Publications

05 Apr 2017
Research & Ideas

For Women Especially, It Pays to Know What Car Repairs Should Cost

offer a price concession if asked to do so by a woman than by a man. “We show that the price a consumer expects to pay can alter the negotiation of consumers with individual firms directly by changing the... View Details

Keywords: by Wendy Guild Swearingen; Auto; Service

11 Feb 2025
HBS Seminar

Brett Hollenbeck, University of California, Los Angeles

February 2017
Supplement

The De Beers Group: Exploring the Diamond Reselling Opportunity

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Daniel P. Gross and Lauren G. Pickle

In September 2014, Tom Montgomery (SVP of strategic initiatives at the De Beers Group) and his team launched a pilot program in the United States to explore the $1 billion diamond market for pre-owned (recycled) diamonds. According to Montgomery, the motivation for the... View Details

June 2017
Article

Creating Reciprocal Value Through Operational Transparency

By: Ryan W. Buell, Tami Kim and Chia-Jung Tsay

We investigate whether organizations can create value by introducing visual transparency between consumers and producers. Although operational transparency has been shown to improve consumer perceptions of service value, existing theory posits that increased contact... View Details

Keywords: Operational Transparency; Service Management; Production Management; Organizational Performance; Behavioral Operations; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Consumer Behavior; Labor; Organizational Design; Operations; Service Industry; United States; Kenya

Research Summary

Overview

Industrial Organization, Antitrust, Regulation, Corporate strategy, Consumer choice, Marketing. View Details

28 Apr 2014
News

Stirring up healthcare’s melting pot

19 Jun 2020
News

Pandemic Prises Open Inflation Information Gap

31 Aug 2013
News

Long CVS receipts spark social media sensation

5 Sep 2013
Conference Presentation

The Color of Taste: Selling Food in Clear Packages in the Early-Twentieth-Century United States

By: Ai Hisano

This paper examines the role of color in the marketing and retailing of food products by focusing on the increasingly popular presentation of food in clear packages in the early-twentieth-century United States. In the 1910s, a candy company began using cellophane to... View Details

Keywords: Food; Product Marketing; Food and Beverage Industry

What makes a brand durable even as business models, technology and consumer behavior radically change? They key is that durable brands are adaptable brands — even legacy ones. To create durability, apply the MACE framework: 1) Mastery: Give your consumers... View Details

07 Dec 2022
Blog Post

2022 Climate Symposium: Tackling Climate Together

The theme of the 2022 Annual Climate Symposium was “Tackling Climate Together” with a focus on the intersectionality of climate change and the critical need for businesses, individuals, policy makers, and consumers to come together to... View Details

August 2001 (Revised November 2001)
Case

Vicinity Corporation: Turning Web Traffic into Store Traffic

By: Frances X. Frei, David Margalit and Amanda Yelsh

Vicinity uses its Internet and m-commerce technology to help drive traffic into its customers' physical distribution outlets. The company has terrific technology and is seemingly successful in getting more consumers into its customers' stores, yet it is in a precarious... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Consumer Behavior; Mobile and Wireless Technology

Educators

September 2014 (Revised April 2016)
Case

Cree Inc.: Introducing the LED Light Bulb

By: John Gourville and Michael Norris

Cree, a North Carolina-based maker of light emitting diodes (LEDs), has just introduced its first consumer product—an LED light bulb. It is designed as an energy efficient replacement for the ubiquitous incandescent light bulb. But given that it is an unfamiliar... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Innovation; Product Adoption; Technological Innovation; Technology Adoption; Energy Conservation; Product Launch; Consumer Products Industry; North Carolina

Educators

9 Dec 2011 - 10 Dec 2011
Conference Presentation

Taste Contested: The Construction of American Wine Culture, 1967-1976

By: Ai Hisano

This paper examines the role of taste in American consumer society by analyzing how wine came to symbolize sophistication during the 1960s and 1970s. View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Attitudes; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

Mark Egan is the Mark Kingdon Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Finance Unit, teaching Corporate Financial Operations to MBA students.

Professor Egan’s research concentrates on the intersection of corporate finance and industrial... View Details

January 1995 (Revised November 1996)
Case

Avalon Information Services, Inc.

By: Lynn S. Paine and Wilda White

The Privacy Review Committee of Avalon Information Services must decide how to deal with concerns voiced by its retail supermarket customers about the privacy of consumer data collected through Avalon's point-of-sale data collection program. One customer is proposing... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Safety; Demand and Consumers; Rights; Analytics and Data Science; Information Technology; Ethics; Information Industry

Educators

November 2021
Article

Ratings, Reviews, and the Marketing of New Products

By: Itay P. Fainmesser, Dominique Olié Lauga and Elie Ofek

We study how user-generated content (UGC) about new products impacts a firm's advertising and pricing decisions and the effect on profits and market dynamics. We construct a two-period model where consumers value quality and are heterogeneous in their taste for the new... View Details

Keywords: Online Reviews; Product Ratings; Social Networks; Word Of Mouth; Pricing; User-generated Content; Advertising; Product Marketing; Price; Consumer Behavior; Product Positioning; Social Media

March 2010
Background Note

Airline Travel in the U.S.

By: Sunil Gupta and Kavita Shukla

How should airlines respond to the rising share of Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) as consumers increasingly search the web to buy tickets? View Details

Keywords: Management; Marketing Channels; Consumer Behavior; Market Participation; Agency Theory; Online Technology; Aerospace Industry; United States