High Switching Costs - Publications - Faculty & Research

01 Mar 2004
News

David Horgan: Iraqi Briefing, 21st November, 2003

but resistance becomes more deadly. Coalition military morale has collapsed. The outcome will be decided by approaching US elections. High economic and political costs force rethinks. Oil drives all.... View Details

Keywords: Executive, Legislative, and Other General Government Support; Government

20 Mar 2025
Blog Post

Scaling Climate Tech Innovation with Lee Scott (MBA 2023)

Ideally, these companies can fund their projects with project finance since that has a lower cost of capital than venture dollars. However, infrastructure investors typically prefer established technologies that are derisked and have... View Details

02 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

Digital Initiative Summit: Who Has the Power in the Music Industry?

Andresen Professor of Business Administration at HBS, who led the discussion. In the old model, he said, economies of scale regulated success and performers had to be big to spread out high fixed costs. Now, as a result of the way we... View Details

Keywords: Re: Felix Oberholzer-Gee; Music

06 Jan 2003
What Do You Think?

China: The Next Big Market Opportunity or the Next Big Bubble?

view raises questions of whether there will be an adequate supply of such talent. Will impatient Western managers eager to develop Chinese business opportunities delay initiatives until the right people can be found? How high is the View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

01 Jun 2018
News

The Evolution of Modern Pricing Models

brick-and-mortar stores, you can’t change shelf prices that frequently. With e-commerce, that cost disappears, and nowadays with better algorithms, it becomes even easier to change prices as often as possible. Another constraint has been... View Details

02 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

Digital Initiative Summit: Freeing Patient Data to Enable Innovation

impediments in the future. In mapping those bottlenecks, Hsiang cited difficulty in moving data around because of legal constraints and high costs with low rewards. Petro added the issue of timeliness--even... View Details

Keywords: Re: Karim R. Lakhani; Health

Profile

Carolin Oldenbuettel

worked on a project to optimize the target costing management system, aligning new car models to feasible costs,” she says. “What I like about the auto industry is that they’re more and more influenced by tech—self-driving cars, for... View Details

Keywords: Consulting

24 Feb 2014
Research & Ideas

Busting Six Myths About Customer Loyalty Programs

markets is a sector notorious for its lack of differentiation between players. Once location has played out its magic, retailers tend to get squeezed in a business characterized by the infernal duo of low margin and high fixed cost. In... View Details

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

12 Sep 2024
Blog Post

Amager Bakke: I Like This Waste Incinerator in My Backyard!

year-round ski slope. Image source: https://www.babcock.com/home/about/resources/success-stories/amager-bakke-copenhill\ About Amager Bakke Initially built to replace a 45-year-old waste incineration plant, construction of Amager Bakke began in 2013 and was completed... View Details

30 Sep 2020
Blog Post

Reflecting on my service

$4,000,000 of equipment and challenged to become fluent in Pashto. By twenty-two, I was part of a small team leading hundreds of men on the battlefield, conducting dozens of raids and capturing Taliban leaders to destabilize the insurgency. Unfortunately, the most... View Details

10 Aug 2017
News

Skydeck Live: The Happiness Equation

importance decisions, they need to be automated. Automated. How do I get to work now? I have no idea, I trust Waze. What do I wear when I'm doing a media interview on stage? The same exact thing. Low time, high importance. And those ones... View Details

01 Feb 1999
News

Q&A: Camille Tang Yeh of the Asia-Pacific Research Office

significantly by country within Asia. How has the business climate in Hong Kong changed since the switch to Chinese rule? I don't perceive any change in the business climate as a specific result of Hong Kong's reversion to a Special... View Details

Keywords: Educational Support Services; Educational Services

29 May 2019
News

HBS Career Coaches Hit the Road to Serve Alumni

recently wrapped up workshops in Seattle and Indianapolis. Other cities on the tour include Toronto, Salt Lake City, Charlotte, Houston, and St. Louis. Northern California Alumni Consider the High Cost of... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley

18 Feb 2009
First Look

First Look: February 18, 2009

useful and saleable by-product. The term "by-product synergy" (BPS) has been coined to describe this practice. By converting waste into by-product, the firm not only reduces its waste disposal cost and potentially increases... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

27 Jan 2003
Research & Ideas

New Cluster Mapping Project Helps Companies Locate Facilities

twenty years, particularly in high tech, made the decision to move manufacturing offshore where costs are lower. You have argued that the location decision should involve much more than simple financial... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

01 Feb 2022
What Do You Think?

Is Concierge Management an Answer to the “Big Quit”?

contributing to the so-called Great Resignation (or “Big Quit”) that has gained publicity recently. Quitting in the United States is a major business expense. Applying generally accepted rules of thumb for the annual cost of quitting to... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

01 Dec 2002
News

The Campaign for Harvard Business School

Two years into The Campaign for Harvard Business School, there is notable success to report. Giving to the School is at an all-time high — annual and reunion gifts and pledges topped $94 million in fiscal 2004, as more than 12,000 alumni... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations; Personal Services

21 Mar 2004
Research & Ideas

Loyalty: Don’t Give Away the Store

real benefits. I would categorize real benefits of these programs into four different buckets: Reward your existing, loyal customers, without incurring a major cost by doing so. Positively affect the behaviors of not-so-loyal (worst)... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls; Consumer Products; Retail

23 Dec 2008
First Look

First Look: December 23, 2008

etc.) to implement the new strategy. Purchase the case: http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/ b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=109015 BMW's Project Switch (B): Importers vs. National Sales Companies Harvard Business School... View Details