard L. Menschel Endowment, Richard Lumpkin Dean’s Discretionary Fund, Margaret T. Morris Foundation Endowment, Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation... View Details

November 2003 (Revised April 2004)
Background Note

Why Consumers Don't Buy: The Psychology of New Product Adoption

Looks at the consumer psychology of new product adoption. Identifies a key reason why consumers do not adopt innovations as quickly as developers think they should--an irrational resistance to behavioral change. Identifies strategies for firms to manage and overcome... View Details

Keywords: Product Launch; Consumer Behavior; Social Psychology

16 Sep 2015
News

Rethink pricing to create shared—and expanded—value

John T. Gourville, the Albert J. Weatherhead Jr. Professor of Business Administration, advocates that value be shared by a firm and its customers. “Without a willing customer,... View Details

Web

HBR Classics - Alumni

A. Heifetz and Marty Linsky Cracking the Code of Change , Michael Beer and Nitin Nohria Leading Change - Why Transformation Efforts Fail , John P. Kotter Tipping Point Leadership , W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne Global Collaboration Are... View Details

Web

Dan Lufkin | Baker Library | Bloomberg Center | Harvard Business School

Howard E. Cox Greylock Michael Danzi US Labs William Donaldson Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Timothy C. Draper Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) William H. Draper, III Draper Richards, L.P. T. J. Dermot Dunphy Sealed Air Charles Ellis... View Details

February 2002
Case

Fighting AIDS and Pricing Drugs

In early 2001, makers of AIDS drugs were suing to prevent developing countries from violating their patents. The issue was driven by price. The developing countries could not afford the market price for these drugs. At the same time, the drug companies were reluctant... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Patents; Price; Strategy; Globalized Markets and Industries; Pharmaceutical Industry

June 2012
Article

Pricing to Create Shared Value

By: Marco Bertini and John T. Gourville

Many companies are in competition with their customers to extract as much value as possible from every transaction. Pricing is their weapon of choice, and consumers fight back by rooting out and disseminating pricing policies that seem unfair. The problem is that... View Details

Keywords: Pricing; Marketing Strategy; Price; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Relationship Management; Value Creation; Fairness