Publications

February 2012 (Revised August 2013)
Case

What's the Deal with LivingSocial?

By: Michael I. Norton, Luc Wathieu, Betsy Page Sigman and Marco Bertini

Tim O'Shaughnessy, the 29-year-old CEO of LivingSocial, is growing a revolutionary worldwide business of "daily deals"—in which retailers offer a heavily-discounted product or service available for purchase for brief (often 24-hour) windows. The case explores the... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Innovation and Invention; Advertising; Brands and Branding; Management; Web Services Industry

24 May 2004
Research & Ideas

The Watsons: IBM’s Troubled Legacy

the fair, with its theme of "Building the World of Tomorrow," as an ideal venue for institutional advertising and image making. This fair was to be more than merely a "showroom for the display of goods"; it was to be,... View Details

Keywords: by Richard S. Tedlow

October 1982 (Revised August 1999)
Case

Johnson Wax: Enhance (A)

Johnson Wax has produced a new hair conditioner for problem hair. Before committing themselves to test market, they analyze the new product using a field based, pretest-market procedure called ASSESSOR. The testing reveals product positioning, advertising, and... View Details

Keywords: Product Positioning; Analysis; Marketing Communications; Advertising; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

16 Jun 2014
Research & Ideas

The Unfulfilled Promise of Educational Technology

Not only has technology entered nearly every area of our personal life, it's the rare industry that isn't computerized, networked, and advertised on Facebook. Except one: education. Outside of the occasional... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Education

01 Mar 2004
News

Ron Shaich’s Café Society

sandwiches on its own bread. We spent the next two years traveling the country attempting to understand the changes occurring in our industry and concluded that, like so many others, the food industry was... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young; Food Services and Drinking Places; Hospitality

November 2022 (Revised March 2023)
Supplement

JUUL and the Vaping Revolution: A 2022 Update

By: Michael W. Toffel and Sarah Mehta

This slide deck provides a brief update (2019-2022) on the rise and fall of JUUL Labs, the maker of the popular JUUL e-cigarette. View Details

November 2022 (Revised March 2023)
Supplement

JUUL and the Vaping Revolution: A 2022 Update

By: Michael W. Toffel and Sarah Mehta

This case provides a brief update (2019-2022) on the rise and fall of JUUL Labs, the maker of the popular JUUL e-cigarette. View Details

20 Jun 2011
Lessons from the Classroom

Fame, Faith, and Social Activism: Business Lessons from Bono

(about Martin Luther King Jr.). Savvy From The Start U2's business savvy in the earliest days serves as a lesson for any MBA student. In an industry notorious for its focus on short-term hits and for taking control of an artist's work and... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Entertainment & Recreation

30 Dec 2013
HBS Case

HBS Cases: What Warren Buffett Saw in Newspapers

Buffett's offer and wondered what he saw in the declining industry that others did not," notes Roy and Elizabeth Simmons Professor Benjamin C. Esty, the author, with senior case researcher Aldo Sesia, of Buffett's Bid for Media... View Details

Keywords: by Deborah Blagg; Journalism & News; Publishing

19 Feb 2013
First Look

First Look: Feb. 19

have become quite influential and controversial in the technology industries they touch. The goal of this paper is to shed light on the role and efficiency tradeoffs of these new patent intermediaries. Finally, we offer a provisional... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2020
Teaching Note

Theranos: Who Has Blood on Their Hands? (A) and (B)

By: Nien-he Hsieh and Christina R. Wing

Teaching Note for HBS Nos. 619-039 and 320-091. View Details

Keywords: Health Testing and Trials; Corporate Accountability; Organizational Culture; Misleading and Fraudulent Advertising; Crime and Corruption; Lawsuits and Litigation; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; California; United States

10 Sep 2008
Research & Ideas

Long-Tail Economics? Give Me Blockbusters!

you can make money in many creative industries by selling specialized products to niche markets identified via the Internet. For example, the new CEO of GlaxoSmithKline, the pharmaceuticals giant, likens the search for blockbusters to... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Entertainment & Recreation; Pharmaceutical

15 Dec 2015
News

The Year in Ideas 2015

most nimble creators will move from a mobile-first to a mobile-only approach. “The strongest brands will continue to do what they do best—superserve their audiences—but the native advertising model will meaningfully challenge the... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna, Christine Lejeune, Dan Morrell, and April White

01 Jun 1996
News

Reinventing Marketing

own activities many functions that were formerly the province of marketing," says Professor Alvin J. Silk, unit cochair. "Marketing is indeed experiencing a watershed," adds Silk's colleague and the unit's other cochair, Professor John A. Quelch. He notes that dynamic,... View Details

Keywords: Mary Jane Higgins; Illustration by Peter Hoey

Web

Crisis Leadership - Bubbles, Panics & Crashes – Historical Collections – Harvard Business School

change ingrained habits and emerge as industry leaders. One such firm was the renowned Waltham Watch Company, which pioneered the production of watches from interchangeable parts. Like all manufacturers of non-essential products, Waltham... View Details

December 2022 (Revised February 2023)
Case

Daniel Defense: Responding to the Shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

At 11:33am on May 24, 2022, an 18-year-old man from Uvalde, Texas walked into the Robb Elementary School carrying a semi-automatic "AR-15-style” rifle manufactured by Daniel Defense and killed 19 children and two adults. Three days later, Representative Carolyn Maloney... View Details

Keywords: Gun Violence; Gun Policy; Second Amendment; Legal Liability; Government Legislation; Marketing Strategy; Business or Company Management; Product Marketing; Ethics; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Moral Sensibility; Crime and Corruption; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States

April 2020
Teaching Note

Tailor Brands: Artificial Intelligence-Driven Branding

By: Jill Avery

Using proprietary artificial intelligence technology, startup Tailor Brands set out to democratize branding by allowing small businesses to create their brand identities by automatically generating logos in just minutes at minimal cost with no branding or design skills... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Advertising Industry; Advertising Industry; United States; North America

13 Jan 2015
First Look

First Look: January 13

invention and innovation. We then describe how these factors are frequently measured in the data and some resulting empirical regularities. Innovative activity tends to be more concentrated than industrial activity, and we discuss... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

December 2009 (Revised March 2025)
Case

Phreesia: The Patient Intake Company

By: Regina E. Herzlinger, Sunaina Yarlagadda and Brian L. Walker

How should the co-founders of an organization that provides patient sign-in and billing services scale their company after five years of successfully targeting small private physician practices? Phreesia had deployed a direct mail and sales force strategy that resulted... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Social Entrepreneurship; Revenue; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry